Search n For The Truth » Application

THE LORD REIGNS LET THE PEOPLE REJOICE

bernie — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:30:31 +0000

Twenty years ago I spent a night in London. British television is quite superior to ours; at least it was at that time. There were much more documentaries there than in America. Intellectually, it was on a higher level than ours. The night I was there they had a panel discussing the problem of man’s inhumanity. It was centered on the war in Yugoslavia and the question that was brought up was: “Why, after the enemy has been defeated, does the victor continue to oppress the defeated foe”?
There are many examples of this other than Yugoslavia. After Hitler conquered Poland, the Germans slaughtered thousands of their people. Even though the Ukrainians received the Germans as liberators the Germans killed more than could be counted. The same is true of other conquerors like Russia, Japan conquering much of South East Asia, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. This last one is a perfect example. The Japanese wished to portray themselves as the friends and liberators of these people against their white masters, whom the people genuinely hated. The problem was that the Japanese simply could not behave themselves. Are there exceptions? Yes, when America and England won the war, we fed and rehabilitated the enemy. I don’t believe that even one Japanese was killed intentionally once we had won the war. What was the difference? It all depends on the victors philosophy or belief. On the one side you had Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and China, Shintoist Japan, etc. America had a philosophy which was basically Christian. Christianity, even nominal makes a difference. As we are losing this we will be cruel, too. This is all part of the Judeo-Christian religion; not just Christian but Judeo-Christian.
This brings us to the Jews, about whom the liberals can say nothing good. Look at the big picture. When Moslems conquer Moslems what happens? During the last war in Afghanistan when Moslems were conquered by their own people two million fled to Pakistan. When Israel took over the West Bank how many Moslems fled? None. They liked the change. How often is that brought up? That’s the result of Judeo-Christianity which our country is trying so hard to get rid of.
It is with good reason that the Psalmist says in Psalm 97:1 that the earth rejoices because the LORD reigns. His is a reign of righteousness. The further people drift away from God the more suffering they bring on themselves. And then the question always comes up: “ If God is good, why is there so much suffering”? They demand that God must explain Himself. Somehow man seems to feel that God will have to give an account of His deeds to man. This is the arrogance of man, forgetting that he will give account of himself to God. One of the things he will answer for is how he treated his fellow man , especially the weak. It’s important to keep in mind that God will be man’s final judge.

BE READY IN THE MORNING

bernie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:51:34 +0000

The phrase, “Be ready in the morning” is found in Exodus 34:2. Moses is told to be ready in the morning to come to the top of Mount Sinai with the tables of stone. The first 9 verses of Exodus 34 contain some good principles for our quiet time with God.
In verse one Moses is told to hew two tables of stone so God can write His commands on them. Today God writes, not in tables of stone, but tables of the heart. We come with open hearts and minds on which God can write His commands. In verse two Moses is told to be ready in the morning. The morning is, for most people the best time to be alone with God. The mind is less cluttered than during the day.
In verse three Moses is told to bring no man with him and also to leave the flocks and herds behind. God wants a personal fellowship with us. We are to come alone. Also, we must not come with a lot of other business on our minds. The “flocks and herds” must be left outside.
In verse four we read that Moses goes to the top of the mountain and in verse five we see that God comes down to Moses. It is a meeting between the Infinite God and finite man. Also, in verse five God tells Moses Who He is. “He proclaims the Name of the LORD”. This is Who He is. It is His Person. Verse six explains what He is; or His character. He is “The LORD GOD, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth”. In verse seven He tells what He does: He keeps mercy for thousands, forgives sin and punishes iniquity. He warns against the long range consequence of sin. These and many other things God can teach the one alone with Him.
In verses eight and nine we see the contrast between a holy God and sinful man. Moses acknowledges that he is one of a “stiff necked people” and in need of pardon. Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai, the mountain of law and judgment. According to Hebrews 12, we are already in Mount Zion, the city of the Living God. This is the mount where we meet God.
In First John we read that our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son. The really staggering thing is that God is more anxious for the meeting than we are. God is inviting us to come. We are the ones dragging our feet.

THE BALANCE

bernie — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:55:32 +0000

We see in the Bible a perfect balance. We also see this in the life and teachings of the Lord Jesus. The Bible, written to fallen man emphasizes two things. They are God’s hatred for sin and at the same time His love for fallen man. It seems that Jesus’ denunciation was primarily for the leaders. The concern He seemed to feel was towards the common people, even those who were led astray by false teaching. The same thing was true of Paul and the other apostles. Here we must be careful not to excuse the laity, (so called). This is what the Bible is for, written very simply, (the common people “heard Him gladly; the same people who were “baptized of John”) but often confused by the hierarchy. Remember the illustration of the blind leading the blind. They didn’t have to follow, you know.
When confronted by the religious leaders, Jesus told them that He had not come to call the righteous but sinners. He told the woman in John 8: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more”, On the other hand Jesus told the leaders that not only did they not enter the Kingdom of heaven themselves but also kept their followers out: Matthew 23:13. We must remember that the followers went to the same hell that the leaders did, but the heaviest punishment is on the leaders.
There is another example in Galatians 1:8 and 9. Here Paul pronounces a curse on the one who brings in the false doctrine. The curse is not on the one who believes it. If one has sincerely received Christ he is not necessarily lost because he adds on some false teaching, but the teacher is denounced. He is causing much harm even to the point of causing some to be lost. Another passage along the same line is in Revelation 3:1-6. This is about the church in Sardis which had “a name that thou livest, and art dead”. There was much activity but no spiritual life. But “even in Sardis” there were those who had “not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white”. They did not follow the blind.

ENDANGER MY HEAD

bernie — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:01:58 +0000

Daniel requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he not be required to eat of the king’s rich food, which was definitely not kosher. His overseer was afraid that Daniel and his friends would look less healthy than the others due to the insufficient diet. He was afraid, as he said, of losing his head: Daniel1:10.
In this same verse the prince of the eunuchs says: “I fear my lord the king”. It’s interesting that this same Hebrew word for fear (YAWRAY) is used in connection with the believer’s fear in God, which Daniel had. His fear of God was greater than his fear of the might of Babylon. In Malachi 4:2 we read: “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings”, and in Psalm 115:13: “He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great”.
We find the same thing true in the New Testament. In Luke 12:4 and 5 we are told not to fear those who can only kill the body, but to fear Him who “after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell”. The word fear is the same in both. It is the Greek word PHOBEO.
The teaching common today in evangelical circles is that the word fear really means something else like reverence, awe, high regard, etc. It’s greatly watered down. We are also told that the unbeliever is afraid of God even though the Bible states clearly of the unbeliever that “there is no fear of God before their eyes”: Romans 3:18..
This is the result of the relativistic age in which we live. In 1991, a letter written by James Dobson quotes from a survey taken by researcher George Barna : In the survey, interviewees were asked: “Do you agree strongly with the following statement: There is no such thing as absolute truth”. Only 28% of the respondents expressed strong belief in “absolute truth” and more surprisingly only 23% of evangelical Christians accepted this idea.
If there is no absolute truth then by definition nothing can be said to be absolutely true. To the majority, it’s all relative. Nothing is certain. Might be, might not be. Who knows for sure? Take your guess and hope for the best. Once you have done away with the belief in absolute truth you have lost the fear of God. It is absolutely true that someday I will stand before God to give account of all I have done. Whether or not I believe this will never alter the fact, but it removes the fear of God. The fear of God is a very healthy thing. Satan is using evangelical preachers to remove it.

CAST IT ON THE GROUND

bernie — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:39:32 +0000

At the burning bush the LORD asked Moses: What is that in your hand”? Moses replied that it was his rod. God told him to throw it down on the ground. Moses did so; it became a serpent and Moses was frightened and ran from it.
Forty years before Moses decided to save the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, but caused more harm than good, killing a man. Now God wants to use Moses to do exactly what he wanted to do in the first place. But first the rod must be dealt with. It has within itself the potential to do harm as well as good. Moses proved that. When God tells Moses to throw it down Moses sees it’s potential for evil and flees from it.
Every talent or ability I have is a potential serpent. My best and most well meaning efforts have the potential of causing harm, either to myself or others. I must understand that, as Paul said, In me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. As Moses threw down the rod at God’s command, so must I.
God tells Moses to pick up the rod. Moses does so in perfect obedience and now it is once again a rod. But it is no longer Moses’ rod. In Exodus 4:20 we read that Moses returned to the land of Egypt “and the rod of God was in his hand”. Now he is fully able to save the people of God from the oppressor.
There are two verses I want to bring here. Psalm 12:4: “Our lips are our own; who is lord over us”? This is perhaps the great contrast between the man of the world and the follower of Christ. The question here is the same. Whose rod is it: mine or God’s?
Another verse that would apply here is John 7:18. Jesus is speaking: “He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of the One Who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him”. The important thing is that leaders in the church and also the followers seek, not there own glory but the glory of God. I suppose we all have this tendency to cling to our rod, not seeing the serpent on it.

WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE

bernie — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:40:24 +0000

We hear much today of everyone having a right to his opinion. Furthermore, all opinions are supposed to carry equal weight. Anything else is intolerant.
Belshazzar was king of the greatest empire on earth. He felt that his ideas and words carried weight. As far as he was concerned, no power on earth could conquer mighty Babylon and also, no power on earth could touch him. Then he saw the hand writing on the wall and trembled like a leaf before an old Jewish prophet who explained to him that the hand on the wall told Belshazzar that he was weightless. Instead of removing the prophet’s head he, in fear and hoping to win the favor of the old man, promoted him. The day before Daniel would not have been invited into his presence.
This is all told in Daniel 5. In Daniel 6 is the record of King Darius making a decree that anyone worshiping any god or man other than the king would be thrown into a den of lions. Daniel continued to pray to his God as before. He was too heavy to move, whether it was by king or empire. In Milton’s “Paradise Lost” we read of everything in heaven and earth shaking except for the unshakeable throne of God. Daniel lived close to God and His Word and as Belshazzer and now King Darius found, carried tremendous weight. Belshazzar lived far from God. He went out of his way to show his disdain for God by drinking out of the golden cups from God’s temple, with a thousand of his lords. Psalm 12:4 would have fit him well: “Who have said, with our tongues will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us”? But when judgment was past on him he was told “you are weightless and found wanting”.
If God is the ultimate Reality, then it follows that the further one is from Him, the less weight he will have. It is said of the unbelievers that they are ”like the chaff which the wind drives away” but the believer will experience an “eternal weight of glory”.
Nietszchie, although an atheist made the observation that when a society turns away from God it becomes weightless. Man has no value in himself. Psalm 39:5 reads; “Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity”.
Perhaps a test of where I stand is the people I am attracted to (or away from). We read of Abimelech in Judges 9, that he hired “vain and light persons”.

LIVING WITH GOD

bernie — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:32:58 +0000

LIVING WITH GOD

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have God move visibly into your life? He would be there when you did your housework, when you were busy on the computer and be eating with you at the dinner table. After dinner He would join you in the living room. And when you went to work He would go along, when you went shopping, bought a car or anything else you did.
As you think about this, does it not seem a if it would be a little much? As we would say; “Too much of a good thing”. Would it be a life with no chance to relax? Sort of living under constant tension. Would there be somewhat of a sigh of relief when He finally left? And we would pray that blessing on another family.
We need to see this was how the twelve apostles lived for three years. And to a lesser extent the women who followed Him. How did they find this to be? Was there a sigh of relief when that was over? We must remember that they were not spiritual supermen. Peter was loud and impetuous; one was a zealot who lived to overthrow Rome; James and John wished to call fire down and destroy an entire village; Matthew was a tax collector who loved money and one (Judas) was a thief.
We find the answer in the four gospels. In John 20:4 we read; “So they ran both together: and the other disciple did out run Peter, and came first to the sepulchre”. In this verse we see how quickly they ran to see if the body had been disturbed. In John 20:11 we are told “Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping”. Jesus, coming up to the two on the road to Emmaus asked why they were looking so sad. It does not seem that they found it restricting to live with God. How could it be that so badly wanted Him back? How could they enjoy living with someone who was perfect?
Again we find the answer in the gospels. Remember that at His arrest and trial one betrayed Him, one denied Him and “all forsook Him and fled”. It would be assumed that He would first of all bring this to their attention, and expect some very sincere apologies. I’m sure that’s the least I would have looked for. But what is Jesus attitude? He never mentions it. He tells Mary to go to “My brethren, and say unto them, ‘I go to My Father and your Father’”. When He does meet them, His first Words were: “Peace be unto you”. He was the perfect Man with absolutely no self pity and no accusation. He
truly enjoyed their company. We read something of this in Proverbs 8:31: “My delights were with the sons of men”.
No wonder they missed Him. They had lived with God and found it the most relaxing time they ever had. This is what heaven will be like.

ONE THING

bernie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:03:50 +0000

In Mark 10 we read the story of the rich young ruler. He had a problem. He wasn’t sure that he had eternal life. He came to the right One; to Jesus. Jesus points him to the law. As a good Israelite he would see the correctness of that. But he has done that and still has a nagging feeling that all is not right. In verse 21 Jesus tells him “One thing thou lackest”.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:30: “for My yoke is easy and My burden is light”. This statement is in direct contrast to His comment to the Jesus lawyers. In Luke 11:46 Jesus tells them that they “lade men with burdens grievous to be borne”. They had many rules; Jesus gave the rich young ruler just one. We see something of the same in Acts 15. There is a dispute about the Gentiles keeping the laws of Moses. In verse 28 we read the decision of the apostles and elders: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things”. In the next verse the Gentiles are told that if they do these few things “ye shall do well”.

As we read the Bible to learn what God would teach us, we will find that He never gives us a list of things to do. He will simply point to the one thing we are doing wrong and tell us “Do this and I will be satisfied”. Something may come up later as we do something else wrong, but He will point to just one thing. Remember, His burden is always easy. Now it possibly could be a hard thing as in the case of the young ruler, but also here God is ready to help. Jesus said, “With God all things are possible”.

In Psalm 97:12 we read, “and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness”. Think about it. If you were caught doing wrong, would you rather face a truly godly man or a religious legalist. In John 8 we read of the Pharisees and the woman. They wanted her stoned but Jesus simply told her to “go and sin no more”. Again, just one thing.

HISTORY OF HAITA

bernie — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:36:37 +0000

There has been a lot of flack about a statement by Pat Robertson in the liberal press about Haiti where he was misquoted. He simply gave the history which the world does not like. The true story was on Trans World Radio.

There were a lot of battles between the British and French with the French ending in control of the half of the island which is now Haiti. The French brought in slaves from West Africa who in turn took along their Voodoo religion. There were then three groups of people; the whites, the mixed and the former slaves. The slaves or the blacks were the more numerous. They wished to be free from their white masters but lacked the power.

In 1791 the voodoo slaves made a league with the devil. They offered to him control of the island if he would help free them from the French. They had a ceremony, led by a voodoo priestess. In this ceremony they sacrificed some animals and drank the blood. In 1793 they became a free nation. At this time it was the richest country in the western hemisphere. Today it is the poorest in the world.

The agreement ended in 1991. In 2003 the then president proclaimed Voodoo to be the national religion of Haiti.

In 2010 there was a massive earthquake tat destroyed the capital city.

On earthquakes:

From 1863 through 1900 there were 12 earthquakes of seven magnitudes or more.

From 1901 through 1938 there were 53

From 1939 through 1976 there were 71

From 1977 through 2009 (in less time by six years) there were 136 earthquakes.

All of them were of magnitude of seven or more.

What should then be our attitude? The prophets set a good example: they warned of coming judgment but wept

when it came. In Revelation 16:9 we read that “men repented not to give God glory”. Then as now we do not see

the hand of God in these judgments.