Ultimate Security

Isaiah 52:12; “You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”

Security from Yesterday.  “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).  At the end of the year we may look forward with more eagerness than we look at some of our yesterdays.  Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders.  Because God is the God of the past, if we give the sins and blunders of the past to him, he will use them to bring spiritual growth.

Security for Tomorrow.   The above verse says, “…the Lord will go before you…”  The Lord will send his forces out where we have failed to do so.  He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures of the past.  He is our “rear guard.”  If we allow him to do so, God will reach back into our past and settle all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today.  The verse above says, “You shall not go out with haste…”  As we begin a new year, make sure it is not in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness.  Let’s move ahead with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us.  There are the lost opportunities of the past but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future.  Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in his hands, and step out into the invincible future with him. 

May you have a blessed and meaningful 2012!

(The above thoughts come from “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, devotions for December 31, 2011.)      

   Blessings,

   Pastor Marvin

What's Your Response?

The arrival of Jesus changed the life of everyone who had contact with him or knew of him.  Because he was and is God, his power and influence demands a response unlike any other person who ever lived.  He said things like, “I am the way the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  (John 14:6)  Jesus has some kind of influence on each of us who know anything about him. 

Jesus is the great polarizer.  It’s as if all people were iron filings laid out on a sheet of paper, and Jesus is the magnet held under the paper.  Every single filing lines up either with the north or south poles of the magnet.  Every person is either attracted to or repelled by the person of Jesus Christ, because he’s like a magnet.  The power and influence of his very being cannot be ignored.

There is a great divide that goes through all people and all places and all time, and the issue or question is, “Who is Jesus to you?”  Are you one who ignores, rebels or tries to minimize his status?  There were enemies of Jesus when he was here on earth in the flesh and there will continue to be enemies of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  On the other hand there are those who respond in worship and adoration.  They will enjoy the presence of God for all eternity.

But, the real issue is: “What about you; what about me?”  Is Jesus the most important thing or person in our lives?  Do we try to live as his followers and at the same time try to embrace the mindset of the world?  Or, do we give him the place of highest authority in our lives?  As we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth, there is nothing more important we can do than to evaluate our lives and say to Jesus, “No matter where I am in my experience of you, I want to move ahead.  I want to live in a deeper relationship with you.  I am determined to surrender more of my will to your eternal will.

May were continue to grow in our knowledge of, and relationship with, Jesus.

Blessings,

Pastor Marvin