Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

Micah’s message alternates between prophecies of doom and prophecies of hope; the theme is divine judgment and deliverance.  God sees, hears and knows all that is going on now and what will happen in the days ahead because He is in control.  We might be down currently in a current crisis of circumstances but we who believe are certainly not out for the count. 

Where does faith fit in with media reports of violence, corruption, war, and terrorism occurring around the world? The prophet Micah reminds us that even when God seems distant and uninvolved, he still cares and offers hope to those who choose to remain faithful to him. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 He always has and always will make our paths straight—back to Him!  What wisdom and assurance!

Micah 4, The Message

The Making of God’s People

^1-4 But when all is said and done,
    God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
    towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
    and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
    Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
    We’ll know how to live God’s way.”

True teaching will issue from Zion,
    God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
    and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
    their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
    quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
    each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
    and he means what he says.

⁵ Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
    picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
    and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.

^6-7 “On that great day,” God says,
    “I will round up all the hurt and homeless,
    everyone I have bruised or banished.
I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.
    I will make a strong nation out of the long lost,
A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action,
    as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity.

⁸ “And you stragglers around Jerusalem,
    eking out a living in shantytowns:
The glory that once was will be again.
    Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”

* * *

^9-10 So why the doomsday hysterics?
    You still have a king, don’t you?
But maybe he’s not doing his job
    and you’re panicked like a woman in labor.
Well, go ahead—twist and scream, Daughter Jerusalem.
    You are like a woman in childbirth.
You’ll soon be out of the city, on your way
    and camping in the open country.
And then you’ll arrive in Babylon.
    What you lost in Jerusalem will be found in Babylon.
God will give you new life again.
    He’ll redeem you from your enemies.

^11-12 But for right now, they’re ganged up against you,
    many godless peoples, saying,
“Kick her when she’s down! Violate her!
    We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.”
These blasphemers have no idea
    what God is thinking and doing in this.
They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people,
    that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.

¹³ On your feet, Daughter of Zion! Be threshed of chaff,
    be refined of dross.
I’m remaking you into a people invincible,
    into God’s juggernaut to crush the godless peoples.
You’ll bring their plunder as holy offerings to God,
    their wealth to the Master of the earth.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Wake up with thanksgiving to God for a new day with Him.

Ask God what He has planned for each day and do that because obedience gives us the gift of His peace and contentment.

When circumstances bring us down, look up to God who knows what we are going through and has already gone before us with His plan of learning and growing through it.

Focus on the benefits of knowing God through communication with God.  Our God bends down to hear every sincere word we say because of His great love for us.  There is no one like our God.

Thank Jesus daily for His work to redeem us, setting us free from the debt of our sins.  Thank Him by trusting Him.  Learn from His teachings that give us a plan for growing in God’s love and compassion for others.

Live, knowing where we are headed.  Jesus is currently preparing a “place” for us with Him in heaven, our forever home.  Don’t get to attached to where we are living right now for the best is yet to come. Be grateful but don’t hang on double fisted to what is temporary.

Believe.  Really believe that what God says is really real.  We can’t go wrong with what is true and right.  God is always up to something new!

Lord,

Thank you for reminding us of what is true about you and our relationship with you.  You are God.  You always were, is and will be God.  You know our comings and goings and you love us unconditionally.  You lift us up when we are brought low.  You take us by the hand and guide us through this life.  You saved us.  There is no one else I trust with my very life—for you are Life!  To you be the glory, honor, and praise!  Forever and ever!

In Jesus Name, Amen…Yes!

We who believe God and trust in what He says to do because we love God are sick at heart when a fellow believer, we work alongside becomes increasingly more arrogant.   We sometimes cringe and look the other way while they become full of themselves but still pretend to love God as if nothing is wrong.  Their thinking and behaving progressively changes while we stand by wondering.

The pretense can go on for years, fooling and betraying others who follow this person’s teaching and believe all is well.  But when the great pretender believes his/her own lies so much he/she can no longer hear God and believe that what they are doing is righteous and good merely because they are doing it, God must step in before many others are hurt by their lies and deception. 

We must examine our hearts’ motivations daily to stay focused on our God who called us to live for Him, love like He loves us so others can see Him in us.  Evil leads us to self-destruction.  God leads us to all that is good for us—His best work in us!  We choose daily who we will serve.  We must choose wisely.

Micah has been called to expose the great pretenders in his day…

Micah 3, The Message

Haters of Good, Lovers of Evil

^1-3 Then I said:

“Listen, leaders of Jacob, leaders of Israel:
    Don’t you know anything of justice?
Haters of good, lovers of evil:
    Isn’t justice in your job description?
But you skin my people alive.
    You rip the meat off their bones.
You break up the bones, chop the meat,
    and throw it in a pot for cannibal stew.”

⁴ The time’s coming, though, when these same leaders
    will cry out for help to God, but he won’t listen.
He’ll turn his face the other way
    because of their history of evil.

* * *

^5-7 Here is God’s Message to the prophets,
    the preachers who lie to my people:
“For as long as they’re well paid and well fed,
    the prophets preach, ‘Isn’t life wonderful! Peace to all!’
But if you don’t pay up and jump on their bandwagon,
    their ‘God bless you’ turns into ‘God damn you.’
Therefore, you’re going blind. You’ll see nothing.
    You’ll live in deep shadows and know nothing.
The sun has set on the prophets.
    They’ve had their day; from now on it’s night.
Visionaries will be confused,
    experts will be all mixed up.
They’ll hide behind their reputations and make lame excuses
    to cover up their God-ignorance.”

* * *

⁸ But me—I’m filled with God’s power,
    filled with God’s Spirit of justice and strength,
Ready to confront Jacob’s crime
    and Israel’s sin.

^9-12 The leaders of Jacob and
    the leaders of Israel are
Leaders contemptuous of justice,
    who twist and distort right living,
Leaders who build Zion by killing people,
    who expand Jerusalem by committing crimes.
Judges sell verdicts to the highest bidder,
    priests mass-market their teaching,
    prophets preach for high fees,
All the while posturing and pretending
    dependence on God:
“We’ve got God on our side.
    He’ll protect us from disaster.”
Because of people like you,
    Zion will be turned back into farmland,
Jerusalem end up as a pile of rubble,
    and instead of the Temple on the mountain,
    a few scraggly scrub pines.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When we fall for self, we are prey for the evil one to do what he does best—lie to us about how great we are.

Micah continued his prophecies to Judah and Jerusalem. He rebuked the present leaders but promised a perfect future leader, Christ.  This leader would bring true justice, love, mercy and grace like that world has never seen before while living a life with no sin having dominion over him.

God promises that one day all weapons of war will be done away with and God’s people will live in total peace. He also told of how a tiny town in Judah would be the birthplace of the Prince of Peace?  That truth is to come later in Micah 5!

I love how Max Lucado describes the love of God and what He desires for those who love Him back:

“One word describes heaven: perfect.

One word describes us: imperfect.

God’s kingdom is perfect, but his children are not, so what is he to do? Abandon us? Start over? He could. But he loves us too much to do that.

Will he tolerate us with our sin nature? Populate heaven with rebellious, self-centered citizens? If so, how would heaven be heaven?

He had a greater plan. “God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:19 NCV).

All the love of God was in Jesus. All the strength of God was in Jesus. All the compassion and power and devotion of God were, for a time, in the earthly body of a carpenter. No wonder the winds obeyed when Jesus spoke; he was God speaking.

No wonder the bacteria fled when Jesus touched the wounds; he was God touching.

No wonder the water held him as he walked; he was God walking.

No wonder the people stood speechless as he taught; he was God teaching.

And no wonder ten thousand angels stood in rapt attention as Jesus was nailed to the cross; he was God dying.

He let people crucify him, for goodness’ sake! He became sin for our sake. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). What started in the Bethlehem cradle culminated on the Jerusalem cross.

Christians should pray for peace and harmony in the world. The Prince of Peace, born in a stable in Bethlehem just as Micah foretold, will one day bring perfect peace to our hurting world. In the meantime, he offers perfect peace to the hearts of those who love him.  (Lucado, “Encouraging Word Bible”)

We are not perfect but we are perfectly forgiven.  God made a Way.

Really believe, repent of pretense, love Him back, love others like He loves in Truth and be saved to live with Him now and forever! 

Lord,

Thank you for your prophets then and now who expose pretenders. Thank you for your Holy Spirit living in us to expose our own pretense in our times of blurred focus on you.  Thank you for the Way back to you that gives life now and forever.  I am forever grateful to you.  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls while restoring the joy of your salvation at work within us.  Thank you, Lord.

In Jesus Name, Amen

As we read the exploits of the bullies who “covet, grab, take and see people as only for what they can get out of them” in Micah’s day of prophecy, we realize that the same evil is happening in our world.  Evil is not creative.  The same ancient tricks of his trade of spreading lies, grabbing souls and turning hearts for himself, causing wars through miscommunications that stem from pride and arrogance and wanting it all for himself still exist. 

We think of whole countries being bullied by a larger country…just because they can.  We think of the internal struggles of the smaller country of Haiti who are rebelling against poverty, looting, taking and grabbing all they can from each other while terrorizing anyone who gets in their way.  When will God have enough of it in our world, in this time and place?  We wonder.  We pray often for resolution and peace for Haiti.  We have been there many times in our past.  We have good friends who work hard in churches and schools to follow God in His ways.  Our hearts are broken for the misery they are going through just to stay alive.  We also think and pray of the struggles of the Ukrainian people who are bullied by Russia.  Our own country is full of bullies, dressed as executives, who use people as step stools for advancement in any organization or group.  This is the playground of life where we all live!

What do we do? It depends on who we are with God.  We must stay close to and focused on the One who wins in the end.  Who is the One? Jesus—Savior and Lord of all who believe!

“…God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.”  Philippians 2:9-11

Micah 2, The Message

God Has Had Enough

^1-5 Doom to those who plot evil,
    who go to bed dreaming up crimes!
As soon as it’s morning,
    they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned.
They covet fields and grab them,
    find homes and take them.
They bully the neighbor and his family,
    see people only for what they can get out of them.

God has had enough. He says,
    “I have some plans of my own:
Disaster because of this interbreeding evil!
    Your necks are on the line.
You’re not walking away from this.
    It’s doomsday for you.
Mocking ballads will be sung of you,
    and you yourselves will sing the blues:
‘Our lives are ruined,
    our homes and lands auctioned off.
They take everything, leave us nothing!
    All is sold to the highest bidder.’”
And there’ll be no one to stand up for you,
    no one to speak for you before God and his jury.

* * *

^6-7 “Don’t preach,” say the preachers.
    “Don’t preach such stuff.
Nothing bad will happen to us.
    Talk like this to the family of Jacob?
Does God lose his temper?
    Is this the way he acts?
Isn’t he on the side of good people?
    Doesn’t he help those who help themselves?”

* * *

^8-11 “What do you mean, ‘good people’!
    You’re the enemy of my people!
You rob unsuspecting people
    out for an evening stroll.
You take their coats off their backs
    like soldiers who plunder the defenseless.
You drive the women of my people
    out of their ample homes.
You make victims of the children
    and leave them vulnerable to violence and vice.
Get out of here, the lot of you.
    You can’t take it easy here!

You’ve polluted this place,
    and now you’re polluted—ruined!
If someone showed up with a good smile and glib tongue
    and told lies from morning to night—
‘I’ll preach sermons that will tell you
    how you can get anything you want from God:
More money, the best wines . . . you name it’—
    you’d hire him on the spot as your preacher!

* * *

^12-13 “I’m calling a meeting, Jacob.
    I want everyone back—all the survivors of Israel.
I’ll get them together in one place—
    like sheep in a fold, like cattle in a corral—
    a milling throng of homebound people!
Then I, God, will burst all confinements
    and lead them out into the open.
They’ll follow their King.
    I will be out in front leading them.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  Matthew 24:6-13

We must turn our focused eyes of faith on Jesus no matter what is happening around us.  Stand firm, calling on the Name of Jesus, to the very end and we will be saved. 

Paul tells followers of Jesus how to live in the meantime…

“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing,so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.”  Philippians 2:12-18

Though the nation of Israel might rebel against God, a faithful remnant would always trust Him and seek to do His will, and God would work because of the faith of this group of faithful believers. (This is true of the professing church today.) The hope of the nation lies with the remnant.

Today, feeling like the “remnant” at times, we need to deal daily with our own sins of covetousness, selfishness, and willingness to believe religious or society’s lies. Sift through what the world says and believe what Jesus says.  “You have heard it said, but I say unto you…” throughout Jesus words of clarification about what God wants is always right and true.  See Matthew 5-7 for help in solidifying our relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords.  Read John for how to live a life of Love.  Then speak the Truth in this Love of God in us.

This is my prayer, In Jesus Name, For His Glory, Amen

Prophets use words to remake the world.  The world—heaven and earth, men and women, animals and birds—was made in the first place by God’s Word.  Prophets arriving on the scene and finding that world in ruins, finding a world of moral rubble and spiritual disorder, take up the work of words again to rebuild what human disobedience and mistrust demolished.  These prophets learn their speech from God.  Their words area God-grounded, God-energized, God-passionate.  As their words enter the language of our communities, men and women find themselves in the presence of God, who enter the mess of human sin to rebuke and renew.

Left to ourselves we turn God into an object, something we can deal with some thing we can use to our benefit, whether that thing is a felling or an idea or an image.  Prophets scorn all such stuff.  They train us to respond to God’s presence and voice.

Micah, the final member of that powerful quartet of writing prophets who burst on the world scene in the eighth century BC (Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos were the others), like virtually all his fellow prophets—those charged with keeping people alive to God and alert to listening to the voice of God—was a master of metaphor.  This means that he used words not simply to define or identify what can be seen, touched, smelled, and heard or tasted, but to plunge us into a world of “presence”.  To experience presence is to enter that far larger world of reality that our sensory experience point to but cannot describe—the realities of love and compassion, justice and faithfulness, sin and evil—and God.  Mostly God.  The realities that are WORD-evoked are where most of the world’s action takes place.  There are no “mere words.” –Eugene Peterson, Introduction to Micah, The Message

Micah 1, The Message

God’s Message as it came to Micah of Moresheth. It came during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. It had to do with what was going on in Samaria and Jerusalem.

God Takes the Witness Stand

² Listen, people—all of you.
    Listen, earth, and everyone in it:
The Master, God, takes the witness stand against you,
    the Master from his Holy Temple.

* * *

^3-5 Look, here he comes! God, from his place!
    He comes down and strides across mountains and hills.
Mountains sink under his feet,
    valleys split apart;
The rock mountains crumble into gravel,
    the river valleys leak like sieves.
All this because of Jacob’s sin,
    because Israel’s family did wrong.
You ask, “So what is Jacob’s sin?”
    Just look at Samaria—isn’t it obvious?
And all the sex-and-religion shrines in Judah—
    isn’t Jerusalem responsible?

* * *

^6-7 “I’m turning Samaria into a heap of rubble,
    a vacant lot littered with garbage.
I’ll dump the stones from her buildings in the valley
    and leave her abandoned foundations exposed.
All her carved and cast gods and goddesses
    will be sold for stove wood and scrap metal,
All her sacred fertility groves
    burned to the ground,
All the sticks and stones she worshiped as gods,
    destroyed.
These were her earnings from her life as a whore.
    This is what happens to the fees of a whore.”

* * *

^8-9 This is why I lament and mourn.
    This is why I go around in rags and barefoot.
This is why I howl like a pack of coyotes,
    and moan like a mournful owl in the night.
God has inflicted punishing wounds;
    Judah has been wounded with no healing in sight.
Judgment has marched through the city gates.
    Jerusalem must face the charges.

* * *

^10-16 Don’t gossip about this in Telltown.
    Don’t waste your tears.
In Dustville,
    roll in the dust.
In Alarmtown,
    the alarm is sounded.
The citizens of Exitburgh
    will never get out alive.
Lament, Last-Stand City:
    There’s nothing in you left standing.
The villagers of Bittertown
    wait in vain for sweet peace.
Harsh judgment has come from God
    and entered Peace City.
All you who live in Chariotville,
    get in your chariots for flight.
You led the daughter of Zion
    into trusting not God but chariots.
Similar sins in Israel
    also got their start in you.
Go ahead and give your good-bye gifts
    to Good-byeville.
Miragetown beckoned
    but disappointed Israel’s kings.
Inheritance City
    has lost its inheritance.
Glorytown
    has seen its last of glory.
Shave your heads in mourning
    over the loss of your precious towns.
Go bald as a goose egg—they’ve gone
    into exile and aren’t coming back.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Warnings are all around us.  There are warning labels on most everything we buy.  We have so many warnings, in fact, that we have become immune to them.  We ignore them until something goes terribly wrong and then we read to find out what we should have or should not have done.  Um, too late then, right?!?

Love cautions the loved.  The book of Micah is a warning. God’s prophet warns of the terrible judgment which awaits all who ignore God. “Be prepared,” he pleads, and then explains how to prepare.

Micah, a prophet from Judah, prophesied to both Israel and Judah. The people told him to be quiet. Micah’s message to the sinful people was not well received because it pointed out the worthless idols that the people worshiped instead of the one true God. They didn’t even realize how dry and faithless they had become.

Read this WORD from Max Lucado who writes of the warnings of our spiritual dryness with how to respond:

“Deprive your soul of spiritual water, and your soul will tell you. Dehydrated hearts send desperate messages. Snarling tempers. Waves of worry. Growling mastodons of guilt and fear. You think God wants you to live with these? Hopelessness. Sleeplessness. Loneliness. Resentment. Irritability. Insecurity. These are warnings. Symptoms of a dryness deep within.

Perhaps you’ve never seen them as such. You’ve thought they, like speed bumps, are a necessary part of the journey. Anxiety, you assume, runs in your genes like eye color. Some people have bad ankles; others, high cholesterol or receding hairlines. And you? You fret.

And moodiness? Everyone has gloomy days, sad Saturdays. Aren’t such emotions inevitable? Absolutely. But unquenchable? No way. View the pains of your heart, not as struggles to endure, but as an inner thirst to slake—proof that something within you is starting to shrivel.

Treat your soul as you treat your thirst. Take a gulp. Imbibe moisture. Flood your heart with a good swallow of water.

Begin by heeding your thirst. Don’t dismiss your loneliness. Don’t deny your anger. Your restless spirit, churning stomach, the sense of dread that turns your armpits into swamplands—these are signal flares exploding in the sky. We could use a little moisture down here! Don’t let your heart shrink into a raisin. For the sake of those who need your love, hydrate your soul!

The world can be a dry and wearying place. In such an environment, concentrated study of God’s Word becomes crucial. An extensive and thorough knowledge of God’s Word is our only means of defense. Begin a habit of studying God’s Word diligently.” –Lucado, Encouraging Word Bible

Most people don’t listen to warnings. Let’s be the exception.

Lord,

Help us pay attention to your loving warnings.  We know we hear your voice above all other voices when we abide in your holy presence waiting for your nod of direction.  It is in communion, that holy conversation with you, that we find your wisdom drenched in your love, wanting the best for our good.  On top of all that our hunger and thirst is satisfied by your gifts of peace and eternal joy in all circumstances.  I trust you, dear Jesus, Bread and Living Water, with my life—all of it. 

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

It is a slippery slope when we, as believers, are angered when a sinner who we don’t think deserves any mercy receives buckets full of grace along with forgiveness.  Even their countenance changes from prideful scorn to humbled, joyful praise for the One who saved them from themselves and turned their lives around.  We are sometimes dismayed.  Why, because these bullies of the faith caused us so many problems! Then they fall down at the feet of Jesus in honest repentance and we are still remember the chaos they caused us before the reversal.  We have been faithful, Lord, they don’t deserve the benefits you are about to give them…they must repay, suffer consequences, live with guilt…something that will help us know this turnaround is real. Mmm…

We wonder why Jonah is yelling at God for saving the people he didn’t think could or should be saved.  Is his hate for them justified? 

But wait, what if God gave us exactly what we deserve?

Jonah 4, The Message

^1-2 Jonah was furious. He lost his temper. He yelled at God, “God! I knew it—when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness!

³ “So, God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!”

⁴ God said, “What do you have to be angry about?”

⁵ But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.

⁶ God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.

^7-8 But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away. The sun came up and God sent a hot, blistering wind from the east. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head and he started to faint. He prayed to die: “I’m better off dead!”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “What right do you have to get angry about this shade tree?”

Jonah said, “Plenty of right. It’s made me angry enough to die!”

^10-11 God said, “What’s this? How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get? You neither planted nor watered it. It grew up one night and died the next night. So, why can’t I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure, this big city of more than 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the innocent animals?”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God knows the minds of all His created.  Some take longer to change their minds about having a relationship with God.  Some don’t know enough about who God is so they don’t know that what they are missing in their lives, so they keep searching until they find Him.  Some know enough to know that life is not what they want or need.  Some will bully those who seem to have peace, joy and love in ways not understood by them—yet.  The search for meaning and significance plays out in a variety of ways…anger, pride, envy, arrogance and jealousy because of fear and lack of real love and belonging has not been found. 

How we respond could change a life or destroy it.  Read that again.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ story about the workers hired at various times of the day to work in the Vineyard.  Some were hired early in the morning and worked a full day in the hot sun.  Some were hired at noon.  Others in the last hours of the day.  ALL were paid the same at the end of the day.  Doesn’t seem fair, does it?  The followers of Jesus didn’t think so, either.  But here’s what Jesus said as He explained what Kingdom of God thinking is like which is different that what our world thinks…

“When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”  Matthew 20:10-16, NLT

Here’s the bottom line:  God does not give us what we deserve. He has drenched his world in grace. It has no end. It knows no limits. It empowers this life and enables us to live the next. God offers second chances, like a soup kitchen offers meals to everyone who asks. And that includes you.  It includes me. 

So, when a lost soul accepts the grace of God through repentance in Jesus Name, may our first thought be heart filled, “YES!” while extending hugs of mercy and grace from the spiritual arms of Jesus through our physical arms of love!  When we do we join all the angels in heave who respond in praise for one lost soul who has found the way to home to God, the Father.

Jesus said, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10). Why do they rejoice? Not because they’re surprised, but because a great victory has been won! 

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.”  2 Peter 3:9, MSG

Lord, God of Heaven and Earth,

Thank you for not giving us what we deserve!  Thank you for saving our souls and making us whole again while helping us point the Way to others.  Thank you for teaching us your word so we can speak Truth in love with clarity, making the most of every opportunity.  Thank you for the angels who shout with joy over every soul who repents and believes!  Thank you for cleansing our hearts of what is not right to think or do. Thank you for renewing and transforming our minds today. Thank you for refreshing our souls. Thank you for daily restoring the joy of your salvation at work within us!  I love you, Lord.  I love how you think and what you think of us.  Thank you for loving all of us they way you do.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!!   

It has been proven to me repeatedly, through God’s Word in the lives of the repentant and in my own life, that when we are at our worst and lowest, our prayers become more honest and sincere.  God bends down to hear our honest cry for help.  Kneeling before God in the ashes of regret and remorse for our sins draws us as close the heart of God as we can get. 

When we really mean, “I’m sorry, Lord, forgive me”—God hears and lifts us up, out of the ashes and dirt of sin and puts us back on our feet with a cleansed heart, renewed thinking and refreshed soul that bring joy to our being as never before.  This is what is meant when people say God lifted them from ashes to beauty and from dark to Light!  Since God so loved the world and sent His Son to redeem us of all sins, it is also His desire that “no one perish” so He sends the redeemed to tell others of His saving grace through repentance.

God is in control. Nothing escapes the notice of God.  God created all, is in all and above all.  God is sovereign.  God knows our hearts and minds, looking for honesty and devoted commitment to Him.

God can and does change His mind throughout history when it comes to rearranging the world in order to save it.  The question I ponder though is:  Did God change His mind or did men and women change their minds in ways they could hear him again?  One thing I do know because of my own relationship and experience with God:  God pulls us to Himself, He wants us to love Him back without force or coercion on His part, and wants to save us from the sins of evil (God’s enemy) we succumb to by forgiving us.  When we finally come to the end of ourselves, God is there waiting patiently to forgive and fill us with His love again.  Without God, there is an emptiness that can filled only by God, our Creator, who created mankind to be in communion (relationship) with Him.

Jonah 3, The Message

Maybe God Will Change His Mind

^1-2 Next, God spoke to Jonah a second time: “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.”

³ This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying God’s orders to the letter.

Nineveh was a big city, very big—it took three days to walk across it.

⁴ Jonah entered the city, went one day’s walk and preached, “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed.”

⁵ The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers.

^6-9 When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: “Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands. Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!”

¹⁰ God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do.

WHAT DO WE LEARAN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When we think sinful people will not possibly listen to God’s message of salvation, we need to rethink.  We need to realize that if God sends us to speak to someone or a group of people that means HE has gone before us to prepare hearts in ways we have not seen.  God knew the people of Ninevah were ready to hear the call to repentance with prepared hearts ready to turn back around to God, leaving their sinful lives behind.

I’m reminded of a little girl in my Sunday School class who just heard that her friend accepted Jesus the Sunday before when she was not there.  She looked up at me, her teacher, and said, “Well, I have been waiting to do that for a looong time!”  I told her the plan of salvation which she readily accepted because God had prepared her heart. I learned my lesson that day, too!  Be ready to share how to be saved in Jesus Name at all times!

Friends, it’s all God, all about God, done in Jesus Name, Who saves us all.  Lessons will be learned but will not make sense until we give our hearts, minds, and souls to Jesus. Be sensitive to God’s Holy Spirit, even more than the lesson before you that you have been given to teach.  God prepares hearts, yours and mine, and those hearts and minds He sends us to share His Good News of Salvation.  Will some say no?  Yes, because God created us with free will to choose Him or not.  But, God’s Word also says that planting seeds of Truth will not be in vain.  Keep spreading the news…

Jonah finally obeyed God and preached in Nineveh. The people and their king responded immediately, and God had compassion on them.

God’s words can have a transforming effect on people, causing them to repent from their sins. He is willing to pardon all who come to him.

God’s mercy is amazing. He offers second chances, pardons, grace. If God tells you to speak to others about their actions, take courage. You might be surprised at how many accept your words of testimony about God and repent.

Believe and be saved. 

Lord,

Thank you for these thoughts for today as we study the life of Jonah. Prepare our hearts to share your message to those you are preparing.  Help us hear your voice above all others voices and follow your lead in your way in your time.  For your ways are perfect. Thank you for saving my soul and continually transforming my mind.  I love you with all that is in me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.  Psalm 139:7-8

We are more like Jonah that we care to admit.  We see injustice.  We pray for resolution.  Then God, in his wisdom, sends us over to the enemy with a message of love, mercy, and grace so the Truth they really seek is heard.  “But God, they will not hear your words, much less repent and obey you!  Why bother with them”?  “Lord, Don’t make us do that, say that, or be nice to those who mock us for our faith,” we respond with whiney defiance due to fear, anger or both. 

Like Jonah, we feel like running away from it all to avoid the confrontation, resulting persecutions, or other offensive behaviors.  “You don’t understand, God, how hateful humans can be!”  But then again, I was once lost and you brought me back. So maybe God does know.  Just ask Jesus!

Jonah 2, The Message

At the Bottom of the Sea

^1-9 Then Jonah prayed to his God from the belly of the fish.

He prayed:

“In trouble, deep trouble, I prayed to God.
    He answered me.
From the belly of the grave I cried, ‘Help!’
    You heard my cry.
You threw me into ocean’s depths,
    into a watery grave,
With ocean waves, ocean breakers
    crashing over me.
I said, ‘I’ve been thrown away,
    thrown out, out of your sight.
I’ll never again lay eyes
    on your Holy Temple.’
Ocean gripped me by the throat.
    The ancient Abyss grabbed me and held tight.
My head was all tangled in seaweed
    at the bottom of the sea where the mountains take root.
I was as far down as a body can go,
    and the gates were slamming shut behind me forever—
Yet you pulled me up from that grave alive,
    O God, my God!
When my life was slipping away,
    I remembered God,
And my prayer got through to you,
    made it all the way to your Holy Temple.

Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds,
    walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God,
    calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do!
    Salvation belongs to God!”

¹⁰ Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God told Jonah to preach to the Assyrians in Nineveh. Jonah knew that if he preached to them, they would have an opportunity to avoid God’s wrath. Jonah hoped to see these enemies punished by God, so he ran away.  Jonah did not WANT to deliver God’s message to those he hated and feared.

Jonah teaches us the truth of running away from God—it cannot be done!  God’s dominion extends everywhere. And no matter how far you run, God loves you and wants to bring you back.  We disobey, but God has ways of bringing us back.  Why?  Because of His relentless, unending, unshakeable, unconditional love for each one of us.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Romans 8:35 NIV

Consider what has been done for us.  Jesus was tormented, whipped with metal chords, mocked, beaten, and then nailed to a cross.  The cross was then put in place on a hill for all to see to humiliate the perpetrator (the Roman way) although Jesus never sinned or did anything wrong.  But Jesus became sin by taking all our sins with him to that cross so that our sins could be removed from us—free from punishment and humiliation.  He paid our debt off in full! 

But that’s not all!  Jesus then went done to the depths of hell for us, victoriously defeated the enemy called death, came back to life by rising again on that third day—just as He said He would.  This is love.  Jesus never argued with God, telling His Father that we did not deserve it.  Instead, Jesus obeyed God and we who believe are set free.

Yes, this act of obedience by Jesus proved the full extent of God’s love by taking on the sins of the world then, now and for all the sins to come.  Paid in full.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Paul, stopped by Jesus, saved by grace on the road to Damascus, before persecuting new believers is Christ, had this to say about the love of God; 

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:31-39, NLT  (Emphasis mine)

Obviously, God’s love was very personal to Paul, who experienced the love of Jesus quite dramatically!  See the book of Acts for Paul’s life transforming story—all because of the relentless love of God!

So back to Jonah…God loved Jonah.  He made a way for Jonah to be kept safe until Jonah realized who loved him most with further realization that he must obey God even when he doesn’t “feel” like it is worth the effort.  In the wait, God protected him.  In the wait, God changed his heart.  In the wait, Jonah declared once more that God was his God and that he knew what He was doing.  In the wait, Jonah worshiped God.  In the wait, Jonah loved God back. 

“Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds, walk away from their only true love.
But I’m worshiping you, God, calling out in thanksgiving!
And I’ll do what I promised I’d do! Salvation belongs to God!”

Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.

Jonah is brought back to God by God in an incredible way.  After three days, Jonah is ready to obey the One who loves him most and best!

Lord,

We run from you in all kinds of ways.  We procrastinate telling someone of your salvation as we wonder if they will hear and accept.  I have learned that it is you who picks the person, time, and place and we must obey quickly before the opportunity passes us by.  Thank you for speaking Truth to my heart today.  Help me to love like you love. 

In Jesus Name, Amen

Run to God, not away from God! 

And we’re singing…Glorious Day!

I was buried beneath my shame
Who could carry that kind of weight
It was my tomb
Till I met You

I was breathing but not alive
All my failures I tried to hide
It was my tomb
Till I met You

You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

Now Your mercy has saved my soul
Now Your freedom is all I know
The old made new
Jesus, when I met You

You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

I needed rescue
My sin was heavy
But chains break at the weight of Your glory
I needed shelter
I was an orphan
Now You call me a citizen of heaven
When I was broken
You were my healing
Your love is the air that I’m breathing
I have a future
My eyes are open

You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day!

“You know when I sit down or stand up.
    You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
    and when I rest at home.
    You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
    even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me.
    You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too great for me to understand!

I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
    and the light around me to become night—
   but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.”  Psalm 139:2-12

Years ago, exhausted from the ministry of church as well as directing a youth camp, Randy and I loaded up kids and camping gear to get away from it all.  We just wanted to rest and be with our own kids for a while.  We loaded up the camper, hoping to find a place away from people.  We arrived a campsite and thanked God because no one else was camping on either side of us.  We made our beds for the night and got all cozy. Our kids had already fallen asleep.   We were about to doze off ourselves when we heard people moving into the campsite next to us in the dark of night.  We looked out our camper windows to see an enthusiastic youth group piling out of vehicles ready to rock and roll for God around a campfire. 

So, no, there is no getting away, hiding, or being without God.  Fortunately, the group was not obnoxious.  That last song sung was Kumbaya—Come by here.  Randy and I giggled at the irony and humor of our God as we drifted off to sleep.  We were so tired; nothing was going to keep us from rest.  God knew that. 

We now come to a whale of a story about a reluctant prophet, a man who tried to get away from what God was asking him to be and do.  But, get this—even in his running away attempt, men who steered the ship in a storm are introduced to God.  They end up falling on their knees, praying, repenting and then worshiping the very God who Jonah was trying to get away from!  Do you see the irony in this alone?  If God asks you to be and do what He created you to be and do; He will provide a way (beyond our wildest thinking) to get it done.  And that’s not all!  God will bring people to see Him for who He really is in the process! 

Did Jonah know the words to Psalm 139 and did he repeat them as he was thrown overboard; “I can never escape from your Spirit!  I can never get away from your presence! —adding, not even if I am swallowed by a whale and end up residing in its belly, you are there!”

Jonah 1, The Message

Running Away from God

 ^1-2 One day long ago, God’s Word came to Jonah, Amittai’s son: “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.”

³ But Jonah got up and went the other direction to Tarshish, running away from God. He went down to the port of Joppa and found a ship headed for Tarshish. He paid the fare and went on board, joining those going to Tarshish—as far away from God as he could get.

^4-6 But God sent a huge storm at sea, the waves towering.

The ship was about to break into pieces. The sailors were terrified. They called out in desperation to their gods. They threw everything they were carrying overboard to lighten the ship. Meanwhile, Jonah had gone down into the hold of the ship to take a nap. He was sound asleep. The captain came to him and said, “What’s this? Sleeping! Get up! Pray to your god! Maybe your god will see we’re in trouble and rescue us.”

⁷ Then the sailors said to one another, “Let’s get to the bottom of this. Let’s draw straws to identify the culprit on this ship who’s responsible for this disaster.”

So they drew straws. Jonah got the short straw.

⁸ Then they grilled him: “Confess. Why this disaster? What is your work? Where do you come from? What country? What family?”

⁹ He told them, “I’m a Hebrew. I worship God, the God of heaven who made sea and land.”

¹⁰ At that, the men were frightened, really frightened, and said, “What on earth have you done!” As Jonah talked, the sailors realized that he was running away from God.

¹¹ They said to him, “What are we going to do with you—to get rid of this storm?” By this time the sea was wild, totally out of control.

¹² Jonah said, “Throw me overboard, into the sea. Then the storm will stop. It’s all my fault. I’m the cause of the storm. Get rid of me and you’ll get rid of the storm.”

¹³ But no. The men tried rowing back to shore. They made no headway. The storm only got worse and worse, wild and raging.

¹⁴ Then they prayed to God, “O God! Don’t let us drown because of this man’s life, and don’t blame us for his death. You are God. Do what you think is best.”

¹⁵ They took Jonah and threw him overboard. Immediately the sea was quieted down.

¹⁶ The sailors were impressed, no longer terrified by the sea, but in awe of God. They worshiped God, offered a sacrifice, and made vows.

¹⁷ Then God assigned a huge fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was in the fish’s belly three days and nights.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jonah had every right to run (he thought). Why should he go to that stinking city? He hated the place. Why should he warn the Ninevites about God’s judgment? After how they had treated his people, they deserved to be wiped out. The last thing Jonah wanted was for his enemies to receive God’s blessing.

So he ran . . . as fast and as far as he could away from what God wanted him to do.

But God had other plans.  There’s more to the story; but for now thank God for what He is doing in our lives right now.

We can be so difficult.

But God can be so patient.

The book of Jonah is more than a fascinating account of one man’s futile attempt to run away from God. It is a story of God’s love for even the most unlovable, despicable people we can imagine—and of our responsibility to tell them the Good News.

And God?  God can do, did and does some pretty amazing things in just three days—like saving the world through Jesus Christ, His son, who on the third day defeated death and ran out that grave where men thought they had him forever bound. 

There is no place where we can go that God is not there.  I praise God for that knowledge and of His knowing me better than I know myself and loving me anyway.

Lord,

Thank you for fresh insight into this story of redemption and obedience of Jonah who finally ran to you instead of away from you.  We find ourselves doing the same at times. Thank you for time to realize who you are, time to mull over what you are asking of us, then the energy to run to you knowing that you never left us.  Help us to trust and obey for there’s truly no other way to be happy (like the song says) and joyful in you, but to trust and obey.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

“It takes the entire Bible to read any part of the Bible.  Even the brief walk-on appearance of Obadiah has its place.  No one, whether in or out of the Bible, is without significance.   It was Obadiah’s assignment to give voice to God’s word of judgment against Edom.

Back in the early stages of the biblical narrative, we are told the story of the twins Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25-36).  They came out of the womb fighting.  Jacob was ancestor to the people of Israel, Esau ancestor to the people of Edom.  The two neighboring peoples, Israel mostly to the west of the Jordan River and Dead Sea and Edom to the southwest, never did get along.  They had a long history of war and rivalry.  When Israel was taken into exile—first the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721BC—Edom stood across the fence and watched, glad to see her old relative get beat up.

At first reading, this brief but intense prophecy of Obadiah, targeted at Edom, is a broadside indictment of Edom’s cruel injustice to God’s chosen people.  Edom is the villain and God’s covenant people the victim.

But the last line of the prophecy takes a giant step out of the centuries of hate and rivalry and invective.  Israel, so often a victim of Edomite aggression through the centuries, is suddenly revealed to be saved from the injustices of the past and taking up a position of rule over their ancient enemies the Edomites.  But instead of doing to others what had been done to them and continuing the cycle of violence that they had been caught in, they are presented as taking over the reins of government and administering God’s justice justly.  They find themselves in a new context—God’s Kingdom—and realize that they have a new vocation—to represent God’s rule.  It is not much (one verse out of twenty-one), but it is a glimmer (it is the final verse!).

On the Day of Judgment, dark retaliation and invective do not get the last word.  Only the first rays of the light of justice appear here. But these rays will eventually add up to the kingdom of light, in which all nations will be judged justly from the eternal throne in heaven.”  –Eugene Peterson, Introduction of Obadiah, The Message

Obadiah 1, The Message

Your World Will Collapse

¹ Obadiah’s Message to Edom
    from God, the Master.
We got the news straight from God
    by a special messenger sent out to the godless nations:

“On your feet, prepare for battle;
    get ready to make war on Edom!

* * *

^2-4 “Listen to this, Edom:
    I’m turning you to a no-account,
    the runt of the godless nations, despised.
You thought you were so great,
    perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain,
Thinking to yourself,
    ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!’
Think again. Even if, like an eagle,
    you hang out on a high cliff-face,
Even if you build your nest in the stars,
    I’ll bring you down to earth.”
        God’s sure Word.

^5-14 “If thieves crept up on you,
    they’d rob you blind—isn’t that so?
If they mugged you on the streets at night,
    they’d pick you clean—isn’t that so?
Oh, they’ll take Esau apart, piece by piece,
    empty his purse and pockets.
All your old partners will drive you to the edge.
    Your old friends will lie to your face.
Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back.
    Your world will collapse. You won’t know what hit you.
So don’t be surprised”—it’s God’s sure Word!—
    “when I wipe out all sages from Edom
    and rid the Esau mountains of its famous wise men.
Your great heroes will desert you, Teman.
    There’ll be nobody left in Esau’s mountains.
Because of the murderous history compiled
    against your brother Jacob,
You will be looked down on by everyone.
    You’ll lose your place in history.
On that day you stood there and didn’t do anything.
    Strangers took your brother’s army into exile.

Godless foreigners invaded and pillaged Jerusalem.
    You stood there and watched.
    You were as bad as they were.
You shouldn’t have gloated over your brother
    when he was down-and-out.
You shouldn’t have laughed and joked at Judah’s sons
    when they were facedown in the mud.
You shouldn’t have talked so big
    when everything was so bad.
You shouldn’t have taken advantage of my people
    when their lives had fallen apart.
You of all people should not have been amused
    by their troubles, their wrecked nation.
You shouldn’t have taken the shirt off their back
    when they were knocked flat, defenseless.
And you shouldn’t have stood waiting at the outskirts
    and cut off refugees,
And traitorously turned in helpless survivors
    who had lost everything.

* * *

^15-18 “God’s Judgment Day is near
    for all the godless nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
    What you did will boomerang back
    and hit your own head.
Just as you partied on my holy mountain,
    all the godless nations will drink God’s wrath.
They’ll drink and drink and drink—
    they’ll drink themselves to death.
But not so on Mount Zion—there’s respite there!
    a safe and holy place!
The family of Jacob will take back their possessions
    from those who took them from them.
That’s when the family of Jacob will catch fire,
    the family of Joseph become fierce flame,
    while the family of Esau will be straw.
Esau will go up in flames,
    nothing left of Esau but a pile of ashes.”
        God said it, and it is so.

* * *

^19-21 People from the south will take over the Esau mountains;
    people from the foothills will overrun the Philistines.
They’ll take the farms of Ephraim and Samaria,
    and Benjamin will take Gilead.
Earlier, Israelite exiles will come back
    and take Canaanite land to the north at Zarephath.
Jerusalem exiles from the far northwest in Sepharad
    will come back and take the cities in the south.
The remnant of the saved in Mount Zion
    will go into the mountains of Esau
And rule justly and fairly,
    a rule that honors God’s kingdom.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

• What we dish out will boomerang back on us causing the same pain and humility. 
• Be careful what’s on the menu of our discussions and resulting behaviors.  It’s is too easy to talk about the demise of others who have fallen when you are in pain fighting your own sins and injustices.
• Don’t take advantage of people when their lives are falling apart.  They need love, help and encouragement, not judgement and instruction at that point.  “I told you so…” is not helpful.  Most people beat up themselves before you get there.
• Don’t stand by and watch bullies take out your enemy.  Stand up for what God says is right and helpful.

God saves the remnant of His family, His Chosen.  God’s children, the Jews, weren’t the best of children. They were stubborn, rebellious, and forgetful. Over the years God dished out the discipline and correction. But through all the stresses and strains, God’s love for his children was stubborn.

Edom, a powerful nation, enjoyed picking on Israel. Here in Obadiah, we see God rising to the defense of his children. He says, in effect, “Mess with them and you mess with me.”  Obadiah is a small book with a huge message. God cares for his children.

Stand up for and with those trying to follow Jesus.  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  We all need each other.  We are all significant in God’s Kingdom.  Just ask Him, He will tell you the Truth of His relentless love for us. 

I have read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation quite a few times now and this I understand clearly:  God just wants us to love Him back and trust Him with our lives!

Lord,

Thank you for your Word that reminds us of your love, mercy and grace.  I repent of talking out of line when a brother falls to sin.  I pray for salvation and help for that brother right now.  Continue to transform my thinking that changes my ways of behaving.

In Jesus Name, Amen

You are fighting with siblings, mocking each other, playing pranks that cross the line, while you get close to annihilating each other as kids growing up in any given household.  Who steps in and lays down the law?  Who cares enough to stop the madness so you won’t kill each other?  Who proclaims the message to cease the destruction and chaos with consequences that will happen if you do not?  It is probably the parents, teachers, or grandparents—the ones in authority over you who love and care for us most.  It grieves parents when their kids do not get along and want to hurt each other. 

When kids question the resulting discipline, they ask why?  What do parents say?  “Because I said so.”  That meant the discussion is over.  The whiny and weak excuses for disobedience are no longer heard.  It’s a judgement call.

It’s also breaks the heart of our Father God when we fight with our brothers and sisters.  God stands ready with blessings of growing in His character with heaping amounts of His love to all who call on Him for help and correction with guidance with direction.  Refusing to stop our destructive habits will soon destroy us and those around us. So, God will step in to correct the situation because there is always someone praying for help who sees, believes, and is affected by the evil.  When God does step in with discipline, administered with love, mercy and grace, we should not question when God says, “Because I said so.”  God’s decree.

Amos 9, The Message

Israel Thrown into a Sieve

^1-4 I saw my Master standing beside the altar at the shrine. He said:

“Hit the tops of the shrine’s pillars,
    make the floor shake.
The roof’s about to fall on the heads of the people,
    and whoever’s still alive, I’ll kill.
No one will get away,
    no runaways will make it.
If they dig their way down into the underworld,
    I’ll find them and bring them up.
If they climb to the stars,
    I’ll find them and bring them down.
If they hide out at the top of Mount Carmel,
    I’ll find them and bring them back.
If they dive to the bottom of the ocean,
    I’ll send Dragon to swallow them up.
If they’re captured alive by their enemies,
    I’ll send Sword to kill them.
I’ve made up my mind
    to hurt them, not help them.”

^5-6 My Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    touches the earth, a mere touch, and it trembles.
    The whole world goes into mourning.
Earth swells like the Nile at flood stage;
    then the water subsides, like the great Nile of Egypt.
God builds his palace—towers soaring high in the skies,
    foundations set on the rock-firm earth.
He calls ocean waters and they come,
    then he ladles them out on the earth.
        God, your God, does all this.

* * *

^7-8 “Do you Israelites think you’re any better than the far-off Cushites?” God’s Decree.

“Am I not involved with all nations? Didn’t I bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, the Arameans from Qir? But you can be sure that I, God, the Master, have my eye on the Kingdom of Sin. I’m going to wipe it off the face of the earth. Still, I won’t totally destroy the family of Jacob.” God’s Decree.

^9-10 “I’m still giving the orders around here. I’m throwing Israel into a sieve among all the nations and shaking them good, shaking out all the sin, all the sinners. No real grain will be lost, but all the sinners will be sifted out and thrown away, the people who say, ‘Nothing bad will ever happen in our lifetime. It won’t even come close.’

Blessings Like Wine Pouring off the Mountains

^11-12 “But also on that Judgment Day I will restore David’s house that has fallen to pieces. I’ll repair the holes in the roof, replace the broken windows, fix it up like new. David’s people will be strong again and seize what’s left of enemy Edom, plus everyone else under my sovereign judgment.” God’s Decree. He will do this.

^13-15 “Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree.

“Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people Israel:

    “They’ll rebuild their ruined cities.
    They’ll plant vineyards and drink good wine.
    They’ll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables.
    And I’ll plant them, plant them on their own land.
    They’ll never again be uprooted from the land I’ve given them.”

God, your God, says so.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

This final chapter of the book shares four affirmations from the heart of the Lord—three of which deal with judgment and the fourth with mercy.

• They couldn’t hide from God on the highest mountain or in the depths of the sea (see Psalm 139:7–12).  We cannot hide from God. 
• Amos reminded the people of the greatness of the God they thought they were worshiping.
• He is the God of creation, who can melt the earth with a touch and make the land rise and fall like the swelling of the River of Egypt. He controls the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and no one can stay His hand.
• God is always the God of mercy, who will keep His covenant with Abraham and his descendants and not destroy the nation. The nations would be sifted, and the sinners punished, but not one of His true worshipers would be lost. God always watches over the believing remnant so that they might fulfill His will on the earth.

One day, God will restore, repair, and rebuild the dynasty of David and establish the kingdom He promised. When Jesus Christ comes again, the breach between Israel and Judah will be healed, and there will be one nation submitted to one king. God will bless the land and the people, and His people shall live in peace and security. It will be a time of peace and prosperity to the glory of the Lord.

Because Jesus carried all the sins of the world to the cross and crucified them there, we who believe that He did and repent of our sins in His Name are saved.  We are redeemed.  All that was broken is refreshed and restored to a new life with Him.

God will restore what is broken when we turn from evil and call on Him for help.  There is no one so broken that God cannot restore. There is nothing that God cannot do.

Because God said so!  God’s decree.

Lord,

Thank you for saving my soul, repairing what was broken, while restoring the joy and peace of your salvation at work in me daily.  Thank you teaching me.  Thank you for guidance, correction, comfort, affirmation, encouragement and reminders of your love, mercy and grace because of your Holy Spirit living in me.  I’m not where I want to be but I’m closer to you than before.  Thank you for your love, patience, mercy and grace for me.

In Jesus Name, Amen