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In the Bible, Christ has many names; Master, Teacher, Lord, Son of God, and Emmanuel to name a few. Looking at Acts 4:27 today, we see another: the Anointed One. Anointing is a physical act with a deeply spiritual meaning, where oil or some sort of perfume is poured one someone’s head or applied to some object to mark it as particularly holy, or set aside for some notably divine purpose. Typically, in biblical times, it was done to kings as part of a coronation ceremony, or by homeowners to guests as a sign of welcome and thankfulness. To be anointed is to be given the favor of God, and an act of recognizing a deep spiritual connection with the Lord.

  We know that in Jesus’s time on earth, God made clear he was symbolically anointed, set forth as the most holy King, a true leader and ruler of God’s people. Jesus himself recognizes the duties put forth before Him by God and the importance of anointment in demonstrating this, especially in the story of His anointing told in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and John 12, where he says “In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial.” Or as Luke described in Acts 10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” But this term, used throughout the Bible, seems to frequently be used as well to describe those who follow Christ. A few examples.

Psalm 23:5 – “You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

Psalm 45:7 – “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

Psalm 105:15 – “he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, saying, ‘Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!’”

Luke 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”

1 John 2:20 – “You have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.”

The central theme around referring to the body of believers as “the anointed” is that through our faith in God and our spiritual death and rebirth provided from grace through baptism, we have been truly made and marked holy. The Lord has set us apart from the world, using the hope and faith in what is unseen to demonstrate God’s blessings dwelling within us. God has welcomed us into his kingdom and honored us as guests in His house, representative of the symbolic hospitality of anointment.

Therein lies to encouragement in Acts 4:27, where the entire world seems to have banded together to rise against Jesus, “whom you anointed.” We see this same message in Psalm 2:2 – “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed.” Since the fall of man, the world has despised and worked against those whom the Lord favors. This is epitomized in these verses where the Anointed One, the most consecrated of all, is turned against. It’s not hard to see; turn on the news or check social media and you’re likely to see an outpouring of slander and hatred against the faithful and against God’s word. But all these verses and all of God’s promises speak true: in anointing us and recognizing our faith, God has promised we will be safe from wickedness. He will make sure our cup overflows and we can continue to perform good works in His name, no matter what the weapons the world may raise against us. In Him and in His blessings, we are safe and secured. This definite truth is one we can always hold onto when the world turns against us – no matter what, when, or where, our Lord is with us.

 

 

Today’s reading is Rev 3:14

Maybe the world has always been this way, but it seems to me that “truth” is becoming more and more subjective the longer I live. More opinions, more cultural norms, and more tolerance all seem to be broadening what we accept as truth. In a relational situation, two people can live through the exact same circumstance and later describe it in opposite terms. People have different opinions and different past experiences that cause them to view situations differently. Where is truth? How does truth fit in these opposing scenarios?

I am not looking to tackle what is right and what is wrong in our society today in this post. I am thinking more about relational dynamics as I sit with this verse, relationships between friends, coworkers, fellow church-goers, spouses, parents and kids.  Conflicts and differences of opinion meet us daily. These conflicts can so easily cause frustration, anger, and division in relationships, when we won’t consider any thoughts but our own. When we are faced with a conflict and there isn’t a clear path forward in the Bible, or both parties can make a Biblical case for why their approach should be taken, relationships get messy and people can get hurt.  We are given help in looking at the name of God, Amen.

Rev 3:14 “Write this letter to the angel of the church of Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen-the faithful and true witness, the beginning and source of God’s new creation.” In Hebrew, God’s name of Amen is translated as “God of truth”, “certainty”, or just “truth”. In Is 65:16 the Bible says, “All who invoke a blessing or take an oath will do so by the God of truth.” So my question is, how do we get the God of truth into a sticky situation or a conflict with another person?

Some ideas:

1-God doesn’t very often instantly hand out answers and resolution in the middle of conflict. It seems to take time. If we don’t have to discuss the situation with Him, then our relationship with Him doesn’t grow. We don’t get to know Him better. We don’t experience His trustworthiness and we don’t get to see Him change us, or the other person, or maybe even the circumstances.

2-It is better to wrestle with the God of truth, than another person. Do we want to find the truth or do we want to be right? If we bring our issue to God, we will get to truth. If we continue to argue with the other person we will get or cause more hurt and usually no real resolution takes place.

3-When we go to God, it humbles us. We have to admit that we are stuck and need help to get to true resolution. A humbled heart hears that it needs to change better than an angry one, you can trust me on this.

4-God’s opinion matters to me more than any person’s does. He is perfect, faithful, and a true witness to everything. I want my measuring stick to be His thoughts not mine or someone else’s. I have to go to Him to know His thoughts. I can’t trust my feelings or my mind. To know what He desires in each individual situation, I need to bring it to Him. Honestly, I don’t always finish praying with my answer in hand. Sometimes He lets me know later or even back in conversation with my problem person what He wants from me. The answers come at different times, but if I don’t go to Him with my questions, His answers are not usually known.

In the last few years, I have been more grateful for God’s ultimate truth than at any other time in my life. A less loving God might not be willing to enter into our lives and our messes to help us change. Praise God that He is unconditional, perfect, generous, rich and compassionate Love. Praise Him for being the God of truth and certainty.

Almighty is the attribute that God gives to himself in Genesis 17:1.  It sets him apart.  He has absolute power.  He is omnipotent.  Absolutely nothing can stop him. He controls everything.

We have two options when it comes to hearing God as almighty.  We either accept it or reject it.  Accepting him as almighty means that we place him in a position of utmost esteem.  We worship the almighty by giving him authority over our thoughts and actions.  Alternatively, we can reject him.  Rejecting him says that we are something and he is not.  Rejection of God as almighty is characterized by our unwillingness to yield our thoughts and actions.

This is where I have a problem.  You see, I want to be something.  I always have.  What I endeavor to know better is that being something requires me to be nothing.  Only in my nothingness, can the Almighty breath into me the life of something.

But it is the spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty, that gives them understanding ~ Job 32:8 (NIV)

Moses said, “please show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18).

When I imagine the glory of God, I have grand and terrible thoughts.  Not in a bad way.  In an overwhelming way.  Moses sets me up for it.  When he asks God to see his glory (Exodus 33:18), God gives a frightening response.  God says, “here, stand in the cleft of this rock so that you are protected and don’t look at my face, because if you see it, you will die” (Exodus 33:19-20).  God’s response conjures up images of wrath, danger, and imminent destruction.  But that is not at all what happens.  God appears in the quiet stillness of a morning on a misty mountain top.  There is peace in the air, not a roaring hurricane.  God shares his abundant love and faithfulness with Moses. It’s who he is.

I submitted a similar question to God, “what does it look like to be in your presence.”  He provided an amazing answer, right under my feet.   

Every morning, I sit in the same spot.  I have a recliner that is the perfect place to drink my coffee and begin my daily reading.  This happens at 5:00 AM, every day.  Most mornings, my son would enter my room sleepy-eyed and dragging his blanket.  Quietly and carefully, he chooses a spot directly in front of my chair, lying down and quickly falling to sleep.  The first couple of times that he did this, I would wake him up, asking “if he wouldn’t be more comfortable on the couch?”  It is, after all, about five feet away.  His response was always simple and always the same, “No, I’m good.”  While he lies there my heart and mind ponder his little body and his spunky personality.  Swelling with pride, I consider how perfect he is.  Truly, I wouldn’t change anything about him.  I consider what he will be like when he grows up, the places he will go and the man he will become.  Of course, some of that is up to me.  The love that I provide him and the discipline that I encourage will help shape him into that man.  I pray for him, asking God to bless him, protect him and challenge him.  I pray for me.  That I might be a good example and, above all, share with him the love of the Father that I know in a meaningful and effective way. 

After several days of this, it finally dawned on me.  God had answered my prayer in the most profound way.  You see, Freddy was not coming into my room to sleep.  He was coming to be in my presence.  The couch, while available and far more comfortable was not nearly as secure and intimate as my feet.  This is how it feels to be in God’s presence.  Always.  He is abounding in love and faithfulness.

Exodus 34:5-7 (ESV) The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Happy New Year!! I hope you rang in the new year with friends and family or enjoyed it in your PJ’s on the couch like myself! Regardless of how you celebrated, I pray that you are looking at the new year with hope and anticipation for all that God has in store for you. In this new year, the Bible Journal will be focusing on the titles or attributes of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today’s attribute of God is “able“.  Merriam Webster defines able as  “having sufficient power, skill, or resources to do something. Having the freedom or opportunity to do something. Having a quality or nature that makes something possible.”

God is ABLE!

• He has “sufficient power, skill, and resources”! He is the creator of all things!
• He has the “freedom or opportunity” to do anything! He is above all things
• He has the “quality or nature that makes something (anything) possible”!

The proof lies within the pages of the written word of God, the Bible and in our daily lives. From Genesis to Revelation we read where God has been able to powerfully change lives. And today we see things happen before us that can only come from the hand of God. Even in the midst of tragedy he is able to make a difference. Do you believe he is able?

Matthew 8:2 “A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can (are ABLE to) make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy”.

The leper believed that Jesus was able to heal him because he had heard the stories and saw the healing of others with his own eyes. The question was if Jesus was willing to heal him. He approached Jesus humbly knowing that the answer might be no,  yet he still made his request. I am humbled by this. When I am asking God for things in my life is it with the awe and wonder of the divine creator whose ways are not my ways? Is it with the belief that he is able but he might have plans beyond what I can imagine? Is it possible that my ailment  might ultimately bring myself and others closer to him?

Matthew 9:28 “When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ ‘ Yes, Lord’ they replied”.

Again, the blind men were approaching Jesus for healing because they believed he was able but would only receive it if He was willing. They did not know if they would receive healing unless they asked. Their belief in his ability to heal directed their action to ask for healing.

I know healing does not always happen this side of heaven. The ultimate healing happens in eternity with our creator. He is able to save us because of Jesus crucifixion and sacrifice on the cross. Because of this sacrifice we can have a relationship with our creator and the hope of eternal life.

Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is ABLE to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Do you believe that God is able to do immeasurably more than you could ask or imagine in 2020?  Are you asking?

Shelly

 

 

 

As we contemplate the coming week and New Year, my mind has a recurring theme that I would like to share: encouragement.  Over this past year many of my friends and family have stated, “2019 has been one of the worst years that I have had”.  In retrospect, 2019 has been a year of growth in overcoming some hard obstacles and allowing God to work in us.  I have personally experienced sickness of children, death of close friends and family (expected and unexpected), challenges in relationships, and sickness and trials of loved ones.  The main methods that I have coped have been through the encouragement from loved ones, songs & hymns, and scripture.

 

Vocabulary.com defines encouragement in parts.  Within the word encouragement we see the word “courage,” which means the ability to face danger and deal with it. To encourage, then, is to help develop that ability in someone, while the “ment” at the end makes that development into a noun, the act of giving courage or support to another. www.vocalbulary.com

 

The root word of encourage is courage. Lexico defines courage as the ability to do something that frightens one or the strength in the face of grief and pain. Lexico also has the origin of the word courage: Middle English (denoting the heart, as the seat of feelings): from Old French corage, from Latin cor ‘heart’.

 

So encouragement is using your internal feelings that are: fear, grief, and pain and transforming the inconceivable into something that is extraordinary.  This transformation is not something that is innate, but something that has to be cultivated and practiced.  You must find individuals that will be encouraging and allow the Spirit of God to encourage your heart and spirit.

 

One individual that embodies encouragement is David.  In the books of I & II Samuel, you are given a brief glimpse into the life of David from youth through death.  In these scriptures, it is evident that David shows courage and encourages the Israelites to stand up to the Philistines and he use his final words to encourage the people of Israel to continue to trust in God.

 

I Samuel 17:32-37

And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³ And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ³⁶ Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” ³⁷ And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 

II Samuel 23: 2-4

“The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me;
his word is on my tongue.
³ The God of Israel has spoken;
the Rock of Israel has said to me:
When one rules justly over men,
ruling in the fear of God,
⁴ he dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain^[b] that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

 

These two passages from Samuel show that the nature of David was encouragement.  In the face of unspeakable and unimaginable danger, his spirit was aligned with the Spirit of God.   When you read the full story of David and understand the highs and lows of his life. He was not a perfect man, but he was a man that understood that even when his steps where not completely in step with God’s plan and purpose, he would recognize the misstep and correct the actions.  The story of David is a true story of encouragement that despite all of the afflictions and turmoil and strife that we are witness to God’s divine and awesome plan for our lives and us. Let us greet this New Year and remember the past year with a spirit of encouragement.