Bibledoorajar: The value of fruit

     This week we have all watched Venezuela with horror thinking of the struggle of the people who are being denied food to eat that is right there within reach. But the terrible man in charge will have nothing to do with the olive branch extended by the caring world. It is beginning to look as if a seige may have to take place to save the people. This reminded me of how God told Moses to prepare the warriors of Israel for taking land in which enemies ruled. First, they were to send envoys to extend the hand of peace. Perhaps the enemies would choose to work for the Israelites and thus continue to benefit from the land and its' resources. But, if not....
^""When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees people, that you should besiege them?  However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls." Deuteronomy 20:19-20

    When John the Baptist came as a forerunner to Christ he preached repentence. He responded to the Pharisees and Sadduccees that were coming at him. He called them a brood of vipers and asked who had warned them to flee from the coming wrath. He then told them that since they were under siege they should produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And then he said, "do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

     In Mark 11 we read this...."The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again". And His disciples heard Him say it." Later we read that the disciples saw the tree and it was completely withered as if an ax had been taken to it. A tree with just leaves was of no good to a hungry Jesus. It accomplished a work for the making of fruit but not bearing fruit the leaf work was worth little. Jesus went on to teach the disciples that fruits produce powerful leaves (works like moving mountains) but a work (leaf) without fruit cannot move things like mountains (or the mind of God).
     Some people are deceived and feel like they will see God because of their beautiful leaves (works) and that He will applaud them,  But God values the leaves associated with the fruits of the Spirit. Being of greater value they will not be not be subject to the ax. Through them, the Christ, Israel's Messiah, is glorified.

......."down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."      Rev. 22:2


 

Bibledoorajar: Standing Before God

     As Moses addressed the people about their latest covenant with God, the Bible says they all stood before Moses as he talked(Deuteronomy 29). But Moses was more than anything trying to help them understand that they were standing in the presence of their Holy God. This same God had laid upon them a law that entailed both blessings and curses. This was not a call from Moses for the people to take a seat, relax and experience joy and safety before the Lord unless they first came to grips with this new culture. They would have no separate dignity among the nations unless they demonstrated that their God was infinitely Holy and that His law showed forth that all the evil in men would end in meaningless death. It would be in the merits of the law and their keeping of it that they could stand. God wanted it inscribed on their hearts in such a way that it impacted their behavior. God did not need a people for a people's sake for indeed He had created all men. He needed a people who would see the value of addressing the laws of God, its' condemnation, and His plans for rescue from it. Many hours were spent perfecting the sacrificial laws that would support them before the living God until Messiah would come. The High Priest carried a great responsibility. All of the requirements were meant to make a great impression on them not just in knowledge but in conviction of heart. He would not be a saving God unless they believed His requirements; they would not be His people without taking Him to heart. This was the aim of the law. Keep it, be justified; do not keep it, be condemned. Without this understanding all the wars, triumphs and losses they would endure would end in no good result.

     Today, we who believe in this same God have seen a great Light. The Holy Spirit has impressed us with the Holy and beautiful image of Jesus Christ, the Great Messiah. We all stand in His presence awaiting a coming judgement day. But for those of us who are aiming at holiness in Jesus we can also feel the dignity of being His people justified and radiating the light of the Lord to the nations. We have sought to renounce every dependence on any thing or any one but our Savior. We are a dignified people because of the merits of Christ. The apostle Paul says that we will all one day stand before God to be judged as to what we have done in the body. Thank God that Jesus will make that a moment, though humbling for sure, one of great joy. A grateful heart standing before God. It is a happy picture.

     Yesterday I saw such a happy heart. A brother, three years out from surviving cancer, stood before a grateful congregation. Moved by the Spirit in heart, he encouraged us all to pray for those battling illness and in need of healing. We knew he meant it because his tears showed us it was a request engraved upon a grateful heart. So, to all in need of healing, I lift you up to the Goodness of our God and Savior and in the gratitude of your fellow believers..

    

   

    

 

Bibledoorajar: Healing

     Thanking God for healing among His people. I am a candidate for relief from a head cold that has stilted my thinking and my desire to hold up my head. So, Bibledoorajar will return next week. To all who need healing, I stand with you in prayer!

Bibledoorajar: Yet another covenant

     I remember when the time came for me to graduate from college. I thought I had arrived. Ready. I was shocked when my major professor told my class that upon graduation we would now be prepared to start learning! Now looking back I realize how those diplomas and continuing education certificates built on each other. But I also realized there were a lot of things I wished I understood more definitely.
     God had to take the same approach as He taught His people just who He was and what He wanted in a relationship. In Deuteronomy 29 Moses recorded the content of yet another covenant, one in addition to the one He had sealed them with in Horeb. In his speech, Moses declared that he had led them for forty years in the Wilderness; their garments did not wear out and their shoes kept trucking. They did not gorge on their own food or drink intoxicating drink. In that way they learned that their God had supplied their every need. Interestingly they had seen deliverance and miracles but Moses stated that God did not give them eyes to truly see nor ears to truly hear until that day. But with new sight and new hearing they fought a battle and won land for two tribes and half enough for another.
     It is hard to know just when God give us eyes to see and ears to hear in a deeper way. But we can all probably remember a time when we, like Paul, said we know without a doubt whom we have believed. That, after all, was what God was after all along. And He still is.

Open our eyes, Lord,
we want to see Jesus,
to reach out and touch him,
and say that we love him.
Open our ears, Lord,
and help us to listen.
Open our eyes, Lord,
we want to see Jesus.

         Robert Cull

Bibledoorajar: A Great Compliment

     My family had a new baby born on yesterday. As I held her, I wondered if she would live and prosper as God would have her prosper in this world of decay. We did what we knew to do. We prayed that we, her family, would be wise and hold before her His ways and decrees. We honored Him for the gift of her and appealed to Him to help her be His. Help us Lord, her believing family, to be true to hold You before her in the same way we hold her father and mother, her grandparents and her great grand parents. Forgive us when we get "put out" at family shortcomings and help us show Your love and requirement for respect at all times.
     Moses told the people of God and taught them ALL the decrees and ordinances that God required to be upheld in the new land into which they were going. They were not to leave out one thing nor were they to add one thing. The old among them probably remembered them as they were declared, but many of the young were hearing them for the first time because they had not been passed down and honored. For all of them, they heard Moses say, "Beware for yourself and greatly beware of your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld and lest you remove them from your heart all the days of your life and make them known to your children and your children's children..." Deuteronomy 4.

    God wanted the people of faith to be commended as wise in the ways they honored their God. It was to be the greatest of compliments.

God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the children are led to know
Christ in His beauty who loves them so,
Homes where the altar fires burn and glow;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes!

Baylus McKinney

Bibledoorajar: The Value of God's Plans

     In one of the addresses Moses made to the people of God, he spoke of how he had asked God to let him participate by going into the Promised Land with the people. To show the people how much he wanted that privilege he said he implored with God. To implore is to insistently ask. But finally God told Moses enough. Stop! What I have for you is enough and my plan must be valued as more perfect than your desires. Moses could remember the glories of his past but could not see all that God had planned for him even after his death. God made it clear that His plans alone were perfect. Moses had to let go of regrets and any dependency he had on continuing his leadership role with Israel.How did he know at the time he was imploring God that it was God's intent to "roll away the reproach" of Egypt from His people through the leadership of the next leader Joshua? (Joshua 5) How was Moses to know that one day he would be seen walking and talking with his Lord and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration?
     I think we would all agree that it is difficult sometimes to trust God and be in agreement with His plans especially if it involves what we perceive to be a loss. But we cannot be ignorant and we cannot demean the value of them. It was a disgrace for God's people to be caught in slavery in Egypt and God intended to right that wrong at the crossing of the Jordan using Joshua. Moses got to watch the greater Joshua right the eternal wrong of the hold of sin on people. We cannot become arrogant and make assumptions or become presumptive. When Paul wrote to the church in Rome he was very concerned about them maybe becoming arrogant or presumptive about how God felt about the Jews. He said the Romans were subject to arrogance if they did not understand. And so he proceeded to tell them God's plan to bring Gentile and Jew into "one new man." Paul admitted it was a mystery but the value of the plan had to be accepted. The timing of, and our participation in, the will of God is perfect. And our acceptance must never waiver.

Bibledoorajar: Old Truths Respoken

     I recently told a dear sister who is about to start a chemotherapy protocol following the removal of a tumor that I wanted to be kept informed of when she actually started chemo. She was told that although I had been praying all through the surgery and healing process, I wanted to begin what I called "high octane" prayers for the chemo process. That is, during this time, I wanted to bombard heaven with all the promises and reports in the Word of how God uses our difficulties to purify our lives for our next steps. It is not that God doesn't know about what she is to go through, He does, but I want Him to know how much I am believing in what He has ESTABLISHED for those of us who are dedicated to Him. That means much more scriptures will be a part of the prayers to come for her for therein lies the strength for the days ahead.
     The book of Deuteronomy opens with Moses taking time to preach some "high octane" sermons about the law to a young new generation who were about to take the land. They were small when so many of God's people had refused to believe God by faith and had refused to follow His laws. The results of not being obedient were clear. Those people had now all passed from the scene. They were not going forth into the Promised Land. The reason the sermons had to be "high octane" was because Moses knew this generation would not be able to make it without a better knowledge and belief of the law than their forefathers. And so He began the sermons. It was these same sermons that Jesus referred to when He went through His greatest trials when Satan sorely tempted and wrestled with Him. Jesus fell back repeatedly on the "high octane" statements made by Moses in his sermons. And each time that He spoke and established again the truth of God, He was sustained.
     There is great power in speaking the Word of God and reestablishing it in our prayers. It gives us the strength to go down whatever path God has for us with greater faith and courage. We can reach a place like the apostle Paul who found the strength to endure. To speak the scriptures is to acknowledge the Living Word, the Logos of God who is worthy to be both quoted and praised.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. ... John 1:1

"If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I will teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever." Psalm 132:12