Corona

In Daniel Chapter 3 Daniel’s friends are in peril of dying as they had been sentenced to be thrown into the fiery furnace for not bowing down to the golden statue.

Daniel 3:16-18, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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 known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

 

This made me think about the Corona Virus. I’m sure I don’t have to go into any explanations about it. The world has done a pretty good job of sowing fear.  Now, obviously we aren’t going to find the term “Corona Virus” in the Bible. I have seen some very involved discussions about meanings of the words and Biblical references. This is what I believe.

 

Daniel’s friends could have succumbed to fear when their death sentence was proclaimed. They could have decided to go and bow to the stupid statue. They could have renounced their faith. They could have been a blubbering heap of terror and begged the king for mercy. But they didn’t. They decided to trust their God. They put all their faith in Him and never wavered. They were not afraid. Now just imagine that. There was this huge fire and they were about to be thrown into it. Not walking over hot coals or something mild like that. They were on the brink of being cremated alive!! They don’t flinch. They tell the king that God will save them. And even if He doesn’t save them from the furnace, He will save them from the king. In other words, if they die the king won’t be able to persecute them anymore, and they will be in heaven.
Just so it ought to be with us. God will deliver believers from the Corona Virus. And if He doesn’t and we get infected He will heal us, but even if He doesn’t and we die, we will go to Heaven.  Therefore there is no reason whatsoever to fear. Are you afraid of going to Heaven? I know that I’m not. I am not going to allow a virus to keep me in fear and bondage and hold me hostage when I have a God who is stronger than all the viruses put together. Just like those Jewish boys said they will not serve the foreign Gods, I have no intentions whatsoever of serving fear.  I am going to carry on as  normal and I will praise God regardless.

Dialogue

Yesterday I mentioned Jeremiah and how he had asked God why it looked like there was no justice because it was going well with evil people. This is in Jeremiah chapter 12. The beautiful part of this chapter is where God answers Jeremiah and spells out how He is going to cause justice to be delivered.
In the Book of Job there are a lot of questions posed to God and in Job chapters 38 to 41 God gives Job some very complicated answers to his questions. In Daniel 9:22 the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel and gives him the answer to his prayer. And in Daniel 10:12 – 13 Gabriel explains to Daniel that he was held up for 21 days in delivering the answer by The prince of Persia and that the angel Michael had to come and help him.
Moses speaks directly to God through the whole of Exodus and God answers him. Abraham negotiates with God about Lot’s rescue from Sodom and Jacob wrestles with God all night and demands a blessing.
I can go on and on and on about how God speaks to people and about how He answers their prayers. A two way communication with God was a very common occurrence in the Old Testament. There were prophets and priests and kings who were anointed and on who the Holy Spirit rested who had access to God’s ear. Special people. Then Jesus is born and He speaks to His Father all the time. He makes it seem as natural as if He is speaking to a natural person here on earth. When Jesus is taken up to Heaven after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit is given to all believers.
John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
John 12: 12-14 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
These verses are saying that God sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper and He will teach us all things and He will also allow us to remember things which Jesus said, or in our case it would be to remember things we have heard, and read in the Word. In order to be taught we have to be able to hear. And in this case it is hearing spiritually because He isn’t going to be speaking with audible words. Also Jesus says that whoever believes in Him will be doing greater things than He did. And whatever we ask in His name He will do. Now, if we ask and He does it, it means He hears us, and if He is hearing us, why shouldn’t we be hearing Him?
How come there are so few people who claim to be hearing from God. Even some ordained ministers say that they are sceptical when people say they’ve heard from the Lord. Why should it be such an unusual thing for someone to have heard from God?
I’m speculating that people are often like the Israelites in the desert when they said God should speak to Moses and not directly to them because they were afraid. Are people afraid that God will be showing them where they are going wrong? Maybe they don’t make the effort to spend quality time with God, tuning in to hear His voice. Perhaps they are afraid to say anything when they think they do hear from God because they might embarrass themselves if people ridicule them so they just keep quiet? Have they been hurt by people who didn’t believe them?
I know that God wants to have a relationship with each and every one of us. We cannot have a relationship with anyone if there isn’t communication, and the essence of communication is speech that goes two ways. I know that there is a lot that God wants to share personally with every believer and He isn’t going to tell everything to the prophets to come and tell people. He’s waiting patiently for a dialogue with you and with me. We need to take every opportunity we have to practice hearing God’s voice. Maybe we should ask less and listen more.

What if God…

I got involved in this ‘what if’ discussion. Or rather, I tried my best to listen without interrupting too often to say I don’t do ‘what if’. To make things worse it was a political ‘what if’. And it was with my husband, so I really couldn’t be disrespectful and walk away. What if the politicians who are threatening to take land without compensation, really do? What if these same politicians who say they are going to arm themselves and go over to violence, really do? I listened. I know that these are emotional subjects especially for the men who fought in the border wars. I know.

But what if we do what Ezra did in Ezra 8: 21-22 Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.” 

And what if God does for us what He did for Ezra, Verse 23 So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.

What is we do what Nehemiah did in Nehemiah 1:4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

And what if God does for us what he did for Nehemiah? Nehemiah 12:27 Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. 

What if we do what Daniel did? Daniel 9:3 Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,

And what if God does for us what He did for Daniel? Daniel 9:21  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

And what if God does for us what He did for Daniel? Daniel9:21 yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

Look what happened when the Christians prayed for Peter who had been thrown into prison:

Acts 12:5 – 10 Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and tie on your sandals”; and so he did. And he said to him, “Put on your garment and follow me.” So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

In Verse 11 Peter says “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.”

Let us change our ‘what if’ questions to, “What if the Lord does for us what He did for all those people of faith?” and our attitude and our outlook will swiftly change from negative to positive.

Logic

My husband and I took a quick walk on the beach this morning. The weather was lovely. A warm day slipped in between two cold days. Because it was a public holiday and a long weekend, there were lots of people on the beach. Families with children, young people in bathing suits, a mother playing cricket with her young son, and older people watching grandchildren. A lovely scene. I wonder if God purposely makes days like this for us to enjoy? There’s a question that if tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one to hear it fall, does it make a sound? There are so many mysteries with God. There are so many mysteries about life.

One of the questions most often asked is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” and I think there are as many theories about that as there are people asking the question. Whenever we do something, anything, there is a consequence. So a lot of the time, when bad things happen, they are as a consequence of a bad choice we made even though we don’t always like to admit it. Other times there are things like people getting sick and dying. There are natural disasters which claims hundreds of lives and there aren’t any logical explanations to them. They happen. I haven’t found the words, ‘logic’ or ‘logical’ in the Bible. My husband always tells me to think logically and I normally just give up at that point, because it obviously isn’t my strong point.

 

Look at something like the time when God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush? That didn’t exactly make sense and there wasn’t a logical explanation. Apparently you do get bushes in the dessert that catch alight, but they don’t continue burning, they quickly burn out. And they don’t talk. Then there was the Red Sea that parted. The water that came out of the rock. The Jordan River that was in flood and also parted for the Israelites to walk through. What about the wall of Jericho that fell down? Any logic in that? In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat and his army watched as the enemy forces annihilated each other and all they had to do was gather the spoils. What about Noah who built an enormous boat, nowhere near the ocean? Why? Because God said so. Jonah was swallowed by a fish.

King Hezekiah asked God to let the shadow on the sundial of Ahaz go back 10 degrees and it happened. In other words the earth rotated back on its axis. Logical? David did all kinds of bad things. He even committed adultery and had a man killed. Yet God called him a man after his own heart? I understand why? David loved God but he was a human being like you and me and he did all kinds of things he shouldn’t have, just like you and me. Each time he did something bad, he repented and sought forgiveness from God. Also, as far as I can see he didn’t do the same sin twice. To me it makes sense, but I’m no really known for logical thinking. Would it make sense to someone who doesn’t know God that well? God make Hosea marry a prostitute and have children with her, and go and bring her back home every time she wandered off, in order to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness. Logical? Would we be willing to do something like that?

Daniel was carried away in captivity and quite possibly castrated. Yet he remained ever faithful to God. In Habakkuk 3:17 – 18, “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Not fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

These are things that don’t  make any sense, and aren’t at all logical. But then, faith doesn’t make sense and isn’t at all logical. Believing in things that you can’t see, speaking things that are not as if they are, and having someone die for you are not things that our small minds can fathom. But then, if faith was logical and easy what would the point be?

 

 

Jesus loves me, this I know

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” That’s what children have been singing for years, but do we really believe that? Do we believe that Jesus loves us and do we believe it purely because the Bible says so? Are we able to believe everything in the Bible just because it is the Bible? It shouldn’t be too difficult considering some things on the internet that people believe. There are some things that are placed on social media that are such blatant nonsense, and people actually believe them. Is it far-fetched to think that Noah built a massive boat, miles from the sea, which consequently housed representatives of every species of animals and birds for about a year, while the entire earth was covered in water. Amazingly the first rain caused the first flood. Could Moses and the entire Israelite nation have crossed the Red Sea on dry land? In the forty years in the desert their clothes and shoes never word out. What about Joshua who circled Jericho 7 times with his people causing the walls to collapse spontaneously? Then there was the rebellious Jonah who was swallowed by a big fish and stayed in its belly for three days. Elijah was fed by ravens while he hid in the desert. That was after he had been instrumental in negotiating a three year drought with God. The drought ended by fire from heaven burning up offerings on an altar that had been saturated in water. Oh yes, this fire was so fierce, the altar was consumed as well.

Then I think of Daniel who was cast into the lion’s den and was totally unharmed. Shadrach, Meshach and Abed Nego were thrown into the fiery furnace and not a hair on their heads was scorched. Their clothing didn’t even smell like smoke. David killed a giant with a single stone shot out of a sling. King Nebuchadnezzar went mad because of his arrogance, and ate grass like an animal. He realized that his sin had caused it, repented and returned to being king! That’s just so amazing.

In the New Testament Jesus is born from a virgin. I might as well stop right there. If we don’t believe that, then believing anything else isn’t going to help one bit. In the Old Testament it is prophesied that the Messiah will be born from a virgin. Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” The Gospel hinges on that fact. We need to believe the seemingly impossible in order to be saved. We need to believe things that our minds cry out against, and that don’t make sense and can’t be scientifically proven. Who knows, maybe science will catch up with the bible one day? Then of course, Jesus grows up and is baptized, after which the devil tempts him with all kinds of wonderful promises, which He resists. Then His ministry starts and He does incredible miracles like turning water into wine, walking on water and healing incurable diseases. He fraternizes with tax collectors and prostitutes, tells a woman caught in adultery that she’s free to go, and cleanses lepers. Jesus even raises his friend from the dead.

The way Jesus is framed for crimes he didn’t commit is unreal, and then He is innocently put to death by crucifixion. What happens after this is even harder to believe because on the third day in the grave He is resurrected and begins walking around like He used to among His friends. After 40 days He is taken up to heaven in plain sight of His disciples. Then some time later the disciples received the Holy Spirit. They physically saw tongues of fire descend on them, after which they started speaking in strange languages.

Someone told me last week that He doesn’t believe the whole bible because it’s just words on paper. I emphatically stated that I believe every word and I will stand by that for as long as I live. Do you believe the whole Bible?

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.