Relational Bridges

 PSALM 106:24 " Then they despised the pleasant land;  they did not believe His promise." The people of God, those He had delivered from over 400 years of slavery in Egypt, despised the land God had given to them as their inheritance as He had promised Abraham. Why is the world would they refuse to enter in? It was then and it is the same even now...when God's people refuse to believe His promises, they balk at obeying God in the very things that ALONE make for life. He promised to drive out the utterly corrupted pagan nations and to establish Israel in the land that would be named after them. They doubted than God could lay out a banquet in the wilderness and provide for them in ways that would be new to them. They were to learn to trust and obey and to see the salvation of God. They grumbled and wouldn't obey because they trusted MORE in what they could perceive with their own finite understanding than what God had plainly laid out before them.  They saw the pagan ...

 PURPOSE The Law of God given to Israel and the Sermon on the Mount given by Jesus Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, have the same purpose. They both describe Life as it should be lived in order to know God and be reconciled to Him. Both the Law and the Sermon on the Mount, are also like mirrors exposing the true inner character of every human from Eden till now. No one, except for Jesus Christ, has ever lived a life in perfect harmony with the Law of God and Jesus' own sermon. Mankind is NOT "basically good" and any true student of human history would confirm that fact. God's Word makes that crystal clear. Humans can't ever consistently keep God's Law for to be "made righteous" by keeping the Law requires that you never, ever, ever break even one of God's Laws. Even if you kept the Law for 100 years perfectly and on your 101st birthday, you break one Law, it would be as if you never, ever, ever, even kept one of God's Laws. The Sermon on th...

 A LAMP UNTO MY FEET God tells us through the Psalmist that His Word is a "lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." That described light is not a hand-held halogen flashlight. It was the oil lamp held in the hand that gave enough light to take the next step. People need and want direction for living out their lives. They can spend their lives trying to "make their dreams come true." All the while, God's plans, His "dreams" for you are initiated by, continued by and brought to competition by God's Power, His Presence, and His Provision. The Word of God brings light to one's whole life. Rebell against it, for whatever reason, and the fruit will always be darkness, deception, and delusion about the essence of life. Only in God can your soul be at rest. It is ONLY in Him that you will ever experience God's salvation. Arguing with God about passages you don't want to hear doesn't change the Truth of God for your lie. There is a guara...

 COVERED UP OR COVERING? In the Old Testament, the blood of animals offered as the antidote for sin covered the sin that had been committed. Trying to keep all the regulations of the Law resulted in a sense of futility as the Law couldn't change a person's heart nor give the adherent a new nature. The Law was given to show what real life is meant to be and how human beings are utterly incapable to saving themselves by keeping rules and regulations. The Law was given to drive humanity toward the Grace of God that was surely coming in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10:11-14 " Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins . But our High Priest (Jesus Christ) offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time . Then He sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand. There He waits until His enemies are humbled and made a footstool under Hi...

 PSALM 23 A sheep doesn't lead itself; it follows the Shepherd. The sheep trusts, submits to, and obeys the Shepherd because it has learned in following that the Shepherd knows best how to tend His sheep. It is in the Shepherd that the sheep will know rest, hope, confidence and peace. It is in believing the Shepherd that we enter into His rest, the rest He has prepared for all who will but believe Him.  The evidence that a sheep believes the Shepherd is seen in the sheep following the Shepherd. Life for a sheep is a changed life. It is a life of surrendered dependance, not some craven relinquishment, but a surrender that comes from confidence in the eternal love and faithfulness of the Shepherd. It is in living dependance upon the Shepherd that the sheep enters into what it actually means to be a sheep, to be fully a sheep in every detail. Wholeness of life is found in believing and then receiving all the provision the Shepherd has in store for the sheep, day by day.  The...

  KINGDOM LOVE What produces Kingdom Love, the Love of God manifest in His people? It comes from a pure heart, one made clean by the Blood of Christ, His forgiveness. He alone can make our hearts clean as He gives us a new heart and a new spirit. He causes us to stand before Him holy, blameless and beyond reproach. A pure heart is marked by singlemindedness in following the Lord Jesus in every detail of life. It comes from a clear conscience, where God's grace in the forgiveness of all our sin sets us free by breaking the power of cancelled sin. God makes our conscience clear because He makes us see that what He has done for us has been done in us and will be brought to its completion when the Lord returns to take us home at last. Our conscience is kept clear through a life of utter dependency upon God, a life of daily repentance and the acceptance of God's forgiveness as fact, not some "legal fiction." It comes from genuine faith. This faith is grounded alone in what...