Freedom is Good News Part 205

Allow me to bring forth a quote from our previous article, “It is the life of our Savior that brings us light.”  This is in reference to John’s opening remarks in his gospel, that Jesus is the light of man.  Having experienced this ‘light’ in my life these past 44 years I cannot conceive of walking in the darkness that is the fleshly/sinful aspect of this world! 

Paul says it this way in his letter to the Colossians, “We give thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  The light of the kingdom is mine!

Those who understand and accept the salvation that is from God, through His Son Jesus Christ, know full well the difference between darkness and light.  Everyone reading this article understands the difference between walking into a dark room and a well-lit room.  The darkness may cause us to stumble over some object we can’t see.  But turn on the light and behold, all is visible.  So it is when we walk through this morally dark world around us.  Without the light of life that exists in the Savior to guide us, we stumble, we fall and we know not how to navigate our lives.

I know some folks who do not accept God in any way; by definition we might call them atheists.  They are very nice people; and they seem to follow a set of ethics and moral values as they make their way through life.  But I wonder where it is that they have found these morals and ethics.  Are they built into the fabric of humanity?  They would probably say yes to such a question.  But who built these morals into us?  Who decided that we should not kill one another; steal from one another; lie to each other?  Is it just ‘dumb luck’ that leads us to such laws?

Paul answers these questions in his letter to the Romans (7:7-8), “What then shall we say? That the law is sin?  By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  Paul here tells us that it is God’s law that informs us of sin and John lets us know that “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4)

God gets the credit for the laws that govern society – we humans are not the author of morality.  The 119th Psalm, (which is the one that glorifies and praises the law of God) tells us in the 105th verse, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  

But God’s law is not only a pathway for us as we negotiate our life in society.  In His system of laws we also find out how He desires to be worshiped.  This is an interesting aspect of these “laws of light”.  We, who are a part of God’s creation, could never understand how the Creator should be worshiped.  It is God who gives us the blue print for such an endeavor and it is a part of that ‘light’ of His word.  Shall we consider the good news of worship in our next article?  Stay tuned!!!

Freedom is Good News Part 201

In our previous article we saw that an essential ingredient to any government is a set of laws.  God, the creator and sustainer of all things, has indeed given to His children a good, holy and righteous set of laws.  The Apostle Paul said as much in his letter to the
Church in Rome; “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” (Rom. 7:12)  Paul himself acknowledged the Law of God in a New Testament writing to God’s people and he called it good!!

As a side light, I find it interesting that in the realm of science, we see certain concepts that are labeled ‘law’.  We have ‘the law of gravity’, the ‘laws of thermodynamics’, Boyles ‘law of gases’ etc.  And, yes, God is the author of these laws also – one must say that God is the originator of science.  I have often said that even the atheist is governed by God’s laws; just because you do not believe in God, doesn’t mean you can jump out of a window and not crash to the ground!!

God’s judicial laws are perfect and teach us about the attributes and character of God.  Allow me to quote my daughter Cynthia Saladin from an article she wrote concerning this topic, “If God is your God and you want fellowship with Him, the law is part and parcel of your relationship with Him.  It defines what acceptable conduct in His presence is.  The law is a reflection of the character of God.”

God did not give His people the law to be a ‘ball and chain’ around their feet.  No, it was a gift, a beautiful gift that was placed in the hands Moses on Mount Sinai.  And, of course, the chief part of His law, the Ten Commandments were written in stone by the finger of God. 

Jesus Himself said that the greatest commandment was this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your life and with all your mind.”  He did not pull this out of thin air; He was quoting from the book of Deuteronomy 6:5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

God is all powerful and all knowing; He is perfect in wisdom and He is from everlasting to everlasting and, guess what, we are not!!  He is life itself and the author of all things, and we are not!!  He is Spirit and has given us everything we need for life and godliness and yet we take Him lightly?  What really should our response be to His greatness and His love?  There is nothing we have, that did not come from Him!!  Is He worthy of our love?  Is He worthy of our adoration?  Is He worthy of our acknowledgement of Him?

We have just recently come through the season we call ‘Thanksgiving’; to whom should we give thanks?  The law, which defines God’s character, addresses the way in which He desires to be worshiped and gives us all a code of morality in which to walk, is indeed perfect and we should thank Him for this gift. 

Can I get an AMEN!

Freedom is Good News Part 200

“Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  We do have a King; Jesus Christ, the King of kings!!  He does have land; “The man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.” (Isaiah 57:13)  And there are subjects to this kingdom; “Those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land” and “The meek will inherit the land” and “Those the LORD blesses will inherit the land” (Psalm 37:9, 11 & 22).  These things we have discussed in previous articles.  The only piece that remains for the establishment of a kingdom is the creation of a set of laws.  Laws are an integral part of any new government.

Almost 240 years ago a group of men sat down together to consider the creation of a new nation; their gathering was known as The Constitutional Convention and they met in Philadelphia, Penn.  They began the process of writing a constitution on May 25th 1787 and after much discussion, wrangling, compromising and yes, prayer, 39 of the 55 delegates signed this document into law on September 17th, almost 4 months later the concept of the United States of America could move forward.

Without this set of fundamental laws of rights, liberties, and governing authority, our nation would not, could not exist.  Now, our government was not set forth as a kingdom; we understand this.  Our forefathers had had enough of the King of England.  They had just fought a war to be free from that type of rulership.

But God, the one who is sovereign over the universe, will set up His kingdom here on earth when His Son Jesus Christ returns; as the book or Revelation puts it, “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.”  God will have an eternal kingdom!  And His eternal kingdom will have a set of holy, good and righteous laws.  Let’s look at God’s induction of His laws.

Approximately 3600 years ago God brought forth a rather large family of people from out of the nation of Egypt – we know them as the children of Israel.  He would eventually take this rebellious people to a land that He had promised to their progenitor, Abraham.  God knew that these people would need a system of laws that would regulate their nation, their society and their families and most importantly, show them how they should worship a holy God!!

This is how we read it from the hand of Moses, “See, I have taught you statutes and laws, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.  Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’  For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?  And what great nation is there, that has statutes and laws so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)

God is perfect in wisdom and in knowledge.  What a beautiful gift it was that He gave to His people!  More on this next time.

Freedom is Good News Part 168

As we finish this six week study let me summarize by saying that salvation comes by faith and the reward that our Savior is bringing with Him is based upon our obedience in doing His word and His will – as our father Abraham did.

In Matthew we find a very curious scripture that talks about these two aspects of doing God’s word and His will, it is found in 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Here we find “many” who, after prophesying, casting out demons and doing mighty works in the Lord’s name, have Jesus say unto them that He never knew them and He tells them to depart!  Why?  Evidently they did not do the will of the Father and they were workers of lawlessness.

Let’s consider this for a few minutes.  First of all, what is the will of God?  This sounds quite serious because we do want to be able to enter the kingdom of God!!  We could possibly fill a book seeking to answer this but let’s look for our answer in a different area of this scripture in Matthew.  Jesus declares that ‘I never knew you’.  This word ‘knew’, in the Greek language, is “ginosko”.  Vines dictionary of biblical Greek tells us that the word frequently indicates a relationship, often between God and man or between a husband and wife.  This is a word that shows intimacy and so Jesus is intimating a lack of relationship.  If one does not have a relationship with Him then He does not know them.  Hence, it is God’s will that we seek Him with all our heart so as to form a relationship of love with Him!

But what about this statement, “Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”  What is a worker of lawlessness?  Again, we can go to the Greek to understand this word – it is used of one who “acts contrary to law”.  Paul tells us that God’s law is holy, righteous and good and Jesus wants us to be a “worker of the law” or, one who is “obedient in doing His word” as I mentioned in the first paragraph.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 14:23, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word.  My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.”  Wow!!  The Father and Son will choose to live in me – now that is a heavy statement.  A couple of verses before that, Jesus says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.  He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and manifest myself to him.”  Friends and brethren, this is the relationship Abraham had with God.  It is as intimate as it gets.  There is no greater reward for us to receive than to have this intimacy with the Father and His Son.  And this is what we should strive for.  Salvation?  Yes!  Access to God through Jesus’ blood?  Of course!  But what a reward He has set before us!!!  Think about these things.

Freedom is Good News Part 28

“His kingdom rules over all.”(Psalm 103:19)  “Jesus came … preaching the good news of the kingdom.” (Matthew 4:23)

Is it good news to you that God’s kingdom rules over all?  It seems to me that somehow our human nature resents being ruled over.  Oh!  Maybe the word “resent” is too strong and we should insert the word “reject”.  Never the less, the question stands; do you reject (or resent) being ruled over?  In other words do you feel that God has no right to interfere in your life?  This really seems to be where Eve and then Adam started out.  And I think we pointed out, in a previous article, where that attitude led.  Suffice it to say, it hasn’t been good news!

There is an old saying in Latin, “Rex Lex or Lex Rex”.  “Lex” being the word for “law” and “Rex” being the word for “king”.  In other words, “is the king the law or is the law the king”?  In the United States we live by the rule of law.  To say it another way, the law is king, it applies to everyone – no one is above the law. (At least it’s supposed to work that way!!)  But in a monarchy it is just the opposite; the king is the law – what he says goes!  The bible tells us that God has set up a monarchy and so He rules over all.

Okay!  That’s where we started this article but we haven’t considered whether this is good news or not.  Several weeks ago we explored the idea that God was good and that He was good all the time.  May I suggest that if He is good all the time, then we have a wonderful King?  It has been said that the best form of government is a beneficent dictatorship.  In many ways, our God dictates to us and we have come to the understanding that He is beneficent. 

Our God is a loving Father!  He is more than just a loving Father; He is a perfect loving Father.  He wants us to succeed at what we do and to be with Him for eternity.  Do you believe that?  Then let me reiterate something I said earlier, “The laws that He has given to us are gifts from Him and are for our benefit.”  The book of Job addresses this comment; in Job 35:6, Elihu (the one friend of Job who is not chastised by God) says this, “If you sin, how does that affect Him?  If your sins are many, what does that do to Him?  If you are righteous, what do you give to Him or what does He receive from your hand?”  This says a mouthful toward the fact that God has given us laws for our benefit.  

The benefit is twofold; first, we learn how to act toward our neighbors (and they toward us) and secondly, but most importantly, we learn how our God would have us act toward Him.  This is summed up in the two great commandments, love the LORD your God with all your heart, strength and life and love your neighbor as yourself.

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me, the gift of His kingdom and its laws and commandments is really good news.

Until next time, think on the good things of God. 

Freedom is Good News Part 27

I was just reading over last week’s article and was struck by the words from Psalm 103:19, “His kingdom rules over all.”  These words caught my eye because I had been thinking about the title of these articles, “YES, THERE IS GOOD NEWS!”, and considering how the message that Jesus proclaimed to the people began with, “the good news of the kingdom”.  These two concepts crossed my mind at about the same time.  Let us, then, dive into these two statements and see where they take us.

Does God’s kingdom rule over you?  Please take this personally.  We, in this country, are very blessed to have the type of government that is in place, a constitutional republic.  But our familiarity with this type of government, one that is “of the people, by the people and for the people” actually might limit us when we consider just how the kingdom of God operates.  God’s kingdom is not a republic.  It is a monarchy!  In a true monarchy, when the king makes a decree it becomes a law and well, yes the subjects must obey.

How many rules and laws enacted through our secular government do you break?  We do not seem to do very well with speed limits!  That’s very obvious.  And do we really come to a stop at the many stop signs we encounter?  No, I’m not trying to point out the “speck in your own eye” while I have a beam in mine.  We have all broken a law or two in our time.  But what about God’s law?  Sometimes it doesn’t seem that we even care that God has given us His laws as a gift.  Yes, as a gift!!  Turn off the TV tonight and just sit and meditate quietly about how life in this society would improve if just one of the Ten Commandments were fully kept.  “Thou shall not steal”.  Not only would we not need locks of any kind but we would be safe traveling anywhere in any town.  Remember I said, “Fully kept.”  No one would try to steal another person’s life – “Thou shall not murder” comes into play.  It is an interesting exercise in meditation; try it some time.

So I repeat, “God’s laws are a gift” – all of them!!  And yet if asked, could you recite all of the Ten Commandments?  Do you even know where to find them in the Bible.

Let’s see what Moses had to say concerning these laws of God.  In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4, we read this:  “Hear now O Israel, the decrees and laws I’m about to teach you … Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God. … Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’…  What other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?  … Be careful and watch closely … do not forget … or let them slip from your heart … Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”  Typing that last line almost breaks my heart when I think of our youth today and how many of them have never been taught the ways of God.

And so I end on a sour note – but fear not, we will continue this next week.

Until then – yes there is good news!