True Help from Heaven

Don't put your trust in mere humans.
They are as frail as breath. What good are they?
- Isaiah 2:22 (NLT)


God questions man's trust in man rather God Almighty.  He shares man's futility and questions why anyone would seek to put his or her trust in another person, especially when God is seeking you out.  He wanted to rectify His relationship with His chosen people.

God had already called Israel out for its rebellion and idolatry.  He was sickened by their sacrifices.  He was not impressed by their rituals.  Nothing could overshadow their sins against God.

We need to see where our real help comes from in this life.  We can see people.  They are visible, but we need to answer whether or not such people are truly vital to your existence.

God is our true help.  He is in heaven, but He desires to be near to us.  He wants a deep relationship with us.  He is our true heavenly help.  His desire is for us to be better and that means better off with Him.

Don't rely upon man.  Go to God.  God will send those who can help your way based upon His Holy Spirit's urging.  It starts with you and God.

Our Merciful God Loves His Children

When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more they were called,
the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning offerings to idols.
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up by their arms,
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and fed them.

-Hosea 11:1-4 (ESV)  

God speaks of Israel as a loving parent speaks of his beloved child.  He speaks of a time when Israel was a child and the love that He had for His chosen people.  God speaks from the perspective of a loving and caring father.  In fact, God points out that He loved Israel so much that He truly went out of His way to extend His love to the nation of people.

Isn't Hosea the perfect book of Bible for such love to be stated and shown? I asked it in another blog: Who is your Gomer? Could you love like Hosea loved Gomer? Could you love like God loved Israel? Could you love like the Lord loved the world and gave His only begotten Son for all who would believe on Him to have everlasting life? The Lord is trying to teach us to be more like the Father, to be merciful, forgiving and loving.

Take a clue from the Father.  Love despite the response.  Love in spite of the lack of gratitude or praise.  Love without any conditions or hang-ups.  Love.  Love like Jesus.  Love like the Father.  In a word, love.  Just love and just keep on loving.

From Eden to Egypt- Day 12

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah.22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.- Gen. 5:21-22 (ESV)

 

Change can come in many forms.  We may have different causes for our change, but we need to ready ourselves for change.  We need to prepare for it as much as possible.  You may never see it coming down pipe, but you still need to ready yourself for the day it comes.  Sam Cooke sang: "Change gonna come." In The Art of War, Sun Tzu said,"In everything there is change."

My suggestion is that you be so prayed up and prepared that no change catches you by surprise.  You need to downsize your home.  It will come one day.  Your children will move out.  Hope and pray that you have done all that you can to prepare them.  Your job is laying off people in every department.  Think over your next career move.  Your wife just said that she's pregnant.  Get yourself ready, buddy.

I have always been amazed about Enoch's walk.  Not only did he walk with God, but he walked with Him and "he was not" due to the fact that God did not let him see death.  The New International Version says: "he was no more." Let's take a factual approach to this.  He was gone.  He was out of everyone's sight.  You could have turned over every rock east of Eden and still never would have found Enoch.

Why?

God's sovereignty.  God did with Enoch as He does with us all.  He did whatever He chose to do with Enoch.  Let's not get this theologically twisted.  Let's not dummy-down the doctrine here. 


Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.- Psalm 115:3 (NIV)

He is sovereign.  Yes, Enoch walked differently due to his son being born.  He walked with the Lord.  Yet, we tend to stress the goodness of Enoch and his walk, not the greatness of God who "took him away." 

Look at God and His power.  Who but God could open up heaven and allow on such as Enoch to walk in? Who but God could look from on high and be considerate of the ways of man, still saying that there is none that does good; no, not one? We have to pay more homage and honor to God for His goodness because He is holy.  Enoch shows us the power of God, not a perfect example of submission.  Don't put too much emphasis on Enoch when you need to see the power and might of the Lord at work in Enoch's life.  Surely, through His power, He can bring about change.

From Eden to Egypt- Day 9

Now the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

- Genesis 3:20 (NASB)

She was called Eve.  She was the "mother of all the living." I find it interesting that the man "named" his wife

 according to the New International Version.  This occurs in chapter 3, but let us look at chapter 2 for a moment.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. - Genesis 2:23 (KJV)

He called her "Woman" before he called her "Eve." He identified with her being a part of him before he recognized her as being the "mother of all the living." He saw her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh "because she was taken out of Man."  He saw them as interconnected beyond what they're coming together would produce.

 
That's the beauty of male-female relationships.  There's so much that we see as differences between us.  Yet, God saw fit to take from the man to make the woman.  He created them both.  He utilized their union to symbolize Christ's union with the body of believers.  He sanctified and ordained the union of man and woman long before municipalities authorized and legalized marriages.  Yes, we were made for each other because He made us so and He saw that it was good.
Let us not neglect the blessed union that God has provided for us.  Let every marriage be seen as God's sacred unification of man and woman as one flesh.  We should love one another, male and female, husband and wife, as gifts from the Most High to us.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. - Genesis 2:25 (KJV)

*From Eden to Egypt is a series for Life Path Ministries by Rev. Bruce Jackson that chronicles a daily study and reading of the Book of Genesis and The Genesis Record by Henry M. Morris.

From Eden to Egypt- Day 8

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.- Genesis 3:1 (ESV)

Typically, we get the story wrong.  Art gives us a false perception at times, especially when it comes to this Old Testament . We picture a snake slithering and easing up on this woman.  Oftentimes, the depiction is of a snake entangled upon some tree limb and hanging in the face of the woman, Eve.  Or, in some cases, where the Scriptures don't even come into consideration, the snake is positioned between the man and woman with his coiled body asymmetrically balancing the artwork as he offers the temptation of a deep-red apple to both parties.

Can you simply read Genesis 3 for yourself?

The serpent was not cursed until after he participated in the temptation of mankind.  In essence, we do not know the serpent's previous condition, its pre-fall nature, but we are certain that, after Genesis 3:14, the serpent's condition is changed by God Almighty.  The word "enmity" comes up in the next verse as an indication of the changed relationship between mankind and the serpent.  Regardless of how we look at it, the serpent demonstrates that God can change us.  He is an example of God's correction of created beings under His divine control.

The serpent symbolizes the introduction of devilish deception.  He introduced a seed of doubt in regards to the Word of God.  He simply shared that what man had been led to believe was not so.  He keyed in on the notion that God had something to hide, something to keep from man. 

Imagine if we understood are enemy and his tactics so well that we could have our defenses ready for anything he threw our way.  That would be just a taste of paradise.

*From Eden to Egypt is a series for Life Path Ministries by Rev. Bruce Jackson that chronicles a daily study and reading of the Book of Genesis and The Genesis Record by Henry M. Morris.

No Middle of the Road

"We have been created for a purpose."- Rick Warren

In this day and age, it is pretty hard to figure out who hasn't heard anything about Rick Warren.  Whether good or bad, his name has come up in a conversation about a best-selling book, a political agenda and relationship with President Obama, or Saddleback and its pastor hosting a political debate or "forum" (I truly do not see the difference beyond theory and definition).  Some atheists and church-haters despise Rick Warren and everything that he stands for, while some Christians and non-Christians live upon every aspect of The Purpose-Driven Life.  That is until The Shack or some other best-selling book sweeps Christendom and its outer realm like Jabez and Benett's Book of Virtues once did.

What I admire admire about Rick Warren is that he is unashamed about what made him successful as a pastor.  I'll even say how God made him successful in that realm. 

Look deep into The Purpose-Driven Church and see a man following God's lead, both prayerfully and faithfully.  Prior to pastoring, Rick Warren had faith.  Prior to having a mega-church status, Rick Warren sought to please God.

Stop for a moment.  Think about what I just put out there.  Substitute "Rick Warren" with your name and his status with your achievements and accomplishments.

Prior to becoming a parent and a spouse, ______________ sought to please God.

Prior to getting a driver's license and a car, _________________ sought to please God.

Prior to teaching Sunday school and leading VBS, ________________ sought to please God.

Prior to (whatever it is that people see as your big thing), did you seek to please God?

Now that you have done it and achieved it, do you still seek to please God? Do you seek to please Him more and more?

There's no middle of the road with God.  I don't believe that He's nonchalant about how we handle His kingdom business.  We either please or grieve God.  There isn't a safe place where we can straddle this way or that way.  Either we please Him or we simply do not, and then that's when we grieve Him.

I could have used T.D. Jakes, Robert H. Schuller, Billy Graham, or the late Oral Roberts.  Imagine if I had used someone like Kirk Franklin, Brian Welch from Korn, or Steven Baldwin.  Each of these men have a story that speaks about times when their very own lives grieved God as well as the dramatic turnaround that led to them seeking to please God.

God is either pleased or grieved with us and our actions.

Do you please God? Do you grieve God? 

Seek to please Him today and forever.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.- Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

From Eden to Egypt- Day 4

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters- Genesis 1:2 (NIV)

Not only did God create "the heavens and the earth" but He also was present with His Spirit, "hovering over the waters." 

Picture that! God was omnipresent, even when the earth was "formless and empty"with "darkness over the surface of the deep."  He was present when nothing else and no one else was anywhere in the picture.

Have you ever seen the Silver Surfer comic book superhero or Storm from the Uncanny X-Men? [Yeah, I know that I am truly giving my age away with that one.] They had powers that defied nature.  Storm could control wind and all of the elements in an instant.  The Silver Surfer could do some wild acrobatics and defy gravity at high rates of speed.  Yet, when we look at God's Spirit just being in place and at ease just above the waters of the deep, we have to realize that God is not exhibiting powers that defy nature.  God is the Divine who designs nature. Nature is derived from God based upon Him being the Almighty and the Creator.

...And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.- Gen. 1:2 (KJV)

I can imagine God just drifting above the shimmering waters, sitting alone in the darkness with His thoughts going to how He would create more and do more with what He had already started by creating the heavens and the earth.

Let your imagination run wild and try to conjure up an idea of what it must have been for that period.  The earth was formless and void.  Darkness covered the entire earth.  God was moving about by His Spirit just above the waters.  What does your imagination tell you?

*From Eden to Egypt is a series for Life Path Ministries by Rev. Bruce Jackson that chronicles a daily study and reading of the Book of Genesis and The Genesis Record by Henry M. Morris.