The Table

Psalm 78:19, Yes, they spoke against God:

They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

This is what the Israelites said after they escaped the Egyptian army by walking through the Red Sea on dry land. Definitely one of the greatest miracles of all time.

Of course Psalm 23:5 says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

Obviously God can prepare a table in the wilderness. Why wouldn’t He be able to.

This verse is so profound. I realize that we do it all the time! We don’t believe that God can rescue us from the situations we are in. We live through miracles but the next time something comes against us we want to give up and start questioning whether God even knows of our existence. We doubt His provision and His favour. We doubt that He has a plan for our situation. But He does because He always does.

Our unbelief is what stops Him from doing the miracles we want to see. We all want to see miracles bur we aren’t always prepared to believe that the miracle will happen. There are so many reasons that we tell ourselves why God isn’t going to come through for us. And by ‘us’ I’m referring to believers. Children of God. Sinners who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. Forgiven, redeemed and made righteous. But we tell ourselves all kinds of lies, plus we believe the lies that the enemy tells us.

I’m going through difficulties because God is punishing me;

God really wants to teach me a lesson by letting me suffer so I just have to suffer;

I don’t deserve good things because I have done some bad things in my life;

I’m not sure that God has forgiven me for my sins;

Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Psalm 103:12, As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

If God says our sins are forgiven and removed from us, they are! No questions asked, no correspondence will be entered into and we aren’t allowed to think about them again. Gone forever!

We are righteous because we have been bought with the blood of Jesus. We are forgiven. All we need to do is ask God and He forgives us. I’m not totally sure of the Grace message that says we’re forgiven anyway and we don’t need to ask. I now that if I have done something wrong it makes me feel a whole lot better if I confess my transgression to God and ask Him to forgive me. But I have to do it with the absolute belief that I have been forgiven and I have to put it behind me and go forward in the knowledge that I am righteous. We mustn’t do any of this, “I can’t really know if I’m going to heaven, nobody knows for sure.” That is another lie from Satan. If we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that Jesus died for us and that He is the only Son of God, then we are saved. End of story.

As people who are righteous we have a right to stand before God and to put our prayers and petitions to Him. We can ask with as much confidence as the next person because God doesn’t have favourites. No matter what we might think, He loves all of us equally. If we don’t believe that we have to go back to basics and remind ourselves of the truth. Maybe we are believing the lies the enemy is telling us.

Isaiah 40:4, Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

And the rough places smooth;

Isaiah 50:7,  For the Lord God will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore I have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

If this is what God is saying to us we can believe with confidence that He can prepare a table in the wilderness. Take a seat at that table and receive the blessings He is giving you.

Moods

My husband was telling me about how he was practising his golf swing. As I’ve mentioned before, he loves to play golf. He practices and studies it. He coaches children and takes care to keep improving his handicap. He said that there had been a situation that had upset him before he went to practice and the things that had been said kept resonating in his mind. The shots he hit were all off target. He then purposely decided not to think about what had happened and just focused on his swing. There was an immediate improvement because his mind wasn’t trying to focus on two things at once. That happens so often in our daily life. We get distracted by something or someone and we can’t put our full attention on what we are supposed to be doing. That causes mistakes. I expect my employees to focus on work when they’re at work. If they serve the public they must smile and be courteous. They cannot walk around with a long face because something happened at home to upset them. If you’re in the service industry that’s just the way it is.
We allow all kinds of things to determine our mood. We don’t get enough sleep and we’re grumpy. Someone says something hurtful and we get angry. We have some aches and pains and we forget how to be friendly.
When does putting on a positive outlook become a mask? We know that we mustn’t wear a mask because we are hiding the true person that God created us to be. But we also have to be positive when we’re not feeling so great.
I see it this way: When we put on a mask there are a lot of lies that ensue and we are basically doing it in order to please someone. We are hurting ourselves in the process and quite probably also hurting a lot of people who are close to us too. A mask does not allow our true feelings and character to shine through. A mask is solid and opaque and has no room for grace.
Putting on a positive attitude on the other hand is self control. It is self control if you don’t gossip about someone who offended you. It is self control when you really feel like being rude back to a customer, but you smile instead. I had the experience of a customer who told me that I am as ugly as a dog. He was intoxicated but that is no excuse. I did not react in any way at all except to thank him for supporting my business. If I had reacted negatively it could have been a potentially explosive situation.
Proverbs 15:1, A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

We cannot afford to antagonise people. They are already watching us because we say we’re believers and if we are to erupt like a volcano every time someone offends us we aren’t going to be a very good reflection of Jesus.
I just want to add that there’s nothing wrong with having a friend or two who we can share our feelings with. People we can trust and rely on and who will be praying for us.
What do we do with all the negative stuff that comes our way every day? We give it to Jesus. He’s really good at handling that kind of thing. He’s so good at it that He was willing to die so that we wouldn’t have to take it.
Romans 4:23-25, Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offences, and raised because of our justification.
We can take all the offences we pick up during the day and give them to Jesus. In fact, He already took them all at the cross, so we shouldn’t be getting offended, but in case we feel slighted Jesus is there waiting to take them. We just must not take them back. Once we have given them to our Saviour and asked Him to forgive us for having been upset, they do not belong to us at all anymore. We can take off the masks and live in the freedom God has granted to us. We need to have the fruit of the Spirit of which self control is one. We can smile because we have so much to be grateful for and we have a Saviour who loves us.

My faith in a nutshell

I am going to try to put into words what my faith means.

My Father is the King (of the Universe). He adopted me because I accepted the redeeming love of His only Son, Jesus. God (The King and my Father) planned my existence before the beginning of time and has a plan for my life which I can choose to accept or reject.

Ephesians 1:4-6 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

He loves me so much that He sent his only Son, Jesus to die for me, to take all the sickness, pain, suffering and poverty of the world onto Himself so that, by accepting Him, I can receive eternal life. I can spend eternity with Him after I die.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

If I reject Him I will be condemned to eternal suffering in a very real place called Hell.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Now, because I have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus I have also received the Holy Spirit who is constantly with me to guide me daily and to comfort me in times of trouble. Because God is my Father I have access to Him at all times, even though my life isn’t always perfect. I have been made righteous through the blood of Jesus and therefore I can appear before God.

John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

I can share anything and everything with God because He is my Father. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. Omnipotent means that He has unlimited power.

Omniscient means that He knows everything.

Omnipresent means that He is present everywhere at the same time.

Even if I don’t share everything with God He still know it. It will not help me to try to hide anything from God. He knows everything we do and everything we think and everything we feel. Trying to hide things from Him is just playing a dangerous game.

1 John 3:20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.

Not only is God my Father, He is also the Judge in the courtrooms of Heaven.

Psalm 75:7

But God is the Judge:

He puts down one,

And exalts another.

The devil, who was an angel who rebelled against God and got thrown out of Heaven, is the accuser in this court and Jesus is my advocate.

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Revelation 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

When I am accused of something by the devil, God cannot dismiss it or rule against it just because I am His child, His integrity is so perfect that He has to make a fair decision. Jesus will always try to defend me and that is where my prayers, my offerings, my sacrifices and my obedience come into play.

1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

If God is obliged to make a judgement against me because, for instance, I have not forgiven someone, it doesn’t affect my relationship with Him. He is still my Father and I am still His child. He will always love me. For me to come back into righteousness I have to repent of whatever it is I did and He will forgive me and I will once again be righteous.

Romans 2:11 For there is no partiality with God.

I struggled to understand how intercession worked until I learned about heaven having a courtroom. I should have realized how it works because the Bible is full of verses that speak about it, but it didn’t dawn on me. If I pray for someone I am actually making representation for them in the courtroom. This makes so much more sense to me and it inspires me to pray more fervently for people who are in need of grace.

Ephesians 6:18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

This is what I believe, in a nutshell.

Stand up for what you believe

Are Christians allowed to stand up against the government? 1 Timothy 2:1-4 says, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the truth and knowledge of Him.” Here it says pray for the government and you will have a peaceful life. We are commanded to pray for the leaders and we should, but what if the laws are against what the bible teaches? What if there are rules that forbid us to worship God? What about abortion? May we protest about things that are biblically incorrect and which are taking away our freedom of religion? If the laws say that we aren’t allowed to meet for a church service, what then?

What did Daniel do when there was a decree that all petitions were to be made to the king and no God or man except him? Daniel continued to pray to God and made it even more evident by opening his windows. The result was that he got thrown into a den of lions. God protected him and he was unharmed. (Daniel Chapter 6)  Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were supposed to bow to a golden statue of KingNebuchadnezzer but they refused. This is what they said to the king in Daniel 3:17 – 18 “If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be know to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will be worship your gods, not will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” They ended up in a furnace and also were totally unharmed.

Peter and John were told not to speak the name of Jesus, Acts 4:17, “But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.” This is what Peter and John answered, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard,” In Acts 5 Peter and some of the other apostles were imprisoned because they continued to teach about Jesus and then rescued from the prison by and angel. After that they were severely beaten for preaching. Acts 5:42, “And daily in the temple, and in the house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

These people stood up against the rulers of their time. Therefore we can deduce that we can do the same. We just have to remember one thing, we have to be willing to face the consequences of our resistance honorably and joyfully. If there is a bad outcome to our protest, to our passive resistance, to whatever action we take, we have to have the conviction of our beliefs to be able to take it and take it standing. We cannot whine and complain because life isn’t fair. We have to know what we believe. We have to be convinced of what we believe. Don’t sign a petition if you aren’t willing to back up your signature with action. Don’t join a group which stands for something if you aren’t convinced that you are 100% aligned with their beliefs. Social media is a very effective way of drumming up support but don’t be caught in the trap of letting an emotional plea change your mind. Be sure you have built your beliefs on a firm foundation. Be bold by all means, but if you stand up for your Christian beliefs be warned that you must be willing to die for those beliefs.