Need a Better Word than the Word of Guilt?

Many people are familiar with the biblical fact that Cain killed his brother, Abel. The physical act of murder being a sin most people do not commit, the story is sometimes incorrectly dismissed too quickly. This account has everything to do with me – and you.

First, God makes clear that from the start Cain did not have faith in His holy Creator. Hebrews 11:4 (NIV) declares that it was “by faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did.” For purposes of space and time, I choose not to diverge here in a detailed discussion of why Abel’s animal sacrifice was of faith, while Cain’s offering from his crops was not. However, the status of the hearts of both men is what was critical to their giving. This is always the case. Physical actions and spoken words brought from a wrongly motivated heart are ugly in the sight of God, and often in the sight of men. Clearly, of the myriad of things that might have motivated Cain, faith in God was not it. What a curious and critical insight. Many motivations of the heart stand wrong before God, and only one stands right – faith (Hebrews 11:6).

After having acted wrongly from his heart in regards to his offering, Cain was warned by God that the practice of sin leads to further practice of sin. In fact, God clearly informs, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it (Genesis 4:7). Instead of heeding God’s warning, Cain chose to focus on his discontent and the perceived reason for his discontent – Abel. Mind you, the true source of Cain’s unrest was his wrong standing with God. Had he run to God in repentance rather than to man in frustration, things would, no doubt, have turned out differently.

Standing in a field, with jealousy and the restlessness of rebellion against God in his spirit, Cain allowed sin to move from a crouched position to an all-out attack stance. Sin was no longer at the door; its damning fingers now crawl all over Cain’s back. He murders his brother.

And so do we; for, Jesus proclaims, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, . . . But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment'” (Matthew 5:21-22). The anger and discontent and jealousy in our hearts that leads to anger toward others is in the sight of God subject to spiritual judgment just as murder is.

Wow. It seems a hopeless situation. So sad is it that God said to Cain, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). And so it is with me. The blood of Abel cried out loudly about Cain, “You are guilty! You are condemned!” The results of my sin cry out loudly the same thing, “You are guilty! You are condemned!” Can you hear it? It drives us insane if we understand its implications. Hopelessness is all that stands before us if this is the final and strongest cry.

Enter Jesus! Blessed, wonderful, loving Jesus! Hear the Word of God, “But you have come to . . . Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22a, 24, emphasis mine).

Did you hear that? The blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel! Abel’s blood cried out the horror of guilt and condemnation, but Jesus’ blood proclaims forgiveness! So powerful is Jesus’ blood to cleanse the human heart that the original languages tell us His blood simply “declares” its power, while Abel’s blood “cried out.” My friend, when your lack of faith, your sin, and your humanly-wrought disaster cries loudly your condemnation, let the blood Jesus shed on the Cross decisively and authoritatively declare, “You are forgiven.”

Do you need a better word than the word of sin and guilt? Jesus is the Word you need.

My King Is In the Pit


When I’m in the pit,
I look the lion in the face;
And I see Jesus’ mighty hand
Close tightly the beast’s firm jaw.

The lion that once roared
And threatened unknown dread
Stands helpless now before me,
As on the Creator’s strength I draw.

The pit is very deep;
While on its upper edge I wondered
How I could ever quite survive
The hungry brutes below.

But I found that if I walk
Up above or down so deep,
The God who promised care
Is the one whose mercies always flow.

That compassion can’t be hidden
By the darkness of the pit.
That compassion can’t be trampled by the enemy,
Though he be fierce and wild.

For the God who called me to Himself
Promised to stay with me,
And protect me,
Whether times be troubled or times be mild.

Oh, lion, you are hungry,
And your den is very dark;
But my King is so much greater
And to His power His creatures must submit.

So roar as you can
And threaten my undoing;
Your jaw will never know my flesh,
For my King is in the pit.

“My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths and they have not harmed me. . .” – Daniel 6:22a (NASB)

Dendrites and Deuteronomy: The Alignment of Brain Research with the Timeless Word of God

Current brain research is invigorating, as it inspires us to acknowledge the amazing circuitry of our minds. The neuronal pathways spanning the various parts of the brain are employed tirelessly by the God that made them. It is estimated that the human brain contains as many as one hundred billion neurons, each neuron sprouting delicate dendrites, and transmitting impulses through appendages called axons. Jesus is Lord over all this gray and white matter. As Christ holds together all created things (Colossians 1:17), so He allows and ensures each synaptic connection.

Incredibly, God had full understanding of brain function in mind when He instructed His people in the Old Testament. The people to whom He spoke were most likely not pondering at the time the inner functions of the brain, but their Creator spoke to them with dignity – holding reality in the palm of His hand. The Bible is not archaic; it is accurate. Its words were spoken and recorded in the context of the existing culture. Looking back, we can see that the ultimate Author of the Bible is truly the Maker of the brain. Thankfully, the Hebrews took God at His Word, no matter what they did or did not understand of the mind’s inner workings. We should also immediately trust God’s Word, knowing science will always “catch up” with the timeless truth of the Bible.

Let us explore the fascinating intricacies of Deuteronomy 6:5-9 in light of current brain analysis. First, we recall the passage: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (NIV)

God first proclaims that He intends we love Him “with everything we’ve got”! I call to your attention particularly the phrase, “with all your strength.” The Hebrew root implies that we ought to love our Lord to the highest degree, with force, with abundance, and exceedingly so. Following on the heels of this great commandment is its corollary: all the precepts God gives to us are to be upon our hearts. In other words, our love for Him will come to fruition as we actually treasure God’s Word at our core. The Hebrew term to designate our heart in this instance is a concept implying that God’s commandments are to reside in our inner being, our mind, or our soul. The nuance tells us that the Word of God should be part of our thinking and our memory; it becomes fluid in our conscience and is present at the seat of our emotions. When His Word inculcates our minds at this level, it becomes natural, for example, to speak of Isaiah 40:26 when looking into the night sky. Instead of simply seeing stars, we are now pondering the mighty God who sustains each one with precision and intention.

In fact, the flow of God’s Word in my conscience prompted a wonderful conversation about Isaiah 40:26 with my eleven-year-old nephew as we sat casually under a starry sky in the summertime. Verses that had become a fluid part of my mind through memorization, study, rehearsal, and application, suddenly cascaded into the moment at hand. This is as it should be, for God is the Lord of everything. The natural points to the supernatural (Romans 1:20), and proper training of the mind is obedience, and can lead to yet more obedience. In this case, the human interaction and discussion of God’s power and care for the stars led to an opportunity to express the even more unbelievable care of God for people made in His very own image. My nephew loved looking at stars, and this was a perfect opportunity for God’s Spirit to work through what had become a part of my mind’s wiring.

As the Lord continues His directives, we realize that we are to impress His Word on our children and talk about His commandments continually – while rising, walking, sitting at home, and lying down. Could God have made His intention of repetition and discussion of His Word any more clear? In effect, He declares, “Keep doing this. Talk about Me always, in many contexts and in many ways. Over and over and over again I want you to rehearse and discuss My Word – especially with the younger ones.”

Guess what brain research has revealed? Brain growth continues past birth! When we actively rehearse and learn in different ways – stimulating various regions of the brain – we can expand and strengthen neuronal pathways. We can make it easier to recall information readily. As Willis (2006) noted, “The brain pathways and connections that are used regularly are maintained and ‘hard-wired,’ while others are eliminated, or pruned.”

It seems God would desire His law be the hard-wiring of our brains. For my actions and reactions to be healthy, the very Word of God needs to be part of the structure of my mind. Willis (2006) informs, “New connecting cells, called dendrites, can be formed throughout life . . . after repeated practice, working memories are set down as permanent neuronal circuits of axons and dendrites ready to be activated when the information is needed.”

God rightly requires us to “impress [the commandments] on [our] children.” The word “impress” here means to sharpen or whet, as a knife. One nuance implies a wounding or piercing through. Our children and all young ones under our influence ought to feel the emotional, deep piercing of God’s Word. This is not simply an intellectual experience. His Word – when practiced – pricks our soul in ways unimaginable.

I will never forget the penetration of my heart while watching my grandmother die. The summary of those final days in her bed could be, “She drew unbelievably close to Jesus as her outer shell fell away.” I observed a woman of God as all her belief and obedience culminated in glorious moments.

I was pierced through in a simpler moment when the practice of genuine forgiveness led to a feeling of victory and love. The bottom line is that reinforcement of God’s Word as gained in the practice of the principles that have been purposefully hard-wired in our minds leads to deeper understanding and easier retrieval. Current research refers to this as episodic memory and experiential learning. Willis (2006) asserts, “With strategies that engage the senses, students ‘become’ the knowledge by interacting with it. As a result, a new memory that might otherwise be forgotten is linked to a sensation, a movement, or an emotion, and therefore it travels into the memory storage in more than one pathway. This redundancy of pathways means greater memory retention and recall.”

It is no wonder that the Lord demands we ponder His Word in the daily experiences of life. When my mind is fresh in the morning and the world is new, when the quietness of the evening settles in, when walking through the events and relationships of the day, and all times; my musing on His commandments must mix with the occurrences of my life. I need to observe His Word as it relates to all the circumstances I encounter. Behind the scenes, my Creator-God is firing neurons in all the lobes of my brain, hard-wiring me for increased focus on Him.

God adds that His people ought to “write [the commandments] on the doorframes of [their] houses and on [their] gates.” I will here focus on the fact that the people ought to manually write God’s Word. In our brains, the occipital lobe is involved with reading and visual perception; the parietal lobe relates to tactile perception and academic skills; and the frontal lobe is involved with consciousness and attention. Since the Hebrews had a largely oral culture of communication (directly involving the temporal lobe), it is of note that God directed His people to engage all four lobes of the brain in regard to His Word. He obviously desires that all our mind engages.

Interestingly, when referring to students’ study of electrons orbiting a nucleus, Willis (2006) recommends, “If they then draw a sketch of their visualizations and verbally communicate them to partners, or write about them in their own words, multiple brain pathways will be stimulated to enter long-term memory.”

Whether taken literally or symbolically, God clearly advises the Hebrews to “tie [the commandments] as symbols on [their] hands and bind them on [their] foreheads.” The root for the term “forehead” is “frontal.” The frontal lobe of our brains is the epicenter of attention, motivation, guidance of social behavior, judgment, and decision-making. The Lord means for His Word to be right there at the headquarters of our motivation. Let everything be driven by Him.

As we begin to contemplate current brain research, we notice that God is never “behind the times.” He stands omniscient and outside of time and space. Though God inspired the writing of Deuteronomy approximately 3,500 years ago, its words are accurate and align with the latest brain discoveries. At the risk of sounding simplistic, I must say that the Creator best knows the creation. Imagine, when God first created man, He did so giving us the most intricate and organized of bodies and organs. God knew all about branching dendrites and invaluable synapses, for He brought them into existence. We must always trust His Word, because our timeless God has given it to us freely from His unfathomable wisdom.

As we function, using the minds God has given us, may we always cling to John 14:26, for the Creator transcends the creation. Although the design and workings of the human brain point to the One who made them, the Lord is infinitely greater than us. His work cannot be fully captured in the study of created things. In John 14:26, Jesus says, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (NIV)

The Creator of our mind is infinitely greater than our mind. God sent His Holy Spirit to be our Teacher. God’s Spirit superintends the workings of my brain. The genuinely Christian perspective is one that makes a personal God central. God made me more than the sum of the neurons and cells of my body. God Himself is working in my heart and mind as I yield myself to Him. His Holy Spirit works through and above the astounding, intricate brains God has given to us. God chooses to work in us profoundly when we obey His Word, which naturally both aligns with and transcends the created world.

Thank you, Jesus, for giving Your life that the Holy Spirit might live in me so that I can obey God’s Word, using the brain He has given me!

Reference: Judy Willis, M.D. (2006) Research-based strategies to ignite student learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

The Mercy Seat of An Infinite God

A Commentary on Isaiah 66:1

“Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.” – Isaiah 66:1a (NKJV)

Listen to what God says, for what man says is of no consequence unless it aligns with the Almighty’s revelation. Quite vital to remember is that God has spoken, and His Word is distinct and above all else (Psalm 138:2). Set God’s Word at the forefront, or we risk succumbing to the relentless temptation to believe the prevalent, mundane thought that God is small and weak and not altogether different from us. “Thus says the LORD” is a phrase meant to shake our paradigm, as we are so apt to focus on anything or anyone other than the Creator from whom all things derive.

God cannot be contained, nor can He be measured; incalculable is His nature (I Kings 8:27). Yet in daily thoughts and actions, we reason that we understand how God has worked, or is working, or will work in various situations of life. With Heaven as His throne and Earth as His footstool, God’s infinite nature staggers the imagination. The visible heavens, the innumerable parts of the universe we are still completely unable to access, and the very abode of God Almighty exist as His throne. God is infinitely greater than all the heavens, able to encapsulate and harness each part for His purposes. Our Creator is the one who “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11b). His unfathomable power unceasingly pulls all aspects of life – physical, emotional, and spiritual – toward His ultimate will. The Maker of all that exists will irrefutably have the final word over all that exists!

Stunning is the truth that earth is God’s footstool. We humans have not yet explored all the depths of any particular ocean, we have barely begun the first leg of the journey into any miniscule portion of the vastness of space, and we have not yet plunged into all the depths of the mystery of the molecular; still God refers to the earth as His footstool. He means for us to know that His magnificence cannot be calculated. Metaphorically, that upon which He rests His feet is immensely more than that with which we can even commence to grapple. Therefore, it would be ridiculous for us to grow hopeless concerning circumstances of the earth, for God says of this place, “That is simply my footstool.”

How would it be to know that the God who created everything from nothing and rightfully boasts Heaven as His throne is willing to be with us? To talk with us? To hear our heart and stay with us? To carry our burdens? To share His presence in real relationship? We can know this joy because the specific footstool of God in the Old Testament is the Ark of the Covenant (I Chronicles 28:2) Our Creator desires to rest with us – to “put His feet up” if you will – that we may have a genuine relationship with Him.

This relationship seems impossible, though, given the eternal nature of God, His unfathomable power, and His holiness. This seeming impossibility steps back and disappears into the shadow of the Ark of the Covenant and its treasured mercy seat. The mercy seat marked the separation between the Law and God’s manifest presence. In the ark, below the mercy seat – or atonement cover – rested the tablets of the Law. Above the mercy seat – between the gold cherubim – God’s glorious presence came. Although every person ever born on earth ultimately longs to be in God’s presence where all is right and joyous, most try to imagine the longings and emptiness of life could be satisfied in some other manner. Hence, Isaiah 53:6 proclaims, “Each of us has turned to his own way.” Still, the only way to right and hope and peace and ultimate, coveted fulfillment is to be in God’s presence – to rest with Him.

We ask, “How will I get to God, for I am constantly dragged down by this law below?” Each time we attempt to rise up and rest with our Creator between those cherubim, the tablets full of commandments we cannot keep pull us back down beneath the atonement cover. We feel as Paul did in Romans 7 asking how he could possibly be delivered from his failure to do what he knows to be right. Do we also feel the victory Paul knew as communicated in Romans 8:3, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” God forbid we ever forget the mercy seat lies between the law and God’s presence as a clear delineation of our hope. For, on that mercy seat, was the blood of the sacrifice applied. Symbolically – via the animal sacrifice – the blood of Jesus was sprinkled on that cover to settle the matter and forever absorb our inability to fulfill God’s law. Through the blood of Jesus, we can rise above hopelessness and enter God’s safety despite our own sinfulness. Quite literally, we rise from being pitiful creatures condemned by the law to being God’s own children, with access to His blessed presence. How does this happen? The blood of Jesus on the mercy seat opens up the way and we rise to God through the blood of His own Son.

The thought of Jesus’ blood opening up the way for sinful man to gain relationship with a holy God breeds yet another thought: there is nothing stronger than the blood of Jesus. No sin, no failure, no amount of inadequacy can stop Jesus from giving to us access to God. That mercy seat of the Old Testament was made of pure gold. Metaphorically speaking, our spirits rise from the lower compartment of the condemnation of the law to the upper space of freedom and joy, ever watched by the cherubim that long to know this miracle of salvation. How do we rise since the atonement cover of pure gold lies between the law and God’s presence? We can rise because the apostle tells us in I Peter 1:18-19 that we are “not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold …but with the precious blood of Christ…” Gold, though highly treasured and often tried by fire, is yet corruptible – a substance that ultimately succumbs to disintegration. Not so the blood of Jesus! Precious, incorruptible, just like our heavenly inheritance. That timeless, infinitely powerful blood blasts through any obstacle that hinders us from reaching God!

God, who is infinite and has spoken all things into existence with just His breath, can accurately say that this realm – this terrain – on which we live out our limited days, is so small and powerless compared to Him that He boasts it as the place to rest His feet. This same God is sure to remind us that of all the locations on this planet on which He focused for His resting place it is the Ark of the Covenant. Why? Because the personal rest and relationship all humanity needs with the God who created us can only be found completely where the blood is applied and opens up the way for sinful people to commune with holy God. The funnel representing God’s rest and communion with us narrows down to one point – the place where the blood is applied.

Bad Trees and End Results

No matter what we say in the name of Jesus or do in the name of Jesus, God discerns the truth of the matter. It is quite possible for someone to prophesy in God’s name and perform miracles without truly being a man or woman of God. Satan has the power to do counterfeit signs and wonders (II Thessalonians 2:9), and that will be one hallmark of the antichrist in the end times.

Jesus made clear to his disciples that they should examine fruit. In other words, we are to observe the end results of the life and work of a person. If my life does not please God, then neither does my purported work for Him. Though it is popular today to have a ministry for the Lord, this means nothing if we do not have a day-to-day way of living that pleases the Lord.

Jesus appeals to basic logic when He reminds us that it is simply impossible for a diseased tree to bring forth healthy fruit. If we are still diseased by sin at our core, our work for God will not heal the disease. The ultimate results of our life will still wreak havoc.

I may appear to do great things for God, but if people walk away from interaction with me disturbed by my spitefulness and rattled by my lack of self-control, then I am not bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God. If the end results of my relationships are destruction and unrest, if I never follow-through in faithfulness, if selfish impatience is my prominent trait, if sadness and gloom surround me always, or if imperviousness marks my every path; I am bearing fruit that is diseased. (See Galatians 5:22-23) The core of me needs fixed. For, “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).

To be sure we understand the seriousness of bad fruit, Jesus said, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:22-23). You see, in Heaven it will not be necessary for people to cast out demons, prophesy, or perform miracles. What will be essential is the love between brethren and all the kindness, gentleness, and self-control that comes with real love.

A grave issue stands at hand. Let us grapple with it. Diseased trees bear diseased fruit. Alleged work for the Lord notwithstanding, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19). It is the truth of our lives that matters, not what we appear to be because of all kinds of ministry efforts. This is a matter of integrity; what are we at the root? Because what we are will come out in the everyday effects of our living.

Why would Jesus throw a diseased tree into the fire? Good fruit will never come from it. The eternity the people of God want to enter is a forever of good things. The eternity fitting of our holy God is a forever of righteousness. What is – at its core – not good, must go.

Before the time of Jesus’ teaching what we have briefly discussed, He preached clearly, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). If your soul is diseased and you recognize it, there is hope for you. Jesus proclaims, “Repent.” Turn around. Change your mind completely. Realize the core needs healed. Realize more work will not change you. Decide that you need Jesus to clean your heart. He will. He promises that the kingdom of heaven – of goodness – is right around the corner.

Self-Deception vs. Doing Right

How easy it is to convince ourselves we are right. How often we try to persuade our hearts that we are the people we ought to be. If each human being were the one responsible for determining right and wrong for himself or herself, we would be in a mess most miserable.

I think of times when I have worked hard to tell myself that I was doing the right thing. What I really longed for was an excuse – a way to get out of doing the difficult work of righteousness and justice. And every single time I refuse to do right – whether justified in my own mind or not – someone somewhere gets hurt. The ripple effect of unrighteousness is occasionally obvious and at times hidden. It may be ten or twenty or one hundred people down the line from my injustice that finally feel the pain of that selfishness. One thing is for sure, when we do not live justly, pain will ensue. How do I know? I see it experientially in everyday living, and God has made it clear in His Word that His way of righteousness is how things were meant to be. Rebellion against the Creator’s way always brings heartbreak, for He is the Designer of how things ought to be.

Proverbs 21:2 makes clear that though we may convince ourselves we are right, God Almighty weighs our hearts. There is a transcendent God who sees us for who we really are. He is not swayed by our persuasive rhetoric and excessive pride. He knows what we are really about. His assessment comes from the outside – from the unbiased perspective of perfection – and He will assess rightly.

This transcendent God has said in Proverbs 21:3 that “to do righteousness and justice is desired by the Lord more than sacrifice.” Wow. The offering of sacrifice in the Old Testament was the heart of the “church” in that day. Is God implying that the action of doing right is more important than pretentious church activity? Remember the context is the deception of one’s own heart for selfish reasons. Yes, it is more important to actually do right as God has commanded than to try to feel right by performing outward “religious” actions that we think will compensate for our disobedience.

My friends, nothing will compensate for a heart that is bent to be unjust through its own self-deception except for one thing: the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The problem is that we have to actually quit trying to convince ourselves we are right long enough to admit we are a mess at the core, so that we can accept Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.

Those who know the Lord Jesus Christ will do well to actually go about doing the hard stuff of righteousness and justice. We must quit playing the religious angle to excuse our refusal to hunker down and do right.

It can be difficult to live with integrity. We must tell the truth, not allow the innocent to suffer if we can help, intervene when it is within our sphere of influence to correct injustice, protect others though it cost us our strength, work with those who have been pummeled by life though we do not see reward just yet, expose wicked plans that they may be thwarted, stand up for the ones who have not a voice to be heard, and love even when it hurts.

We must do more than think about our own hearts. We must yield them to our transcendent God for His inspection. We should allow His Holy Spirit to “weigh our hearts” to prevent self-deception and its consequent unrighteousness.

For, to actually do the formidable work of righteousness and justice is desired by the Lord more than sacrifice.

“Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice.” – Proverbs 21:2-3

Truly, Where Is Your Trust?

Just some weeks into the Israelites’ adventure in the wilderness following their miraculous exodus from Egypt, God’s people began grumbling against Moses and Aaron because they were hungry. Recall that these people had watched God send massive plagues (including the plague of death) to ensure their freedom from Pharaoh, they had seen the application of blood over their doorposts stop the death angel cold in his tracks, and they had watched with mouths agape as God divided the sea in half for their safe pilgrimage. And still, the Israelites make the wrong assumption that God has brought them all this way to kill them (Exodus 16:3).

As they continue complaining about their hunger, I can only imagine God’s thoughts. If I were God (and – wow – are we thankful I am not), I would have looked at the lot of them and said, “You ungrateful brats! Don’t you see what I have done? Do you really believe I have rescued you to kill you?” Thankfully, this is not what God says. I, myself, am particularly grateful for this fact; for I am one of the ungrateful, unbelieving brats.

God answers their complaining doubt by saying, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you” (Exodus 16:4). God is truly “something else,” isn’t He? It truly is all about Him. Even after I have trusted Him for salvation, I still fail. But God is faithful!

The detail we should highlight here is God’s prescription for the manna. He told the Israelites to collect enough for each day one day at a time. (Exodus 16:4) Throughout the week, they were to collect only enough for the day at hand and not stockpile it for the next day. Moses reiterated, “Let no man leave any of it until morning” (Exodus 16:19).

As we can imagine (because we know ourselves well), some of the people left manna from one day until the following morning. The results were very repulsive. The manna left over for the next day “bred worms and became foul” (Exodus 16:20). Smelly manna teeming with maggots is not what the Israelites had in mind! Yet, this was the result for those who tried to carry one day’s portion into the next day.

The question becomes, “Why?” Why did God do this? The answer is clear and confirmed in many other portions of the Bible. God wants us to trust Him and not ourselves and all our efforts.

People who hoarded the bread for the next day either did not believe God would rain down manna in the morning as He promised, or they did not believe God would give them strength the next day to go collect it. Either way, they did not trust the Living Lord. My friends, He wants us to know that He will be there tomorrow morning with all the provision of food, strength, and sanity that we need. We are not to work by our own efforts to devise a way to survive; relationship with and trust in God are our only ways to survive.

Jesus confirms this emphasis in the Gospel of John, Chapter 6. When large crowds cross a body of water to be with Him, He does not employ “seeker-friendly” techniques. He chastises the crowd by informing them that they have followed Him for the wrong reasons; they have only come because their hungry stomachs had been filled when He had performed the miracle with the fish and bread. Jesus proceeds to tell the crowd, “I am the living bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:51a).

The crowd was into following Jesus because of His miracles that satisfied their fleshly desires. The people even brought up the miracle of manna in the wilderness of which we have been speaking (John 6:31). But Jesus was sure to emphasize that though the recipients of this manna had eaten it, they still died an earthly death. The physical manna was not the key. The key is trust in the God who gives the manna.

Jesus told the crowd He is the Living Bread. He is letting us know that we should trust the one who never sleeps, never gets ill, never gives up, and never dies. God is alive. God will be there in the morning when we awake to give to us everything we need to live the next day. Do not mistrust Him by trying on your own to make things work and trying to ensure your own destiny. Jesus is alive. If we trust Him, He will provide – one moment at a time.

Be sure of this, any plans or efforts employed outside of pure trust in Him will produce repulsive results, similar to the manna teeming with maggots. However, the person who trusts in the Living God – and follows His instructions by faith – will see provision at all times.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day. . .'” – Exodus 16:4 (NASB)

Against All Odds

For various reasons, it can be difficult at times for people to keep their word. Additionally, people sometimes refuse to keep their word even though they could. Our culture has grown a generation of people who barely know what it means to be a “person of your word.” It seems the days are gone when a simple handshake insures a promise kept.

Despite the instability of human nature, I assure you that God keeps His Word. Given the nature of His being, it is impossible for God to change or go back on His Word. For God to be God, He must be perfect. For Him to change His mind or go back on His Word would mean He could somehow possibly improve through a change. God cannot improve. He is infinite and holy. If you posit anything other than a perfect God, you no longer have God. You have someone or something less than our true, self-sustaining, perfect God.

The God of the Bible keeps His Word. We observe that He has kept His Word against all odds throughout history to date. Namely, Jesus has already fulfilled approximately three hundred prophecies concerning Him. I will give just two examples. As I describe the examples, bear in mind that the Bible is not really one book. It is, in fact, a collection of sixty-six books written over a period of 1,500 years by more than forty human authors on three continents and in three languages. This is a vital fact to remember when we discuss fulfilled prophecy.

Micah, the prophet, wrote circa 700 B.C. He prophesied that the Messiah would be born in the obscure town of Bethlehem (chapter five, verse 2). Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the first century A.D. (Matthew 2:1-7). This prophetic detail proved accurate, though the span of time between prediction and fulfillment was 750 or more years.

David prophesied in Psalm 22:16 that the Messiah would be crucified. Though crucifixion did not yet exist at the time of David’s writing (circa 1000 B.C.), the prophecy was fulfilled more than one thousand years later!

The examples above are just two of more than three hundred that could be mentioned. Keep in mind how difficult it is to predict details of the distant future. If I were to predict rain tomorrow and you actually encountered raindrops, you might not think me too amazing. However, if I were to predict rain on the afternoon of April 12 in the year 2053 and it actually happened, you might say, “Wow! Shelli is amazing!” But what if I correctly predicted rain on April 12, 2053, in a 12.5 mile radius of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, at exactly 4:09 in the afternoon for seven minutes and thirty-two seconds? Then you might proclaim, “That Shelli has supernatural ability!” In other words, the more details I add and the longer the time frame spanned, the more difficult – against the odds – the correct prediction of the future becomes.

The God of the Bible has made more than three hundred detailed prophecies concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, which have already come true. Lee Strobel has nicely outlined in his book, The Case for Christ (Student Edition), the findings of Dr. Peter Stoner. Dr. Stoner and some of his students worked to calculate the mathematical probability of fulfilled prophecy. It has been estimated that the probability of Jesus fulfilling in His earthly lifetime just eight of the Biblical prophecies about Him is one in 10 to the seventeeth power. That is a chance of one in one hundred million billion! To better visualize these astronomical odds, picture the following scenario.

Pretend that we cover the surface of the entire earth with 1.5 inch square tiles. We cover not just the state of Wyoming in these small tiles – not just the land surface of North America – but we coat every inch of land on the entire planet. We decide at the outset to mark the underside of just one of these tiles with a gold star. Then, much to his chagrin, we send a young man out to roam the seven continents for the rest of life. As he nears one hundred years old, we ask him to bend over – wherever he now happens to be located – and pick up one of the tiles. The chance of him selecting the only tile marked with a gold star is one in one hundred million billion!

As you begin to grasp by the above example, the chance of Jesus fulfilling just eight of the prophecies about Him defies all odds. Consider that the chance of him fulfilling forty-eight prophecies grows to a staggering one in 10 to the power of 157! This would be like choosing one particular electron out of all the known electrons in all the known mass of the universe! God certainly keeps His Word against all odds.

As if all of this is not exciting enough, we now use God’s track record to remind ourselves that He will continue to keep His Word against all odds. Despite the daily routine of life and all its problems, despite the fact that so many people cannot possibly believe it’s true, and despite the fact that even many Christians do not consider it a vital part of everyday thinking; God will keep His Word on the second coming of Jesus just as He has kept His Word on Jesus’ first coming to earth. The three hundred prophecies that have already been fulfilled by Jesus’ first invasion into space and time inspire us to know that He is coming back again to fulfill all the Bible’s truth!

Here is one thing God has told us about Jesus that we are yet to see: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (I Thessalonians 4:16-17, NIV). Can you even imagine this scene? Thank God for the day when we will rise with new, glorified bodies to be with our Lord in the New Heavens and New Earth! Does this sound too good to be true? Remember, God fulfills His Word though it seems impossible.

Or how about the fact that God has promised the following historical event? “Look, he [Jesus] is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. I [Jesus] am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, ‘who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty’” (Revelation 1:7-8).

If God has kept His Word against all odds – and if He is perfect and immutable (changeless) – then certainly He will keep His Word now and in the future. I trust today the God who said in the first century A.D., “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b).

Do you believe in the God of the Bible? Pour over Isaiah chapter forty. Refresh your confidence in God’s unchanging and holy nature. If He is truly God, then He can do nothing other than keep His Word. History and mathematics demonstrate His ability beyond the natural realm to be faithful to His promises.

Trust Him for today and tomorrow, for He has a proven track record!

The Answer for the Living Dead

Ultimately, people want to live – truly live. This is quite natural, given that our Creator breathed into humanity the breath of life at the beginning of time.

Sadly, many people who live biologically are inwardly dead. Their lungs are taking in air, and their hearts are beating; but their spirits are dead with the weight of sadness, guilt, hopelessness, futility, and fear.

Medical doctors can work on the body, but it takes an infinitely better Physician to work on the spirit.

The ancient – yet timeless – book of Psalms outlines the process of coming to realize the vitality of genuine living. The writer says of God, “For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life” (Psalm 56:13, ESV). Here we observe three critical components of a life of vitality.

    1) God delivers the soul from death. No matter how our pride may fight against this truth, it takes God to deliver a soul from death. The wages of our sin brings death – first spiritual, and eventually physical (Romans 6:23). No slick mental tricks or serious psychological manipulation can erase the guilt of a heart in rebellion against the God of the Bible. Once we come to terms with our sinful heart by the conviction of God’s own Spirit, we can ask God to give us life by making our heart new through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His blood which was shed on the Cross pays for the guilt of my sin, and His life (evidenced by the Resurrection) provides life to me. Here it is again: His blood pays, and His life provides.
    2) God delivers our feet from falling. Simply amazing is the provision of God for the daily minutes and hours of life. Not only has He given vitality to my soul by the forgiveness of sins and restoration of life, He promises to keep my feet from falling as I walk through this world on a regular basis. This portion of Scripture gets down to the nitty-gritty!

    Real living – beyond the basics of biology – requires the security of knowing that we are being guided and protected by the One who can assure the outcome. Each moment of each day, we can depend on our Savior to keep our feet from falling – into demise, hopelessness, and trial outside the will of God. We can even rely on our Savior to provide what we need in order that we will not fall into sin. Though as humans we will not be perfect until we finally see Jesus face-to-face; there exists no excuse for our sin, because God can deliver our feet from falling.

    3) God allows me to walk before Him in the light of life. Here it is – the culmination of real living. Darkness of soul is gone, and we can live our moments before the face of God without dread. We know that we stand clean before Him because of Jesus, and there is no need to hide. We can now truly relate to others, for we are walking in the transparency of God’s light.

    For those God has delivered, death is swallowed up in victory (I Corinthians 15:54b). Not only can we live before Him with hope now, we know that we will live forever before Him in glory that cannot be fully understood or described this side of eternity.

Do not allow death to stay. Do not allow life to pass you by. Let God deliver you.

Upcoming Event!

Would you love to see the grace of God through actual events of the Old Testament?

Would you be fascinated to see God’s saving love for us demonstrated in the book of Exodus?

Are you weary in a culture that falsely prescribes a life of “good works” and “trying harder” in order to win the salvation and love of God?

Do you need to be reminded of the grand work of God to genuinely redeem your life and bring to your heart all the hope you need?

Does someone you care about need to hear any of the above things?

Then come hear Shelli share the living Word of God at the Norwin Alliance Church on Friday, November 5. The service starts with worship at 6 pm, and the message begins at 7 pm. No matter what church you regularly attend – or if you don’t attend at all – you are welcome to hear this pivotal message, “The Work of God.”

The Norwin Alliance Church and Hope & Passion Ministries cordially invite you to this great event that can change your life!

With a Single Breath

A pesky cold, a serious disease, an overheated engine, a family crisis, a preparation oversight, someone else’s mistake, my own failure, a selfish plot, a jealous scheme, even death – all of these are just some of the things that can thwart the best of human plans. In an instant, the best of intentions can be brought to nothing.

How diametrically different are the eternal plans of God Almighty! Not one iota of a single plan of God can ever be stopped. Not one. For God, there are no unexpected illnesses, no mechanical failures, no tragedies, no storms, no lack of preparation, no episodes of exhaustion, no encounters with death, and no human sins that could ever challenge His power. With a single breath, He can blow any circumstance in the direction that fulfills His plan.

Amazingly, the man we most often identify as one who suffered the widest range of human tragedy, Job, said of His Lord, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2, NASB)

For those of us who posit the existence of the God of the Bible, we must also acknowledge His ability to accomplish exactly what He wills; for the God of the Bible is all-powerful, present everywhere, and all-knowing. As the Creator, He stands infinitely far above His creation. Commanding natural things do His bidding without question, not even willful, human rebellion against Him ever stood a chance; for, God Himself came down to earth and suffered His own wrath as the cure for sin.

God can do all things. Hear those words, “God can do all things.” He can take every single moment of time – and every single circumstance of the combined lives of all people – and command these moments and these circumstances to stand at attention and accomplish His ultimate design.

So, let them come. Let the surprising, disappointing, maddening, ridiculous, heartbreaking, and gravely annoying circumstances of life come. No plan of God’s will be thwarted.

My responsibility is to be sure – unmistakably sure – that my plans are wrapped in the plans of God. “Lord, let me think your thoughts, abide by your Word, have your heart, renounce all pride, and keep my eyes fixed on You; for anything I plan outside of You will be stopped. But, Your plans go on into eternity completely unscathed. Amen.”

Sweet Waters, Sweet Life

Following the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, God’s people travelled into the wilderness. After three long days, they had still found no water. The only refreshment discovered had been the waters of Marah, which were bitter – too bitter to drink. As thirsty people would, the Israelites complained and asked their leader, Moses, how their thirst might now possibly be quenched. Moses knew exactly what to do; he cried out to God. After all, the Savior who divided the sea that his people might cross on dry ground could surely now lead them to water.

And God did provide. However, the Lord did not take them to a new place for sustenance. Rather, he transformed the old place. God showed Moses a tree. Moses threw that tree into the bitter waters of Marah. Suddenly, the formerly unpalatable water became sweet. Thirst was quenched, and life could be lived.

The peculiar fashion in which our timeless God worked for His thirsty people thousands of years ago indicates the way in which He now works for us. When we find life bitter and intolerable, God points to a tree to make life sweet and livable.

Who of us can swallow the distress of a guilty conscience? Who of us can live vigorously while dying of thirst for peace with a holy God? Who of us can tolerate the difficulty and disaster of life without assurance that we will someday know joy unhindered? Who of us can find the sweetness of life while the bitterness of guilt gnaws at our core? None can. Not one.

God points to the tree, the tree of Calvary. He bids us throw that tree into the mess and anguish of our sin. When that tree touches my soul, the dilemma is solved because the anguish of my sin is placed square on Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:14 (NASB) proclaims, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The blood of Jesus shed on the tree of Calvary is placed into my life to make all things well. With a clean conscience is the only way to live a sweet life.

Our lives can be transformed so that we may live in peace, just as the water of Marah could be made right to drink. God transformed the water by throwing a tree into the mix. He transforms our lives by presenting the tree of Calvary to the horror of our sin, thereby neutralizing sin’s effect with the sacrifice of His Son. What formerly seemed intolerable – our guilt-ridden life – is now a true delight.

“When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” Then he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.” – Exodus 15:23-25a