What does God look for in a nation to bless and exalt?
\nRighteousness: YES \nPolitical Influence: NO \nEducation: NO \nMilitary Strength: NO \nState Religion: NO \nPolitical Ideology: NO \nSystem of Government: NO\n It was probably King Solomon who penned the words of this Verse of the Day recorded in Proverbs 14:34. \nKing Solomon: \n(a) was King over the powerful nation of Israel, following the incredible successes of his father, King David (2 Chronicles 1:9-12); \n(b) was the wisest man to have lived, so he knew and understood deep and meaningful realities of life that evaded most people (1 Kings 4:28-34; 2 Chronicles 9:2-8); \n(c) experienced the highs and lows of personal decisions and their personal AND NATIONAL consequences - then recorded them for others to see (1 Kings 11:6, 9-11); and \n(d) searched for answers concerning the meaning and purpose of life (Book of Ecclesiastes).\n King Solomon was most certainly highly qualified to declare the KEY to a nation's success and exaltation - RIGHTEOUSNESS.\n This is important because King Solomon understood God in many deeper ways than even most Christians today.\n God often responds in ways that appear to us to be somewhat counter-intuitive, for example, "servant leadership", "love your enemies", "bless those who hate you".\n Man's wisdom says look at what gives a nation a competitive advantage - maybe a better political system, better educational standards and so on...\n BUT...\n King Solomon correctly recognised the source of a nation's success - GOD FIRST.\n A nation that leads its citizens in God-honouring righteousness will be blessed in ways that only God can achieve - genuine justice, peace and compassion.\n (1) Justice: \n(a nation that protects its vulnerable, poor, disadvantaged against those who are content in oppressing them)\n 2 Samuel 8:15 ESV — So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people.\n Psalm 33:5 ESV — He [God] loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.\n Isaiah 1:17 ESV — learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.\n Jeremiah 4:1-2 ESV — “If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to Me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from My presence, and do not waver, and if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him shall they glory.” \n (2a) Peace (External): \n(a nation that experiences periods of sustained peace with other nations)\n 1 Kings 4:24 ESV — For he [King Solomon] had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him.\n 2 Kings 20:19 ESV — Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”\n (2b) Peace (Internal): \n(the citizens of a nation experience a quiet but real confidence in the Lord)\n Leviticus 26:6 ESV — I [the Lord God] will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.\n 1 Chronicles 22:9 ESV — Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.\n 1 Chronicles 22:18 ESV — “Is not the LORD your God with you? And has He not given you peace on every side? For He has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the LORD and His people.\n 2 Chronicles 15:5 ESV — In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.\n (3) Compassion: \n(a nation that protects, advocates for, and provides for the widow, the orphan, and the poor)\n Psalm 33:5 ESV — He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.\n Isaiah 9:17 ESV — Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.\n (4) Discernment: \n(a nation whose citizens are truly wise and able to correctly discern right from wrong, wisdom from folly, and capable of applying common-sense)\n Isaiah 27:11 ESV — When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore He who made them will not have compassion on them; He who formed them will show them no favor.
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These words of Jesus were most likely spoken to His twelve disciples after the mother of two of them approached Jesus with a request...
Matthew 20:21 ESV — And He said to her, “What do you want?” She said to Him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at Your right hand and one at Your left, in Your kingdom.” They were yet to understand Jesus' radical approach to life. Being a servant: Consider others more important than ourselves. This kind of attitude was probably quite radical, especially for the Jews living at the time of Jesus, where hard rulers and authoritarian leadership was probably commonplace even in the Jewish religious practices. Being a servant: Lead by good example. Jesus set the high standard expected of His followers. Jesus' command is to love God and neighbour, so love should be evident among Christians not out of duty or as a requirement for salvation or acceptance by God but simply from a thankful heart. Being a servant: Demonstrate Jesus' love in our actions and words. Approaching all relationships with a servant attitude of demonstrated love - not self-seeking, not power-hungry, not manipulative, not judgemental. John 13:34 ESV — A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. The ultimate demonstration of Jesus' love, perfect obedience to God the Father, and His servant heart, was His willingness to be scourged and then crucified as the ransom payment required to set us, God's adopted children (the Bride of Jesus Christ - the church of all believers in Jesus across all generations). Revelation 5:9 NKJV — And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation This well-known verse from Romans 5:8 may be best understood by looking at what the previous four chapters actually reveal...
(sorry there is quite a lot) (A) DIVINITY AND HUMAN-NESS OF JESUS: Romans 1:3-4 ESV - "concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord" These verses reveal that physically, Jesus was a descendant of King David, but during His earthly ministry, Jesus declared on many occasions that He and the Father were One; that He pre-existed; and that He was perfectly obedient to the Father's will, BUT...these declarations proved nothing about His divinity until His prophesied physical resurrection from the dead occurred on the third day following Jesus' crucifixion. (B) SALVATION FOR JEWS AND NON-JEWS: Romans 1:16-17 ESV — "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” " Although God's chosen people were the Jews, the Old Testament gave many examples of His saving grace being extended to non-Jews. In these verses, the Apostle Paul makes the point very clearly, that God's grace is for all who believe...the Jews and non-Jews. (C) GOD'S WRATH: Romans 1:18 ESV — "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." The Bible describes God as a holy and righteous Judge, who must justly deal with our sinful thoughts, words and actions. Only a corrupt, evil Judge will overlook crimes committed by people, but God cannot act in ways that are contrary to His perfect nature and character - all sins must be punished. (D) LIES VS. OBJECTIVE/ABSOLUTE TRUTH: Romans 1:24-25 ESV — "Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." Our sinful human nature so easily rejects and despises the absolute truths revealed by God in the Bible. Why is this? It is because we try to minimise the genuine impact of our disobedience and the truth often gets in our way by giving us a guilty conscience that we willingly try to suppress to allow sin to reign. (E) FAIL TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD: Romans 1:28-32 ESV — "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." The above list that reveals the consequences of our sinful human nature, when left to our own sense of morality, is a very sad picture, that breaks relationships, families, societies and ultimately governments and nations. (F) NO REPENTANCE: Romans 2:4-5 ESV — "Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed." It should not come as a surprise, but we so easily try to justify our sins by falsely assuming that God will simply overlook them and forgive us. Rather than forgiveness, all that is achieved in the storing up of God's wrath. (G) SO FAR SHORT OF GOD'S PERFECT STANDARDS: Romans 3:9b-18 ESV — "...both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” " Sadly, these verses reveal the depth of our human sinfulness and distance from our Creator God. (H) JESUS REDEEMS: Romans 3:22-24 ESV — "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" God is just and righteous to release those for whom Jesus died, from the bondage and slavery of sin, and to declare us as righteous because Jesus paid the penalty of our sins - we were redeemed back to God by the shedding of Jesus' blood on the cross. (Heb 9:22) (I) BY GOD'S GRACE WE ARE SAVED THROUGH FAITH: Romans 4:16-17 ESV — "That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." Left to our sinful human nature, we remain dead in our sins, but by God's awesome and amazing grace, he replaces the sinner's "heart of stone" with a spiritually discerning "heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26), who responds in saving faith and belief in Jesus. That which didn't exist NOW exists. (J) LIFE OF THANKFUL, WILLING SERVICE TO GOD: Romans 5:9-11 ESV — "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." Is Peter qualified to make such a bold claim?
In this verse, the Apostle Peter is not making a theoretical claim - some "pie-in-the-sky", or "make me feel good" motivational quote. Rather, he is drawing upon what he KNOWS to be reality. (1) HE KNEW JESUS: For three years, the Apostle Peter was one of Jesus' "inner circle" of three closest disciples (refer: Matthew 17:1; Mark 5:31, 13:3, 14:33; Luke 8:51, 9:28) so he knew more about Jesus than possibly any other human being ever to live; (2) HE WAS TAUGHT LIFE'S PURPOSE: During this time, Peter would have received the best education about life and its real purpose from none other than God the Son, Himself - Jesus, the eternal Creator of the universe (John 1:1-3). Peter would have learnt more about what was truly important, in those three short years than from a lifetime of study; (3) HE WAS TRANSFORMED: Soon after Jesus' physical resurrection from the dead, the Apostle Peter devoted the rest of his life boldly preaching and declaring the truth of the Gospel message of salvation to Jews and non-Jews. This was nothing like what the former Peter was like - the one who previously was afraid and even denied Jesus three times (refer: Matthew 26:34, 69-75). Peter's transformation came from God and it was powerful and effective (refer: Acts 2); (4) HE KNEW PERSECUTION: Until his probable crucifixion in Rome, around AD64, the Apostle Peter was a prominent figure in the early Christian church - a time of significant persecution of Christian believers by the religious leaders of Judaism and the tyrannical rulers throughout the vast Roman Empire (Acts 12:1-5). The Apostle Peter had every reason to feel anxiety (at levels we could hardly imagine) and first-hand experience of witnessing God's miraculous provision (Acts 3 & 4), deliverance (Acts 12:6-12) and almighty power over the evil plans of men and Satan (Acts 5:1-16). The Apostle Peter is indeed qualified to instruct all believers to "Cast all your anxieties upon Him [Jesus]" because he knows Jesus' power to most appropriately deal with the root of our stress and anxieties, not just a "band-aid" solution. The Apostle Peter is best qualified to testify of Jesus' depth of sincere love, care and compassion towards us, even when our fears overwhelm us. JESUS CARES FOR US What an amazing weekend!! YWAM Butuan's Australian-based Student Sponsorship Ministry is primarilly focussed on the poor squatter community called Resurrection, in Butuan City. Last weekend (Friday evening, June 14 to Sunday afternoon, June 16, 2019) we held a camp for almost 100 students, mainly from the Resurrection community. It was an opportunity for our amazing YWAM Butuan team to better connect with the sponsored students and those not sponsored but regular in attendance at our weekly ministry programs. It was also a time for us to distribute almost 100 Operation Christmas Child (Samaitan's Purse) gift boxes to these very excited and grateful children. Seeing the delighted expressions on the children's faces brought so much joy to each member of the YWAM Butuan team!! The weekend was packed full of Bible teaching - 12 lessons (from God's creation and Adam's sin to Jesus' life, death and resurrection to the promise of His return) with corresponding memory verses and activities, with times of worship and prayer. Although many of the campers were tired (their excitement made sleep on Friday and Saturday night rather difficult for most), they all participated and I heard not one complaint from any of them. AWESOME!! "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth." |
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