OUR FATHER WHO DEMONSTRATES THE QUALITY OF HIS SERVANTS

1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 9 says this;

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. 

The Roman empire had a cultural celebration that occurred when a conquering general returned to Rome with his army. 

A triumphant parade marched through the city of Rome displaying the might of her military. The treasures pillaged from the conquered lands and the people who had been captured were shown to the people of Rome as they exulted in their victories.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, compared the condition of himself and the other apostles with the people who were in the church at the city of  Corinth.

While the Corinthian believers were honored and strong and wise, the apostles were dishonored  and weak and foolish.

Paul felt that the Lord had consigned all  the apostles to a life of hunger, danger and humiliation as a spectacle for the whole universe  to look upon along with their misfortunes like the captured prisoners who the Romans paraded through their city.

Having been given the high responsibilities of apostleship, these servants of the Lord were brought low before the eyes of men and angels as a demonstration of the quality of men they were because to the end, they responded with grace to those who slandered them, patiently endured persecution and blessed those who cursed them.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO MOVES TO DELIVER US FROM OPPRESSION AND BONDAGE

Isaiah chapter 19 verse 3 says this;

The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.

In the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 19, the kingdom of Egypt stands in for the oppressive powers of darkness that will move to take over the whole world and enslave God's people.

But at that time, the Lord, moving on a swift cloud, will come to the oppressive regime and bring judgements upon them that will overwhelm them and bring down their rulership.

When the Lord arrives, the Egyptians will lose heart and all their carefully laid plans will fall apart and add up to nothing.

Because they will understand that the forces working against them are supernatural, the Egyptians will turn to the spiritual advice of spiritists and mediums. They will invoke idols and spirits of the dead for counsel but these will not help them.

At every turn, the Egyptians will be thwarted.

Their unified front will collapse as they turn on each other and begin fighting amongst themselves.

To try to keep their evil ambitions viable, a harsh and cruel leader will be installed over them but he will bring even greater disunity.

Their economic support systems will fail and their supplies of provisions and materials will be disrupted.

All their wise men and advisors will utter foolishness and a spirit of dizziness will be put on them so that all their counsel will be that of drunkards.

That day approaches and now is when the Lord rides on a swift cloud to Egypt to bring their oppression and bondage of God's people to an end.

Amen.

OUR FATHER CREATES IN US A PURE HEART

Psalm 51 verses 12 - 14 records some of the words that king David wrote after Nathan the prophet confronted him with the matter of his affair with Bathsheba and the coverup attempt after that. The passage reads this way;

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,  and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

King David was a man after God's own heart defined as such by the Lord himself in Acts chapter 13 verse 22;

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

So David, being a man after God's own heart, when brought face to face with his sins, shed his defences and humbled himself before God and acknowledged his transgressions and  asked for mercy for his actions. 

He pleaded with the Lord to cleanse him from his sins  and blot out his iniquity so that the Lord would remember them no more. 

He asked the Lord to create in him a pure heart and renew in him a steadfast spirit that would not easily fall into the traps of sin.

David then asked God to fill him with the joy of the Lord's salvation.

He promised the Lord that if the Lord did these things for him, he would teach transgressors the ways of the Lord so that sinners would return to God.

For the guilt of bloodshed regarding the death of Bathsheba's husband Uriah, David asked the Lord to deliver him as a saviour and the result would be that David would be able to sing of God's righteousness.

If we were to be people after God's own heart and we were caught in a sin, we would acknowledge our transgression, ask for mercy, ask to be cleansed, ask to be made steadfast and then we would press forward in pursuit of the things of the kingdom of God and rejoice in the righteousness of God.

Bless our God who can restore us from the despair of sin and renew in us a pure heart that  can rejoice in our salvation.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO HAS A PURPOSE FOR EACH OF US TO FULFILL.

Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 4, a record of the Lord's words to the prophet Jeremiah,  says this;

“Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.”

This passage captures the instruction that the Lord gave Jeremiah of what to do with the new linen belt that the Lord had told him to buy.  

Jeremiah was instructed to take the belt and hide it in a crevice in a rock.  

Many days later, the Lord told Jeremiah to go back and retrieve the belt and when he dug it up, it was badly damaged. Verse 7 puts it this way;

So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah to explain the meaning of the object lesson.

The belt around Jeremiah's waist represented the people of Israel and Judah who were supposed to be wrapped around the Lord's waist so that they were close to Him as His honored people. Jeremiah chapter 13 verse 10 says it this way;

For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

Instead, the people rebelled and refused to listen to the voice of the Lord and stubbornly pursued other gods and thus the Lord declared them as useless as Jeremiah's ruined belt.

Let us strive to stay near to the Lord; always listening for His voice to do as He instructs so that we can be useful servants in His kingdom and He can, as He said in Mathew chapter 25 verse 21, say to us 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!

Amen. 

OUR FATHER WHO SUPPLIES HIS PEOPLE WITH WATER UNTO LIFE

1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 3 - 4, speaking of the children of Israel in the wilderness, says this;

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 

The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, explained that the rock from which the children of Israel drank water in the wilderness was Christ who travelled with them and gave them water.  

In the new covenant, Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well in John chapter 4 verse 10, said this;

 “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

Here, Jesus, in the context of asking for drinking water out of the well, said to the woman that if she had known who it was who was asking her for water, she would have asked Him and He would have given her living water from which she would never have been thirsty again as it says in verse 14; "whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

So Paul says that the rock in the wilderness that continuously supplied water to the children of Israel was in fact Christ. 

Then, the Apostle John, in John chapter 4 verse 10 and verse 14, recorded Jesus, the Christ, the rock of ages,  saying that He could supply living water.

Bless the Lord Jesus who was the spiritual rock who supplied water to the children of Israel in the wilderness and now, is the rock that was struck and  supplies the children of God with spiritual water that wells up to eternal life.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHO PROMISES A CROWN OF LIFE IF WE PERSERVERE IN THE TRIALS WE FACE

The book of James chapter 1 verse 9 says this;

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.

In other words, the Apostle James tells us that a believer in a lowly position in this world is elevated to a lofty position in the spiritual realm.

This precept parallels the words that  the Lord Jesus spoke in Mathew chapter 20 verse 16;

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Conversely, in James chapter 1 verse 10, the Apostle  James gives this advice to the believers who are rich;

But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.

Here, humiliation is the place that the rich should take pride in for their lives are as fleeting as a vapour. The Apostle James brings out the truth that riches can easily give the illusion of permanence but we must remember that our earthly lives are temporal and we can wither as quickly as a wildflower in the sun.

For believers, if we are poor, we should glory in our high position in the spirit and  if we are rich, we should glory in our humble position in the spirit.

James advises both the rich and the poor  to persevere in whatever trials their stations in life aim at them for if they endure their trials, they shall be awarded the crown of life promised by the Lord as recorded in James chapter 1 verse 12.

Amen.

OUR FATHER WHOSE TERRIBLE DAY APPROACHES

Isaiah chapter 13 verses 9 - 10 says this;

See, the day of the Lord is coming—a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it.

The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light.

The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

The prophet Isaiah prophecied of a day of great judgement that would be a time of destruction and desolation of the land. The stars would not shine and the sun and the moon would not give light.

In this pitch-black night of anger, the fierce wrath of the Lord would wreak havoc on the land and bring total catastrophe to the kingdom of darkness.

Joel chapter 2 verse 10 echoes the astronomical signs this way;

Before them the earth shakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars no longer shine.

The prophet Joel, in Joel chapter 2 verse 3  adds more context to the darkness of the day of judgement by describing a fearsome army that has been prepared for that hour;

Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was in ancient times nor ever will be in ages to come.

This unprecedented army systemtically overruns the fortified positions of the kingdom of darkness bringing its military capabilities to an abrupt end.

The book of Revelation verses 12 - 13, also mentions this distinctive phenomena;

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

The Apostle John, writing the details of  a vision of the judgement of God that he was shown, brings a broader context to the darkening of the sun, moon and stars.

These phenomena are part of the opening of the sixth seal in a series of seven seals that are opened upon the earth. These seven seals of judgement include the four judgements of the four horsemen, the martyrdom of the saints which is the fifth seal.

The seventh and final seal triggers the judgements of the seven trumpets that the angles blew to first bring hail and fire, then a catastrophic meteor strike on the oceans, then the poisoning of all fresh water, the darkening of a third of the sun, moon and stars, the plague of the scorpion locusts from the abyss, the angelic destruction of a third of mankind and finally, the seventh trumpet which heralds the revelation of Jesus in his glory.

This terrible day of the Lord where His army moves against the kingdom of darkness, is unparralled in all of history and takes its place among the sequence of events that must happen before the God of heaven and earth is revealed in His glory.

Amen.