Tuesday, September 30, 2014

GIVEN UNTO US (PART 1)



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.

Isaiah 9:6

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today starts a series of devotions from Isaiah, Chapter 9, simply titled, “Given Unto Us” as the scriptures reminds us all of how very loved and blessed we are, loved and blessed by an Almighty, Creator God who wished that we might not perish from our sin but rather have the rich opportunity to live with Him forever. This was accomplished through His one and only Son Jesus, freely given unto us to bring salvation and so much more. Today, we will look at one of the things we received through Him: governance. Look at verse 6:

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders.

Go to the dictionary and you will find the following definitions for governance:

- The way that a city, company, etc., is controlled by the people who run it.

- The exercise of authority while controlling others.

- The need for governance exists anytime a group of people come together to accomplish an end.
   
God sent His only Son unto us to reign over the world, to bring divine authority and control over a people in need of direction toward righteousness, a people who needed guided from the wide path of destruction paved in wickedness that would lead them to sure death from sin (Matthew 7:13-14). To do something so significant required a power no one earth possessed. Only Jesus could come and rule in a way that would lead the people to God while accomplishing His purposes. This is why God placed the government of His creation on the shoulders of His Son.  is peop

Indeed, Jesus Himself said the following, providing validation and acknowledgement that He was fully and firmly in charge:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:18  

It was by this authority that He lived and led His disciples, leaving behind a legacy of self-sacrificial service and faithfulness to God the Father that we get to carry on, walking in the footsteps of the earliest disciples and all the saints who have followed. Through the words of the gospels in our beloved Bibles, we find a rich account of the actions Jesus took and the words He said, given unto us so that we might know how to live as He lived as we walk through life under His authority. For Jesus told us the following:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

The best leaders provide consistent, sound guidance to the people they govern. They leave little doubt what is expected from them and don’t just tell their people what to do but they practice what they preach, serving as role models that lead by example. Jesus was the best leader and role model ever because He was the only perfect leader and person that ever lived. He took all the guess work out of what was expected of God’s people by keeping things fundamental. To live as we are supposed to live under His authority, all we have to do is live like He lived. For He was (and is) the life, and not just any life but THE life, the kind of life that is holy and pleasing to God. There is no other way we are to live under the rule of Jesus than by His WAY, the way always defined by truth because He is the TRUTH.  

In short, when we follow Jesus, the precious, blessed Son given unto us by God to govern over us in power, we gain an amazing reward far beyond the immediate harvest of righteousness. For by walking in the footsteps of Jesus, the Way and the Truth and the Life, we will find salvation from our sins and subsequently life eternal with the Father and the Son who made it all possible, the One who shows us the way every day.

Friends, as Christians, we are to live like Christ, plain and simple. There is no better way to define what a Christian is. As it has always been and will always be, the way to God the Father is through Jesus the Son, the One who has the government of creation on His shoulders, the One who will always guide us to the Father if we follow His lead and submit fully in obedience to His authority.

Thanks be to God for the gift of Jesus!   

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Monday, September 29, 2014

THE YOKE SHATTERER



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before You as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, You have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

Isaiah 9:3-5

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today could be a sad day but it isn’t. My brother-in-law is being laid to rest. It’s not that he’s not going to be missed because he will be but you see, he knew and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is THE ultimate game-changer in this thing we call life.

You see, Jesus alters everything because He is in the yoke shattering business.

Now, the word “yoke” is not often used in present day spiritual talk for the most part. In fact, if you spoke the word “yoke” most people would think you were talking about that yellow part of an egg when it’s cracked open but the problem there is that it’s not even the same word (the part of the egg is spelled yolk). Such is the lack of understanding of the concept of the yoke for most people. Of course, farmers, especially the old school farmers, would be able to speak to you at length about yokes because they have been used in the agriculture business since biblical times.

The yoke in that instance was a wooden crossbar used to join together two animals who would in turn pull a cart or plow. Similarly, a person could have a yoke fitted across their shoulders to carry two equal loads, one on each side. The concept was that when yoked together, the power of the two animals could be harnessed in such a way to get work done efficiently and effectively. Ditto for someone who had to carry two loads to a place and didn’t wish to make two trips.

Note that a part of the yoke concept is bearing the weight of something while accomplishing a task. The spiritual application here is that the life we are all yoked to can present circumstances that can weigh us down and make it very difficult to walk through the days we’re given. Without something to take away the yoke or relieve the weight upon us, we can find ourselves weak and reaching a state of failure, unable to stand anymore under the load we are trying to bear.

The people of Israel were about to find themselves in a position where their burdens were going to be extremely heavy. For God’s judgment was about to fall upon them, a judgment He had warned would come if they chose to disobey and disrespect Him. Look at these words from the book of Deuteronomy:

However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until He has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away.  The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. The sights you see will drive you mad. The Lord will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you.

You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.

All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees He gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or olive oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 28:15-22

Here we see the kind of yoke no one should want to have on them, the iron yoke of the Lord. It is a yoke too difficult to bear, a yoke born from His judgment which brings destruction and devastation and hardship. The chosen people of God who were once so blessed and favored would be cursed after disappointing God in the way they chose to live. Choosing to abandon Him, they now would feel what it’s like to be abandoned themselves, hauled away to a foreign land and immersed in oppression and hardship at the hands of their captors for seventy long years, a length of time that would lead anyone to repentance and to cry out to the Lord for rescue and deliverance, for Him to remove the iron yoke He placed upon them.

The Lord God Almighty is a God of judgment and will send it on anyone who decides to live in disobedience and ignore His commands and decrees. We know this because He does what He says He’s going to do, speaking nothing but truth in all He says. And so when His word proclaims coming judgment, that judgment is going to happen.

But the Lord God Almighty is also a God of love and grace and mercy and forgiveness. He is always prepared to lovingly welcome anyone back home if they have gone astray and repented of their sinfulness. In other words, the Lord is always prepared to shatter the yokes that we bear, whether He placed them on us or someone else did. Looking at our scripture from Isaiah, we see this truth come to life as the future of the Israelites is revealed:

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before You as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, You have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. Isaiah 9:3-5
  
Yes, God’s judgment was coming upon the people of Israel but the good news was that it wouldn’t last forever. For a day of deliverance would come, a day when the yoke that burdened God’s people would be shattered, leading them once again to a place where they would rejoice before Him, liberated from their oppressor. What a joyous day that would be as God’s people would fully experience the peace and joy that comes from being set free by the God who shatters yokes of burden. He did then and He still does so today through His Son Jesus who provides us the ultimate yoke-shattering opportunity through His death and subsequent resurrection. Death was not the end for Jesus because He defeated it, conquering the grave before ascending in power to sit at His Father’s right hand. With this, anyone who believes and trusts in Jesus will find their yoke of death shattered, setting them free to live and love and learn and serve the Lord in all they do. Ditto for the yokes of hardship, affliction, and sin as we enter into the eternal life God offered through His Son Jesus, a salvation that leads us to live with them forever. My brother-in-law, Willie, has been set free, the yoke of this world taken off of him completely as He enters into a place where there will only be light and love forever with the Father and Son, a place where I pray all people will be one day.

In the end translation, yes, this world can bring situations that are hard for us to handle. Maybe those issues come in the way of finances. Maybe they come in the way of relationship problems. Maybe they come when one falls into affliction or addiction, dealing with disease or pain or temptation on a constant basis. Whatever the case, it can leave you yoked to despair and depression and hopelessness, wondering if things will ever get better. You can find yourself yearning for anything that might take the pressure away and give you peace.

Maybe you’ve been in a place like this. Maybe you’re there now. Whatever the case, know and trust that you have had and will always have hope in Jesus, the supreme yoke-shatterer who gave us this promise:

 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30    

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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Sunday, September 28, 2014

THE LIGHT THAT PIERCES THE DARK



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark
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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

Isaiah 9:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Isaiah Chapter 8 closes with some foreboding words from the prophet the book is named after. Namely, anyone who chooses to turn from God and seek their wisdom and guidance from worldly sources (the prophet specifically mentions mediums and spiritists) will find themselves out of the light found in His word and instead in the darkness where there would be great distress and gloom and famine.

Of course, he is speaking about none other than the Israelites, the chosen people of God who chose to worship other gods outside of Him, violating the main order He provided through Moses at Mount Sinai:

“You shall have no other gods before Me.” Exodus 20:2

As a result of their disobedience, God was sending judgment on His people in the form of attacks from two mighty empires, first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. The end result would be just what Isaiah was prophesying with the Israelites thrust into a period of dark times as the northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah would be laid to waste and the people hauled away into exile. Not exactly words that would put anyone at ease but the people of Israel brought it on themselves.

If the story would end here, it would be a story of tragedy born out of sinfulness and rejection of God, a stern warning against others going down that same path. But there is so much more to this story and God than that as we see in the opening verses of Isaiah, Chapter 9, some of the most encouraging words in the entire Bible. Today, we’ll just look at these first two verses as we carefully move through these incredible words of hope:

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:1-2

Yes, Isaiah Chapter 8 ends with a warning and that warning is critical to all believers who might be tempted to turn their attention away from God toward worshipping anything else the world might offer. But just as important as knowing and understanding that God is a God of justice and judgment, correcting His people as need be to turn them from sin to righteousness, is to know and understand that God is a God of love and forgiveness and mercy and hope, a God who has delivered and continues to deliver His people from darkness into light.

Yesterday, we looked at how God is light and how anyone who seeks and carries out His will and way will be His light to the world, bearing fruits of goodness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:9). When people go down the wrong path in life, the path of darkness paved by wickedness and transgression, God doesn’t abandon them but rather continues to shine His light with the hope that people living in the dark might return to Him one day. Indeed, we see no greater illustration of this truth than in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son:

There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, “Father, give me my share of the estate.” So he divided his property between them.

Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” So he got up and went to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

“But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” So they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. “Your brother has come,” he replied, “and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”

“My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”  Luke 15:11-32

In the parable, the youngest son chose to turn from his father and walk into the darkness of the world where he fell into great hardship, so much so that he decided to return home, confess his wrongs, and seek the father’s mercy and forgiveness. Surely expecting condemnation from his father upon returning, the young man received nothing but love and rejoicing celebration for once lost, he was now found. In other words, when he walked out being lost in the darkness and toward the light, he found himself rescued, rediscovered, loved, and redeemed.  

The people of Israel, like the lost son, had chose to walk away from God and would fall on their own period of hardship, a period that would have them turn back to the only One who could save them, the only One who could bring them hope, the only One who could rescue, rediscover, love, and redeem them once they walked out of the darkness and toward the light. As our scriptures affirm today, there would be a time when there would be no more gloom for those who were in distress for the people will see a great light that will pierce through the deep darkness they had been in for such a long time.

And if that weren’t enough good news, it gets better. Because the emerging light that would dawn in the midst of darkness for the people of Israel came to deliver all of mankind and is still delivering them today. That light is none other than Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, the Savior of the world, the Light of the world (John 8:12).

This world we live in is the domain of Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4 NLT) and thus people who live for the world and its ways are walking in the sin and wickedness that the evil one brings. Indeed, many are walking in transgression today, heading down the wide, dark path of destruction and death without hope (Matthew 7:13-14). But Jesus defeated Satan and death (Hebrews 2:14 HCSB) through His own death and resurrection, piercing the darkness of hopelessness and shining a light of salvation and deliverance for all to see, a light that when followed leads one from death to life, not just in the here and now but forever.

Yes, all of God’s people who have walked, are walking, or will come to walk in darkness have seen, are seeing, or will see a great light that dawns in the deepest nights of sin, bringing the lost to the place where they are found, the place where they find the greatest expression of God’s love in Jesus, the One He sent to save.

Question: Have you found Jesus, the light that will pierce through your deepest darkness today?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com