August 28 - Falling Facedown

 Read today’s texts first:  Ezekiel 1-3; Revelation 2

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

When you fall facedown before God
get ready for a pick-me-up! 

The awe-inspiring revelations of God’s glory we read yesterday from David and John continue today. The writer this time is Ezekiel and when he encountered the living God his reaction was the same - he hit the dirt facedown. A pattern is emerging!

It seems whenever we have a revelation of God in heaven it is more than we can handle. When faced with a glorious, powerful, and holy God, we suddenly become aware of how small, helpless, and sinful we are. Ezekiel demonstrates that reaction twice in the first three chapters.

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you'” (1:28-2:1).

The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown (3:22-23).

When we experience that kind of holy fear, we know longer fear anything else. Our priorities are suddenly in the right order:  And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen (2:6,7).

When that happens, this incredible awe-inspiring God always reaches down and lifts us up (2:2; 3:12,14,24). Each time Ezekiel hit the dirt, God’s Spirit literally and spiritually picked him up. He promised the same to us: humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up (James 4:10).

“Lord, sometimes I am either too fearful or too enamoured with the world and its distractions. But when I fall facedown before Your glory, my priorities are realigned. Like You did for Ezekiel and John in my readings today, give me the courage to get up and speak boldly for You!”

 

August 27 - What is God?

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 52; Revelation 1; Psalms 143,144

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

The correct position when seeing God in His glory
is not standing, sitting or kneeling - it’s flat on your face! 

The verse that struck me this morning posed the question: “what is man?” The comparison between man and God might prompt that question - we seem so insignificant to warrant His attention, let alone His love. But the more I thought about that, another question came to my mind: “what is God?” (and no, we are not playing Jeopardy)!

Here’s the verse, with some context: O Lord, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter [the enemies]; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters (144:3-7).

Combine that fearsome image of God with John’s vision of the glorified Christ and we shrink some more: Among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead (1:13-17).

John had the right response to such a revelation of God’s glory - he fell flat on his face!  This did not look like the uncomely humble man he walked beside down the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea. This new dimension of glory was mind-blowing to a mere human. It should amaze us that this blazing, glowing, star-holding God loves us so personally and so intimately.

“Lord, when I read these descriptions of Your glory and power I can’t help but agree with David’s conclusion: Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the Lord” (144:15).

August 26 - Verdant Pastures

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 50,51; 3 John

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

The world offers us astro-turf
but Jesus is our verdant pasture! 

I remember when my grand kids were visiting their GG (great grandmother) at Buchanan and we took them into the beautiful courtyard. The kids stretched out on the lush grass and noticed it wasn’t grass at all – it’s astro turf. Clean, neat, uniform, no maintenance, no mowing, no life! I pointed out that problem, the “no life” thing, when they started asking me to install it in their yard. We had just finished laying down thick, rich sod. I wished I had used the word “verdant” at that moment, but I just learned it today from reading Jeremiah. It’s my word for today, and it’s a good one!

The Bible often refers to us, humankind, as sheep, and in most cases we are wandering around looking a little lost. Sometimes we are led astray by following the wrong shepherds, which is what had happened in Jeremiah’s day. To solve that problem we are invited to follow the Good Shepherd, also known as the Great Shepherd, Jesus. The world offers us astro turf, a man-made grass facsimile that looks appealing but lacks the qualities of life. The pastures Jesus leads us to are verdant - lush, beautiful, nurturing, satisfying - full of life.

I always thought those pastures mentioned in Scripture were actual places, like a good home, a friendly church, a fulfilling workplace. But in the following passage note that these pastures are not a “what” or a “where,” but a “who.”  My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, “We are not guilty, for they sinned against the Lord , their verdant pasture, the Lord, the hope of their ancestors” (50:6,7).

Even our enemies know that the green pastures we need to really “live” on this planet and on into the next life, are found in a person - Jesus. It doesn’t matter where we live as long as we stay close to Him. I’ve been praying hymns lately so this is my prayer today:

Saviour, like a shepherd lead us

Much we need thy tender care

In thy pleasant pastures feed us

For our use thy folds prepare

Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus

Thou hast bought us, thine we are.

August 25 - I Will Save You

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 37-39; Psalms 79; 2 John

 MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Trust means making God’s plans for you your plans.
You may not know what they are but He does
and that’s good enough! 

It seems like a distant memory, but that wonderful promise we read about a few days ago, Jeremiah 29:11, is still true:  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Unfortunately, for those who didn’t embrace the condition of obedience to God, protection and prosperity would not be provided, at least not in the short term. But for Jeremiah, who remained faithful to God despite some challenging circumstances, the promise definitely came to pass.

This is the word Jeremiah received from God as Jerusalem was being overtaken by the Babylonians: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. But I will rescue you on that day,”  declares the Lord; “you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me,” declares the Lord (39:16-18).

It seems that God’s plans for protection and prosperity can apply to nations and individuals. His promise to the nation of Israel (specifically Judah) will come to pass when they get their act together. In the meantime, while they are experiencing disastrous consequences for their collective sin, God is still caring for Jeremiah, and presumably other individuals who are still honouring Him. Even though he is thrown into prison and a deep, dark cistern, God is there, protecting him from harm.

This spoke to me. Our world today is facing disasters strikingly similar to the upheaval in Jeremiah’s day. Horrific terrorist attacks, wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, persecution, false prophets - it almost sounds like the end times prophesied in Matthew 24:4-13 (which, in my opinion, is highly likely!). But the care for Jeremiah should encourage us that God can and will protect those who remain faithful to Him (v.13).

“Lord, when I make Your plans my plans I can trust in Your promise of protection and prosperity. There may be some dark cisterns along the way but there will be a light at the end when I am ‘lifted’ to safety.”

August 24 - The Water and the Blood

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 33,34; Psalms 74; 1 John 5

MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

Believing the virgin birth of Jesus is key to
believing He is the Messiah, the Christ. 

Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ (5:5,6). What is John, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, talking about? I believe he is again referring to the undeniable proof that Jesus was and is the Messiah, the promised Saviour of the world.

In our readings in Jeremiah today, God is promising through His prophet that there will be a Righteous Branch sprout from David’s line who will fulfill God’s covenant to restore His people (33:14,15). The same God who fixed the laws of heaven and earth will deliver on His promises (33:25).

As mentioned in the journal entry yesterday, John has made it clear how we must view Jesus if we are to be part of God’s family. If He is in fact the Son of God then His virgin birth is a foundational doctrine. It proves that He was born physically a man through Mary (came by water - see John’s conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:3-5). It also proves He was born spiritually from God’s seed, not Joseph’s. The blood that He shed on Calvary for us represented a life that was fully God and fully man. Like the first Adam, Jesus, the second Adam, was the only other person born on earth directly from God, uncontaminated by sin. He alone could battle Satan, the god of this world, and redeem what the first Adam lost.

John even wrote about the water and the blood that flowed from Jesus when He was pierced by the soldier’s spear (John 19:33-35). Dr. Stroud explained in his masterful book On the Physiological Cause of the Death of Christ how that physiological phenomenon proved Jesus died of a ruptured heart. But it also symbolized the spiritual heart of God breaking for us, and proved again that Jesus was the Son of God.

“Lord, my prayer today is in song:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.”

 

 

August 23 - Test the Spirits

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 31,32; 1 John 4 

MAXIMize YOUR DAY 

Any spirit or belief system that does not believe
Jesus is the Christ is quite obviously Anti-Christ! 

This chapter in 1 John is the measuring stick for evaluating belief systems: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist (4:1-3). The dividing line is their view of the virgin-born Son of God. If Jesus is not seen as fully God and fully man, then He cannot be our Saviour.

While I was a student in Bible College we learned how false religions, cults and even some fringe Christian sects can be identified by their faulty view of Christ. Though warned not to by the college president, I took a good friend into a spiritist church (oh, the foolishness of youth!). It seemed like a regular Christian service at first, complete with the sharing of “testimonies.” But though we heard about healings and miracles, there was no mention of sin, salvation or Jesus. When the congregation divided themselves into small rooms where they could join hands and experience spirit entities, we politely excused ourselves. When one of the leaders followed us out the front door, I explained we were students of the Bible and what he just saw in there did not measure up (young, foolish, and not very diplomatic!).

I learned many things that day (like obeying your elders), but foremost was the importance of sound doctrine.  We interpret experience based on Scripture, not the other way around. People get into serious trouble when they pursue experiences and then proof text Scripture to fit. Experiences, like encountering the genuine love of God, will follow behind a real relationship with the Son of God based on the truth of His Word: If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him (4:15,16).

“Lord, of all the tests in life, none is more important than testing and identifying the spirit of the antichrist. If only Your people had tested the false gods they served in Jeremiah’s day (32:29-35). As the false spirits of my day call out to me, give me the wisdom of Your Spirit to mark them with a failing grade!”

August 22 - Plans to Prosper

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 28-30; 1 John 3

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

Like the posters and plaques on our walls,
we tend to highlight what God will do for us
but edit out what we must do for Him. 

Reading through Jeremiah is not always uplifting. No wonder he was called the “Weeping Prophet!” These were dark days for God’s people. But knowing we were heading into chapter 29 today, toward one of the most quoted verses of the entire Bible, I kept my eyes and heart open to the surrounding context.

First the verse: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (29:11). Such an encouraging word - makes you warm and fuzzy! It certainly seems appropriate for a wall plaque or greeting card. But as Paul Harvey would say, we need to hear the rest of the story.

The context for this promise is not quite as warm or fuzzy - it is cold, harsh and crystal clear:  “I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them. For they have not listened to my words,” declares the Lord, “words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,” declares the Lord (28:17-19). There is an obvious condition to this promise - listen and obey. If you don’t, God’s plans for you may not be so prosperous; in fact, they just may be quite harmful, at least in the short term!

Like so many of the promises we post on our walls and magnetize to our fridges, we tend to highlight what God will do for us but edit out what we must do for Him. Our reading in 1 John confirms the conditions of God’s promises. Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us (3:21-23).

“Lord, what do you have planned for me to do today? Your plans are my plans today and every day - I like Your promise of a hope-filled future!”