God is not trying to exclude anyone from His company, but we block ourselves from receiving privileges from Him depending on how much we fear Him. “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him; and He will shew [shō] them His covenant” (Psalm 25:14 KJV). “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29), but He can also be a fearful master, if we do not give Him the respect He deserves. God is not like an object we purchase to be discarded, when we tire of Him. We are His creation, and we do well to find how best to approach Him. His covenant is simple. “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you” (Jeremiah 7:23). He gives us our own personal comforter (John 14:16), advocate (1John 2:1), teacher (John 14:26), guide (Isaiah 30:21), mentor (1John 2:27), coach (1Corinthians 12:1-11), body guard (Isaiah 52:12), reminder to walk humbly because the Spirit draws attention to Jesus not Himself (John 16:13), reminder of His love (2Corinthians 13:14), and insurance that we can obey His commands (Ezekiel 36:27), when we took our loyalty oath of water baptism to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Though we want to encourage all those around us to embrace the understanding He has given us, we are not to slow down or hold back in our seeking to understand more about our Master, even if our fellow disciples do not yet share all our appreciation of Him. Father, cause us to hunger and thirst for Your righteousness. Cause us to be drawn to a better understanding of who You are. Cause us to be drawn into greater love with You (16:02). Show us Jesus. In His precious name, we pray. Amen.
Obey God
Gladys Aylward, Are You Watching?
“Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16:13 KJV), is looking out for me, would only make Gladys smile, when the departed saints eagerly watch our progress. Can we, the earthbound expression of the Body of Christ, benefit from the past experiences of our brothers and sisters, who have since gone Home to be with the Lord? Do we not desire the Gospel fruit of the Book of Acts, but do we want to pay their suffering and sacrifice? Gladys Aylward was a simple parlor maid in pre-WW2 England before she was inspired to go to China as a missionary. Without the help of any formal training or missionary organization, she obeyed God. “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert” (Acts 8:26). Hollywood produced their own version of her story, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), sanitized of its Gospel message, embellishing a made-up love story between Ingrid Bergman and Curt Jürgens, but capturing the world’s awe of a small woman overcoming opposition from seemingly everyone — except God. Gladys tells her own story in Gladys Aylward: The Little Woman. In her own words, she relives her life in China, to our amazement, with the surreal feeling this sounds more like fiction, or the Book of Acts. I’ve always felt the scene, where Robert Donat (“Adventures of Tartu“) as the Mandarin coming out as a Christian, was my favorite. But, I feared it was also made up. It was true. By the way, Donat’s “last words in the film, an emotional soliloquy in which the Mandarin confesses his conversion to Christianity, were prophetic. ‘We shall not see each other again, I think. Farewell.’ It reduced Ingrid Bergman, playing the missionary Gladys Aylward, to tears. He had collapsed with a stroke during filming but managed to recover enough to complete the film,” and died a few short weeks thereafter (from a Wikipedia entry on Robert Donat). Gladys Aylward — “of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:38) — was actually known as Ài Wěi Dé (a Chinese approximation of “Aylward” with the meaning “virtuous one”). LORD, cause us to labor with love to tell Your story to whoever and wherever You direct us. Enlarge Your Kingdom. Rescue more of us, the perishing. Return quickly, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Does Recycling Work?
Certainly, we should recycle, but only God can “make all things new” (Revelation 21:5 KJV). Microplastic proliferation and diminishing numbers of recycling centers is not encouraging. The great objection of the humanists has always been the raping and pillaging of the planet by unbridled capitalism. But, from the beginning, it was not so. God’s creation of man was not just to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), but to “replenish the earth” (1:28 KJV). The LORD repeated the command to Noah after the Flood (9:1). Walking gently upon the earth is not just a pagan tradition, but it was incorporated into the Mosaic law of giving the land a sabbath’s rest. “But in the seventh year you must let it [the land] lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove” (Exodus 23:11 NET). Since the earth is not an unlimited resource, it is apparent we need Divine Intervention, not just in the End, but to maintain it in the meantime. Remember the widow’s meal flour and oil, which were miraculously replenished by the LORD (1Kings 17:14)? God will bless the individual and land, who honor Him by healing for their land that science and government regulation alone can never accomplish. “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2Chronicles 7:14). LORD, cause the focus of our hearts to be upon You, not simply upon our frail efforts to accomplish Your work. Help us to do all we can to cooperate with You, but cause us to know only You can make all things new. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Obeying God Against Orders
“But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20 KJV). No child of God should ever desire to disobey the human government appointed over them. Only when given no other choice should the godly ever refuse obedience to the duly appointed government. Just as it should be our joy to render obedience, it should only be with sadness if we cannot comply with government. The disciples could not obey human government, when commanded not to spread the Gospel.
We Need A Miracle 