Prayer of Dependence on God-2

Author: Lisa Groen

The title of the song is a good one to follow to draw close to God-“Come ye Christians poor and needy”. With that posture let us look to the Lord in prayer:

Dear Lord, we your people live in a world of many seductive pulls and glitter. You alone know the reasons you have created us. You sent Jesus into the world to rescue us from the sin that would try to feed us. May we turn from the many shiny and sparkly attractions of this world to see you. May we have ears to hear you as we look up to you. May we magnify you and abide with you. Lord we must hear your voice above the attractions of this world, and we must ween ourselves from the abundance of comforts in this world to hear the only one who tells us the truth about everything. May we stay long sitting before you. May we quiet our rebellious flesh as we pursue the opportunity to meet with you. May we turn our heads away from the whining of our appetites and from the growling of our stomachs to gain something far better which is the life from your voice and the life that is in your word and your touch. May we turn our heads away from the pull of the TV and the internet to settle our spirits as needy children in your all wise grandfatherly arms of love. May we strip from ourselves as we discern any layer –even if there may be many –layer after layer of idolatrous habits. May our idols become less and less, not because we do less searching for them but may our self-examination be illuminated by you and not be diminished but let us keep looking through the lense of the gospel at our lives. May we as we keep our eyes on you keep striving to line up this area and that area, and more areas of our lives with the word of God, and our gospel examples. And this is only possible through the gifts of grace which are the basis of our relationship with you. And may our idols become less attractive to us as we begin to see them for what they are and as we strip them away by your help because we are enabled by your vision to do  more searching for you and and less gazing at temporal “answers”. May we put into practice being led by you more habits of self-denial. Our world is full of the gospel of me, mine and more!! May we seek the pure milk of the word and may our taste buds be cleansed from the world by drinking in the pure water of the word. Lord where our taste buds have gotten off track from too many options of flavors of the world, and too many thrilling worldly temptations may we still desire the pure milk of the word for cleansing us and the water of the word to satisfy us.

Jesus, I am impressed with the Israelites and how you brought them through the wilderness eating simply one kind of meal from heaven for 40 years, and that was manna. You are not a God who had a goal of boring your people on purpose with one choice, but I believe you were building the taste buds toward the bread from heaven into the consciences of the people as a simple and holy staple of a plain but pure heavenly food. May we simply recognize the temptations to the Israelites in the wilderness was not prostitutes, heavy drugs, or a life of crime, or drunkenness, –things we consider vulgar or obnoxious sins, but the simple foods of cucumbers, melons, leeks, and onions and garlic. Because of not having these things, they grumbled and fell in the wilderness. (Numbers 11).

They were made to “fast” in this way by you for their good—that you would do good to them in the end, and you wanted them to treasure you, your word, feed upon you, your provision, your love, your care, your shepherding and your baptizing them, even if the food choices were not in abundance for them at that time. You were building them although you stripped away their comforts.

Help us Lord as we apply what we can learn from the Israelites in their times of testing and trial and in their times entering the promised land though it may seem like a long and sort of monotonous and bland journey for us and them both (although their life may have been very much more difficult, and inconvenient and much more harrowing than ours, and for many more years!) Hebrews 4:11 NIV states “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (See all of Hebrews 4) May we be strengthened in our fasting and learn directly from scripture the needed disciplines and heed the warnings of weaknesses seen in the Exodus so that we do not follow the same pattern of disobedience and unbelief. And build in us a sweet and tender abiding in You even if we are uncomfortable in the process.

Amen

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Prayer of Dependence on God-1

Author: Lisa Groen

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you today acknowledging your greatness, your authority, your power, your all sufficiency and your deep love for us and all the world, and grateful that we can know that because of Jesus’s payment for us, we are welcomed by you to come before you. We thank you for the reality that you are the God of our salvation and acknowledge your desire to save people is greater than we can fully know in this life. We acknowledge your keeping power of us your people is greater than we can fully know in this life. And we acknowledge that yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. We seek that you would be glorified in our lives and in this prayer time. May the blessings of Psalm 1 be granted to all people in all our spheres of influence and that you would let us prosper in all we set their hands to do, and that you would establish the work of their hands as in Psalm 90:16-17…16 May Your work be shown to Your servants, and Your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish for us the work of our hands— yes, establish the work of our hands!

Lord we seek you to fight off the enemy as in Exodus 14:14 which says “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” And because of  Numbers 6:24 The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; dear Lord, may those blessings be granted again to us. Lord, please protect us and everyone in our spheres of influence as we seek you and your will and as we seek to live out our faith and callings before you. We seek that you would show lovingkindness to us your people, as is written in  1 Kings 8:23 … that you would “…keep covenant and showing lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart,”. Lord we are grateful that Jesus fulfilled the covenant and fulfilled the law of God in any place that we fall short, so that we are simply recipients of your grace oh God (Romans 4:4; 11:5–6; 2 Timothy 1:9–10), so may we be given your help, and enabled with strength to follow you, to fulfill our callings and accomplish all your will for our lives. May you fill us with power to will and to act according to all your good pleasure as you desire for our lives. Lord, the many great ways and promises you granted on behalf of your people in the old testament still hold great promise for us today and so we ask that you may grant that you would establish us before you as your holy people as is written in Deuteronomy 28:9. And that the promise of Isaiah 32:18 would be true in our lives which says “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places;” We pray for that security and rest and safety in our habitations. Lord, as you are aware of the many people that we have loved or that have been close to us over the year have been affected with illness, hardships, losses and deaths, may you avert the enemy from attacking in any unnecessary way and keep the enemy from hindering us in accomplishing your will. May your will be done and not the enemy’s will Oh Lord. I remember your promise Lord that you are the protector of Israel, and you neither slumber nor sleep, and you watch over your garden day and night lest anyone hurt it. Please may that continue to happen in our lives and spheres of influence. May you guide us in our personal prayer times and devotion times and as we recognize that from you comes any power that we could ever have to do any ministry, or to bear any good and lasting fruit, so we pray that you would continue to use us as you see fit, and make us fruitful in your kingdom. Please heal up any breaches in our walls in any way that our protection may have been damaged, or in any way the enemy may have gotten a foothold. Please deliver, keep the devourer from devouring and grant our loved ones and us too, the safety, health and deliverance they need and that we all need to follow you strongly and to keep our eyes on you as we should, and that we would continue to seek you in everything and that our hearts would be wholly and fully yours. I am reminded of 1 Kings 8:61 Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day. And think of 1 Chronicles 22:12 which says “Only the Lord give you discretion and understanding, and give you charge over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.” And Lord, we do want to keep following you, and you alone are our protection and from you alone comes all of our success, so we ask specifically for the discretion we need, and the understanding we need, and I ask for good discernment also in our plans, our choices, in our motivations and in our work and rest as well. In any way our discernment may have failed, please forgive, and cleanse us and grant discernment and the right responses to situations that we need for the ministry we are doing and at the level we all need to follow you would be granted that we can wholeheartedly and to fully do your will and to fulfill our callings. Moses prayed in Exodus 33:15 “If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. Lord, we want to be of the same mind as Moses and have the same approach. We want the approach of David who sought your direction in 1 Samuel 30:8 … saying, “Should I pursue after this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue them, for you will surely overtake them and will surely recover all.” But in 2 Samuel 5:23 And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up;…” May we have the responsiveness before you to have the ears that truly hear you even when you might say to us “You shall NOT go up…”

Lord, I pray for those of us and others in our spheres of influence that have been assaulted or wounded by the enemy in the line of battle, we seek you for your healing of us as in Psalm 12:5 “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the Lord; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.”

May you grant us to have the mind of the spirit which is life and peace and grant a peaceful meditation before you as we go on our way today keeping our eyes on you.

Psalm 121

1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. 8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and forever.

May you be mindful of the prayers of Your people Oh Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

The Power of Fasting, Weeping, and Mourning

Author: Lisa Groen

Joel 2:12-13a reads, “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God,…”

Here is yet another Biblical account of fasting, weeping, and mourning going hand in hand for God’s people. It is interesting that not all Biblical accounts of these come with a prophet or with God CALLING his people to fast, but Joel 2 does. When a biblical call is given by a prophet or directly from God to a group or an individual, it usually is done with the idea that those who are called to some task, or to God, will be brought somewhere God will chose, or will go somewhere God will chose, simply by following the call, and simultaneously are told to exit or leave a place, leave their life of sin, or let go of some desired circumstance, environment, belief or tradition. 

In the case of the call of the fast in Joel 2, the options for God’s people are clear. Joel sets the stage with the prophecy about the circumstances surrounding the day of the Lord. Joel 2 sounds like a judgement from God falling on all of the earth. Indeed, it is. But Joel 1-2 sets the reader up with by allowing some blindness about what the reasons are for the worldwide judgement. There is no mention of anyone’s sin in Joel 1 or 2, and so logically we are not given the tools to “assign the blame or the cause” for the destruction in Joel 1 & 2 on anyone specifically, nor for any sin or group of sins, specifically. The on-purpose design I believe given by God in the book of Joel is to get the reader to think about and search for what could possibly be the reason for the judgement of God and the day of the Lord—the terror, the crops dying, the seeds withering, the flocks going hungry, the invasion of the army of locusts, widespread destruction, and the fire burning behind them and before them…(to mention a few of the judgements in Joel 1-2). With nothing but emergencies happening, we are given Joel 2:12-13a “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God.”

“Return to Me with all your heart” tells the reader they must leave something behind and go towards the Lord. It tells us those who hear Joel’s prophecy were once following the Lord, and must return. And the way it is written by not mentioning specific sins in Joel 1-2 allows for the individual to meet with God and to hear God personally speak to him or her, or remind them of scripture that points to sin, as they fast, weep and mourn for what to leave behind and what it will take to return to God.  In this way it is only with following the call to fasting, weeping, and mourning that these things become the light switch that will illuminate God’s truth for God’s people and begin to give them insight as to what to repent of and for how to return to the Lord.

The phrase “Yet even now…” speak volumes to us today to answer the call to fast, weep, and mourn, for our sins and for the sins of the God’s people and for the whole land around us. If we have reason to think we need not fast, Joel chapters 1-2 breaks apart every reason to think this way, because the day of the Lord has not yet happened. Until we see the blessings of Joel 2:13-14, 17-32 come to pass and unfold before our eyes, which appear to be the results of God’s people responding to Him, we have every reason to fast, and weep and mourn and to seek to return to the Lord, and to seek God that others around us in the church and in the world would be enabled to return to the Lord as well.

The prayer is a little longer today as I wanted to cover a lot of bases and holiday issues.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, as we know you are Sovereign, and that the day of the Lord will come, and that you have planned it, and that destruction will come with it, but you have given us and countless people the wisdom from the book of Joel. And you are wonderfully Sovereign and yet allow the space of time between Joel’s writings and the day of the Lord to encourage your people to seek you with all of our hearts. You are Sovereign and you will have your way and you do not enjoy the destruction of the wicked, and you “take no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Eze 18:23, 33:11) and there are blessings in the latter half of Joel 2 that will Sovereignly come as your people seek you. But you say in Joel 2:14 “Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him…” so you call us to do our part and fast, weep, and mourn, and return to you. Please work with our humanity as we seek you. You never call us to a pursuit of no purpose. Dear Lord, may your purposes of the call in Joel for us to fast, weep and mourn and to return to You, with all of our hearts be fulfilled as we draw near to you and cry out to you. Give us grace to fast, weep and mourn and grace to return to you individually and for the people around us with all of our hearts, as you reveal things to us to repent of and also to those in our land around us, Oh Lord, as we seek you today. And as we seek you may we be refreshed and renewed and though this time of consecration may you open the doors for ministry opportunities be opened. Strengthen us in the opportunities that we now have, and for the assignments you have given us.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Fasting to Direct Our Hearts To Serve The Lord

Author: Lisa Groen

Today we will look briefly at one account of God’s people returning to the Lord with all their heart and how fasting is involved in this process, and have a prayer in response. Thursday we will cover Joel 2. 

1Samuel 7:3-6 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. 5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.”

In previous places in 1 Samuel, we can determine why Samuel gave the admonition for God’s people to return to the Lord with all their heart. There was a CONSEQUENCE for Israel if they did NOT return to the Lord with all their hearts. The consequences of staying where they were at “in their hearts” was to suffer the pain of the current broken social and military position Israel had amidst other persecuting nations. In 1st Samuel this meant the Philistines would continue to be attack, harass, abuse, and control the Israelites in various ways.

A first step God gave his people as to how they were to return to the Lord with all their heart, was to “remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone”. Once Samuel spoke to them about the false gods in verse 3, they removed them in verse 4. Now that some outer obstacles were dealt with, they were ready to work on a change in their “inner life” in order to be able to follow the command to “return to the Lord with all your hearts”.  When their hearts were occupied with other gods, they were not admitting their sins to God. But by verse 6, they began admitting “We have sinned against the Lord.” (highlighted for reference) It took Samuel to point out their sin with a promise of hope in verse 3, and so their sin became a problem to them, and their sin became real to them. Perhaps they were realizing for the first time that it was their sin that had opened the door for the Philistines to constantly attack them over many years. When their sin became real to them in verse 6, they confessed their sin. If they had previously been aware of their sin, would some have confessed it already? But not until verse 6 does it mention they confessed their sin, and they undergo some great healing as a nation by God giving them great deliverance. God was responding to their change of heart, and Proverbs 28:13 was coming true for them: He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. As Israel was embracing their whole-heartedness in turning away from their sin, they fasted in verse 6 with true genuineness, because they were finally telling the truth about their sin, and finally their hearts were becoming fully engaged in fasting/mourning for their sins as they were serving God.

Verses 10-14 describe the multi-layered victory God gave them: God gave the Israelites victory against the Philistines as long as Samuel was alive, God struck the Philistines down, the Israelites recovered all the cities which the Philistines had taken, the Philistines stayed outside the borders of Israel, and Israel had peace.

Lord, as we consider the importance of fasting through many Bible examples, may we also engage our hearts in fully serving you. May we receive your direction for how to wholeheartedly serve you and do the physical work of getting rid of false gods or false loves of any kind in our life and see them for what they are—these types of things CAN open the door for the enemy to harass, attack and “invade” certain areas of our lives. We know that not every attack is due to some sin or false god in our lives, and not every hardship is a result of some sin or false god. We also know you promised that in this world we would have tribulation, and we often see lots of it, but you promised that we could be of good cheer because you have overcome the world. May we not get into speculation of why problems exist in our lives and not be prone to condemnation, but may we also as we pray for success, protection, grace for living out our Christianity, our ministries, and depend on your discernment for success. But may we also remember how right it is to weigh out honestly in our minds that famous John Calvin quote, that “The human heart is an idol factory, churning out new idols like the conveyor belt in a manufacturing plant rolling out new widgets.” May we take warning, and may you grant us good solid discernment to know if we have any sins that we are blind to that we need to repent of that may be weakening us, and may it only be from your discernment that we follow and perceive our condition. May we follow truth and have clear vision. May we mourn and grieve appropriately for our sins, and by grace forsake them and find mercy. And as we do so, may we keep the victories of 1 Samuel 7 before our minds, that you are the God who desires truth in the inner man, and you are the God who gives us a love for the truth and will cause us to truly hate any false gods we might have once loved. May we worship you singularly, and with joy wholeheartedly, and see fasting is a strategic tool of mercy that can strengthen us and sharpen us in our renouncing sin, and in turning from it and in our pursuit of you and in our living for you and living out our love for you. May you through the process that you need to take us, grant us recovery of any parts of our lives, our homes, or of the places we trod, or that we work, that have been harassed or broken into by the enemy, to us and to our loved ones, that you would restore them to us, and dedicate them afresh to you, and allow that the promise that we would live in peaceful dwelling places as in Isaiah 32:18 be granted. May you grant us that we would keep our hearts devoted to you and forever raptured by your goodness, your grace, your strength, your mercy, truth, and love, and, all the more as we see the day approaching. I pray this in your great name dear Lord, Amen!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

How Effective Could Fasting Possibly Be? I Mean, Can’t We Just Pray and See Results?

Author: Lisa Groen

It is my aim that today’s devotional will be motivational and show us the difference fasting can make for the believer, based on the first instance of fasting in the Bible that I came across after looking at a few different translations.

It begins in Judges 20:4 where a Levite tells of the death of his concubine, and later in the chapter Israel fasts and finds victory, but they have a slow and painful start until they add the corporate fasting.

Judges 20:4 And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. He tells how some men from Benjamin had raped her all night and murdered her and how evil it was that this happened. (And strangely the Levite doesn’t take responsibility for not protecting her… but that point is for another day…)

The response of “Israel” is to “go up against Benjamin”.

Problem #1 was even though they had unity as stated in verse 11, (So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man) They were overpowered by Benjamin and had a lot of loss of life of 22,000 Israelite soldiers. They prayed again to God for what to do….and encountered another problem

Problem #2 was even though they sought the Lord and got an answer from the Lord to “fight them” they were still overpowered by Benjamin and had more loss of life–18,000 more Israelite soldiers died.

Then in verse 26 they add the fasting solution: 26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the Lord, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. 27 And the children of Israel enquired of the Lord, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28 And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

When we read from verses 29-48, we can see the Lord providing his people the strength and fighting power and overcoming ability to overtake their enemy and to deal out justice against wayward Benjamin for the horrible acts of rape and death that several of the men from Benjamin did against the innocent concubine.

This chapter is a clear picture of the power fasting gives in following out the command of God to fight the good fight of faith. For Israel to do nothing in response to finding out about what happened to the Levite’s concubine, would have been another atrocity and deep injustice because of the sin, but also the people of God, when united, when having the arc of God in their presence, and when having the go-ahead Twice from God to fight the enemy, should have been able to win! But they were wounded in battle, and had a lot of loss of life and the ONE solution that worked in their favor was to FAST.

Now, I know the Old Testament is not an exact parallel to the New, but Jesus never tells us in the New Testament that fasting is UNNECESSRY, but does the opposite, when he says “This kind only goes out with prayer and fasting…” So, based on our Old Testament example, we must consider the cost of not fasting (40,000 unnecessary deaths) and the rewards for fasting as seen here, and logically count it as well worth doing …

It is very probable that this story in the OT represents some of the battles in the NT that need to be fought with heavenly power and WILL require fasting in order to win. And some battles may possibly need a whole army to fight an injustice against maybe one single person when that person represents Christendom today. May we be people dedicated to being available for God to use to fight with victory and be ready to fast and pray when circumstances call for it that His message will travel like an army spreading righteousness across the land.

Amen!

Lord may we fast at your leading!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Meditations and Prayers About Worship and Serving the Lord

Author: Lisa Groen

Lord, you are building the believers together into a holy temple in the Lord. When we were saved, we were given the new language of worship. Before we were saved our language was pointing to the things of the world because our attention was on the things of the world. But in Christ we were given a new language because our attention should be upon Christ. God leads our worship. And God our Father is growing us now as part of his worshipping family. We worship God more than with our songs and music, but with our lives, our plans, our decisions and actions, and thoughts. Listen to the passage in Ephesians 2:18-22. It reads “for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” As I read this, I am reminded today that “Unless the Lord builds the house the workers labor in vain who build it.” What we try to build ourselves in our own strength will not last. The word of God lasts and what is started by God will last because His fruit will last. I want to have lasting fruit and that is your desire for your people. What fruits you chose to be lasting coming out of our lives are fruits that get their life from you Lord. Take us into the place of more fruitfulness. Lord we ask that our hearts would be pliable moldable and our mouths yours and yours alone. My prayer is Lord, show me what I don’t see about myself that is keeping me from serving you more fully—wholeheartedly. Show me if I have any hidden sins that I need to surrender. Help us to count the cost that it takes to serve you at the level you have called us to so far, and Lord please forgive us for any way we have been lagging behind the leading of your Spirit.

By nature we are worshippers. Our hearts were designed by You Lord to long for something or someone to worship. Help us Lord to not make the false assumptions that what I long for in the here and now is as good or better than the goal Paul speaks of to lay hold of that which Christ calls me heavenward Phi 3:14. Lord, may we pursue as our goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus. Help us not to worship the goal of something that is just spiritual looking activity. Help us to have the substance of the fruits of Christ in our devotional time toward you Lord. We truly have relationship with you Lord as we put our faith in you and you change our hearts. Because of your life in us, we know you are bringing forth fruits from the life of your Spirit.  We worship You Lord, the Living God, and though this living relationship we are doing something other than worshiping the “practice” of worship. We sense and believe in Your Lordship and in the community you create through our worship time in our churches Oh Lord, and we believe you have given us a family of love—our Christian brothers and sisters. We find we are being built by you, built together by your spirit, and we have more than just “awesome friends”—we have a family born from above by your love Lord! We worship You Lord and are drawing closer to you in that worship. We are living for you, not just seeking to have “great ministries” or even having some spiritual mileage under our belts. We think, taste, see, and in many ways experience Lord that you are alive and well and real and able to communicate with us and somehow satisfy something within us as we worship you! We are not trying to show that we “know our way around the mountain” so to speak spiritually because it is only by your amazing grace that we can see anything at all in your spiritual truth and among our relationship with you and with our spiritual family members! Lord, may we not lean toward presumptions about our fitness to be ministers, because it is by your grace alone that we are saved, and not of ourselves. Free us from clouding our own vision with egocentrism, and self-sufficiency, and secondly may we never hold back from you how you would have us to surrender to the very work we trust is being done “by your Spirit” Oh God! To be built together by your Spirit into a holy temple in the Lord with fruit that will last!

Keep growing in the Word! LG

Can God forgive terrible sins like murder?

Author: Lisa Groen

It will help us to consider first a few things. It is God who gives us a desire to please Him. I want to establish that the way we understand God is key to helping us to NOT misunderstand him. What we can know about the forgiveness of a holy God is inextricably linked to our understanding of both the justice and mercy of God.

A person who has committed serious sins might ask “I just want to know that I am truly forgiven by God, so, why would I need to know about the justice of God?” Someone may ask, “Isn’t the justice of God the opposite of the mercy of God?”

Actually, the Christian realities of God’s justice and mercy are not at odds with each other. We can see in scripture that God does not set aside his mercy to show justice, nor does he set aside his justice to show mercy. Justice and mercy are combined and unified in the person of God. God is whole and full and the source of wholeness and fullness. He does not fragment himself to provide for our needs. When we trusted in Jesus as our savior and Lord, he did not just provide an answer to our prayers, but provided himself in his fullness. There is unity within all aspects his personality. From scripture we can see the relationship between God’s justice and mercy.

The Lord is a God of justice and mercy, so he would have us to act with justice and mercy as well.

Micah 6:8 The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: “See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.” (CEV)

God’s throne provides both justice and mercy:

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Psalm 89:14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.

God can forgive murder. We see it clearly in the following scriptures where David got Bathsheba pregnant, and later has Bathsheba’s husband killed so he would not be found to be guilty of adultery. In 2 Samuel 11, verses 5, 14, 24, 26 and 27:

5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 

15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”  

24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 

27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

Then, The Lord confronts David, but shows him mercy. In Chapter 12 of 2 Samuel, verses 13, 14, 16, 18b, 24, and 25:

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 

14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt forthe Lord, the son born to you will die.”

16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackclothon the ground. 

18 b On the seventh day the child died. 

24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; 

25 and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.

We see how David repents of his sin with Bathsheba and records it in a Psalm. Note verse 14 where he names the sin of bloodguiltiness:

Psalm 51:1-3,7-14 ESV

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

Then what’s amazing in this Psalm is that David tells of something in verses 17 and 18:

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem;

He talks about God not despising his heart, as long as his heart is broken and contrite, and he talks about God having good pleasure in doing good to Zion, and good pleasure in building the walls of Jerusalem. David believes God would have good pleasure in building the walls (building the protection back up) of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was David’s responsibility as a King to protect. When David sinned, God told him there would be bloodshed. Now David asks for the protection back that was lost by his own sins with Bathsheba. David has faith that it could or would be something God could take pleasure in restoring.

Over time the Lord does a work in the heart of David. The Lord brings him from being a man who the Lord says of David “you despised Me” in 2 Samuel 12:10 to a person wholehearted for the Lord again, as is seen in the words of others in 1 Kings who spoke of King David after the incident with Bathsheba’s husband (in the NIV):

1 Kings 9:4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws,

1 Kings 14:8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

And in:

1 Kings 15:3 He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.

The above three scriptures show us that The Lord can restore wholehearted devotion and service to God in a person’s life after a terrible sin, in this case the sin of murder. This is the hope for anyone who repents and turns away from sin to God. This is good news for any of us, even for those that haven’t committed murder, because it gives us a picture of the depth of forgiveness, mercy, justice, and grace of God.

One final proof is another example that shows us without a doubt that the Lord can not only forgive a murderer, but draw him to a place of close fellowship with him. We will read the very words of Jesus. Because Jesus is the clear image of God we can believe what he says are God the Father’s sentiments as well. (Jesus is called the exact representation of the Father in Hebrews 1:3, which says “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”(NIV)) When the soldiers nailed him to the cross, after an angry crowd chanted “crucify him!” (crying for the murder of someone who was innocent), Jesus reveals the heart of God, in Luke 23:34 where he says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.” (NIV)

In the person of Jesus, and only by faith in Jesus the justice of God we deserve was fully paid for us through his work. He laid his life down to pay the penalty for our sins, so we don’t have to die for our sins. Consider first that the Bible says, even sins like lying, stealing, or lust, call for the justice of God against us and we deserve death even if we have not murdered someone. Apart from Jesus the justice of God for us is not dealt with. We would still deserve death. Mercy only comes from God to us by the payment for our sins having been made by Jesus. Mercy exists and is made available for us because God’s just wrath for our sins was justly satisfied as he poured it out upon Christ who died in our place. Because our sins are atoned for in Christ, God opens us his mercy for us, and he remains fully righteous in his making mercy available without compromising his righteousness or pretending like our sins never existed. The responsibility we have now after receiving the mercy God made available through Christ is that we are simply told to confess our sins, and forsake our sins, and we will be shown mercy, (Proverbs 28:13) and to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.(Matthew 3:8 and Luke 3:8).

Keep growing in the Word! LG

“Why Hardship? What Good Can Come Out Of Going Through Different Types of Hardship?”

Author: Lisa Groen

People have often said, “It should never be God’s will for a Christian to go through hardship!”. And “Hardship is from the devil, it’s not from God! You have to resist hardship with the promises of God!”

Does hardship require spiritual warfare to ‘get the victory’ for the Christian?

Or, is hardship a normal part of Christian life? Can we pray to be released from hardship but still trust the Lord to be the one who deals with reversing the hardships that are too big for us to change rather that we ourselves trying to resist any and every kind of hardship we must face?

These are smaller parts of the bigger question “Why does God allow suffering, even for his own people?”

Is there a bigger purpose for it?

We can know that with God’s personality which we see in scripture, we are told in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Because of this, we can be assured that when God allows certain things in our lives, that he may have a thought about it that is higher than yours, and a reason for it that is nothing like what you could have imagined.

The following is not an exhaustive list, but some examples of why people suffer affliction may be because:

–We live in a fallen world (The original sin affects “all of creation”, therefore the results of that today are sin has still affected all of creation. Creation reaped hardship, sickness, and brokenness from the sin of people who lived before us.)

–God allows us to go through suffering to test our faith.

–To purge us and refine us.

–To remind us that we need a Savior

–To humble us

–Or to build our character, and to rub off the rough edges in our personalities.

If you have been a Christian for a while, you might have felt there were days in your Christian walk in which you were going through the ‘furnace of affliction’ as the Bible describes it. Maybe you have wondered if you were at fault, or if you somehow ‘messed up the plan of God’ that you imagined entitled you to a “trouble free existence”. Some of us have been taught things along these lines in our Christianity.

In considering these things we come with the understanding that salvation is a gift. Are good people entitled to anything good? A famous question brought up from the book “Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?” by Harold Kushner, might be better stated as, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” To keep it in perspective, we must remember that our salvation is a free gift. And we didn’t earn our salvation, so it is not possible to “earn” life or any of the blessings we see, because of the word “blessing” and the infused meaning it holds. A short definition of the word “blessing” is “God’s favor and protection”. Therefore, life itself and all the good things that come with it, is a gift.

From the Psalms we can read that God uses hardship and affliction to draw people to himself. Whether a person is unsaved, or if a Christian should ever backslide, God can use hardship, suffering or trials to draw people to himself. And even in the life of a believer who may not overtly be involved in any particular or habitual disobedience, the Lord may use some types of hardship for simply the purpose of causing them to grow closer to Him in their walk with Him.

Biblical reasons why God might allow people to be afflicted, taken from the New International Version Bible:

Psalm 107:17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.

Psalm 119:92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

Psalm 119:71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

Psalm 119:75 I know, Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

Many kinds of good news are also listed for those who have been afflicted as seen in scripture, from the NIV:

Isaiah 14:32 What answer shall be given to the envoys of that nation? “The Lord has established Zion, and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

Isaiah 49:13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

Isaiah 51:21-23 Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine. This is what your Sovereign Lord says, your God, who defends his people: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.”

And Isaiah 54:11-17“Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli. 12 I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. 13 All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. 14 In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you. 15 If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you. 16 “See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; 17 no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the Lord.

And Psalm 10:17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,

And Psalm 22:24 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

With these great and marvelous promises, Christ followers don’t need to worry, fret, or be hopeless, because the Lord who marvelously holds us in his righteous right hand, is doing a wonderful work. He is committed to that work being fully expressed and brought to a full mature fruit in our lives to bring Him glory. We can know he will do wonderful things with our broken pieces and with our challenges and suffering, and as well for the same kind of needs of those we see around us. God can turn your suffering into a true blessing.

Keep growing in the Word! LG

“How do I know whether something is a sin?”

Author: Lisa Groen

Within Christianity, the believer is one who is given a new, born-again nature and a life that is united with Christ. As we learn about God in our faith and what it means to follow Him, we learn from the truths we hear from the word of God. We may discover a love for the word of God as it brings us hope and assurance and spiritual delight with the graces of glimpses of God. We discover also that God warns us about sin, and the Biblical warnings are real, and sometimes harrowing.

If you have come to know the Lord, you may have already asked a pressing question at some point: “How do I know if something is regarded as a sin in God’s eyes?” Or as a follower of God you may have said something like “I know the Bible teaches there is a cost to sin, and thank God Jesus paid that cost, but I know we are not to live in the sin that Jesus died to free us from. How do I know for sure if what I am doing is right?” How should we then navigate these questions? The Bible was written as a book to help us in our faith, to give us understanding about how to live for the Lord. As we come to know the Lord, we can know and believe the God we serve does not want confusion for us. He may allow some grey areas to come at times, perhaps for the purpose of prompting us to seek His light and guidance. Confusion is not meant to be the diet God provides for the believer, although He may allow us to question at times.

Many times, the Bible will explicitly say something is a sin. Sometimes it will not clearly state certain things are sins. Sometimes likewise it may say something is God’s will, and other times not. So, it is important to become familiar with the Bible so we can glean from what it does say. God often makes His will known to us through His word. At times when the word of God does not spell out things as sin, or either spell out his will, these grey areas are times to use what we do know about God and his plan for us. This may be how God plans we must trust Him in order to grow our faith. In these times keeping our eyes on the nature of the Lord that we can see in His word will bring assurance to our walk with God and we will become fruitful. Consequently, we will see the unfolding of His will for our lives.

For many of us, we would like a map of every day written for us from heaven for God’s plan for us, if it were possible. A Christ follower wants to stay close to God, and a Christ follower desires to be pleasing to God. However, in the infinite intelligence of God, He has foreseen that for the believer it is more fruitful for their faith if he or she does not have everything spelled out for them. What we do have is the sure promise that The God of salvation has already provided everything we need for life and godliness in following the Lord through faith in Him.

If you are a Christ follower and walking with Him, the need will arise when the Lord would like us to examine our relationship with Christ, and what He has done for us provisionally for the things we may need for following him effectively. We could fill entire libraries of books on what God has provided for us. We would then have to keep adding libraries.

But the point I am making is about how God will arrange events in our lives when we will need to lean on his Spirit and word and his eternal being for our help to move along safely in life. Our dependency on God will grow. If we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father to pray for us. To prepare us for times like this, the Lord admonishes his followers in Deuteronomy to “remember My word. For it is your life….”. Other benefits we see in going to the word are in the gospel of John, are where Jesus says, “My words are Spirit and My words are Life”.  In addition, throughout many Bible passages in scripture is the picture that God’s word is our spiritual food—our living bread. So, we know that leaning on Him and His word is meant to give us spiritual life and nourishment–spiritual daily strength. We know the Lord intends this bread to be eaten by his followers.

To tie together all of these points we see that if we regularly unpack what is in the word of God it will be daily nourishment, it will help us steer away from sin, it will be life for us, and it will help us follow His will. Reading God’s word and seeking to apply it day by day, should safeguard us from sin because it is life from our Life-Giver. These elements will safeguard us as we go to Him for guidance daily along the pathways we must take. 

Keep growing in the Word! LG