A drink from some cool spring

(new article tomorrow)

"The high mountains of Lebanon rise in a series of steps, with sharp edges facing generally south or south-east," explains an encyclopedia of the Bible. "The lower steps in the 'staircase' were and are fertile basin lands, separated from each other by the barren limestone edges. In the time of Jesus, these basins were known for their grain, fruit and olives. They formed a prosperous, well-populated area. But the higher steps rise to a bleak and windswept upland. This is isolated and infertile, and lacks the forests of the higher mountain slopes further north."

*****

“The mountain of Lebanon derived its name from the white crown of snow, which it wore all the time," writes Bible commentary author Cora MacIlravy, circa 1916. "Streams of pure, cold water flowed down its sides or found their way through underground channels to the thirsty valleys below. These mountain streams never failed, never became stale and tasteless, warm and unrefreshing. From a higher source than any earthly mountain, comes the living water with which we are refreshed; though the Channel through which it flowed, appeared so lowly when upon earth.

“This Fountain of gardens was so uncomely in His human body, this Well of living water was so weak and despised as He hung and died on the Cross, that He appeared no greater than any other man as they laid His lifeless body away in the tomb. But this Fountain had its source in the Holy Mountain of God, it issued from the throne of God. It came from the everlasting hills in Heaven and flowed down to earth, bringing life wherever it flowed, watering the wilderness and making the desert to blossom as a rose.

“He is the Fountain of gardens; every garden and every part of God’s great Vineyard must receive all its refreshment from Him and Him alone. All our fountains are in Him, He waters the vineyard of your life and mine. It matters not how fierce the wind may blow, nor how hot the valley is through which we are passing, if we keep the connection opened between our souls and the great Fountain of life, the Well of living streams will ever flow from the throne of God. Sometimes they are like rivers, sometimes like hidden underground springs, but they never run dry.”

*****

When the Bible gives the picture of "rivers of living water flowing" out of the Believer, it’s really talking about God the Holy Spirit. Living water and rivers are two symbols of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ promises in John 7: 38: "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

“You can have water as dew or as rain, but here it’s living water in the sense it is flowing,” explains Richard Jordan. “Water represents the effectiveness and efficiency of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The living water represents the life that’s in Christ; the life the Messiah will provide.

*****

“Rivers are often used in Scripture to demonstrate the mission of the Spirit of God. Isaiah 48:18 says, ‘O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.’

“The peace of God comes from your faith resting in the truth of God’s Word, which then allows the Spirit of God to produce the fruit of love, joy, peace.

“Isaiah 41:17-18 says, ‘When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
[18] I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.’

“He’s going to quench the thirst of the thirsty, meaning He’s going to satisfy the hearts of Israel. You see the descriptions there that kind of match what Christ says in John 7?

“Look at Psalm 36:8 and Psalm 42:1. The blessings God gave Israel will flow Israel out to the needy and it will be like a river, and when someone comes and drinks of the river, he is satisfied and finds peace. You can go on and on and on with the (analogies).

*****

“Jeremiah 2:13 says, ‘For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.’

“The fountain is sort of like an artesian well; it flows naturally, you can’t stop it. A cistern is a bucket you hold water in, but their bucket’s got a hole in it. They’ve forsaken God and they got buckets that can’t hold water.

“That’s a description of the spiritual condition the nation is in. But who is ‘the fountain of living water’? God is; He’s the source.

“What Jesus Christ is doing in John 7 when He talks about how ‘out of his belly shall flow living waters,’ He’s literally reaching back into Jeremiah, taking a symbol and describing what they’ve forsaken.

*****

“I once wrote down every verse in the Bible about rivers. Rivers start out in Genesis 2. There are four named in Eden and each one has a specific relationship to the land.

“The better known rivers include the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Jordan. There’s the rivers of Babylon and Chadar and every river in the Bible has something specific, something special connected with it. There’s a spiritual identity connected with it.

“Rivers are used to represent spiritual truth. Psalm 1 says the godly man ‘shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.’

“One of the things a river does in the Bible is help a godly man produce fruit. Well, isn’t that exactly what the Holy Spirit does? He produces ‘the fruit of the Spirit.’

*****

“Hebrews 4:12 tells us ‘the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.’

“When it says it’s powerful, that means it’s energetic; it’s got a transforming, dynamic in its life that will transform you from the inside. It changes your attitudes, which changes your actions. It transforms your heart and renews your mind.

“The word ‘quick’ in the verse means it’s alive, but don’t be so quick to jump over the ‘quick’ concept because the word ‘alive’ means it’s functioning in every part. The Word of God doesn’t function lethargically. It’s not that it functions eventually.

“What’s in view is that it’s in a state of activity. The word function has the idea of being able to respond without hesitation and delay. God’s Word will respond to your faith quickly. It’s alive, and when you believe it, it works!

“It doesn’t take six months to work. It will work the moment you believe it. That’s why it says ‘quick.’ It’ll do it NOW! The part about the ‘quick’ I like is I didn’t have to do anything but believe it and it worked!

“God isn’t waiting on me to do something; He’s just waiting on me to BELIEVE it! The Word becomes the sustaining internal compulsion with the life of Jesus Christ that gives VICTORY.”

“The biblical definition of the word ‘submit’ is ‘to give your heart over to another person’s will. Sub is under. You put yourself under them. You give your heart over to another’s will. That’s the challenge; that’s the dare of love. It’s the dare of faith. And if you dare to do it by faith, because God said to do it, you’ve made the decision based upon the truth of what God’s Word is.”

Scripture: 'Submit to the power structure'

"Calvinists and Amillennialists are part of the reformed people who believe we can go back and reclaim the government, restructure the government.

"They get virulently angry when you come along and say, 'No, no, no, it ain't getting better; it's getting worse, it's heading toward the Antichrist. Everything you do won't stop it.'

"This is why they don't like the idea of dispensational bible study and taking the Bible literal," says Richard Jordan. "We tell them, 'You're not Israel, you're the body of Christ and God's got a future for Israel.' "

******

Romans 13: [1] Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

[2] Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

"What was the most significant higher power, in an earthly sense, in Paul's life at that time? The Roman government and he's writing to Romans," explains Ohio preacher David Reid.

"Notice verse 3: [3] For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

"Paul's writing that about the government that is shortly going to put him to death for no real reason. That's how the story ends. Yet, the authoritative work of Scripture taught submission to him.

"Verses 4-5: [4] For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

[5] Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

"I don't believe Paul was dumb. I believe he fully knew what happened to the Old Testament prophets, which is that they were stoned, put to death.

"I personally don't think Paul was naive about what was going to happen to him and yet he writes that he needed to submit to the higher powers for conscience's sake.

"He did that because he wanted to have a clear conscience before God. In other words, 'God, if you allow the powers that be to kill me so be it, I can live with that, but I'm not going to act contrary to your Word. You created this power structure, I'm going to submit to it, and how it plays out it plays out but I'm going to obey your Word.'

I Timothy 2: [1] I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

[2] For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
[3] For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
[4] Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

"When Scripture commands us to pray for kings and all that are in authority, it's often praying for those who are contrary to us. It doesn't say there to rebel against the government; it says to pray for them why? That we may lead a quiet, peaceful life.

"In II Timothy 3 when Paul says, 'This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come,' are we going to be able to thwart or reverse the natural course of this world?

"There's a segment of political Christendom who thinks they're going to take back these power structures and then they'll operate for the glory of God.

"That's not going to happen. It doesn't matter what you do, the Beast is going to show up at the exact time God determined he would.

"You're not ultimately going to prevent that which was prophesied from happening. What we can do is lead a quiet and peaceable life and pluck firebrands from the fire. We should not confuse our ambassadorship with our political preferences.

"When you think about submission, there are structures God has created and we all need to submit according to what Scripture tells us. That's the most spiritually beneficial way to live.

"We need to use our time and energy for the proclamation of the truth. The things of matter are the teaching of the gospel of grace, the teaching of the Scriptures rightly divided and the proclamation of the authority of the King James Bible. Those are the things that will actually make a difference in people's lives."

Masterpiece takes time

"Paul wrote about the 'catching away' like it would happen in his lifetime. God's a pretty patient God, isn't He? Who would have dreamt He'd extend His grace for 2,000 years?

"From the moment God gave the tablets to Moses--a span of 1,500 years. The dispensation of grace has been running longer than the dispensation of law program. You ever think about that?

"There's an old proverb, 'Beware the vengeance of a patient man.' Beware when his patience runs out.

Revelation 6:10: [10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

"Do you cry this verse? Instead of saying, 'How long?' we should say, 'Thank God. Another day of extended grace, mercy, peace, love . . . '

"But God's people, as they're being slaughtered at the hands of the apostate system of Israel that's going to drag even their own relatives . . . When the Lord Jesus talks about, 'Father against son and daughter against mother,' He's talking about His faithful remnant that stands against the reinstituted Mosaic religious system.

"There are going to be pockets of Believers who say, 'The Book of Hebrews says to get out of the camp; don't touch it,' and as a consequence they're going to be dragged before the chief leaders and the Gentile governmental rulers who will do to God's people what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ.

"The religious system in bed with the political system. Isn't that what the 'great whore' is all about? There are three arms. First you have that political--the purple and scarlet. Then you have the commercial-economic, which is the precious stones. Then you have the religious arm, which is the cup. A system that utilizes the government, commerce and religion and all of that working together will result in God's people being beheaded, being martyred.

"We saw in the opening chapters of Revelation where they're going to suffer unimaginable atrocities and tribulations. So those people are crying, 'How long before you avenge our blood on them?'

"Look at verse 11: [11] And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

"The Lord says, 'Be patient, there's more who are going to have to be slaughtered.' 

*****

"When the Lord came to Solomon at night in a dream and asked, ‘Solomon, what can I give you? I’ll give you riches and power—whatever you want,’ Solomon answered, ‘I want wisdom.’ I Kings 3:15 says, [15] And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.

“When the text says ‘Solomon awoke,’ what’s meant by that is, ‘You know, it doesn’t help you to work incessantly; stay up half the night, get up early to go to work, work through all kinds of difficult, sorrowful, hard, painful experiences--God gives you His gifts when you’re not working at all. When you aren’t even conscious; you’re asleep.’

“I’ve thought about that; it’s not of works. It’s His workmanship, not of us. This stuff all comes from Him. Think back through Scripture. When did God give Adam Eve? When did He cut the covenant with Abraham? He put him in a deep sleep. I mean, Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture that that’s true of.

“When Paul says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s saying God’s the one who gives the blessing, not based on your merit, but on His giving. ‘For we are his workmanship.’ This is His doing.

“That word ‘workmanship’ (Ephesians 2:10) is talking about a ‘work of art.’ A masterpiece. Preachers like to point out that the Greek word that’s translated there is the word we get our term ‘poem’ from.

“That word comes over in English as ‘poem.’ You’re His work of art. You’re literally the form through which He’s going to express Himself. A masterpiece is something you do to make yourself known.

“Romans 1:19-20 says, ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.’

“Everybody knows something about God. He’s manifest in them. Romans 2:14 says, ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’

“You see, God has indelibly printed into the heart of man, all men, some information. He manifested Himself. Everybody knows there’s a God. You have to educate yourself out of that, and what the educated guy says is, ‘Well, if you want to be sophisticated and educated, you have to get over your primordial tendency to believe in the superstitious idea of something bigger than you.’

“To get over that is to get over the mystery of life itself and to become nothing but a crass materialist where the only thing that’s real is what you can hold in your hand and you believe in ‘survival of the fittest,’ even though you’re never going to be the fittest, so you’re never going to survive. It doesn’t add to life; it detracts!

“You can look at Creation and see the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God; the fact there’s a Creator revealed, and in that term ‘things that are made’ is a translation of the exact same word in Ephesians 2 about workmanship! Creation is God’s workmanship; His masterpiece demonstrating His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge. He’s placed it in the Creation!

“When you look at the Creation, what you’re seeing is God manifest His purpose; what He’s accomplishing. You find out about Him!”

A robe by any other colors

From a news feed online yesterday: "BERKELEY — A Berkeley (California) resident, 34, has been arrested and charged with a felony for allegedly walking into a local episcopal church, drinking the altar wine and helping himself to some choir robes on his way out the door."

Luke 20:46: [46] Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts;

"These priests wear what II Kings calls 'vestments.'  Islam teaches that their clerics, the Imams, don't wear distinguishing garments. In fact, during the Hajj everybody wears the same white robe because it's said to eliminate class distinction.

"Why is the predominant type of clothing the robe? People say, 'Oh, because it's a cooler type of clothing.'  But, by the way, you can see that some of the Saudi princes don't always wear a robe.

"The predominant garment in Muslim countries is the robe and that robe hasn't changed for 1,400 years. Why for 1,400 years?

"Islam, in tradition believes, that whatever Mohammed did you're supposed to do. Mohammed, 1,400 years ago, he wore robes because that was the style of dress back there.

"There's a religious belief connected to wearing the robes. In Islamic tradition the robe is a 'supplement to the soul.' In other words, the robe distinguishes the human as being God's top creature.

"When you have a culture that says, 'I wear this particular garment for religious reasons,' now you have to question. Why is there this particular clothing?"

(new article for sure tomorrow)

Complete inner tranquility

 (new article tomorrow)

The great old hymn, "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," proclaims, "Free from the blight of sorrow, Free from my doubts and fears; only a few more trials, only a few more tears. . ."

The song was one of 9,000-plus spiritual pieces written by Fanny Crosby, who was blinded for life at two months of age in 1825 when a man falsely claiming to be a doctor treated an illness of hers with hot-mustard poultices applied to her eyes!

Crosby, who would go on to such success she was personally acquainted with all the U.S. presidents during her lifetime of 95 years, lost her father only a few months after going blind. Her mother was forced to take a job as a maid, leaving Crosby to be raised by her Christian grandmother.

Her first attempt at verse, at age 8, reflected her lifelong refusal to engage in self-pity:

Oh, what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see!

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy

That other people don't,

To weep and sigh because I'm blind

I cannot, and I won't!

Crosby once wrote about the doctor who unwittingly caused her blindness:

“I have heard that this physician never ceased expressing his regret at the occurrence; and that it was one of the sorrows of his life. But if I could meet him now, I would say, ‘Thank you, thank you, over and over again for making me blind.’ Although it may have been a blunder on the physician’s part, it was no mistake on God’s. I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be better prepared to sing His praises and incite others to do so.”

*****

There are two fundamental emotions humans deal with in life—one is love, drawing us toward things, and the other is fear, pushing us away from things, notes Richard Jordan.

“Fear is a debilitating thing; in John 14, the fear of men kept people from trusting and believing even when they saw the truth of God’s Word by seeing the Messiah in their midst!

“Jesus said, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ What does your heart do? With a heart man believes. Then He says, ‘Neither be afraid.’

“Without having that turmoil down inside, you have the ability to just go, ‘Ahhh,’ and let it all hang out and relax inside; relax in the truth of God’s Word about who Jesus Christ is and what He’s accomplished.

“Why should you trust it?  Christ says, ‘Look at me; I’m trusting it!’

“He says in John 14:28, ‘Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.’

“Christ is saying, ‘You know why you ought to have your heart trust me and not be afraid? Because you’ve heard my Word!’

“He already told His disciples, ‘If you love me keep my commandments.’ 'I’m living in complete total dependence on the will of my Father,' is what He’s saying. Paul has a great phrase for that—he calls it ‘the faith of Christ.’

“Jesus Christ entered into a plan and an agreement with His Father about what He would do and said, ‘Now, my peace I leave you.’ He’s completely at peace. He has complete inner tranquility even though He knows the agony He’s going to face on the Cross.

"In fact, when He says in verses 30-31 (‘Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

[31] But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence’), He’s saying in the vernacular of our day:

“ ‘Let’s git-er done! . . . Let’s get on with it! The Adversary, the prince of this world, has come to fulfill the conflict of Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan will be in personal hand-to-hand combat. That day has arrived, so let’s go!’

“Because He’s got nothing . . . ‘There’s no weakness in me at all; I’m ready to go.’

“He knows what the Scripture says is going to happen to Him and yet He doesn’t hold back. In Hebrews 12, it says, ‘Who for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame.’

“He had in His mind an understanding of what God had promised Him and believed it and confidently trusted in it. There’s no rebellion, no hesitation; He has that complete inner tranquility.

*****

“There’s a fascinating passage in Philippians 4: 9: 'Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.'

“You want the God of peace to be with you? What does that mean? Well, look at verse 7: ‘And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’

“Wouldn’t you get the peace of God from the God of peace? This is peace that BELONGS to the God of peace.

“When Paul talks in Philippians 4 about the ‘peace of God,’ that’s the peace that BELONGS to God. In Romans 5, he talks about ‘being justified by faith we have peace WITH God.’

"That’s the peace that God Himself has. God is at peace with His own will. He’s at peace with His own plans. He’s at peace with His own word. And God’s peace; that total tranquility and inner calmness over what He’s doing, He takes that and gives it to us when we trust Him.

*****

“By the way, when it talks about the peace WITH God and the peace OF God, Melchizedek was the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness is first, peace is second. Because peace can only be based on righteousness; things have to be dealt with righteously.

“James 3:17 tells Israel, ‘But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.’

“First you have the righteousness, then you have the peace.

“Isaiah 32 says, 'And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

[18] And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.'

“Righteousness has to do with being right. God’s Word is right and I’m in relationship with it and the peace comes out of His righteousness.

*****

“John 14: 27 is the great illustration of the peace OF God.  Jesus says, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’

“Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Here’s God living in our humanity and He has complete and total peace—inner tranquility, inner calmness, a relaxed mental attitude in His heart that results in that faith, that total dependence on the Word of His Father.

“He’s going away to receive the kingdom. Remember the parallel in Luke 19? Remember the passage in Daniel 7 where the Son of Man comes before the ancient of days to receive the kingdom and the power and the dominion? He goes there to receive the kingdom and to return.

“Philippians 2:5 says, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ This is a truth that Paul followers should be very clear about and should rejoice in.

"Paul goes on, ‘Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: [7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’

“He made Himself of no reputation. Who did that to Him? He did it to Himself. Voluntarily, He took up a position and took upon Him the form of a servant. Though He’s equal with the Father, He chooses to function in relationship to the Father as a servant. Did He have to? No, He willingly chose to.

“The next verse says, ‘He humbled Himself and became obedient.’ What does a servant do? He does what his master, his lord, tells him to do. So when Jesus Christ says, ‘The Father is greater than I,’ it’s in relationship to Jesus Christ coming as a servant. What He’s doing is owning His place as a servant.”

God has feelings too

(what a totally unexpected day I've had after going to the doctor early this morning for a check-up and asking about getting the shingles vaccine--something my mom has been pestering me about for at least four years! The doctor recommended I use my dominant arm for the shot and warned me I should expect muscle pain and weakness. After he gave the injection I said, "That wasn't painful at all, but I guess it's coming." He responded, "Yes, I can guarantee you that." Two hours after the shot my upper arm was so tender, sore and weak I could barely raise a spoon to my mouth sitting at the table. I have been on a steady diet of Advil since and don't expect I'll even be able to do my job tomorrow. I read online it can take 2-3 days for the symptoms to subside. Among the other "common mild adverse reactions" I'm experiencing are headache, tiredness and upset stomach! So I am now postponing my new article for yet another day and my apologies.)

When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction was so utterly complete that it wiped out everything in the valley. There were other cities in that territory—Admah, Zeboim. (Deuteronomy 29:23)

Amos 4:11 says, “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.”

“The destruction God is going to place on Israel in that captivity is going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah, but it’s going to be so thorough it’s going to get the whole territory," explains Richard Jordan. "And what He says in Hosea 11:8 is, ‘How can I do that to you? How can I just bring an utter end to Israel?’

“The verse says, ‘How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.’

“The Lord says to Jeremiah, ‘I will not bring an utter end to Israel. I’ll do what verse 9 says: I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.’

“The context here is, ‘I’m heartsick about what’s happened.’ Isaiah calls judgment 'His strange work.’ You see how He says in verse 8, ‘mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together?’

“ 'How shall I give you up? I got to punish you but I’m just not going to execute the fierceness of mine anger—the finality of wiping you out completely. I’m going to restore you. I’m going to fix it so that your heart is turned back to me.'

“Verses 8-9 is an amazing passage where God talks about being heartsick about the necessity of punishing, chastening and disciplining His wayward people.

“When He says ‘mine heart is turned within me,’ He’s going this way, then He goes that way. Then He goes this way, then He goes that way. ‘I got to punish them because of their sin but I love them and want to deliver them. I got to punish them because of their sin but I love them.’ He’s back and forth and He calls it repentings.

*****

“You’ll see it in Genesis 6. God tells Noah, ‘It repented me that I made man.’ How is it that God can repent? First of all, if you don’t understand what repentance is in the Bible, and you think it’s sorrow for sin, you’d have a problem because God has no sin to be sorry for.

“If you get your theology from Billy Graham and from Rome, and you think repentance is just being ‘sorry for your sin,’ which is the common, religious, fundamentalist adage, then you got a problem with this.

“In the Bible, repentance means to change your mind. God says, ‘I am the Lord, I change not.’ The issue isn’t God changing His mind in the sense of vacillating. What you see there about ‘mine heart is turned within me’ is you’re seeing the various facets of the nature of God conflicted.

“You would understand that. You would understand someone that you loved who had messed up. That judgment would say they have to pay for that and you understand that, and yet you love them and you don’t want to see them damaged and hurt. A parent can understand that about their children.

“Well, God has a nature; He has feelings about these things. He can be grieved. That’s what you see here; you see grief over their sin.

“God doesn’t change His mind in the sense that He changes; what happens is man changes in relationship to God and now that man is shifted, God relates to man where he is.

“Here’s an illustration. Wasn’t it really warm today? We’ve been cold and today is warm. Now, did the sun get hotter? What happened is the relationship between the earth and the sun changed. You follow that?

“That’s what’s going on here, but it causes problems for people’s theology who believe God can only be one way and that He’s not free to react to His creation. What you’re going to discover in Israel is that isn’t the case.

“Jesus looked at Jerusalem and said, ‘How often I would have gathered you as a momma hen gathers her chicks. How often I would have gathered you to myself but you would not.’ That’s the Luke 13 and 19 version of what’s going on here.

*****

“In chapter 12, Hosea talks about the mechanics of restoring the nation. Verse 12:9 says, ‘And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.’

“In other words, ‘I’m going to take you back into the land and I’m going to fulfill those feasts back there in Leviticus 23 about the regathering of Israel, the restoration into the land and the tabernacling in the kingdom.’

“All those things, in verse 10 He says, ‘I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.’ All these illustrations and dress-rehearsal events in the Old Testament point to Israel’s restoration.

“Hosea 13:9 says, ‘O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.’ You get one little verse now and then that just kind of encapsulates everything.

"You go back in chapter 4 and it says, ‘Israel hath destroyed itself for lack of knowledge.’ Not because they didn’t have knowledge, but they rejected it.

“Hosea 13:14 says, ‘I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.’

“God’s going to restore Israel; He’s going to redeem Israel, He’s going to resurrect Israel and He’s going to avenge Israel’s enemies. He’s going to restore the nation. The future for Israel is, as Hosea comes to the end, ‘Hey, they’re going to be cast away into the captivity because of their failures but God isn’t through with them.’

“One of the great things to get in these prophecies back here is that God promises to finish what He told Israel He was going to do--what He covenanted with Abraham to do, give them a great nation in the land, permanently living in the land as His people; Him be their god and they be His people.

"There’s that spiritual blessing, that physical nation living in that piece of real estate that God promised to them. A literal, physical, visible, earthly, Davidic promise God made and is fulfilling through the nation Israel.

“All of those things are rejected by 98.7 % at least, if not more, of Christendom. All the big-shot scholars that you hear, every denomination and denominational seminary and school in the country, actually the whole world, rejects these things.

“Hosea’s real clear, so what you do is you either believe what the Bible says or what the scholars say; what religion says. If you believe what the Bible says, you know He’s not threw with Israel and He’s going to restore Israel. Now the question is, how come?

“And, of course, we understand the reason is that God’s interrupted prophecy with a secret program called the ‘dispensation of grace’ where we live today. And if you don’t understand how to rightly divide the Scripture, you’re never going to be able to get the Scripture.

*****

“Chapter 14 begins with, ‘O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.’ That’s basically the whole sum of the Book of Hosea. He details the indictment through the book, but the summary is right there. Verse 2 says, ‘Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.’

“Hosea, in essence, told Israel, ‘Cast yourself upon God’s grace. Just bring words. Come with your confession and tell the Lord, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously.’

"When they do that, verse 3 says, ‘[3] Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
[4] I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.
[5] I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

“You just go on down through the passage and you see the glory that’s going to be Israel’s when He restores them into the kingdom. They’re going to bring words and speak graciously.

“In the words of Jeremiah 31, He says they’re going to find grace in the wilderness. This is a chapter that contains the new covenant for Israel. That wilderness is being cast out into that Fifth Course of Judgment; being cast out among the nations into the dessert places (the wilderness) as they wandered in Exodus.

*****

“Hosea 2 says, ‘Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
[15] And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
[16] And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.’

“That’s the wilderness of Jeremiah 31. They’ll find grace in the wilderness. That’s what they should have found; that’s what God tried to teach them back in Exodus when He brought them into the wilderness to start with.

“They weren’t designed to live in the wilderness for 38 years back there. They were designed to go out and it was just going to be a few weeks when they would leave Egypt and He’d take them into the Promised Land. But He schooled them in His grace.

“You go back and read Exodus 14-18 and you see Him take them through a series of five specific events that was to teach them about His providing for them everything they needed. He’d delivered them out of Egypt; now He’s going to be their provider, and they didn’t get it.

“They came to Mt. Sinai and what did they do? He says, ‘Let me give you a test and see if you’ve learned the lesson.’ And the lesson was, ‘Every time you have a need, I’ll do it for you.’

“They come to the place and the water’s bitter, He says, ‘Here, I’ll heal water.’ Next chapter, they don’t have water, He says, ‘Here, I’ll give you water out of a rock.’ They need something to eat and He says, ‘Here’s manna.’ You got an enemy attacking you? ‘Here, I’ll defend you.’

“I love the similitude thing in Exodus where Moses strikes the rock and water’s a picture of the Holy Spirit. The Book of John, when He puts His Spirit into them and it flows out of them, and as soon as that happens--the Amalekites in the Scripture are a type of the flesh. They didn’t attack Israel until they got water. Your flesh doesn’t attack until there’s something to attack.

*****

“We were talking Sunday night, in I Timothy 2, about lifting up holy hands in prayer. People say, ‘Well, that’s a justification of holding your hands up like that when you pray.’ Problem with that is it says ‘holy hands.’ You never had a pair of holy hands in your life, so you know when he says ‘lifting up holy hands,’ he’s not talking about you!

“When you try to make posture in prayer a prerequisite, well then you’ve forgotten Galatians 3:3: it’s your access to God through the spirit.

“In Exodus 17 is a great illustration. Joshua’s down in the valley fighting the Amalekites. Moses is up on the mountain and, as long as his hands are up, Joshua's in the battle and the sword prevails, but as soon as  he gets tired his hands come down, Joshua doesn’t prevail anymore and it’s a picture of the word and prayer working together.

“Joshua’s down there whipping up on the Amalekites until Moses gets tired and his hands come down so Aaron and Hur, Moses’ sidekicks there with him, literally set Moses down on a rock and hold his hands up FOR him!

“Years ago, when I worked at the rescue mission in Mobile, they had what they called an A&H Club. The Aaron and Hur Club was people they enlisted to be prayer partners for the rescue mission and to support the mission and hold up the hands of the mission--not physically, but so the Word would prevail when the mission was going forth.

*****

“Well, all that stuff back there in Exodus is designed to teach Israel about God providing for them what they couldn’t provide for themselves and how God would do it, and it takes them through five lessons in Exodus 15-18; specific things to teach them about Him being their provider.

“He told Moses, ‘Go tell them I am that I am.’ Sort of like Popeye: ‘I yams what I yams.’ You say, ‘What kind of a name is I am?’ Well, it’s obviously an incomplete sentence. It needs a completer; you write ‘I am’ and you need to fill in the blank. Well, what do you fill in the blank with?

“What God was doing was demonstrating to Israel what to fill in the blank with. ‘Fill in the blank with me! What do you need?! You need healing, I’ll heal you! You need victory, I’ll be the one who provides victory for you! You need water; I’ll be your provider!’

“And there are all those compound Jehovah names in the Old Testament that demonstrate what God is going to provide for Israel.

“There’s a bunch of names, but those seven primary names, you go to Leviticus 23 and you take those seven feasts, including the Passover and so forth, and there are seven Jehovah compound names that fit each one of those feasts.

“If you go to the Book of John, there are seven times Jesus said ‘I am.’ I am the light of the world. I am the bread of life. I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the door. I am the vine.

“Those seven match those seven compound Jehovah names that match the seven feasts back here and what that’s telling you is God’s going to provide for Israel everything they need to carry out that calendar of redemption from the exodus all the way into the kingdom.

“He’s going to do it for them! He began to educate them in that when He brought them out of Egypt.

*****

“In Hosea 2, Achor is where Israel had sinned against God and Aiken had hidden the Babylonish garment. Joshua, you know, they all went up and conquered Jericho, and went up to Ai and got the britches beat off of them, because Aiken had disobeyed God.

"They went out in the valley of Achor and judged that sin, put it away, and He said, ‘I’ll give you that place of judging sin in Israel and putting it away as a door or hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt.’

“The standard is going to be bringing them up out of the land of Egypt. There was an educating process going on at that point with Israel. By the way, the problem is that in Exodus 19 when they got there, having been instructed all that information, God gave them a test and said, ‘You know, I’ll make you all this stuff. I’ll make a deal. If you keep my commandments you can have all that. Deal or no deal?’

“Now if they had learned the lesson, they would have said, ‘Hey, no deal!’ ‘Why not?’ ‘You already promised it to us!’ But they didn’t do that. They went about seeking to establish their own righteousness and didn’t submit themselves to the righteousness of God.

“They said, ‘Yeah, whatever you say, we’ll do it.’ And in Exodus 19 they blew it.  He added the law to teach them that they couldn’t do it themselves. It doesn’t work for sinful man just for God to show them what he will do for them. The grace of God only accepts faith as a response, but it requires faith. And if you add your effort, the grace of God is taken out of it.

“Brother Lange used to call it ‘The Bible’s Biggest If.’ IF you’ll keep . . . they should have just said, ‘No thank you. Bad deal. We already got a contract. We already got you swearing it, putting it in an oath. We’ll hang on with that.’

“But they didn’t. They thought they could do it. What they didn’t do is they didn’t learn they couldn’t, so they didn’t cast themselves simply on His grace.

“He’s going to take them out into that wilderness, the Tribulation, and that last stage of that Fifth Course of Judgment is going to convince them there’s nothing in them that they can ever trust. It’s only going to be in the Lord. That’s where they find God doing for them what they couldn’t do for themselves.

“And so the restoration of Israel, if you go to Hosea 11, comes about because they come into the wilderness, they see their guilt, they see they’ve been put away and they cast themselves only on the Savior, the Messiah, to be the one who will restore them.

*****

“God starts out in verse 1: ‘When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.’ That’s almost a quote of Exodus 4:22-23. Notice in your mind as you go down through here how often He references the Pentateuch.

“Hosea 11:2 says, ‘As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.’ Just as surely as prophets called Israel to be His son, Israel went away from Him. Just as quick as God said, ‘Here, come do this,’ Israel said, ‘Uh-huh, we ain’t having that,’ and they refused.

“In other words, He loved them and called them, gave them this special sonship position, and yet they weren’t grateful for it. They said, ‘We’d rather have what Baal can do for us.’

“Verse 3 says, ‘I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.’

“They’re like a little child He picked up and said, ‘C’mon, let me teach you to walk.’ He said, ‘Look, I called you to be my son and then I’m educating you. I’m trying to teach you how to walk as my son.’

“Verse 4 says, ‘I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.’

“You look at that and you see His love. When He drew them with bands of love--the tug. If you have a rubber band and you put your hand in it and stretch it out, it pulls it back together. He said, ‘I reached out and put a band around your heart and sought to pull you to myself.’ He wasn’t driving them; He was pulling them with what? Love.

“And when He did it, then He took the yoke of bondage off of them. Then He laid provisions on them. You look at that and you say, ‘Man, what did they do?!’

“They were just intransigent. He loved them but they weren’t grateful. He taught them, sought to educate them, but they didn’t understand. They knew not it was He that healed them. Just totally insensitive to what God’s doing. Then He drew them with bands of love and they just refused. Spurned it.

“You see all that and you say, ‘Wow, they were really a bunch of spiritual knuckleheads!’ But you shouldn’t judge them too much because they were the only people in the earth who still had any relationship with God and they represent exactly what all people do. If they were the best of human flesh, then you and I didn’t measure up even to that, so it’s an example to us all.” 

Hope as an anchor of the soul

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow)

 When darkness veils his lovely face

I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the 'whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

Edward Mote (1797-1874), author of the great old hymn, My hope is built on nothing less, "falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners," writes Dr. C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.

"He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to be a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15.

“Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

“Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. He published his hymns with selections by others in 1836 in Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns. Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term ‘gospel hymn’ appears.”

Speaking on the origins of My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, which is the legendary hymn The Solid Rock, Mote once relayed to London’s The Gospel Magazine: “One morning it came into my mind as I went to labour, to write an hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’ As I went up to Holborn I had the chorus, On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. In the day I had four verses complete, and wrote them off . . . by the fireside I composed the last two verses.”

Baptist hymnologist William Reynolds summarizes the rest of the story: “The next Sunday Mote visited the home of some fellow church members where the wife was very ill. The husband informed Mote that it was their custom on the Lord’s Day to sing a hymn, read the Bible, and pray together. Mote produced the new hymn from his pocket, and they sang The Solid Rock together for the first time.”

*****

“In the Bible, hope is a confident expectation of a sure thing and one of the metaphors God uses to describe it in Hebrew 6 is as an anchor: [17] Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

[18] That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
[19] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

“God had made a promise to Israel. He secured the promise by, 'I gave you my word and I gave you an oath. Two immutable things,' " explains Richard Jordan. "What does an anchor do? It sets you stedfast. It sets you unmovable. It gives you an absolute, unmovable confidence of a sure thing and when you have an anchor to the soul...

“Most of you won't recall Brother Bill Cash, who was our song leader years ago, but he was a Navy man who served in World War II. He loved to sing that song, My Anchor Holds. He would tell stories about being on a ship in the ocean and they would lay out the anchor.

“Bill said they’d get in a storm and the ship was tossed and they’d come into port wanting the ship to be stable. What the anchor does is it digs in and now you've got a solid foundation. Nothing's going to move you away.

“Hope, in the Scripture, is not something that may be or may not, it's an absolute sure thing and it's designed to give stability to your inner man.

“Romans 8:18 says, [18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

“There's that future. That's Phase 3. You see that expression 'the earnest expectation'? That's what hope is!

"Verse 20: [20] For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. What hope? Verse 21: [21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

“The creation itself is waiting for the earnest expectation, to be delivered into this hope of the manifestation of the sons of God--of God's original purpose and plan being manifest.

“In the battle of the Christian life, the thing that's designed to keep your head in the game and your thinking properly focused, is that hope. Understand, it's not the hope of getting saved. It's not Phase 1. It's not the hope of living day by day. It's Phase 3.”

Here are the lyrics to My Anchor Holds, written in 1902 by William C. Martin:

Though the angry surges roll

1. On my tempest-driven soul,
   I am peaceful, for I know,
   Wildly though the winds may blow,
   I’ve an anchor safe and sure,
   That can evermore endure.
   • Refrain:
     And it holds, my anchor holds:
     Blow your wildest, then, O gale,
     On my bark so small and frail;
     By His grace I shall not fail,
     For my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
2. Mighty tides about me sweep,
   Perils lurk within the deep,
   Angry clouds o’ershade the sky,
   And the tempest rises high;
   Still I stand the tempest’s shock,
   For my anchor grips the rock.
3. I can feel the anchor fast
   As I meet each sudden blast,
   And the cable, though unseen,
   Bears the heavy strain between;
   Through the storm I safely ride,
   Till the turning of the tide.
4. Troubles almost ’whelm the soul;
   Griefs like billows o’er me roll;
   Tempters seek to lure astray;
   Storms obscure the light of day:
   But in Christ I can be bold,
   I’ve an anchor that shall hold.