Handfuls On Purpose

Handfuls on Purpose

“And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.” (Ruth 2:16)

Our Lord allows His reapers to drop “handfuls on purpose” for us. We glean handfuls of blessings freely because the Lord is gracious. As we walk through the fields of life, we are greatly blessed to hap upon the field of the Lord; He is most gracious in dropping down handfuls of blessings for us every day, and seeing to it that our needs are met. He is rich and has plenty, and gives liberally of His abundance; He loves us because He is the essence of love, and indeed, He is love. We are His next of kin, therefore He feeds us with morsels of love dropped from the hand of the Lord, but we must stay in His field, lest we forfeit this special grace; we must follow after His reapers, and glean the morsels that fall to us, and sift them through the sieve of his grace lest tares enter in to destroy our fruit.

10/29 Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53

We see here a clear presentation of the Gospel, even way back in Isaiah’s time. In this short chapter we see a certain progression that is important in the understanding of the sacrificial death of our Lord. The narrative begins with his life before Calvary; it "peaks" in v. vs. 7-9, and then reigns victoriously toward the close of the chapter. The Gospel is clearly seen in these verses.
We have first: the people whom the Lord is seeking, (v. 1):

The obscurity of the “seeker”, (v. 2): The rejection of His deity by men (v. 3):
The prophetic message of the Messiah, (v. 4):

The message of the sacrificial Lamb for all mankind, (v. 5):

The wretchedness of man and his need for redemption, (v. 6):

The suffering, death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf (vs. 7-9):

The invitation to man (v. 10):

The victory of the Savior and man over sin, (v. 11):

And the will of God completed to His own glory, (v. 12)

What a blessed and prophetic chapter that speaks of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let My People Go!

And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. (Ex. 5:1)

This command still rings off the portals of time; Satan is commanded by God today, to let His people go. It seems that the devil has a death grip on mankind—one that can only be loosed by the Lord Himself, at Calvary. Though Jesus broke the “spell” that Satan has on men, many will not heed the call to go, and commune with the Lord, and sup with Him. Pharaoh did let God’s people go, after much persuading, and today we are free to worship the Lord according to His Word. There is, however, another application for us in this passage—Satan has the church bound up in his trap, and will not let her go.

Collectively, and individually, Satan has the church in his grip again. He has a foothold on us, and we are desperate to be free from his grasp; but there is no freedom from the bondage of sin, aside from the Lord Jesus Christ. Though the devil does not own the souls of men when they accept Christ as Savior, he still has a hold on our lives. Why? Because we are but flesh. Our flesh appeals to him, and he appeals to our flesh. The only solution is to mortify the deeds of the flesh through the Spirit of God; and we cannot do this until Christ gives the command “Let my people go!” He does give that command the instant we accept Him as our Savior, but then we, like many of the children of Israel, long for the memory of “Egypt” and return to our old sinful ways. Yes, the flesh can be our enemy; it seeks to return into bondage, and enjoy the leeks of Egypt once again. Oh that we might mortify the body, and drink from the well of Living waters, and eat from the Manna that came down from heaven, that Manna being the Lord Himself. He is the “Bread of life” to all who hunger and the Waters of life to all that thirst. We must eat from His harvest daily, and bask in the solitude of His grace; only then can we find peace and rest in the walk of life, and only then can we be set free in the flesh. Galations 5:16 says “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Friends, we owe it to our Lord to walk in the Spirit, after all, it was He that set us free in the first place, and we owe Him our lives.

Wavering Faith

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” (James 1:6)

There is a general faith, i. e. the faith that allows us entrance into Calvary and the eternal realm, then there is a daily faith that we must choose to exercise. Though the immediate text refers to asking God for wisdom, the latter part of the text is true in all applications. We must chose faith in our daily walk with the Lord; we must take Him at His Word. Why would the Lord give us so many promises if He did not expect us to employ them? And yet, every promise has a condition—the condition of faith. Why are we so doubtful about the blessings and watch-care of God when He promises us many times that He will provide? Anything that we ask of Him ought to be done in faith, and not wavering; we need to determine to believe, and cast out doubt when it comes upon us. Do we truly believe that the Lord will provide all our needs? (Phil. 4: 19); Do we really believe that He will answer our prayers as He has promised to do? (1 Jn. 5:14,15 and many others). Isn’t it about time that we became a people of faith, and learned to trust God in our daily walk? Remember the scriptures, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17)

WATCH!

Some things we need to guard in our Chrisitan walk:

Watch
Actions
Thoughts
Companions
Hearts

Jealousy

Jealousy

Is it really wrong to be jealous? Didn’t God Himself say that He was a jealous God? I believe that it is all right to be jealous, but not to an extreme. In fact, I’ll go a little further and say that we should be at least a little jealous—it shows that we care! Man is naturally possessive; we are possessive of our wife, our children, our pets, everything we consider dear to us, we are possessive of, and jealous for. Though society has been critical of a jealous relationship, we must realize that we are not conformed to societies’ standards, neither their “philosophies”. Since when did society dictate our actions and standings with the Lord? We ought to be jealous of our loved ones; if we are not, perhaps we do not love them enough, or in the proper way! Ten times in scripture, the Lord claims that He is a jealous God, or is referred to as jealous by others. Are we better than Him? I know that we are not. We can be jealous of our wives, and we can be jealous for our Lord. That is not to say that we do not trust them, but that we do not want others to abuse them, or desire to morally or ethically harm them; jealousy has nothing to do with trusting their fidelity.

Psalms 1:1,2

Not only is this man "blessed" but he is wise, his wisdom leads to his blessing. He walks not; stands not; and sits not in the evil way.
Note the progression, walking, then standing, then sitting. Sin always leads in a downward path, and it will bring us to a standstill in our lives. We quit growing when we indulge in sin, and, if not lose ground, we don't gain anything toward God or growth in Him. Our life becomes stagnant. Anything that becomes stagnant is subject to corruption; it is the life, and growth that keeps us going. An illustration would be stagnant water, it turns green and begins to smell very rank after a time. It is not good for much of anything, definitely not for the purpose which it was given.
Especially in counsel we need to be wise. Too many seek counsel in the wrong places. Bad counsel will cause us to stand in the way of sinners, and sit in the seat of the scornful. Seek only Godly counsel, for what have we to do with the ungodly? Experience is not always the wisest counselor, many men have experienced much, and can give great swelling words of testimony, but their counsel is ungodly, and therefore unprofitable.
"But his delight" ought to be in nothing but the "law of the Lord." It takes time to "delight" in the Word of God, but diligence will lead us to delight. The way to diligence is to "meditate" in it "day and night." You cannot help but grow fond of something that is on your mind constantly, and is a matter of prayer, especially when you know it is good. There is a special blessing to all who do so. Keeping our minds on Christ is a command in the scripture, and a great benefit to us. (See Col. 3:1)
There is an old saying that "familiarity breeds contempt" but not so with the Word of God! Familiarity breeds love, the exact opposite of contempt! The more we become familiar with the Word of God, the better it seems to get. The better we get.

Bible Paradoxes

The Bible is full of paradoxes. There are many such paradox in the New Testament, as well as the Old, and almost too many to quote in this short expose of the Word of God. Even the age-old argument of the sovereignty of God vs the free will of man is a paradox that can be reconciled only when seen from each viewpoint on its own merit.
A paradox is a sentence which consists of two separate statements, each of which is true considered in itself, but which appear contradictory when laid side by side; they are combined and harmonized by some deeper truth that is often seen inside of each. One well known example of a paradox is seen in Mt. 16:25: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” So, you see that there are many others that are too numerous to mention. With that said, let us consider the sovereignty of God and the free will of man—both sides being true, we cannot reconcile the two in our minds when laid side by side, and compared with one another. Taking them “line upon line, and precept upon precept” however, we see the entire picture and the amazing truth of both sides of the question. We are saved totally by grace, and none of ourselves, and yet, we must act upon the faith that is given unto us, and aim it in the right direction. It doesn’t make sense that both seemingly conflicting truths can be true, but they are; we have not yet figured God out completely, and never will, by the way.

Fire and Light

Spurgeon once said “There must be light as well as fire. Some preachers are all light, and no fire, and others are all fire and no light; what we want is both fire and light.” We need to light the fires of zeal under God’s children, but we also need to give them something to get excited about! The zeal is fine, but it must be accompanied by wisdom; any sermon that has the fire of God also must have the practicality of man to be effective. I speak in the both senses of this thought, the sermonizer and the hearer. The sermonizer must give practical wisdom with the encouragement of zeal, while the hearer must receive zeal, and use wisdom in applying it. Both are essential to the work of the Lord, there is no true light without fire. Let us be an eternal flame for our Lord.

Some have said “Where there is smoke, there is fire”, let not our lives be filled with smoke only, but with the fire of the Lord.

EMOTIONALISM?

We all know that there is much more to love than simply emotion, but I think we often forget that it is more than an outward act of pity too! This “outward act” toward the “down and out” can be a cloak for our pride and superiority. Our outlook toward the “poor” or otherwise “miserable wretches” can motivate our false desire to “help” them, thereby causing them to be “beholding” to us! I think that this, in many ways, is a problem in our churches today, (of course, everyone thinks he has the answer for the problems of the church today, but none seem to be making any impact, or effort, to change them!) I’ve said it before, and will, no doubt, say it again, “we need to have heart.” We need to compassionately, sincerely and truthfully learn to love others.

Every man thinks that “no problem is as big as my own” and “no one cares about my problems like I do,” and, unfortunately, they are right! (with the exception of Christ, of course.) No advice is as good as God’s advice, and none can be of any more help than Him. I am so sick of people telling me, off the cuff, the solution to my problems, or what I need to do. These same people soon go about their business, and leave me and my problem to “fend for ourselves.” So soon do we forget the hurt of others. Oh that our advice would be thought out, and followed through, and borne out of compassion and true concern as Christ’s was. Lord help ME to apply this to my life, and the needs of others, if and when I give advice!

Though many problems seem so silly and insignificant to us, what are they to those who are under the burden of them? Let us not take too lightly those things that hinder others, those stumbling blocks, if you will. A lawyer will only care as long as you pay him to; most friends will only care as long as we are on good terms with them, but Jesus always cares. The lawyer will not put his heart into the problem with the earnestness of a friend, and a friend will not be as diligent, no not even close, to the diligence that the Lord will give it. So it is sometimes with preachers! Only the Spirit-filled man of God can help, by God’s grace, and not by his own wisdom or diligence.