Healing Wings

Every sin causes damage. Sin interferes with our ability to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. When we accepted Jesus we became new creations. The ultimate goal of being a new creature is to look more and more like Jesus every day. When we sin we look less like Jesus because he never sinned. Sin destroys just like a disease destoys our body. I have had diabetes for 50 years, and now after all the years of taking insulin I can teally feel the damage it has done to my body. There is no cure for diabetes, but there is a cure for the sin that destroys and impedes our progression to become more like Jesus. Malachi 4:2 says, ” But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves released from their stall.”

When I was a boy our house  was heated by a coal furnace. It provided adequate heat, but it was very messy. One thing I remember about coal is how it smelled. It was not a pleasant odor, but we got used to it over the course of the long winter. How refreshing it was when warm weather came and we didn’t need to heat the house. Since we didn’t  have air conditioning all the windows in the house were raised, and a fresh breeze would flow throughout every nook and cranny. The aroma of spring flowers and the blossoms on the trees overcame the stale odor of that coal furnace.  We could not see or feel those aromas, but we experienced the freshness that the breeze brought.

This analogy falls way short of describing the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit, but I hope it opens our eyes to the difference he makes in our lives as we try to achieve the goal of becoming more like Jesus. The more we depend on tne Holy Spirit the less likely we will be to sin. We will receive the power to live in the love of Jesus, therefore, becoming more and more like him. We will not achieve perfection. There will be times when sin will retard our spiritual progress, but the healing wings of the Holy Spirit will bring restoration.  And, of course, we will frolic all over the place just like a well-fed calf! Well maybe no that, but the image of some of us doing that makes me laugh.

Don’t Let the Boom Fizzle Out

A great explosion was heard all over the world beginning in the post World War II era. Thousands of soldiers coming home from war returning to their wives or getting married began what is called the Baby Boomer Generation. The squalls and cries of babies were everywhere. Millions of us stormed the cities, the farmlands, the mountains and the coasts just as our fathers had stormed the beaches of Normandy a few short years before. We were tiny and weak, but we grew big and strong. We made a lot of noise.

The loud booming sound we made has become less noticed now. We are getting older. We are dying. Our influence is not what it was just twenty years ago. Our beliefs, and our morals are now being challenged by younger generations. I guess somewhere along the way our booming influence in the passing down of our moral standards to the younger generation fizzled. I have my thoughts about all of this, but I won’t t go into that now.

The point I want to make is that there are still many of us left. We aren’t done yet! Our greatest mistake now would be to throw in the towel, give up by surmising that we are too old, too weak, too tired to revive that booming sound that once shook the world. Here is what I think. Just as God used us to do great things in his name during our prime, he can do great things in his name now. God may have been preparing us in our pasts just for this moment, this time to do the most miraculous acts the modern world has ever seen. Our days of glory may be ahead of us. The revealing of God’s power, his glory, his miracles and his majesty through us can be achieved in the short time we have left.

King Solomon asked God for a discerning and understanding heart. God was pleased and said “I will do what you asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart.”1 Kings 3:12. God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight...1 Kings 4:20  Think what we could do if we made this request of God and receive wisdom and insight. We could move mountains with these old backs, and knees, and hips that may be replacements. We may be on the way out, but let us go out fighting so that we can leave an impression on a lost and dying world that needs Jesus. May God receive the glory in all we do.

Do You Answer When God Calls

In a sermon I heard yesterday, the speaker mentioned some of the ways that we fail to hear God speak to us. He mentioned that sometimes his grandchild plays with the phone and pushes buttons that turn the ringer off. When someone calls he doesn’t hear the phone ringing, and he misses the call. He doesn’t get the message that was meant for him. I usually forget to turn the ringer back on after I have silenced it. I’ve missed several calls because of that. And I am bad about checking for messages that people have left for me. I’ve gone days before finding that someone had left a message for me.

In the same way we can get so involved with living our lives that we silence God, and miss the messages that he has for us. We get distracted with so many things. God has something he wants to tell us everyday. He has us on his speed dial. He longs to communicate with us because we are his dear children. Parents, if you live a long way off from your children you  may know what it’s like if you are unable to talk to them frequently. It hurts when you seldom hear from your grown children. I know it must hurt God when he calls and we don’t answer. O if we desired to speak to God as much as he wants to talk to us.

We miss so many blessings when we are too busy or not interested enough to make time for our Heavenly Father. I pray that our hearts greatest desire will be to look forward to talking to God, and to receive his wonderful message to us each day. At the top of my blog posts everyday I have included the following verse, “Lord, In the Morning You Will Hear My Voice, In the Morning I Will Pray To You , and I’ll Watch For Your Answer.” Psalm 5: 3  Thus the title of my blog, “Early He Speaks”

Decisions: We Make a Lot of Them

God gave us the freedom to make our own decisions. Good or bad we decide what we are going to do. If asked what do you do most often, I think you would all have to say, “I make decisions more than anything else.” I wonder how many decisions a person makes each day? I guess most of the decisions we make are the same ones we make everyday, and we don’t have to think much about it. I get up in the morning and decide to go to the bathroom, I go down stairs and get a cup of coffee, and then go out and feed the birds. Since it is warmer I sit down on my patio and read my Bible, take some notes, post my blog, pray, and then decide what I will eat for breakfast. It’s pretty much the same thing every morning. Those are easy decisions. The tough ones are the most agonizing ones to make.

Having to make a difficult decision is when I wish God would just make it for me; no free will when it comes to the tough decisions! The hard choices are the ones that throw me for a loop. I think back to many hard decisions I’ve had to make, and I figure I must be the king of making wrong decisions. There is so much to think about when making those very important decisions. When our decisions involve others the pressure to do the right thing grows. Decisions can make or break a career. A teens decision about how they drive can become a life or death choice. A husband’s poor decision can destroy a marriage, a home. A student’s decisions often may be this difference between her success or failure in life.  Some decisions we must make cause sleepless nights, stress, and until we decide what to do we just aren’t ourselves.

We sold our house yesterday. Now we must make a decision on buying another place. This will probably be our last home. There are so many things to consider. What can we afford that will be comfortable, that will meet our needs as we get older, be in a convenient location, accommodate our belongings without being too crowded, and a place that will be reasonably close to our church. We know we will have to get rid of a lot of our things. It will be hard to do. I’m freaking out about this. But I shouldn’t be! God doesn’t leave us alone when we make the tough decisions. He will guide us through. His Holy Spirit will help us to make the right choices. God will give us everything we need to be obedient to his will. 

One decision I’m certain was the right one was when I received Jesus as my Savior. House hunting is a reminder to me that Jesus has already prepared a home for me that will last forever. It’s paid for, exactly what I need, in the perfect location, and the church will be everywhere I look.

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6

A Quiet Place

There was a special place I would go when I was a young boy. I spent many hours there by myself enjoying the solitude and peacefulness that it gave me. In the very back of our farm there was a small pond surrounded by woods. Just beyond the pond was a little knoll that gave me the perfect vantage point to sit and enjoy the beauty of this wonderful place. Large oak trees provided shade for me on those hot summer days. The ground was covered with thick moss that reminded me of soft carpet as plush as that in the finest houses. I loved lying there watching the squirrels play and pretending that I was whoever I wanted to be. I Was often a soldier fighting the enemy. The oak trees had dropped hundreds of huge acorns, or bombs in my mind, that I launched at the enemy battleships advancing across the pond toward the allied forces. The pin point accuracy of my acorn throwing gave the Americans the victory every time.

I really enjoyed being a child because I could escape from my simple but real worries of life, and enjoy the life I found in my make believe world. I often talked to whomever I imagined to be the characters in this world I created. Don't laugh, everyone of you did the same thing. I would sing. I would shout. I might just make sounds that didn't mean a thing. I was the most the having fun a kid could have on a lonely summer day.

Thinking back on those times I realize that on occasion I talked to God. I believe that God loves the time he spends with children. I believe that it was in those quiet times in my special place that God was molding me, and preparing me for my future. I know I sensed God's presence many times in my quiet place--my get away from the noise and voices of the world.  

Let me tell you, God still likes to listen to and talk to his children no matter what age they are. Our lives are full of noises, running and hurrying, experiencing disappointments, and too frequently the pains and heartaches of a cruel world. We all need a special place where we can be alone with God, to tell him about our troubles. We need a quiet place where we meet God, thank him, praise him and allow him to provide us with strength, wisdom and love as we take on the cares of this world. As we meet daily with God he will give us the ammunition we need to defeat the enemy. Go to your quiet place where you will find hundreds of spiritual acorns that you can use to secure the victory in your life.

The Desire to Be Holy

I ended my post yesterday with these words: Not many are seeking to be like Jesus. Not many care about being holy. This will be my third consecutive post on holiness. God wants us to be holy so that we will be able to have an eternal relationship with him. He wants that relationship because he loves us. We have to be holy in order to be allowed into heaven. There can be nothing unholy in God’s heavenly kingdom. Holy God cannot allow an unholy person into heaven.

It is sin that makes us unpresentable to God. Sin prevents us from coming into the presence of God. That is why God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise. They were disobedient sinners unworthy to have the close relationship with God that they enjoyed before they sinned. But God still wanted a close relationship with man. Jesus came to earth to save us from being eternally punished for our sin. He was the only one who could take away our sins and provide for us the way of holiness. To be saved and to be in good stead with God man must acknowledge Jesus as Savior, ask to be forgiven and repent of his sins. We believe that Jesus died as the perfect sacrifice, and lives as our resurrected Savior. We become a new creation changed from sinners to saints, the children of God.

We must not forget the work of the Holy Spirit. Without his work we could not be saved. The Holy Spirit convicts us with the revelation that we have sinned, that we are lost, dying and bound for hell. He put into our hearts the knowledge that we have violated God’s holy plan. We are moved by guilt and sorrow because of our sin, and we come confessing our sin to Jesus the Savior. I think it is appropriate that the One called Holy Spirit is the One who reveals to us our unholiness, our depravity, and our hopelessness. The Holy Spirit helps us after we are saved and are accepted into God’s fellowship to become more like Jesus by becoming more holy thus fulfilling God’s command that we seek to be holy as he is holy.

This brings me back to the first two statements at the beginning of this post. Not many are seeking to be like Jesus. Not many care about being holy. I heard a quote yesterday in a sermon. “The reason we think too lightly of the Savior is because we think too lightly of sin.” I might add to this quote by saying that the reason people think too lightly about being holy is because they love their sin. In fact they love their sin so much that they will not call it sin. Sin has many different names today: Love, common sense, good natured fun, peoples rights, expressing oneself, art, how I was made, just the way I am, and I’m sure many others. Without a desire to be holy men and women will miss the joy of having that sweet relationship with the Heavenly Father.

A Tough Time Being a Prophet

God called a young man named Isaiah to be his prophet. He brought Isaiah into his presence. The first things Isaiah saw were seraphim flying around the throne where God was seated. They were calling to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” I think Isaiah began to see that being Holy was important to God.

When Isaiah saw this magnificent place of perfection and saw the one who is perfect he said, “Woe to me!”“I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” He realized that he was unholy when he saw God. He also became aware of the sinfulness of the people around him. They were not Holy either.

Isaiah said, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” It was then that Isaiah first knew personal holiness. Isaiah continued, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He (God) said, “Go and tell this people:...Isaiah 6:2-9

From then on Isaiah listened for the voice of God, the holy message of God to his people. Isaiah always delivered the message no matter how harsh, no matter how unpopular and no matter if the people threatened him. All of the prophets did just as Isaiah; they spoke the holy message of God to the people, and much of the time the message was not well received.

There are modern day prophets. Evangelist and preachers, prophets, stand before a people of unclean lips and unclean lives and speak to them God’s Holy Word. The Holy Spirit will give them God’s holy message for his people. Many will preach God’s holy message this morning. Today the holy message of truth is unpopular to people who are not seeking God. They are not seeking holiness. They have decided that those things God said are an abomination to him are old fashioned. Their foolish hearts believe a woman is free to do with her body as she pleases. They believe a person's sexual preference is their business, and not even God is going to tell them what to do. Well, the Bible is clear what their fate will be.

The men and women who preach the truth, these modern day prophets, are soon going to face great persecution. Many are already being persecuted for preaching the holy message that will save people from eternal damnation. Anyone who stands and says, “This is the Holy Word of God, a holy message from Holy God concerning your unholiness”, will be scorned, hated, ridiculed, and one day before we know it silenced in many venues. Being holy is not a popular thing today. Not many are seeking to be like Jesus. Not many care about being holy.