Numbers??

 The what ifs of the book of Numbers

What if:  Anticipation of loopholes is significant in Numbers.  Most things fall under one category or another, but what does God say about this or that eventuality?  Faith had gotten them into this mess, but the considerations of eventuality is not always unbelief.  They trusted that God was laying down the law for them.

But in the earlier season the questioning of God’s authority after he had shown himself as State of the Art in everything that pertained to them.  Joshua and Caleb were the God said it, I believe it duo.  What if, what if was the majority rule way.   Let’s vote on whether to go in and take the land.  Lets vote on whether we want Moses to listen to God.  Lets vote on whether to allow women to take ownership, if they haven’t got a male heir to guide them.  Numbers is a small peak at God’s sentimentality to his people’s hopeless desire to democratic rule.  God no higher is the last word.  All else can be voted on, but what God has said is not negotiable.

Darkness will never be a better friend than God. Still God can handle our darkness!

 No sermon on Psalm 88 would be complete without expressing the warnings in the whole of scripture about the sin of complaining.  God gives us allowance to bring our complaints and yet there are warnings and many examples of God striking those whose words of complaint tread the line and go over the line into blasphemy.  We must beware.  I love the careful language of the South on every side.  It seems baked into their culture to carefully tread the area of complaining.  There is a clear line of god-fearing and not god-fearing on this regard. Numbers 11 is a fearful text about the area of complaining about God’s provision.  Albeit that God was kneading trust into His people’s hearts to prepare them to be a vessel fit to bring us the Messiah; foundational was contentment in speech and heart before the Lord.  This is a family discipline that we have certainly strayed from.  The lesson of the slippery slope of lust from food to other more sordid lusts is laid out before our eyes in Numbers 11.  God had to kill them.

God give us grace to shine contentment and gratitude to God as a foremost attribute.  We belong to Jesus!  God comfort Tim Kellers family and I am grateful for his message on this Psalm as a meditation, even from the grave he is ministering.

1. Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain

2. In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may.

3. Tomorrow can bring us nothing,
But He will bear us through:
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe His people, too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.

The Christian in incomplete armor!

 “Putting on the Whole Armor of God”

Bringing a pen-knife to a Nuclear War.  Oh no!  Taking captivity captive is looking at your own personal warfare of the spirit as effectual to the complete vanquishing of the enemy of our souls.  I see in scripture the importance of studying to show yourself approved.

Break every chain?  Do we ask God to set free the powers of darkness?  Do we want their chains taken off them?  Are we ready to engage the enemy of our souls in the judgment?  We aren’t ready.  We have painted ourselves into a corner.  We have laeodiciad the church.  Lulled the masses to sleep and then accepted the heresy of begging God to set us against the enemy.  Break every chain.  I can just imagine how the enemy brings that corporate prayer to God and says they are asking for the judgment to be expedited.  It is the free for all brought on by ourselves.  In ignorance, we sing songs of prayer that bind and loose on earth, that which God has bid us to.  We diminish the power of our corporate prayer by praying ambiguous prayers that the devil can use to fashion a noose around our necks to lynch us.

THe prayer of faith to save.  Salvation is not ambiguous.  Dominion is not ambiguous.  Subdue the devil, Lord.  Give us the victory and the power over the earth instead of him.

Study to be a warrior.  Study to subdue.  Study to know what season of the church we are in.  Are we in the judgment?  Are we equipped to subdue the enemy?  The unity of the spirit in the bond of peace?  Where is it?  What are the necessary equipment that we need to subdue the devil and his minions?   We should be listening to the foolishness of the thing

Proverbs 25:2

Verse Concepts

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,

But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Secrets

“Run, You Fools!” says Gandolf when he travels in fiction into the bottomless pit. 

Jesus has vanquished the enemy of our souls and still we are hobbling, when we should be running like the fools that Gandalf called us.  When will we pick apart the treasures that our forefathers have left for us and find the keys that God has revealed to them?  When will we look into the things that God has already revealed?  And run with haste to use them for HIs Glory!

Faith is the Victory that overcomes the world!!!

Exodus 34

 I just love how God introduces himself as a jealous God to Moses.  You can’t know all about him and live.  The sight was too glorious and even the words couldn’t describe it completely.

He chose one group of people to woo with abandon and all knowledge about him from the outset.  A vision and words from behind the back of the Lord is a treasure.   That was the Old Testament’s hidden treasure.  The sacrifice that attones for sin had not yet completely been accomplished.  God is too holy to fellowship with sin and we reneged on the original agreement of fellowship.  Couldn’t live up to the bargain, we died.   Jesus always had the plan, but we couldn’t see it.  

That spectacular sight had a afterglow on Moses’ face.  It was relatively shortlived.  The effects of his encounter was eternal, though.

God’s eternal plan is exposing his personal loving expression to an ungrateful and incapable wretched race.  His longing and expressions of wooing are spurned, whether we are aware of His love or whether we are ignorant.  Still he lends us breath and life.  He still gifts us with much and many.  

He lets us pursue many and much as if they were gods.  All the while he draws and pursues us.  We break his heart and he chases us in love.  

His bride, the church, is learning to love him, as he desires.  Evangelical obedience is God’s plan for his church.  It is what is best for us in the world we live in.  There are curses on the land and in the spirit world that we are reversing in our obedience to him.   Righteousness exalts a nation…  How impossible that must have sounded to the Old Testament mind.  It must be the sacrifices that make us righteousness, would have been the reasoning to that in their understanding.  Jesus gives us the ability to learn and grow up into Christ in all things.  Amazing Grace!

Joy to the World...Let men their songs employ...Repeat the sounding joy...where ever the curse is found???

Reversing the curse?

Faith and unbelief are intertwined in all hearts.  The hearts of the openly faithful and the hearts of the openly unfaithful lie bare in the presence of the Lord.

The San Francisco movie made in the nineteen thirties gives me a view of how closely the mind of people were to right and wrong then.  I know that my father imitated the masculinity that he saw in that movie.  He probably was movie quoting so many times in the interactions that we had about faith in his latter life.  

I find it odd that men of seemingly complete unbelief can be so drawn to women of faith.  

{I have watched just the clip of Jeanette Macdonald singing San Francisco so many times and never, ever connected it with the san francisco earthquake.   I said to myself, she seems as though she is singing about heaven.  She gets so animated, which is not culturally usual for white women of operatic style?  I have studied the opposite parallel for years about the singing of San Francisco and Paradise.  I hadn’t noticed that the bar was called the Paradise. Until yesterday}

God’s jealousy for His Bride

Everyone who heard that woman felt as though they owned a part of her,  I saw this with Ethel Waters also, an aside.  Young people are looking for somebody to show them the right way.  Someone to give them a good reason to eschew evil is a longing in the heart.   There are so many duplicitous people.  Clark Gable had won over my father, even though he had seen the whole movie and knew God’s judgment was on him.  He was, as it were, prodding God to do some major demonstration to deserve his faith.  That is a faith to some people.  “ I will believe in God after the great earthquake, as it were.”  God doesn’t ever succumb to such provocations, even though he knows it might have won this one or that one to faith.  God was defending and demonstrating His righteous patience and indignation.  There are no angels who deserve a second chance.   It was as though jeanette macdonald was God’s gift to Clark Gable for his gift to the church.  She was his organ and his organ in the church was a line into his soul,  mustard seed, perhaps.  Anger and bitterness kept his faith dry and dead, if it were.  

God doesn’t get capriciously angry to punch us as Clark Gable did his friend, but God had to show that he is angry with the wicked everyday.   He hears the arguments of the wicked to him in their unbelief and is carrying on a conversation even with them as he does with the believer.  They will know when they are judged that they ended the conversation many times with God before he was finished.

There are many reasons that we all deserve the earthquake experience.  We provoke him everyday in our personal and in our public lives.  Only Jesus, has paid the price for sins and yet we sin, high handedly and low handedly so to speak.  But it was masterful that somebody made a parallel between God’s judgment and the development of San Francisco as a community.  Political, culture wars,  alcohol, gambling and pillars of economy…etc, etc.

He has helped us pick up the pieces of San Francisco and yet it still remains on the fringes as though it is a string uncut from the quilt of this nation. 

God, heal our every flaw!  Jesus keep us talking from the precipices of our sins and help us to grow an economy that reflects your truth and mercy.  Amen

 

Jesus is Good,,, Thank you Pastor Smith

Pastor Jeff Smith. Mark 4:35

Mark 4:35  [ Sermons | M. Henry ]

And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.

Mark 4:36  [ Sermons | M. Henry ]

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.

Mark 4:37  [ Sermons | M. Henry ]

And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.

Mark 4:38 

And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

Mark 4:39 

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Mark 4:40

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Mark 4:41 

And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

A great purpose

Departure and destination,   he needed to give the gospel to people on the other side.

The Gospel is the Great purpose!

Salvation and repentance

He had to cross to give the Gospel to the other people.

2,  an essential companion

They took Jesus ‘as he was”

exhausted,

Still they took him! Bone weary and fatigued.   Jesus is in heaven, but no longer subject to the weariness and yet he is a continual essential companion!

A Great Storm

Possibly an earthquake had hit them.  The wind was common because of the mountains and terrain.

Possibly a hurricane and a megastorm!  Waves and violent torrents hit the boat, wooden with 13 men in it.  They were soaked

A Great Contrast 

A deep sleep was upon the Lord. Such a deep sleep is not unusual when he had spent himself for so long.  The Savior was truly man and touched with our infirmities.  God and yet physically vulnerable.

A gripping fear was on the disciples in the boat.  Terse reproving words revealed the fear in their hearts and souls.  Experienced fishermen were on the boat and they were familiar with ordinary storms, but they also were terrified by the storm.  They must have yelled to awaken the Lord! The contrast between Jesus deep sleep and the fear of the disciples.  They should have been afraid.  It would have been unnatural not to be afraid.  What was wrong about it was that they were controlled by their fears and they forgot their learning about Jesus and his constant care.  They forgot his powerful provision and they forgot about his presence.  They forgot their commission.  Unbelief had temporarily gripped their hearts and minds.   {The reflex of faith}

Evil unbelief can grip and take hold.

A Great Calm

Omnipotent words= peace, be still

He calmly asserted his authority over the elements by speaking to it and the calm became as smooth as glass.  He revealed that his authority was over the elements.  The same Lord is almighty over creation and he can deliver from trials and troubles.  All your sins are also subject to him.  He can deliver because he is almighty!   Jesus tames the stormy passions and temper of person.  Jesus can speak peace to the troubled soul.  No man ever need despair if he would humble himself and come to Jesus Christ.  Have despaired?  Mounting problems?  Despair of the strength of remaining sin, hopeless.  Remember this history on the sea of Galilea.  He has authority over the waves and he has authority over the waves on my soul.  Cry out to the live Lord and he will hear and answer.

Searching words came from the Lord 

Mark 4:40

Mark 4:40

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

Examine yourself is the purpose of the searching words were his reasoning for using searching words…

Repent and be transformed.   The fear was legitimate.  Their fear also had unbelief mixed with the legitimate fear.   The disciples acted as though Jesus wasn’t caring for them and wasn’t powerful and wasn’t in authority.  Jesus probed have you no faith? 11 of the 12 had saving faith, but there was one unbeliever among them.  Their faith had faltered   their senses focused on the wrong things.   They needed Jesus help, but they spoke with unbelief.  Their trust had been misplaced from His unchanging love!  Focus on the unchanging love of Jesus for YOU!  It doesn’t change. Where was their faith?  Where was their thinking.

Verse 41

Inquiring words.  Who is this? That even the sea and the wind obey him?  He was merciful to remember them.  Mark 4:40

And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

They knew they were learning more but they had to come to a fresh understanding.  We must also come to a fresh understanding regularly as well.  He is the savior of Sinners!  He is Mighty He is the Savior!  He is worthy to be trusted in all of the storms!

Additional lessons

1. Christians are not exempt from the trials of this life and their fears!

2.Through such trials that valuable lessons are learned that cannot be learned in any other way.

3.The Lord Jesus is the gracious, omnipotent, faithful, loving Savior of sinners.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in YOU, Lord!

 Leaning on the Everlasting Arms?

How do we lean on the everlasting arms and what does it mean to not lean on your own understanding?

God is God and we are not, but with so many conveniences, we have no idea of how to identify the things that we should press and do for ourselves and that which we should wait on the Lord to give us an answer for.

We reflexively click to our phones for the answer to this and that question that perplexes us.  Some things we know and commit to memory and these days most things we just google or look up online through some online search engine.  We can get some answers in that way.

Learning to depend on Jesus for our confidence and our identity is the tough wrestling for our day!

As a teenager, I remember with fondness the all night prayer times at church.  I wasn’t doing it to rebel against my parents.  They thought I was and often I was punished for having stayed too long.  But, truly learning to cherish the presence of the Lord was my deepest desire.  He never, ever disappointed me.  It wasn’t money or a tangible gift that I got for staying and lying on the floor before the Lord for hours praising and worshiping and beseeching his presence.  He was there.  He taught me to know HIM.

He taught me to seek him in the uncomfortable and the anxiety of my parent’s chagrin, now only adds to the delight that He is my dearest delight.

I would never suggest anyone to go against their parents in these things today.  But, I had to seek Him.  God has to bid you to come to Him.  Seeking Him in the context of your church’s gathering is soul strengthening!