Zephaniah 3:17- The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Before we being this morning I want to remind myself and encourage you as you read our heavenly Father's Words to us, HIS children, embrace them as just that...Abba's Words to HIS precious children! In and through HIS Word HE is speaking to you, HE fervently desires to be intimate with you, to fellowship with you, to have a relationship with YOU! HE longs and desires to connect with YOU HIS daughter/HIS son! HE knows you perfectly and HE longs for you to KNOW HIM more and more and HE desires to reveal HIMSELF to you! Jesus is the LOVER OF YOUR SOUL. YOU THINK YOU HAVE KNOWN INTIMACY...the sweetest relationship you have ever experienced is nothing more than a sniff, a tiny drop on the tip of your tongue, a foretaste of what we will experience with God as HIS children. HE longs to free us from the garbage in our lives that hinder us from intimacy with HIM, HE longs and desires that we would know HIM in ways that we cannot imagine.
- The Lord your God in your midst. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” Heb 13:5 HE is the ever present God, HE is with you always. HE is present when things are good and we are ignoring HIM and HE is present at our darkest moments as we cry out Abba Father why have you forsaken me? HE is the ever present God, HE is in YOUR midst!
- The Mighty One, will save. It brings HIM great joy to save you. Listen to God's plea through Isaiah...Is 55:1-3 Come to the Lord “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! 2 Why do you spend money on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. 3 Pay attention and come to Me; listen, so that you will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the promises assured to David. HIS CRY TO US IS TO COME, COME, COME...I WILL SAVE YOU AND I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SATISFY YOU.
- HE will rejoice of you with gladness. Isaiah 62:5b and as a bridegroom rejoices over ⌊his⌋ bride, so your God will rejoice over you. As long as I live I will never forget seeing Diane as she moved toward me on our wedding day. There were people everywhere, but all I saw was her adorned in her wedding dress, she was radiant and I rejoiced over my bride...amazed that this beautiful young lady would marry me! THIS ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT...THIS IS HOW GOD REJOICES OVER YOU. Guys you may have a little trouble getting past this image of God rejoicing over you in this way, but I pray that you do that that you may enjoy and delight in the Lord in the manner HE created you to.
- HE will quite you with His love. Ps 46:10 “Stop ⌊your fighting⌋—and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” When Kyle was 2 he would wake up at times in the middle of the night screaming and crying loudly. One night this happened and I ran upstairs slid into his bed and pulled him next to me and said "shhhhh, it's OK, it's OK Daddy is here...SHHHHH." He immediately fell into a deep sleep and was completely quite. I had been meditating on this verse in Zephaniah and had been worried about many things and God spoke in a very loud voice...not an audible one. HE said, SHHHHHH, it's OK I AM present with you, I take great delight in you, quit fighting and I will quiet you with my love and then you will hear me singing over you with a loud voice." Immediately a deep peace fell all over me...I knew it was the peace that is a gift from the throne of grace, it was peace from my Abba, my Daddy, my Father in heaven.
Sorry everyone...I got a little carried away! If we don't come with this heart attitude to Abba's Word we miss so much, HE has soooooo much to share with us and HE longs to reveal HIMSELF you and me...don't miss HIM!
As I read Judges this morning I could not help but be amazed at the patter on sin and evil. As you read it on the surface you think how could they have been so blind, so stupid to fall again, and again, and again...I don't know about you, but then I hear the still small voice saying, "Mark, how can you be so slow and dull of heart to continue falling prey to the same wiles of the enemy." The Holy Spirit was nice and did not call me stupid:)
Judg 2:11--The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. They worshiped the Baals
Judg 3:7--The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; they forgot the Lord their God and worshiped the Baals and the Asherahs.
Judg 3:12--The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel, because they had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight.
Judg 4:1--The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord after Ehud had died.
Judg 6:1--The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord handed them over to Midian seven years,
Judg 10:6--Then the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned the Lord and did not worship Him.
Judg 13:1--The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines 40 years.
When things were good they forgot God and gave HIM little or no thought. When they fell into captivity or affliction because of the evil they did they would cry out to God for help...this patter continued for some time. Remember that Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 10 that these things happened as examples for us to learn from.
As I read through Judges I am moved that God raised up the judges to deliver Israel, HE raised them up to lead the people out of captivity, out of affliction and to lead them back to God. ALL OF THIS WAS A PICTURE OF WHAT GOD INTENDED TO DO THROUGH JESUS! What did Jesus teach us in Luke 7:22? He replied to them, “Go and report to John the things you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them. What do we see Jesus doing in the garden in our reading today? As God raised up the Judges to deliver HIS people we see God raising up Jesus to do the same thing once and for all. Remember what Jesus tells Nicodemus? John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. So in the garden Jesus is praying and preparing to be lifted up, preparing to be raised up so that you and I may believe and have eternal life. WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THIS GIFT? WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH THIS ETERNAL LIFE? In Luke 22:45 Jesus gets up from praying and returns to the disciples and FINDS THEM SLEEPING...HOW WILL HE FIND YOU?
What did Jesus teach us in John 20:21 “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Who is God the Father raising you up to reach? Your spouse, children, parents, neighbors, co-workers...really anyone who crosses your path. Remember I started of talking about how our Abba longs to be intimate with you and longs for you to know HIM intimately...Remember? One fruit of knowing HIM that way is that you are so excited about the inexhaustible treasure you have found in HIM, you are so enamored and filled with delight that you cannot contain yourself, you cannot help but tell others about your relationship with your Abba, the lover of your soul and your comforter. You cannot help it and those living-waters slosh and slop all over anyone that comes near you and they are refreshed in your presence.
Oh Father,
enable each of us, enable me to know YOU moment by moment, day by day like this. I get so easily distracted...please enable me to keep my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Enable me to continually pursue YOU, to desire YOU and YOU alone...please work this for YOUR glory and my joy in YOU.
love,
m