Overarching Peace

Those who love Your law have great peace,

And nothing causes them to stumble.

(Psalm 119:165)

What does it mean to have great peace? In Strong’s Concordance, the word “great” in Psalm 119:165 is translated as the Hebrew word rab: it means abundant in quantity, size, age, number, rank, or quality. So, there is plenty of peace available for us! There’s so much, in fact, that our sense of peace can outrank every other feeling and emotion.

Galatians 5:22 reminds us that one of the qualities of the Holy Spirit is peace. If our lives are filled with the Spirit of Christ, then His peace will permeate us. Life’s trials will lose the power to generate a spirit of despair, because there is a greater power at work in us: the Spirit of peace. In the presence of great peace, fear cannot establish a foothold.  We who love the law of the Lord are positioned to receive this wonderful gift… God’s great peace, in great measure, for His great glory.

Lord God, today we declare our love for Your law. Thank You for allowing us to experience great peace. Please let it overflow from our lives into the lives of everyone we meet. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.

Praying The Word

I am rushing out of the apartment and don’t have time to write a reflective post, but I didn’t want to leave without sharing with you all. Let’s make this Scripture passage our prayer for today.

Psalm 119:33-40

Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes,
And I shall observe it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law
And keep it with all my heart.
Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies
And not to dishonest gain.
Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity,
And revive me in Your ways.
Establish Your word to Your servant,
As that which produces reverence for You.
Turn away my reproach which I dread,
For Your ordinances are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
Revive me through Your righteousness.

Seeds In The Core

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matthew 4:1)

I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. (Psalm 119:25)

During Sunday’s sermon Pastor Sam quoted First Corinthians 10:13:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Do we believe this?

If so, then we can walk through our wilderness experience with joy and peace in our hearts. As our pastor shared on Sunday, God knows the strengths He has given us, and He knows the level of testing that we are able to endure. As we bear the temptations we face, without giving in, we become aware of what Heaven already knows: It’s not an easy road, but he can handle it. It’s a painful process, but she can handle it.

But, what of the persons who don’t want to submit to the process? Pastor Sam said, concerning ancient Israel, “A whole generation was buried in the wilderness.” As we look back through the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, it is amazing to see how the celebration of crossing the Red Sea quickly turned into a series of complaints and doubts concerning God’s power to act on behalf of His people. Only two men, Joshua and Caleb, endured and overcame the temptation. That generation’s repeated failure to honor God eventually led to their forfeiture of entry into the promised land.

Today, we face the same temptation. We are tempted to look God in the face, conscious of all He has done for us, and in His presence dare to make declarations of what He cannot do, or what He ought to do. “Well, it’s getting late and I can’t wait for You anymore.” “I know You can do anything, but I don’t see You doing anything.” “God, I don’t want to walk the path You set before me; I’m gonna take this other road.” “God, You made a mistake.” These are the seeds in the core of temptation. It is what Jesus faced in His wilderness experience, and it is what we face today.

In this Lenten season, God is encouraging us through His word and through the leaders He has blessed us with. Here is the word: Submit to My process. Endure the trial. I will be with you. You will overcome.

Walk through the wilderness, knowing that God’s grace is available every step of the way.

Suggested additional reading: James chapter 1

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Three-Two-One: Countdown Done.

“Listen. One more year to plow it around.” – Pastor Richard

“God is giving you all of 2015 to get into a right place with Him.” – Pastor Allison

Though their sermons were grounded in different passages of Scripture, our speakers in our English-language and Spanish-language services both declared the same rhema word as the services transitioned from preaching to prayer: 2015 is the year that we are called to respond to the mercy of God.

Pastor Richard noted that we sometimes try to employ pretense in the presence of God, gathering for worship while continuing to harbor secret sins. Our pastor shared the analogy of a person who not only hides things in a back closet, but also has built a trap door into the closet to hide things even more securely. However, we know that nothing is hidden from God: His word declares that He is the one who will bring all hidden things to light.

For today, let’s reflect on a few verses that encourage us to engage the process of drawing nearer to God and submitting our desires and motives to His will. Lord God, give us grace to hear and obey You.

Psalm 119:54-56: Your decrees are the theme of my song wherever I lodge. In the night, LORD, I remember your name, that I may keep your law. This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.

Ecclesiastes 12:14: For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Luke 13:6-9: Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

First Corinthians 4:5: Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Second Corinthians 10:5: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Are You Truly Blessed?

Blessed is the one

    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

Pastor Sam asked us three questions on Sunday that I’d like us to consider today.

1: How can you claim to be blessed if you don’t meditate on the word of God?

Let’s face it: many people don’t make the association between engaging the process of meditation on God’s word and experiencing the blessing of the Lord. Though our world and even some faith-based ventures have suggested that we are capable of achieving the blessing of God through other means, Psalm 1 indicates that there must be two things present and active in us: a) a delight in the law of the Lord, and b) a constant meditation on His law.

2: How can we claim to delight in the word of God if the last thing we do before going to sleep every night is to watch programs that fill our minds with lewd jokes?

Our pastor, sharing from Psalm 1, noted that we cannot claim to be delighted with God’s law if our track record indicates that we are filling our minds with the counsel and resources of the wicked.

3: How can we go to bed meditating on the word of God if we have to get up again, turn on the light, and read, because His word is not planted in our memory?

We sometimes assume that we are blessed because we live in an environment where we are not persecuted for our faith, or because we have our temporal needs met without much strife. But, our blessing is not sourced by our environment. Our blessing is secured by our embrace of, and obedience to, the word of God. May His word live in us and move us to do His will.

What would life in this world be like if every Christian were truly blessed?

Oh, how I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Psalm 119:97)

Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.