I amd the LORD Your GOD (part 10)

God is God (thank God for that!) and has established His line on earth through David to Jesus. Actually from Adam to Jesus. And still Jesus had to learn obedience through the Father. And because I sin and so often miss the mark, I have to learn what it is that God wants of me too. God chastens me with His rod but will not push me away.I must decide I want to go from Him. Or else I must make up my mind to follow Him. I must learn that He and He alone is in control. For He is the LORD, He is the patient, merciful, just and true God that created the universe. And He promises that He will protect me. Psalms 96:1-13 speaks of His grandeur and the respect I need to have for Him. God is God and deserves much more of my respect and honor. He is just, although I may not think it so. But God loves me and is more just than I will ever know. For the LORD looks after His people from Zion, sitting in His holy sanctuary and He will shine down upon those worshipping Him there. He knows my prayer, He knows all of His people’s prayers. He knows when I hurt. He knows when His people are suffering. He will comfort and care for us always. But as it says in Isaiah 4:1-6, He will also clean house, and cleanse those who come to live in Zion and He will be the leader of all His people.

Psalm 110:1-7 is another example of how the LORD says that He will protect those in Zion. He is in control and sent Jesus to be King and ruler of this place that God calls His. He came so that I may know God and know my options, to choose Him or not to choose Him. And I and others need to remember Him, as I am admonished in Psalm 137:1-7. I am admonished to remember God’s city, God’s heart, and God’s temple, by being in Him. I need to remember that His people wept because they were carried off by warring nations all because of the people’s seeking after something other than God. Most of all, I need to remember that God, as spoken of in Psalm 85:9-13, will show mercy, to His people as well as to me, and He will demonstrate His great truth and righteousness, when I show Him obedience not to appease Him but because I truly love Him and when I respect Him enough to obey His commands.

I am The Lord Your God Part 10

He will protect His servants. (2 Kings 19:1-37) Satan whispers in my ears constantly, “See how wonderful life is when you do what ever you want to do? Oh, I know He calls it sin and is not pleased, but is He doing anything about it? No. Not one blessed thing.” He shouts his victory yell when I give in. But when I refuse to give demons the time of day by fleeing to God, (James 5), when I refuse to give satan any room by staying in His Word and loving His son, satan weeps and moans and the fires that were licking at his heels threaten to consume him, giving him a taste of what it will be like when my Almighty God ends this universe and banishes him forever to the pool of never ending heat and sorrow.

God Himself is burdened to protect me, especially when I am struggling against those that would see me fall. In Zechariah 9:1-17, God tells me what His burden is. “The burden of the Word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as the eyes of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD. And Hamath also shall border thereby: Tyrus and Zidon, though it be very wise. And Tyrus did build herself a stronghold and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets. Behold the LORD will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea: and she shall be devoured with fire. Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed: and the king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. And a evildoer shall dwell in Ashdod and I shall cut off the pride of the Philistines. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth even he shall be for our God and he shall be the governor of Judah. And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now I have seen with mine eyes. Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy KING cometh onto thee: he is just and having salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt and a foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from river even to the ends of the earth. And as for thee, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein there is no water. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee; When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. The LORD of hosts shall defend them: and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls and as the corners of an altar. And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of His people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is His goodness and how great is His beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids.” His burden is me, to protect me, when I declare His Name as the one true Name and that He is the one true God. His burden is also to bring justice to those that have destroyed His temple, enslaved His people and desecrated His holy Word. He demonstrates His will through supernatural occurrences in natural events. This will produce a remnant, much as when He instructed Gideon to hone down His army to those who would really obey and be loyal to him and God. This is also the case with Nehemiah, as only those who were brave enough to continue to build the walls and the Temple and still defend Jerusalem were worthy of being part of God’s house. And further back, those who followed Joshua, when he reported good tidings from the desert and that God’s people were strong enough to subdue their enemies because God was with them. It is this remnant that will abide in the peace of God, and live in unity to gather more so that they too could live in God’s Kingdom. (Zechariah 14:8-21) But this doesn’t occur without pruning so branches that seemingly look good, much as gardeners truly hate to prune branches that appear to be producing good fruit or roses or whatever. If the branch deviates from it’s path, it must be cut off, and God does that. And while He is the Great Mercy Giver, if I need to be pruned He will do it in a heartbeat, not because He is mean, not because “He said so” like so many parents do (although He being the Creator has that right to say so) but because He knows if he doesn’t do it now, if He doesn’t cut off that which while growing needs cutting, then the road I travel will only end in death. There are two ways to follow God, 1) riding the fence, of which He will ultimately not approve but He hopes I come to that conclusion, 2) wholeheartedly, which He absolutely and without question approves. If I need pruning along the way, He will do it. I should say when because I will not be perfect until I come to Him. This church His Son has set up was God’s design that I might learn His ways and live in peace with others that He has also called. How do I live in peace, how do I let God be God? By tending to my own life. By pulling the log from my own eye before asking someone to pull the splinter out of that person’s eye.

I AM the LORD YOUR GOD (Part nine)

Does that mean that I can live as I want? That I don't have to listen to Him? Not hardly. In His role as the Great Almighty, God expects everyone to listen to Him and will act when He is not listened to. Isaiah 37:10-33 shows me this: “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely, And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them – the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where then is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?” Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD Almighty, God of Isreal, enthroned between the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD and hear; open your eyes O LORD and see; listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.” Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, this is the word the LORD has spoken against him: 'The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against who have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have heaped insults on the Lord. And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I have cut down the tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I have reached its remotest heights, the finest of its forests. I have dug wells in foreign lands and drunk the water there. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.’ Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stones. Their people drained of power are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. But I know where you stay and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because of your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came. This will be the sign for you Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows up by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the house of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant; and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.” After all those who live in Jerusalem, those who truly love Him and will follow Him and know that they must go to Him are truly living in the spiritual kingdom, in His Holy City. He will always protect it, and just as Assyria could not prevail against Jerusalem, neither can my sins and satan, both the result of my selfishness by their nature, cannot prevail or destroy me. God will not allow it because I have asked Him to have mercy. I have, as James so aptly put it in the New Testament, humbled myself in the sight of the LORD. God’s will shall be done, regardless of the stubbornness of man and the haughtiness of kings and business executives.

I am the Lord Your God (part 9)

How I treat God determines how I treat others. Do I take Him seriously, at His word or is He a mere figurehead of something I can appease and get what I want? Do I expect Him to jump at my beck and call, or am I willing to march into the valley of death for His cause of peace and love. If I tell God I adore Him, do I really mean it? Am I serious in this adoration? And this is the same way in my relationships. Do I tell others I love them, then leave them stranded? Do I lend my support or do I expect them to support me? Do I give in to appease them, or do I truly love them and want to give them the best of me? All of that is reverence for God.

The reverence I have for God is because the LORD is the creator and lover of me, and He has given up so much for me. He is the alpha and the omega. He calls me to Him. He promises He will do so, no matter what for I am from Him and He declares I am His daughter. (Isaiah 43:1-26) He will never leave me. He extends His power before me and He longs for my relationship with Him. He promises to be with the rest of His people and me. And He promises all of His people will be together. And this is how God expects and desires me to treat His people respectfully because they are His as I am His. How do I know this? God calls me His child. While it may feel as though He forgets He will not. He will not. He will not because His memory is long and His will be done. (Isaiah 49:14-17) And The LORD is in control. He is King. He saved His people and He saved me. Why should I not proclaim His great love for me? (Isaiah 52:1-12) All people of all nations shall come to Him, all who want to be covered by His light. And He shall love all of them who call Him by His name to the fullest extent, although His love encompasses all peoples whether or not they love Him. (Isaiah 60:1-6)