My soul thirsts for the living God…

I am taking a break from blogging until August 1st. In the meanwhile, you can always contact me through the ‘Contact’ tab. I only posted this because I know some people worry. I’ve done it myself, so I know how it can be. Please keep me in your prayers concerning my health – physical and spiritual, and if God grants the grace for me to return to blogging, I shall. So many things are going on and I need to focus and follow priorities, i.e. Christ and the things thereof.

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
Psalms 42:1-11 ESV

Would you die for the Christ ?

Our Great High Priest – King Jesus

I went through Hebrews 4 and part of 5 today and was just rocked by a realization from the Text. God, by His Grace, allowed me to see something in it concerning our great High Priest – Jesus Christ. High priests were appointed by God…

And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
Hebrews 5:4 ESV

… and were always men.

For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Hebrews 5:1 ESV

Angels were not high priests. An angel is a totally different being from man. An angel cannot empathize with humans because they have never, and will never be, human. However, Jesus Christ – perfect divinity and perfect man – served as a High Priest appointed by God. Because He lived as a man, He could sympathize with our weaknesses…

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Hebrews 4:15 ESV

… as the others in the priesthood. When priests made offerings on behalf of the people, they were reminded of their own humanity, their own weaknesses…

He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.
Hebrews 5:2 ESV

So we cannot say that God doesn’t know what it’s like. He DOES. Sometimes, I think while on this earth, our prayers can be filled with But God! You don’t know what it’s like! He does. And besides…

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Hebrews 12:4 ESV

So…

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 ESV

Consider Christ

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.
Hebrews 3:1-2 ESV

As I went along with the study for Hebrews by Johnny Mac, I was convicted by this question:
13) The passage urges us to ‘consider… Christ Jesus.’ What would this be like in your everyday life ? What are some evidences that a person is, in fact, keeping his or her eyes on the Savior ?

I read that question and sat at my desk, pen in hand, thinking about what this looks like, to TRULY consider Christ in your everyday life – every moment, every thought, every action. Do we really consider Him enough ? Do we truly consider this Great Savior enough daily ? I was listening to a sermon recently where the brother said that sin shows what we think of God. I think these two things tie in – sin and consideration of Christ. Yesterday, while driving, someone wouldn’t let me over when it was quite obvious that I couldn’t go anywhere else. When they drove by me, I looked at them and threw my hands up in frustration. Was I considering Christ ? No. I could probably name atleast 20 things I did yesterday where I didn’t consider Him. Those are just the things that I am aware of. The heart is desperately sick and truly deceitful above all else, so some of the things that may have seemed like 2nd nature, to the point where I didn’t think twice about them, may have been explicit examples of when I didn’t consider Christ. So… with that said, I urge all of my brothers and sisters to consider Christ in all things – at work, at home, with your family, with your friends, at the store, at the restaurant, driving, listening to music, reading… whatever it may be. Consider Him. He didn’t have to consider us.

Grace and peace.

Revisiting Jael / The Lord's Prayer

As part of a Bible study on Hebrews, one of the questions was – Take a poll. Ask 10 people to name their favorite Old Testament Bible character. Most said David, Elijah, or Jeremiah. One sis said Joshua. One brother said Solomon. And one brother said Jael. At the time I saw the text message, I couldn’t remember who she was, so I looked it up. That woman was something else!

But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
Judges 4:17-22 ESV

Drove the peg into his temple until it went into the ground! Wow, that was a long peg and she was getting it in with the hammer, lol. Then you have the retelling in Deborah’s song in the next chapter.

“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl. She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell–dead.
Judges 5:24-27 ESV

And in my RSB, it states that it was considered shameful to die at the hands of a woman. So she took care of him in multiple ways, all the while fulfilling prophecy.

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Judges 4:8-9 ESV

Amen. Wow, a tent peg.

For the July issue of Tabletalk magazine, Sproul has a great article on the Lord’s prayer – Right Now Counts Forever. In it, he says:

The next time you attend a prayer meeting, pay close attention to the manner in which individuals address God. Invariably, the form of address will be something like this, “Our dear heavenly Father,” “Father,” “Father God,” or some other form of reference to God as Father. What is the significance of this? It would seem that the instructions of our Lord in giving the model prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” is emulated by our propensity for addressing God as Father. Since Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father,’” that form of address has become the virtual standard form of Christian prayer. Because this form of prayer is used so frequently, we often take for granted its astonishing significance.

God has only one child, His only-begotten Son, the monogençs, which restricts this filial relationship to Christ. We do not have the natural right to call God “Father.” That right is bestowed upon us only through God’s gracious work of adoption. This is an extraordinary privilege, that those who are in Christ now have the right to address God in such a personal, intimate, filial term as “Father.” Therefore, we ought never to take for granted this unspeakable privilege bestowed upon us by God’s grace.

Revisiting Jael / The Lord’s Prayer

As part of a Bible study on Hebrews, one of the questions was – Take a poll. Ask 10 people to name their favorite Old Testament Bible character. Most said David, Elijah, or Jeremiah. One sis said Joshua. One brother said Solomon. And one brother said Jael. At the time I saw the text message, I couldn’t remember who she was, so I looked it up. That woman was something else!

But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him. And he said to her, “Stand at the opening of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, ‘Is anyone here?’ say, ‘No.’” But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. And behold, as Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael went out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he went in to her tent, and there lay Sisera dead, with the tent peg in his temple.
Judges 4:17-22 ESV

Drove the peg into his temple until it went into the ground! Wow, that was a long peg and she was getting it in with the hammer, lol. Then you have the retelling in Deborah’s song in the next chapter.

“Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. He asked water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl. She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell–dead.
Judges 5:24-27 ESV

And in my RSB, it states that it was considered shameful to die at the hands of a woman. So she took care of him in multiple ways, all the while fulfilling prophecy.

Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, I will go, but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” And she said, “I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Judges 4:8-9 ESV

Amen. Wow, a tent peg.

For the July issue of Tabletalk magazine, Sproul has a great article on the Lord’s prayer – Right Now Counts Forever. In it, he says:

The next time you attend a prayer meeting, pay close attention to the manner in which individuals address God. Invariably, the form of address will be something like this, “Our dear heavenly Father,” “Father,” “Father God,” or some other form of reference to God as Father. What is the significance of this? It would seem that the instructions of our Lord in giving the model prayer, “The Lord’s Prayer,” is emulated by our propensity for addressing God as Father. Since Jesus said, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father,’” that form of address has become the virtual standard form of Christian prayer. Because this form of prayer is used so frequently, we often take for granted its astonishing significance.

God has only one child, His only-begotten Son, the monogençs, which restricts this filial relationship to Christ. We do not have the natural right to call God “Father.” That right is bestowed upon us only through God’s gracious work of adoption. This is an extraordinary privilege, that those who are in Christ now have the right to address God in such a personal, intimate, filial term as “Father.” Therefore, we ought never to take for granted this unspeakable privilege bestowed upon us by God’s grace.