Heavenhigh

In the Shadow of God’s Wings

# 34. 2017 Dev. Ps 17:8. In the Shadow of God’s Wings. Read all of Ps.17 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 17:8

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings”

In this series of 10 Psalms (Ps.15-24) about God’s majesty and the need for moral purity, David inserts a prayer. The prayer is a personal prayer, it is in the first person and anticipates God’s answer. By David’s faith and intimate knowledge of God the prayer becomes a two-way conversation! Yet, David continues to glorify God and displays moral purity in his life.

How do we as followers of Jesus connect with David’s prayer today? The first thing we see is that David points out that he has not transgressed with his mouth, not with his eyes, not with his thoughts, nor with his actions and has not strayed from the path of God’s commands, verses 2-5. “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16b).

Second, we see that David glorifies God. David, fueled by faith (the Spirit) is confident of God’s answer. He has experienced God’s great love, God’s salvation and has made God his refuge in a broken and changing world, verses 6-7. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Paul asks us in Ro. 8:35 and he gives us the answer: nothing in heaven or on earth! “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” Ro.8:37.

Third. David moves to the evil he is praying to be protected from. All the faculties of men are involved in practicing righteousness as they are in evil living: the eyes, the mouth, the mind, and all action of men and women, “whose reward is in this life” verses 9-14. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (I Pet. 5:15).

Our comfort and our strength is in David’s request in verse 8. Along with David we ask God to keep us, to hide us and shade us. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro.8:38-39).

Therefore, we will see His face!

Good Fruit.

# 33. 2017 Dev. Mt. 7:17-18. Good Fruit. Read verses 15-20. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Matthew 7:17-18

¹⁷Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

We continue with the teachings of Jesus in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus begins his teaching on the “Kingdom of God” with the introductory “Beatitudes”; Kingdom thinking and blessings as the result. In the second section are the ethical expectations of the Kingdom, ending at the end of Ch. 5. Chapter 6 begins the comparison of Jewish legalism and the ways of the world to the Kingdom that is continued to the end of Ch.7.

In our passage today Jesus warns against false prophets, comparing true prophets with false ones. Prophets are a special group of people in that they speak for God. They foretell and tell forth (interpretation). In our tradition the followers of Jesus are considered as prophets, priests and kings; the Spirit of God indwells all of us. However, there is a gift of prophecy that is a different level of understanding but the same Spirit, the same Lord and the same God give different kinds of gifts (Ro.12:4-6). I think that Jesus is talking about those people in this passage; those who claim the gift of prophecy but have not the Spirit and those who claim the gift and do have the Spirit.

How do followers of Jesus know the difference? Jesus uses the analogy of good and bad fruit and good and bad trees. Are we able to recognize the difference? For example, is gathering up a lot of goods and money in a world with so much disparity, good fruit? I think not. Do we as followers of Jesus produce good fruit? “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23). Do you produce good fruit?

In this passage bad trees are and remain bad, and good trees are and remain good. Not so for people, by the miracle of God’s salvation in Christ bad will become good and good stays good by the miracle of God’s grace in our lives. Praise the Lord always!

“The Path of Life”.

# 32 2017 Dev. Ps.16:11. “The Path of Life”. Read all of Ps.16. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living.

Psalm 16:11

“You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand”.

The path of life starts in verse 2 “O Lord, you are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing”. David continues to glorify God and acknowledges his total commitment to God. Like David we are surrounded with other gods; the desire for power and influence, desire for financial gain, desire for the opposite sex, or the same sex, even sports and social media. There is no end to it but much of is not sinful in itself but in the priority they take in our lives over serving God.

David rejects everything that competes with God in his life; “You alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure”. David is confident of God’s salvation; it is one of my favorite thoughts, “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance”. That is true for us as well.

David also makes a messianic statement with a reference to Jesus; “you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay”. This is also a statement for us! Really? Yes, we die in Christ but we will be raised with Him to life eternal with new and imperishable bodies! The second death will not touch followers of Jesus,

That takes us to the last verse, v 11; we are completely dependent on God to lead us into the path of life. We will rejoice in God’s presence and we will enjoy God’s presence for evermore! Thanks be to God!

The Narrow Path.

# 31. 2017 Dev. Mt.7:13-14. The Narrow Path. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Matthew 7:13-14

¹³“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Dev. 30 is good preparation for Dev. 31. Jesus continues with His teaching by making a comparison of the ways (paths) that are available to us in this life. There are only two paths in this life, the broad and the narrow! The narrow path is entered by a small gate. The gate is closed yet it is open to everyone. That is the beauty of this small gate, no one is disqualified, not by our actions or thoughts but they must be former actions and thinking. The gate is opened by repentance and by putting your trust in Jesus. It is a low gate, one must bow low in humility to go through, perhaps crawl through in sorrowful confession to God and leave all worldly attitudes behind.

What is this foot path like? Once on the path Eternal Life is assured, that is the goal but the journey is also important because the path follows the Kingdom of God. Few people find this path Jesus tells us, it could be a lonely journey. Much of it is uphill and it takes us though the wilderness. There are challenges at every turn but the path is scattered with God’s blessings: family, faithful friends, spiritual challenges and spiritual highs not easily explained. It is a tough trip, valleys and mountain tops, but it is a trip with Jesus walking at our side. The path is hard to describe; God makes our journeys unique but He prepares each one for life evermore.

Not so the wide gate, it is standing wide open with every temptation known to mankind. It is so wide you may drive through in your Cadillac convertible, smooth is the way, down hill, not a pot hole in site. People cruse along in confidence not knowing their fate, not believing in the after life. Thankfully some turn back to find the narrow way. That is our calling; to point people in the right direction and demonstrate the love of Jesus (John 3: 16-18). Those who ignore God’s call go merrily on their way but there is a horrible crash along the way and not a one survives!

Stay on the narrow path and take others with you by God’s grace!

Doing!

# 30 2017 Dev. Ps.15:5b. Doing! Read all of Ps.15. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God and to each other by applying His Word to our daily living.

Psalm 15:5b

“Whoever does these things will never be shaken”.

The Psalmist here make a change from prayer in Ps. 3 – Ps.14 to God’s majesty and the need for moral purity in Ps. 15-24. These 10 Psalms glorify God and lay out what it means to practice “Moral Purity” for those who claim to worship God. What are these things that will ground God’s people? The Psalm speaks for its self.

In verse 1 the Psalmist asks two similar questions: “Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain?” Verses 2-5a gives us the answer:

“The one whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous,

who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no slander,

who does no wrong to a neighbor, and casts no slur on others;

who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord;

who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind;

who lends money to the poor without interest;

who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.”

In today’s context what does this answer mean for followers of Jesus? We practice moral purity today not to work in order to be saved but we practice moral purity because we are already saved. We should want to be like Jesus in as much as we are able!

The Psalmist is speaking about personal action, not just church attendance, not following traditions, not just what goes on in our homes, He is speaking about relationships. Relationship with each other, relationship with our neighbors, relationship with the world and most important our relationship with God.

The bottom line: whatever happens to us we “will never be shaken” because we are grounded in God’s grace. Praise be to God!

Ask, Seek, Knock!

# 29. 2017 Dev. Mt.7:12. Ask, Seek, Knock! Read vs 7-12. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Matthew 7:12

¹²“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus continues with His teaching by making comparisons and He ends with the anticipation of God’s grace: do good to others because God is good to you and is in line with God’s law. Jesus begins with a difficult concept,” Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” In Chapter six Jesus said: “…and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom…”

In that case do we need to ask, seek and knock? Yes, we do! God wants us to ask him for his grace and by asking we know what we want and we acknowledge that we depend on Him alone. The difficulty comes when we seem not to get an answer, or we do not find what we want, or a certain door is not opened to us. In Jesus’ comparison of giving gifts of parents and of His Father, vs. 9-11 if parents give good gifts then certainly God will do better.

The answer is simple, as parents know what is good for their children and know what they need so also God, He knows what we need, what will build us up, what will conform us to His calling. Therefore, God gives us what we need and not necessarily what we want. On the basis of God’s goodness to us in that regard Jesus encourages us to practice God’s grace.

V.12 points us back to what Jesus said before it:¹²“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” Jesus gives us the Golden Rule but He does much more, “for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus here introduces what He says in Mt. 22: 34-40 “The Greatest Commandment”: Love the Lord your God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as much as yourself. “Go and do likewise!” (Luke 10:37)

“There is no one who does good”!

# 28 2017 Dev. Ps.14:1a. “There is no one who does good”! Read all of Ps.14. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 14:1a

The fool^[^a^] says in his heart, “There is no God.”

Ps. 14 is the last prayer of this section of Psalms started at Ps. 3. The psalmist has suffered at the hands of godless men. Here the unrighteous are described in vivid terms: their actions, their lack of understanding, their refusal to seek God, and they do not know or do good works.

We see and we hear about the unrighteous today, their evil actions have risen to an unbelievable level destroying whole cities and decimating people groups. Let us call evil what it is, they are controlled by Satan; they love death because they are confronted with life! How? As the Psalmist tells us: “There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous” and “the Lord is their refuge.”

The Psalmist ends his prayer with hope; v. 7a “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!” That is a reality for believers today and salvation in Christ reaches back to David and others.

We return to the title of this devotion. Does anyone do good? Yes! By the power of the Holy Spirit and by work done in Jesus’ name, that work is everlasting and become the building blocks for the Kingdom of God now and for the New Heaven and the New Earth. Praise be to God!

Judging Others!

# 27. 2017 Dev. Mt.7:1-2. Judging Others! Read vs 1-6. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Matthew 7:1-2

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

The Beatitudes is the introduction to the Kingdom of Jesus that include the gifts of the Kingdom (blessings). In the second section are the ethical expectations of the Kingdom, ending at the end of Ch. 5. Chapter 6 begins the comparison of Jewish legalism and the ways of the world to the Kingdom. Chapter 7 continues Jesus’ comparison of the ways of the world to the Kingdom of God.

Jesus is concerned about judging, hypocritical judging. How easy it is for Christians to see people around us with the eyes of self-righteousness. This passage is important for today because while we may mean well, we often do not realize we judge hypocritically. Jesus is talking about God’s judgments when he says: “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”. In that case it may be better if we do not judge at all.

However, Scripture demands that we are discerning about people’s character and actions. Also, Jesus is talking about interaction between brothers and sisters who follow Jesus. We must not judge each other because we all have short comings when it comes to the Kingdom of God.

The pearls of the Kingdom are not for the secular, those who reject the Kingdom and those who oppose believers and reject any mention of the God’s love. Who are the dogs and pigs Jesus is talking about? He knows, but we are not sure because we know that Jesus loves all. Therefore, judgment and condemnation of them is God’s business. But we must discern character and actions and we see they do not belong to the Kingdom of God. God protect us from them and keep us close to Jesus even as we reach out to those who reject you. Thank you Lord Jesus!

The Lord is Good to Us!

# 26. 2017 Dev. Ps.13:6. The Lord is Good to Us! Read all of Ps.13. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Psalm 13:6

“I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Ps. 13 is an extreme lament brought on by mental and physical conditions in David’s life. He begins with: “How long Lord? We identify with him when struggling with illness or issues brought on by loss, or rejection. “Will you forget

me”? One thing is sure, God does not forget those who depend on Him! He is not far from us and He feels our pain and suffers along with us. Even as we suffer a terminal illness He walks with us on a daily basis and prepares us for our coming home. Our family prayed for my brother Clarence daily for five years and God healed him when He brought him home. Healing, relief, peace, and resolution is on God’s time and on His terms but our prayers are answered.

In verse 3 there is a switch, we identify with this as well, “Look on me, answer me. Give light to my (our) eyes” that we may see. Without the light of the Holy Spirit in us we we do not understand God’s ways and we die physically and mentally. Further, without Jesus’ light in our lives we are in danger to suffer the second death.

Verse 5 takes a radical turn to affirmation, rejoicing and singing praise. God’s love is confirmed, salvation is assured and God’s goodness is confessed. “I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” I pray that we may all identify with experiencing God’s goodness in our own lives. Amen!

Worry and Faith.

# 25. 2017 Dev. Mt.6:31-32. Worry and Faith! Read vs 25-34. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw closer to God by memorizing selected passages of Scripture. Further, to view the passage in context and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living with family, friends and others. All passages are taken from the NIV.

Matthew 6:31-32

³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

Apparently worrying about food and clothing was a big issue in Jesus’ day. Today, due to conflict in their areas, there are an increasing number of people struggling with the shortage of food and other basic needs.

Worry is part of modern life and there are many things to worry about.

Most of us are not very worried about eating or dressing except maybe for seeking out the latest cuisine or fashion. Jesus says do not worry! But we must take on the be responsibility of caring for our families. What Jesus is addressing here is our priorities in this life that bring on unhealthy anxiety. What are our priorities when it comes to not only eating, drinking and clothing but all the other stuff we want? What do we worry about?

Jesus rests his case on God’s care for His creation and His love for His people: speaking about God’s creatures, “Are you not much more valuable than they?” Jesus asks; isn’t your life and body more important than all these things? Further, for followers of Jesus, extreme anxiety indicates a small faith. The worldly “run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Jesus here gives us the priority in this life that gives us peace, His Peace:” ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. (php.4:7).

As we wrote before: “all these things will be given to you”; all that we need for a happy and productive life. Following Jesus and being like Him not only provides what we need in this life, generally speaking, but everything we need to prepare us for heaven. Praise be to God!