OUR LORD WHO DIRECTS OUR STEPS

The Lord our God sees all things and knows all things. Having a counselor and an advisor who know every possible scenario we can face is truly a great advantage. If we trust in Jesus to be our saviour and then surrender our  lives to Him to be our Lord,  we are subscribing to His sovereign rulership over our lives. 

Even though we sense that we are making our own decisions pertaining to our lives, the Lord directs our steps.

As it says in Psalm 16 verse 9,   "A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps".

This concept is backed up by Proverbs 19 verse 21 - “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

He takes great pleasure is the moment-by-moment events in the lives of those who are subject to Him and though we sometimes stumble, He holds our hands and sets us on our feet.

This dynamic is described in Psalm 37 verse 23 - 24 - “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.”

In the book of Isaiah chapter 48 verse 17  the scriptures confirm again,  'This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you who directs you in the way you should go."'

Bless the Lord who teaches us and guides us.

Amen.

OUR LORD AS OUR FRIEND

John 15 verse15 -  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

In this passage, Jesus promotes His disciples from servants to friends. The proof of this friendship is that He made known to them all that He had from His Father. He brought them into the loop.

John 15 verse 13 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Here, the Lord  defines the highest form of love as the act where a man lays down His life for His friends. This is in fact what Jesus was about to do when He surrendered Himself to be crucified. 

However, this sacrifice was for His friends that love was involved. Jesus was also going to the cross for people who were His enemies and who were calling for His death. This is well beyond  love and into the state of absolute obedience of Jesus  to His Father.

John 15 verse 14 - Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 

In this verse, Jesus conflates friendship with him as obedience to His commandments. This is the same obedience that He demonstrated toward His Father. To have friendship with Jesus, we must be ready to obey Him. 

James 2 verse 23 - And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

This verse in the book of  James describes friendship with God as being the effect  of faith in God that results in righteousness.

Proverbs 18 verse 24 - A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

This verse in the book of proverbs speaks of a type of friend that sticks closer than any brother. There are regular friends but there is a singular person who is a lifelong  friend who  outlasts our own brothers in His loyalty to us.

This friend is the Lord Jesus who died for us to redeem us and then sticks with us through thick and thin throughout our lives with Him.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO DRAWS US TO HIMSELF

The predicament facing the human race is that we are in a state of  falleness and heading toward eternal damnation. Even though we know we do things that are wicked and participate in shameful things, we don't know that our wicked deeds have conjoined us to a fate of  the horror of living under the rulership of the kingdom of  evil forever.

Each one of us would have gone through life trying to figure our why we felt lost and pointless and then only at the end, realise that our fate was to permanently remain in a kingdom of darkness that was hateful and hostile to us humans.

The only hope we had was that there was saviour somewhere who cared about us and was willing to undertake the unimaginable price to redeem us out of the kingdom of darkness to which we were eternally consigned.

It turns out that there was such a saviour. He, having paid the price of allowing himself to be scurged  and crucified in our place, now had the monumental task of persuading us to believe in what had been done for our sake. He would have to draw human beings to Himself so that we would reach the point where we could consider His offer of salvation. Otherwise, we humans,  being what we are, would instantly dismiss the notion.

As Jesus said in John 12 verse 31 - 32, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

Those who internally  feel drawn to Him, are brought to a fork in the road.  Here,  we can chose  either to believe in what is claimed He did for us or to reject the claim.

Rejecting the  claim is, essentially declaring that we want to be left to our own devices to figure our own way to save ourselves or, that we did not think we were in imminent danger to begin with.

On the other hand, believing in Him for what He had done for us becomes the passport out of the kingdom of darkness to which, hithertofore, we belonged as participating citizens. This passport of belief in this saviour becomes the entry visa into His kingdom of light where we are transformed into citizens of the kingdom of light.

If you are drawn to Jesus and find yourself at the fork in the road, chose the road that leads towards belief in Jesus for this path was paved at the high cost of the saviour's blood and death on a cross. This road leads to life and life everlasting.

The other road has had no price paid. It is a broad path upon which anyone  can freely  travel with no constraints or caution. It, however, though otherwise advertised, leads to certain destruction.

Choose life.

Amen.

OUR LORD BRINGS US OUT OF DARKNESS

Job was God's servant who was faithful to His Lord.

As part of his pilgrimage on earth, Job was appointed to go through a refiner's test that would publicly demonstrate his faithfulness to God.

Job endured extreme hardships where he suddenly  lost all his property, his status, his family and ultimately, his health.

As he sat in an ash heap scratching his painful skin disease with pieces of broken pottery,  Job almost  despaired. 

He sought to unravel the reason for his calamitous misfortune. In the depth of his sorrow, He concluded that his only hope was that in the end, He would see His God with his own eyes as he exclaims in this exquisite passage in Job 19 verse 25 -27, 

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,  

 And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another.

 My heart faints within me!"

In the darkest moments of his life, Job was overwhelmed with the poinant assurance that  his Redeemer would stand on the earth and Job would see Him in person.

After this experience, the Lord restored light to Job's life after his season of darkness and Job rejoiced in His God and  lived till he was full of years.

The Lord brings us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO DELIGHTS IN US

The Lord our God delights in those who are His and whom He has saved.

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."   - Zephania 3 verse 17

He cherishes those who are child-like in trust and faith towards Him.

Amen

OUR LORD SHINES BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN

Following is part of Paul the Apostle's  account of his experience that he testified before King Aggrippa who was trying to decide what crime Paul was guilty of. 

Paul described the incident that occurred on the road to Damascus that changed the course of his life. 

"While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’"  - Acts 26 verse 12 - 14

Thus did Saul ( soon to be Paul ), experience an encounter with the Lord Jesus.

The salient section is the description of the appearance of Jesus as light from heaven which was brighter than the sun. 

The glory of God was made manifest as a brilliant light that out-shone the midday sun that resulted in the temporary blinding of Paul.

This blinding light is characteristic of the appearance of Jesus when he is not in a veiled state. Jesus most frequently appeared in a veiled state where he would easily be mistaken for an ordinary person. 

Examples of such appearances are when he appeared to Mary Magdalene at the tomb and she thought He was the gardener. Another event was when Jesus appeared to the two men on the road to Emaus where Jesus walked alongside the men for a while and they mistook Him for a random person.

In some cases however, Jesus appeared in blinding light and that was the life-changing event that Paul experienced.

The scriptures say, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

                         - Isaiah 60 verse 1 - 3

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO MADE ALL THINGS

By His wisdom and power, the great God of Israel created all things. Everything that is made was made by Him.  

In exquisite detail and balance, the Lord stretched out the universe to bring into existence the worlds and  raw materials which is the stuff that make up our very selves and the realms we occupy. 

This enterprise undertaken by God was to achieve a particular goal which centrally involved the gaining of people who freely loved Him and who voluntarily became His functionaries in all matters of His kingdom both great and small.

The way to love God freely is to hear His offer of salvation and to believe the news that Jesus died for us to redeem us from darkness. As the bible says, "those who are forgiven much, love much".

To believe the news and to recognize the sin from which we are being saved is to gain a hold of the love for the Lord who saved us. For this, there is no qualification. In what ever state we are, the Lord of heaven will grant forgiveness for sins if asked. 

The side effect of loving God is to gain a desire to serve Him but, to become a functionary of God requires a qualification process. 

 The qualifications are these:

- willingness to meet with the Lord in prayer

- willingness to obey His commands

These are the two progressions that we need to become effective as functionaries for the Lord.

We should endeavour to convert our love for God into action in His service.

Amen.