Return to the Lord

 Come, let us return to the LORD;

for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;

his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.” 

Hosea 6:1-3 

The answer is clear in scripture as to what we must do. We must return to the Lord. 

This is how we must respond to Covid. Return to the Lord. To the violence. We must return to the Lord. To the division. To the oppression and to the injustices of the world. Return to the Lord.

Revival starts within our own heart. 

God has made the path clear and easy to see. We don't need a better president, we don't need more riots and protests or any of the other things we keep doing in our society. We need to return to the Lord.

These words are from the OT but they are just as relevant to us today. God does not change.

Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

Let us press on to know the LORD.

The God Who Holds Our Every Breath

 

Many of the famous sayings we use, find their origin from the Bible. 

The phrase "The handwriting is on the wall" comes from this story;

Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. - Daniel 5:5 

Check that story out. In that chapter we learn that men who are in positions of authority are literally placed there by God.

"He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of beasts, and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that He sets over it whomever He wishes. - Daniel 5:21

We also are reminded that our very breath comes from God and thus our lives are in His hands. 

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored. - Daniel 5:23 

King Belshazzar learned all this. The hard way.

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. - Daniel 5:30

Put your trust in God. He's in charge. He is the God in whose hand is your breath.

Trusting God In the Midst of a Pandemic

Satan wants you to be afraid and to doubt God. He uses the systems of the world such as the media to attack our minds by instilling fear and doubt. Every day for month upon month, we have been bombarded with the news of Covid. While I am in no way saying we should not walk cautiously in these days of the raging virus, but to the Christian, that should never be fueled by the fear of death, suffering, or sickness. 

God is in control.

Yet this barrage of fearful news wears on us. We are tempted to be afraid. 

I feel that. But when I open up God's Word I am reminded that it is only Him I must fear. 1 John 4:18 reminds us though that perfect love casts out fear. Jesus is the perfect love it speaks of us. When we place our faith in Christ and in Him alone, we can rest in Him. 

God is sovereign people. I was reminded of that tonight as I, once again, took notice of Psalm 139, particularly verse 16. Listen to the psalmist explain who God is.

"Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them."

Nothing can nor will change the days that God ordained has for you. He wrote them in His book before you were even formed in the womb.

Nothing. Not even Covid-19. So, take your rest in Christ. Live for Him, by Him, and in Him.

Pray this and then follow His lead.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way. - Psalm 139:23-24

The One Thing We Need To Understand From The Book of Revelation

If you find the Book of Revelation difficult to understand, then at this point just lay hold of this truth from its words.

There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever. - Revelation 22:3-5

The Bible story after creation begins with the curse being put upon the earth because of the first sin of Adam and Eve. This is why life is such a struggle. This why sickness and death exist. This is the root of every single problem on this earth and no matter how much man tries to defeat sickness, addictions, abuse and every other ailment that drags us down, he will not.

But the good news is that if we live by faith in Jesus and what He suffered on the cross, then there is a day coming soon in which that curse will be gone.

This is what we need to receive out of Revelation. We don't need to speculate on and argue over what symbolic mysteries it presents. We need to lay hold of the promises the Word of God gives us and live in joyful expectation of the return of Jesus when all this comes to fruition.

There will no longer be any curse. There will no longer be any night. Darkness will be gone. We will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and we will reign forever and ever.

That is what we most need to understand from the Book of Revelation.