Archive for February, 2010
February 26, 2010 at 6:19 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #292: “On That Day” is too late!
An oracle against Damascus: Look, Damascus is no longer a city. It has become a ruined heap. The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be [places] for flocks. They will lie down without fear. The fortress disappears from Ephraim, and a kingdom from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites. [This is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. On that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and his healthy body will become emaciated. It will be as if a reaper had gathered standing grain—his arm harvesting the heads of grain—and as if one had gleaned heads of grain in the valley of Rephaim. Only gleanings will be left in Israel, as if an olive tree had been beaten—two or three berries at the very top of the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches. [This is] the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel. On that day people will look to their Maker and will turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars they made with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they made with their fingers. On that day their strong cities will be like the abandoned woods and mountaintops that were abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation. For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have failed to remember the rock of your strength; therefore you will plant beautiful plants and set out cuttings from exotic vines. On the day that you plant you will help them to grow, and in the morning you will help your seed to sprout, [but] the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain. Isaiah 17:1-11 (HCSB)
During this period of Israel’s history, Isaiah was told to prophesy about the deception and conspiracy of Israel (Samaria) with Aram (Damascus). They had hoped they could continue to walk in their polytheistic ways and live the ways that suited them, and as allies they could hopefully thwart the onslaught the Lord arranged through the Assyrians. However, once the onslaught began and the outcome was clear, the people of Israel turned from their worthless idols and self-made gods that served their needs and they called to the Lord for deliverance. However, the Lord said no to them! They had abandoned Him long ago and served their own interests, and God fully understood the intent of their hearts. These were not repentant souls seeking His covenant. They were people realizing their man-made gods and concocted allegiances and schemes were not going to save them, so they sought the Lord’s protection for their own interests. They did not seek God because they loved Him, but merely realized they needed Him. Thus, the Lord said no to them. He said, you believed you could be fruitful without Me, but now you have realized the folly of your foolishness. Thus, when “That Day” arrives, they learned a “life” altering fact about the Lord…He knows our motives and responds to sincere hearts, not selfish, self-serving hearts!
What about us, the lesson rings true for our lives as well. How many of us only seek God in the tough times and when someone is in great need? How many have erected your own idols and worship your own will, your own ways, and base your actions upon your own wisdom, and never consider God’s will, God’s ways, or God’s wisdom according to God’s Word? You know the truth, but deny the truth in your life by your decisions and actions. However, when life is stacked against you and there is a threat to your life or security, then as a last ditch effort you plea to the Lord. But why should the Lord honor your request? Do you believe God honors all prayers from all people? Do you think His love and grave and mercy are that flexible? Consider the words that the Lord said to Solomon.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple of sacrifice. If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. My eyes will now be open and My ears attentive to prayer from this place. And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that My name may be there forever; My eyes and My heart will be there at all times. 2 Chron 7:12-16 (HCSB)
Sincerity and humility and true repentance are the signs that the Lord seeks from His people. The Lord does desire to forgive and to respond to, but not when you enter with a give me attitude. “On that day” will it be too late for you? Think about your relationship with the Lord.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
“Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.] “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing. Matt 6:9-15 (HCSB)
February 25, 2010 at 6:42 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #291: Knowing Right is not Being Right
An oracle against Moab: Ar in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night. Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night. Dibon went up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails on Nebo and at Medeba. Every head is shaved; every beard is cut off. In its streets they wear sackcloth; on its rooftops and in its public squares everyone wails, falling down and weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out, and they tremble. My heart cries out over Moab, whose fugitives [flee] as far as Zoar, to Eglath-shelishiyah; they go up the slope of Luhith weeping; they raise a cry of destruction on the road to Horonaim. The waters of Nimrim are desolate; the grass is withered, the foliage is gone, and the vegetation has vanished. So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Wadi of the Willows. For their cry echoes throughout the territory of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; their wailing reaches Beer–elim. The waters of Dibon are full of blood, but I will bring on Dibon even more [than this] — a lion for those who escape from Moab, and for the survivors in the land. Isaiah 15:1-9 (HCSB)
This is one of the oracles against the nations that surrounded Judah that were cousins of its residents, but they took advantage of Judah when they stumbled. They were jealous of Judah’s position of the Lord’s protection while they were not, and their jealousy led to conspiracies to pull Judah down. They knew why Judah was under the Lord’s blessings. They knew of the Lord and His covenant teachings, but they failed to enter the covenant.
The story of Ruth in the Old Testament is about her Moabite background, but was exposed to the Lord’s blessings in the face of tragedy and yet she sought to enter the Lord’s covenant, and she was blessed with a righteous husband: Boaz. Their child was Obed, the grandfather of David, the king of Israel. This story of redemption serves as encouragement for all who desire to enter the blessings of the Lord, but His blessings do not occur just because you know of the Lord. We must enter into a genuine relationship with the Lord and seek His redeeming love upon our lives. Just as Ruth experienced we too can change our desires in our life to that of a right life lived under the light of God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word. It is a life that recognizes that we are not perfect, but are made perfect by God’s loving kindness. It is a life that says you cannot claim the benefits or blessings without being right with the Lord also.
The warning here in the passage is this: don’t stand on the outside looking in wondering about how to become like those who are experiencing God’s blessings in their life. Knowing what it takes, desiring it, and likewise, dreaming about it does not make it so. If that is all you are doing you will frustrated and even find yourself jealous that you are not able to enjoy those blessings, and thus often bad-mouthing Christians and looking for their mistakes to justify your status outside of God’s fellowship. The Moabites did exactly that and eventually faced the judgment from God for their actions and attitudes.
What about you? Are you still just an interested, even jealous spectator or are you an active all-in participant? Which one does the Lord pour His blessings upon?
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
Besides this, knowing the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the daylight is near, so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the fleshly desires. Romans 13:11-14 (HCSB)
February 24, 2010 at 6:49 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #290: Arrogance before the Lord will be Humbled
When the Lord gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you were forced to do, you will sing this song [of contempt] about the king of Babylon and say: How the oppressor has quieted down, and how the raging has become quiet! The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. All the earth is calm and at rest; people shout with a ringing cry… Sheol below is eager to greet your coming. He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you—all the rulers of the earth. He makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. They all respond to you, saying: “You too have become as weak as we are; you have become like us! Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol, [along with] the music of your harps…Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground. You said to yourself: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will set up my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the [gods’] assembly, in the remotest parts of the North. I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you will be brought down to Sheol into the deepest regions of the Pit… The offspring of evildoers will never be remembered…“I will rise up against them”—the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will make her a swampland and a region for wild animals, and I will sweep her away with a broom of destruction.”…Isaiah 14:3-32 (HCSB)
Babylon was the home of the Chaldeans and it became known for its beauty and grandeur, but also for its haughty rulers who proclaimed their own greatness. When they plundered Jerusalem and brought back to their lands the wealth of the temple and palace of the Jews with them, they felt they had defied and defeated the God of the Jews as well. However, little did not realize that they had accomplished the bidding of the Lord and that their arrogance and haughtiness would cause them to be humbled quickly as well. The Jews that were taken into exile to Babylonia after Jerusalem was destroyed were not subjects of the Babylonian kings for long. Persia rose up as the new empire and took Babylon while the Babylonians (Chaldeans) were reveling and partying over their plunder. They were blinded by their own images of greatness, and they felt they were better than the gods they conquered. However, this time they were not flaunting themselves before a man-made god, but the God of the Universe, the one true living God, and He would not let their arrogance go without punishment. And as the passage states they were hurled down in defeat and made the same as their captives, captives themselves.
The Lord is a gracious and just God, and though their were lessons to be learned by His chosen people over their own haughty ways, and misguided attitudes, the Lord responds harshly to those who believe they are without judgment and accountability for their actions. The Lord will bring them down and place them in their rightful place with the humblest of all His people. As the wise saying in Proverbs states: “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” Prov 16:18 (HCSB)
True greatness in this world never needs to be flaunted. The greatest champions are the most humble of God’s chosen because they know from where their talents and gifts came from. In God’s kingdom, the greatest responsibility comes with the greatest accountability, so beware of wanting to be more than the Lord believes you are able to handle. Be careful that your pride may blind you into believing you are great because of who you are, rather than who you belong…
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position exercise power over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.” Matt 20:25-28 (HCSB)
February 23, 2010 at 6:25 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #289: The Lord’s People Will Turn the World Upside Down
For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will choose Israel again. He will settle them on their own land. The foreigner will join them and be united with the house of Jacob. The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors. Isaiah 14:1-2 (HCSB)
How do we interpret this passage? It sounds like revenge exacted upon our enemies? Yet, if we examine the Christian aspect we will see that it is not what it appears. It is a glorious promise that our enemies will be just like us, and that they too will be received with open arms into God’s family, because they too will be freed from their bonds of selfish living, and now are captive to the new life they have found by surrendering to the Lord. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” [2 Cor 3:17 (HCSB)] Even when we turnover our lives to the Lord and seek God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word that does not mean we do not have freedom, quite to the contrary we now understand real freedom is found by surrendering to the Lord. His loving kindness frees us from all the aspects and influences of living to our “self!” Avarice, envy, greed, haughtiness, arrogance and any attitude that haunted our lives and kept us separated from the Lord are swept away, their hold upon us are torn away. A new influence upon us is discovered once we surrender, the Spirit of God. This Spirit fills the void in our heart and soul that we have tried to fill through all the wrong means, and we found satisfaction never could be realized.
In those days of Isaiah, those who were strangers to the Lord and enemies of His people discovered the Lord’s loving-kindness through the witness of His people through all the trials and tribulations they were faced with. The pagan kings and their people learned about the Lord through the testimonies of God’s people who were living in their lands, and they were compelled to help them to return to Judah and rebuild Jerusalem. Once there many of them surrendered their lives over to the Lord and joined in the rebuilding of the Lord’s House. They became captive and a servant to the Lord’s will, ways, and wisdom, just as all the rest of the Lord’s people were. Thus the captor became the captive! Yet in doing so he or she became the real victor and not the victim as many would believe.
How would you evaluate your own life? Are you feeling like the victim or the victor? Are you wishing you were the captor or the captive? Do you understand that as the servant to the Lord you are the captive, yet the victor! Think about it.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matt 23:11-12 (HCSB)
February 22, 2010 at 6:44 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #288: Dark Days Lie Ahead for the Wicked
Look, the day of the Lord is coming—cruel, with rage and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it. Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations will not give their light. The sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shine. I will bring disaster on the world, and their [own] iniquity, on the wicked. I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humiliate the insolence of tyrants. I will make man scarcer than gold, and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will shake from its foundations at the wrath of the Lord of Hosts, on the day of His burning anger. Like wandering gazelles and like sheep without a shepherd, each one will turn to his own people, each one will flee to his own land. Whoever is found will be stabbed, and whoever is caught will die by the sword. Their children will be smashed [to death] before their eyes; their houses will be looted, and their wives raped. Look! I am stirring up the Medes against them, who cannot be bought off with silver and who have no desire for gold. [Their] bows will cut young men to pieces. They will have no compassion on little ones; they will not look with pity on children. And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; a nomad will not pitch his tent there, and shepherds will not let [their flocks] rest there. But wild animals will lie down there, and owls will fill the houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will howl in the fortresses, and jackals, in the luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is almost up; her days are almost over. Isaiah 13:9-22 (HCSB)
A warning rung out in all of Judah and the surrounding lands that the Lord will reign supreme and He will bring judgment on the arrogance, pride, and insolence of those who fail to tremble before the Lord. These people constantly look to take advantage of the people in the lands. When such people overrun the good of the land, the Lord who is our cornerstone becomes a stumbling stone for some and a millstone for others. This was the warning that Isaiah shared with the people of Jerusalem after they dodged the assault of the Assyrians, and then became arrogant, prideful, and insolent in their position of strength as God’s people. However, the Lord wanted them humbled and they were assaulted by the Chaldeans (Babylonians) and sent into exile while their beautiful city was totally dismantled.
God is just and righteous. God is merciful and good, but He also is warning all of us that we all have a choice, but He will not stand still to allow the wicked in His midst. Those who choose to walk in their own ways and desires will discover their light will be extinguished on that day when the Lord comes before him or her for an accounting. Since the days of Isaiah, the Messiah (God’s anointed Son and Savior) has shared the “good news” that God has made payment for our sin, and we are saved from His wrath, if we will set aside our wicked ways. If only we will turn away from our will, our ways, and the wisdom of the world and seek God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word – then our relationship with the Lord will be made right and our light will never go out, because He will always be there with us and never abandon us. However, the choice is in our hands!
This message is full of love, but also is hard love when we choose wrongly. Yet, God always has restoration in mind, and seeks for even the most wicked to hear the warning in the midst of His judgment so that His hand will embrace into not erase us from His loving care.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
“Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah! Look—there!’ do not believe it! For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and will perform signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, the elect. And you must watch! I have told you everything in advance. “But in those days, after that tribulation: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light; the stars will be falling from the sky, and the celestial powers will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. Mark 13:21-27 (HCSB)
February 19, 2010 at 6:45 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom # 287: Be Careful When the Lord Acts on Our Behalf
Lift up a banner on a barren mountain. Call out to them. Wave your hand, and they will go through the gates of the nobles. I have commanded My chosen ones; I have also called My warriors, who exult in My triumph, to execute My wrath. Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a mighty people! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations being gathered together! The Lord of hosts is mobilizing an army for war. They are coming from a far land, from the distant horizon—the Lord and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country. Wail! For the day of the Lord is near. It will come like destruction from the Almighty. Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak, and every man’s heart will melt. They will be horrified; pain and agony will seize [them]; they will be in anguish like a woman in labor. They will look at each other, their faces flushed with fear. Isaiah 13:2-8 (HCSB)
In Jerusalem the people dodged a huge problem and threat that devastated the lands all around. The Assyrians had conquered all the Israelites in the northern tribes and had swept into Judah, but the Lord stood on the mountain that protected Jerusalem and He scattered the armies of Assyria because of their disobedience and arrogance. The people in the city under the leadership of Hezekiah rejoiced and were relieved at the site. However, they began to believe the Lord would protect them no matter what and they must be pretty special. Such beliefs lead to arrogance and pride in what we are doing is right before the Lord. We begin to boast about our righteousness and special relationship with the Lord until we begin to forget it is the Lord who deems us as righteous and overlooks our shortfalls out of His mercy and love. Humility is a trait of true child of God, not arrogance.
Just as Judah and the people in Jerusalem soon learned our faith in the Lord and the relationship we claim can never be taken for granted nor assumed. In God’s covenant relationship we must always be reminded of God’s grace. He alone is worthy of our praise, never our achievements or actions. “We are saved by grace through faith” and not through anything we have said or done. However, the people in Judah and Jerusalem forgot quickly how close they came to being conquered by the Assyrians thanks to the Lord, not their abilities or talents. As a result the Lord sent the Babylonians (Chaldeans) to remove them from the land He had given them and protected them in. Their arrogance and lifestyle took their relationship for granted and it cost them 70 years in exile in a strange land. The city that the people had built centuries before that contained the great temple of Solomon was totally destroyed and dismantled. Everything they placed their pride in was removed, totally erased. They had to learn while in exile the Lord was still with them and He was not limited to some manmade city or temple.
For us, we need to never take our relationship with the Lord for granted. Daily we need to seek His face and to know Him better by seeking God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word. We must recognize and testify a life that realizes who we are and what we have before us is nothing short of God’s grace, and never to be taken as a result of what we are or do.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By one of works? No, on the contrary, by a law of faith. For we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law. Or is God for Jews only? Is He not also for Gentiles? Yes, for Gentiles too, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then cancel the law through faith? Absolutely not! On the contrary, we uphold the law. Romans 3:27-31 (HCSB)
February 18, 2010 at 6:38 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #286: What a Day it will be, My Lord is within Me!
On that day you will say: “I will praise You, Lord, although You were angry with me. Your anger has turned away, and You have had compassion on me. Indeed, God is my salvation. I will trust [Him] and not be afraid. Because Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation.” You will joyfully draw water from the springs of salvation, and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to the Lord; proclaim His name! Celebrate His deeds among the peoples. Declare that His name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known throughout the earth. Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in [His] greatness.” Isaiah 12:1-6 (HCSB)
What a glorious proclamation of one’s deliverance from the crucible of life to find the Lord’s love, grace and mercy waiting upon you although you had walked away from Him! Sometimes in our difficult and challenging life choices we walked intentionally away from the Lord because we wanted our way and not His way, and we may even have cursed Him and blamed Him for the difficulties we have faced in life. However, His love is stronger than our acts of rebellion and rejection. His love is the ultimate Father’s love. He patiently waits for the opportunity for you and me to open our eyes and recognize the state of our life when we have walked away from the source of life. He perseveres through our outbursts of anger and even when He only sees the backside of our head because we have turned away from Him, He waits for us to recognize the love He has for us.
However, the strongest declarations for God’s love come from those who have tried to survive without His love. Once you and me have found our way back to His protection and loving kindness there is no other way to respond but with loud proclamations of praise. The greatest hymn sung in and out of the church, “Amazing Grace” was written as a testimony by a former slave ship captain who came to the point in his life where he recognized the rejection of God’s love he had lived and he returned to the Lord and experienced the true meaning of God’s grace. He turned his new found deliverance from his life of sin and misery to one of praise by becoming a preacher and song writer. He turned London upside down for His Lord.
Never believe that you are so far gone down the road of sin that you cannot return and claim God’s grace and mercy. He loves all of us, no matter how far we tried to run away from Him. Your debt has already been paid in full for whatever sin that controls your life, all He asks is you turn back to Him and claim the salvation which will free you from that life. No questions are asked, and your past will remain in the past with the Lord. If you seek God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom daily in God’s Word there you will find God’s love for you. He created you to be who you are and He wants you to seek His face so He can smile upon you. His smile will bring the peace that surpasses all understanding upon your life and change the direction of your daily walk – you will know the Lord lives within you, just as He lives within me.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
Now this is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him. If we say, “We have fellowship with Him,” and walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10 (HCSB)
February 17, 2010 at 6:31 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #285: The Lord Always Restores the Faithful
On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious. On that day the Lord will [extend] His hand a second time to recover—from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coasts and islands of the west—the remnant of His people who survive. He will lift up a banner for the nations and gather the dispersed of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Ephraim’s envy will cease; Judah’s harassment will end. Ephraim will no longer be envious of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. But they will swoop down on the Philistine flank to the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects. The Lord will divide the Gulf of Suez. He will wave His hand over the Euphrates with His mighty wind and will split it into seven streams, letting people walk through on foot. There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who will survive from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. Isaiah 11:10-16 (HCSB)
God’s judgment is never meant to destroy, but to shape and mold us so that we can be restored for His glory and purposes. Through all the descriptions of destruction that occurred under the hands of the Assyrians and their allies, the Lord kept His hand of protection around His chosen – the faithful who were in the midst of the battles. Yes, sometimes the faithful are affected by the sinfulness of others, but the faithful are brought through the times of tribulation closer to God and more aware of His love and mercy.
In these difficult times our faith is tested, but not to break the relationship, but to build an even stronger bond between us and the Lord. When all of our own options are exhausted and there seems to be no way out in our life, God always provides a safe passage that is prepared by Him. Faith is the key that opens that passageway door and His Word lights the pathway that leads to the still waters and green pasture where it is safe and guarded by the Great Shepherd. There he will restore our soul and nurse our wounds back to health.
Whenever you feel lost in the trials and tribulations going on around you, seek the Lord and you will find Him perched on high like a bright banner signaling to you to His side. Never despair, nor give up when you are being affected by tough times. Believe the Lord will never forsake and leave you. He will protect, provide and preserve His chosen children through even the fiercest afflictions that surround us, and nothing can change His love for you – not even your doubts! His hand is always extended waiting upon you to grab hold and walk by faith with Him. Find daily the reassurance of seeking God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word, and you will have the faith of the Apostle Paul in his testimony to the Romans found in the passage below.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Romans 8:35-39 (HCSB)
February 16, 2010 at 6:44 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #284: Enemies Can Find Peace through the Lord’s Presence
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him—a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, He will not execute justice by what He hears with His ears, but He will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with discipline from His mouth, and He will kill the wicked with a command from His lips. Righteousness and faithfulness will be a belt around His waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together, and a child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like an ox. An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den. No one will harm or destroy on My entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water. Isaiah 11:1-9 (HCSB)
In the Garden where Adam and Eve walked, there was peace between all the creatures. Creatures did not seek to devour each other as they do now, and there was cooperation and peace in the land. However, the price for sin was the world would turn on itself to fulfill the individual hunger and thirst needs at the expense of others. Sin is the self of man in command, and even the animals became a threat because the peace God intended had been spoiled.
In this passage, the image is the Lord restores paradise through the remnant that is saved through all the judgment that occurs in the world. The Lord himself sends His Spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and strength, of knowledge and fear of the Lord to guide and direct the steps and heart of His people again – just like in the Garden. And, when mankind accepts the leadership of the Lord’s Spirit peace reigns in all of nature too.
The Lord is serious about His desire for mankind that His judgment will seek out and separate out the wicked from among His people so that only peace will thrive. If only we will listen to the Spirit of the Lord that resides in us. If only we would seek a life that discovers the Lord’s righteousness and faithfulness as He desires for us. Then we would no longer have to pursue knowledge and truth because we will have achieved it in our life. There will be no more desire to harm and destroy – hatred will be wiped away from our hearts.
But until that day arrives, we do have the choice to seek after God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word each and every day. We have the choice to seek the daily influence and guidance of the Lord’s Spirit that resides in the hearts of all of us. We may not eliminate all the harm in our lives, and we may have times we falter and stumble in some of our relationships, but we will know when we fall short and can try to seek forgiveness and restore all our relationships, including our relationship with God Himself when our greed and self-serving spirit shuts out the Spirit of the Lord in our life. Each and every day we have a choice, and we have the consequences that come from the choices, however hopefully our choices will please the Lord and peace resides in our lives rather than harm and hatred that seeks to devour God’s creatures.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
“Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Anyone finding his life will lose it, and anyone losing his life because of Me will find it. Matt 10:32-39 (HCSB)
February 15, 2010 at 8:03 am · Filed under FCA, First Baptist Ocala
Words of Wisdom #283: Faith in the Lord’s Promises Always Rewarded
On that day his burden will fall from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because of [his] fatness. Assyria has come to Aiath and has gone through Migron, storing his equipment at Michmash. They crossed over at the ford, saying, “We will spend the night at Geba.” The people of Ramah are trembling; those at Gibeah of Saul have fled…Today he will stand at Nob, shaking his fist at the mountain of Daughter Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Look, the Lord God of Hosts will chop off the branches with terrifying power, and the tall [trees] will be cut down, the high [trees] felled. He is clearing the thickets of the forest with an ax, and Lebanon with its majesty will fall. Isaiah 10:27-34 (HCSB)
This passage is about the historically accurate period in the history of Judah when the Assyrians had wreaked havoc on the lands all around Judah and were approaching Zion, the mountain upon which Jerusalem rests. God had used the Assyrians to exact judgment upon the arrogance of His people who were worshiping other gods and lifted themselves in allegiances with others rather than have faith in their Lord God to preserve and protect them. Though a remnant survived as God promised in the lands north of Judah in Samaria, the devastation caused fear in the remaining regions including Judah. However, at the point when Jerusalem itself was at risk, the Lord took His judgment off of His people in Judah, especially Jerusalem and fell upon the arrogant and prideful, disobedient Assyrians. The Lord placed Himself between the Assyrians armies and the walls of Jerusalem, and His sword cut down the army while His people trembled behind the walls of Jerusalem. The Assyrians were scattered and the city preserved.
Isaiah used this event to turn Hezekiah humbly back to the Lord, and Jerusalem was saved from God’s wrath because they believed with their hearts that the Lord was true to His word. We too should realize that in the face of various trials, tests, and periods of tribulation the Lord will never forsake or leave us. As long as we stand firm by faith, we will witness the awesomeness of the Lord and His loving-kindness through those difficult times.
How is your faith today? Do you run to the Lord in tough times, or try to flee through your own efforts or worse yet try to fight the adversaries you face through your own resources and schemes, which are certain to fail. Thus how can we know what to do, invest daily in seeking God’s will, God’s ways, and God’s wisdom according to God’s Word, and you will learn how to stand firm in your faith and not fear any longer.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
“And I say to you, My friends, don’t fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you the One to fear: Fear Him who has authority to throw [people] into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the One to fear! Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight. Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows! Luke 12:4-7 (HCSB)
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