PSALM 128
Fear of the LORD produces blessing verse 1
Blessed is every one that fears the LORD
that walks in HIS ways
Fear of the LORD produces a work ethic verse 2
For you shall eat the labor of your hands
happy shall you be – and it shall be well with you
Fear of the LORD produces a Biblical family verse 3- 4
Your wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of your house
your children like olive plants round about your table
BEHOLD – that thus shall the man be blessed that fears the LORD
Fear of the LORD produces worship verse 5
The LORD shall bless you out of Zion
and you shall see the good of Jerusalem
all the days of your life
Fear of the LORD produces multi-generational blessing verse 6
Yea – you shall see your children’s children – and peace upon Israel
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 1 Blessed is everyone that fears the LORD; that walks in HIS ways. (1980 “walks” [halak] means to behave, to go through, to go with, flow with, follow, proceed, move, or manner of life.)
DEVOTION: Each person has a choice regarding how they will live their life. It is a decision they make usually as an adult, however, their upbringing can make a difference as well.
There are families that love the LORD because the grandparents and parents loved the LORD. It is a family legacy. It is a mult-generational decision. The grandparents knew the LORD and showed their children what it meant to follow the LORD. Then the parents followed by training their children in the LORD. Then the children continued to follow the LORD.
It is great to watch this take place in a family. Some family go back even further than three generations but it is good to watch that each generation really follows the LORD.
We need more individuals to make the decision to genuinely follow the LORD in our time period as the teaching of the Word of God in many churches is becoming more and more watered down by making music and other things more important than the preaching of the Word of God.
It is sad to say that many families are losing their family time of studying the Bible together each day with the parents leading these times.
God wants parents to raise their children to honor HIM in a Biblical manner each week by attending a church that preaches the Word of God with enthusiasm and encourages those who attend to reach out to others in witness with the goal of seeing others become followers of Christ.
CHALLENGE: Each family has to make a decision as to whether they are going to lead their family in times of worship during the week and attend a worship service in a church that genuinely preaches the Word of God a the final authority in all of faith and practice.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 2 For you shall eat the labor of your hands: happy shall you be, and it shall
be well with you. (835 “happy” [’esher] means blessed, good fortune, state of a joyful mind, or implies very favorable circumstances.)
DEVOTION: Are Christians to have a good work ethic? The LORD will bless those who have a good work ethic. We live in a time when there are less good jobs available for many but the LORD will bless those who find a way to work.
When people want to honor the LORD they will reverence HIM. They will also want to show practical obedience by walking according to HIS word. If this is practiced they will be blessed of the LORD.
The word blessed is used four times in this short ascent psalm. In this verse it is translated “happy” but in the other three verses it is translated “blessed.”
This psalm covers domestic, civic and national prosperity associated with fearing the LORD. The Bible tells us that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. We see in this psalm that those who fear the LORD have many blessings coming their way. These people are walking with the LORD. Their fields are fruitful. Their mind is joyful. Their circumstances seem to be good. Their wife has many children. Their children help them to be prosperous. They are going to have a long life because they will see their grandchildren grow up serving the LORD. There seems to be peace in their land.
We know that we are to be blessed even in challenging circumstances. However, there are times when our circumstances are good. We need to be praising the LORD in all circumstances, even in the good times. This verse gives us three blessing associated with fearing the LORD: eating the labor of our hands, blessedness, and favor with the LORD. Could we want to experience more than this in our present life?
CHALLENGE: A good work ethic honors the LORD. Encourage others with this truth during these hard times.
:5 “The LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982). (Bless – 1288 בָּרַךְ, בָּרַךְ [barak /baw·rak/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 285; GK 1384 and 1385; 330 occurrences; AV translates as “bless” 302 times, “salute” five times, “curse” four times, “blaspheme” twice, “blessing” twice, “praised” twice, “kneel down” twice, “congratulate” once, “kneel” once, “make to kneel” once, and translated miscellaneously eight times. 1 to bless, kneel. 1A (Qal). 1A1 to kneel. 1A2 to bless. 1B (Niphal) to be blessed, bless oneself. 1C (Piel) to bless. 1D (Pual) to be blessed, be adored. 1E (Hiphil) to cause to kneel. 1F (Hithpael) to bless oneself. 2 (TWOT) to praise, salute, curse. James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2001).
DEVOTION: Holiday weekends are such a blessed time as families come together and visit. Often it is at a parent’s home or a special location where there is enough room for the family to be re-united for a short time. Such was the case as the families came together in Jerusalem to celebrate and to worship. Children and adults all traveled and stayed together during this festive time. Gatherings such as this are such memory making periods and the family unit is strengthened as everyone comes together.
Worship of God and togetherness of family created a bond that made Israel strong. These qualities can make each community and nation strong also. Recognition of our need for the Lord and for one another draws us together and helps us see how blessed of the Lord we are.
CHALLENGE: Take a moment to connect with your family and thank the Lord for His goodness today! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.
(3073 “peace” [salom] means completeness, soundness, welfare,
healthy, being whole, safeness, satisfaction, or tranquil.)
DEVOTION: There is a connection between the life of the family and the life of the nation. The family is a basic unit in any society.
The Bible states that if a family doesn’t honor the LORD it can affect three or four generations of that family. If a family does honor the LORD it can have the same affect. Each generation has to make that choice. Some chose wisely.
However, remember that the LORD can change family history. Some individuals didn’t have a good start in life. They had families that didn’t honor the LORD. They didn’t have a good example to follow. They were swimming against the steam if they wanted to change their family history. Some don’t mind swimming against the steam of family history. When this is successful it is done with the LORD’S help. It cannot be done alone.
Throughout this Psalm it states that the fear of the LORD is necessary. Those who fear the LORD have a good work ethic. Those who fear the LORD walk the way the LORD wants them to walk.
What is involved in walking the way of the LORD? This starts in the home. There has to be a husband and wife that honor the LORD and one another. This couple needs to encourage the children that the LORD blesses them with to love the LORD. This is accomplished through family prayer, family attendance at a local church and studying the Word of God together. If there are those in the family that can sing there should be a lot of songs of praise. There should be dates between the children and a parent on a regular basis especially during the teen years.
Now that there is a start there has to be follow-up when children have their children. Grandparents are important to the spiritual growth of their grandchildren. If the grandchildren observe their parents and grandparents loving the LORD their chance of becoming a follower of the LORD is greater than other.
If families honor the LORD, then the nation will be affected for good. If families forget the LORD there will be a destruction of a nation. Each family has to make a choice but remember that their choice, affect a nation.
CHALLENGE: Observe where your children and grandchildren are going. Do all you can to head them in the right direction. Prayer is key to a change of direction. Not only your prayers but the prayers of your church family should be uses to help.
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Blessing come to people who worship in Zion verse 5
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 4, 5
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead
our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Labor verse 2
Wife verse 3
Children verse 3
Grandchildren verse 6
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Blessed verse 1, 4, 5
Fear of the LORD verse 1, 4
Walks in HIS way verse 1
Provision of the LORD verse 2
Happy verse 2
Well verse 2
Blessing of children verse 3
See children’s children verse 6
Peace verse 6
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Zion verse 5
Jerusalem verse 5
Israel verse 6
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
Ver. 3. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house, &c.] The vine being a weak and tender tree, which needs propping and supporting; and often is fastened to the sides of a house, to which the allusion here is; whereunto it cleaves, and on which it runs up, and bears very agreeable fruit; it is properly used to express the weakness and tenderness of the female sex, their fruitfulness in bearing children, and their care of domestic affairs, being keepers at home; see 1 Pet. 3:7; 1 Tim. 5:14; Tit. 2:5. Kimchi observes, that the vine is the only tree men plant within doors; which, when it is grown up, they bring out at a hole or window of the house without, to have the sun and air; and so its root is within the house, and the branches without: and he observes, that a modest woman is within the house, and does not go without, and is only seen by her husband; but her children, like the branches of the vine, go out to work. This may be applied to Christ and his church; to him the other characters agree: he, as man, is one that feared the Lord; the grace of fear was in him; the spirit of fear rested on him; and he was in the exercise of it, and walked in all the ways of the Lord, Isa. 11:1–3; Heb. 5:7 he now sees and enjoys the travail or labour of his soul to satisfaction, and is made most blessed for evermore, Isa. 53:11; Psal. 21:6. The church is the bride, the Lamb’s wife, the spouse of Christ; and may be compared to a vine for her weakness in herself, her fruitfulness in grace and good works, and in bringing forth souls to Christ, through the ministry of the word; all which is pleasant and grateful to him; see Psal. 80:14; Cant. 2:15 and 7:12. Thy children like olive-plants round about thy table; a numerous offspring was always accounted a very great blessing; and it must be very pleasant to a parent to see his children round about his table, placed in their proper order according to their age, partaking of what it is furnished with: Job, in his time of prosperity, had many children; and, next to the presence of the Almighty with him, be mentions this of his children being about him; see Job 1:2 and 29:6. This may be applied to the spiritual seed and offspring of Christ, which are like to olive-trees or olive-plants; to which David is compared, Psal. 52:8 the two anointed ones in Zech. 4:11, 14 the two witnesses in Rev. 11:4 and all true believers in Christ may; because of their excellency, these being choice plants; because of their fruitfulness and beauty; because of their fatness, and having oil in them; and because of their perpetuity, being ever green; see Jer. 11:16; Hos. 14:6. Now Christ has a table, which he has well furnished, at which he himself sits, and places these his children all around; and whom he welcomes to the entertainment he makes, and takes delight and pleasure in them, Cant. 1:12 and 5:1. Kimchi observes, the olive-trees do not admit of an ingrafture from other trees; see Rom. 11:24 and so this denotes the legitimacy of those children, being free from all suspicion of being spurious, being born of such a wife as before described; and being green and moist all the year long, denotes their continuance in good works. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 4, p. 257). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
3–4 In addition to the personal blessing on one’s labors, the blessing extends to wife and family (v. 3). The dutiful man will enjoy the warmth of wife and family around his table when he eats the fruit of his labors. He sees how the blessing of God extends to wife and children. His wife is compared to a fruitful vine within his house. The children are likened to olive shoots. How contrastive is the man who toils hard without fearing the Lord and who eats alone in anguish (cf. 127:2)!
The imagery of vine and olive tree are reminiscent of the eras of David and Solomon (1 Kings 4:25) and the blessings associated with the messianic era (Mic 4:4; Zech 3:10). To sit under one’s vine and fig tree was an expression of a state of tranquility, peace, and prosperity. Even when the country faces adversity, the man who fears the Lord is insulated against adversity by wife and children as the blessings of the Lord are found under the roof of his house. The metaphor of the fruitfulness of the vine extends, not only to the bearing of children, but also to everything the wife contributes to the welfare of family (cf. Prov 31:10–31).
The children, who are likened to olive shoots, are strong and in due time will continue the work that their father has begun (cf. 52:8; Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6). Though the olive tree may not bear after it has been planted for forty years, it is a symbol of longevity and productivity. So are children within the household of faith! They are not like grass, which is here today but is gone tomorrow. Rather, they are olive trees that in due time bear their fruit. The blessedness of the godly man will extend to other generations. What a privilege God bestows on his children in this life that we may already taste the firstfruits of our heritage! (VanGemeren, W. A. (1991). Psalms. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Vol. 5, p. 796). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
The vine was a symbol not only of fruitfulness (here explicitly so) but of sexual charm (Song 7:8ff.) and of festivity (Judg. 9:13). The strong word for within (cf. neb, ‘in the heart of your house’), which refers to the wife directly, not to the vine, is in marked contrast to what is said of the promiscuous wife in Proverbs 7:11, as Keet points out: ‘She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home.’ In the psalm the attractiveness of this wife is wholly matched by her faithfulness.
The children … around your table are the hope and promise of the future. The simile of olive shoots is no more photographic than are the ‘arrows’ of 127:4. In the two psalms these two aspects or stages of youth, as tender growth to be nurtured and as the embodiment of fiery zeal, make a complementary pair. Cf., further, 144:12. (Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, pp. 479–480). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
128:3–4. Speaking again of fruitfulness (cf. v. 2), the psalmist referred to children obtained through his wife. The imagery of plants (a vine) and trees (olive shoots) naturally suggested growth and fruitfulness. The person who fears the Lord is blessed in this way (cf. v. 1).
At the religious festivals whole families gathered in Jerusalem. So it is no surprise to see an emphasis in some of the pilgrim psalms on God’s blessings in the domestic area of life. (Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 885–886). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
Both the vine and the olive tree were important to the economy of Israel, the vine providing wine and the olive tree supplying fruit and oil (104:14–15). A husband’s love for his wife is illustrated by the vine and the olive tree (Song. 7:6–9). Jewish couples wanted large families and considered each child a blessing from the Lord. The phrase “within your house” refers to the wife’s apartment at the back of the tent, as far from the tent door as possible. The faithful wife is not unhappy in her own house, caring for children she dearly loved. The unfaithful wife leaves the safety and sanctity of her apartment and goes seeking for victims (Prov. 7:10–13). The olive shoots around the base of the parent tree, fresh and vigorous, picture the children around the family table. It takes patience to care for them as they grow, but the efforts are rewarding. How shocked those ancient families would be if they visited a modern home and watched parents and children scattering in all directions and rarely eating a leisurely meal together. (Wiersbe, W. W. (2004). Be exultant (1st ed., pp. 166–167). Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries.)
3. “Thy wife.” To reach the full of earthly felicity a man must not be alone. A helpmeet was needed in Paradise, and assuredly she is not less necessary out of it. He that findeth a wife findeth a good thing. It is not every man that feareth the Lord who has a wife; but if he has, she shall share in his blessedness and increase it.
“Shall be as a fruitful vine.” To complete domestic bliss children are sent. They come as the lawful fruit of marriage, even as clusters appear upon the vine. For the grapes the vine was planted; for children was the wife provided. It is generally well with any creature when it fulfills its purpose, and it is so far well with married people when the great design of their union is brought about. They must not look upon fruitfulness as a burden, but as a blessing. Good wives are also fruitful in kindness, thrift, helpfulness, and affection: if they bear no children, they are by no means barren if they yield us the wine of consolation and the clusters of comfort. Truly blessed is the man whose wife is fruitful in those good works which are suitable to her near and dear position.
“By the sides of thine house.” She keeps to the house: she is a home bird. Some imagine that she is like a vine which is nailed up to the house wall; but they have no such custom in Palestine, neither is it pleasant to think of a wife as growing up by a wall, and as bound to the very bricks and mortar of her husband’s dwelling. No, she is a fruitful vine, and a faithful house-keeper; if you wish to find her, she is within the house: she is to be found both inside and outside the home, but her chief fruitfulness is in the inner side of the dwelling, which she adorns. Eastern houses usually have an open square in the centre, and the various rooms are ranged around the sides,—there shall the wife be found, busy in one room or another, as the hour of the day demands. She keeps at home, and so keeps the home. It is her husband’s house, and she is her husband’s; as the text puts it—“thy wife,” and “thy house”; but by her loving care her husband is made so happy that he is glad to own her as an equal proprietor with himself, for he is hers, and the house is hers too.
“Thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” Hundreds of times have I seen the young olive plants springing up around the parent stem, and it has always made me think of this verse. The Psalmist never intended to suggest the idea of olive plants round a table, but of young people springing up around their parents, even as olive plants surround the fine, well-rooted tree. The figure is very striking, and would be sure to present itself to the mind of every observer in the olive country. How beautiful to see the gnarled olive, still bearing abundant fruit, surrounded with a little band of sturdy successors, any one of which would be able to take its place should the central olive be blown down, or removed in any other way. The notion of a table in a bower may suit a cockney in a tea-garden, but would never occur to an oriental poet; it is not the olive plants, but the children, that are round about the table. Moreover, note that it is not olive branches, but plants,—a very different thing. Our children gather around our table to be fed, and this involves expenses: how much better is this than to see them pining upon beds of sickness, unable to come for their meals! What a blessing to have sufficient to put upon the table! Let us for this benefit praise the bounty of the Lord. The wife is busy all over the house, but the youngsters are busiest at meal-times; and if the blessing of the Lord rest upon the family, no sight can be more delightful. Here we have the vine and the olive blended—joy from the fruitful wife, and solid comfort from the growing family; these are the choicest products earth can yield: our families are gardens of the Lord. It may help us to value the privileges of our home if we consider where we should be if they were withdrawn. What if the dear partner of our life were removed from the sides of our house to the recesses of the sepulchre? What is the trouble of children compared with the sorrow of their loss? Think, dear father, what would be your grief if you had to cry with Job, “Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me; when my children were about me.” (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 120-150 (Vol. 6, pp. 98–99). London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.)
FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
Reconciliation
“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:10)
It is interesting to note that as important as is the doctrine of the atonement in Christian theology, the word itself occurs only once in the King James New Testament. It is in the very next verse after our text. “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (v. 11).
The Greek word is translated “reconciliation” in 2 Corinthians 5:18: “All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” Thus, the doctrine of atonement is the doctrine of reconciliation. Men are separated from our holy God both by their sin nature and also by their actual guilt of committed sin. But through the substitutionary death of Christ for our sins, “we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” That is, God has already reconciled sinners to Himself by the sacrificial death of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The problem is that sinners are not actually reconciled to God until they personally accept this free gift of God’s love to them.
But we who “have now received the atonement [that is, reconciliation] . . . joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:11). A part of that joy should be in the fact that God has now “given unto us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19). Thus, it has become our great privilege to tell others that they can be completely forgiven and eternally saved. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
CHINA’S AIM TO “SINICIZE” CHRISTIANITY AND REWRITE THE BIBLE (Friday Church News Notes, October 5, 2018,www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “China Trying to Rewrite,” Christian Post, Sep. 28 2018: “The Rev. Bob Fu, a former Chinese house church leader who immigrated to the United States in 1997 and founded the persecution watchdog organization China Aid, provided great detail during a United States House of Representatives hearing Thursday about a plan enacted by leading state-sanctioned denominations in China to ‘Sinicize’ Christianity. As China’s crackdown on religion has seen many house churches demolished and thousands of crosses removed from churches nationwide, Fu warned [that] ‘Religious freedom in China has really reached to the worst level that has not been seen since the beginning of the Cultural Revolution by Chairman Mao [Zedong] in the 1960s.’ … At the center of this new level of persecution is China’s new regulation on religious affairs that was released last year but enacted on Feb. 1. According to Fu, the revision of the religious regulations are to actively guide religion to ‘adapt to socialist society.’ In a written testimony, Fu said that under the new regulations, religious activity sites will ‘accept the guidance, supervision, and inspection of relevant departments of the local people’s government regarding the management of personnel, finances, assets, accounting, security, fire protection, protection of relics, health and disease prevent and so forth.’ … One way in which they plan to Sinicize Christianity, Fu said, is by ‘retranslating’ the Old Testament and providing new commentary to the New Testament to make socialist ideals and Chinese culture seem more divine. … According to its latest outline, Fu said, a retranslation would be a summary of the Old Testament with some Buddhist scripture and Confucian teachings and new commentary for the New Testament. … Fu added that the five-year plan advocates for ‘incorporating the Chinese elements into church worship services, hymns and songs, clergy attire, and the architectural style of church buildings. This includes editing and publishing worship songs with Chinese characteristics and promoting the Sinicization of worship music, using uniquely Chinese art forms … In the beginning of every church worship service, the choir of the church has to sing a few communist revolutionary songs praising the communist party before they can sing the worship songs,’ Fu detailed. … Hundreds of Christian leaders in China signed onto a statement this month condemning the new regulations, the increased persecution and control the party is taking over the churches. ‘[W]e believe and are obligated to teach all believers that all true churches in China that belong to Christ must hold to the principle of the separation of church and state and must proclaim Christ as the sole head of the church. … For the sake of the Gospel, we are prepared to bear all losses—even the loss of our freedom and our lives.’ the statement reads. … At its Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in July, the U.S. State Department released a formal statement condemning China for its religious freedom violations. However, the statement was only signed by three other nations.”
Paul instructs the Corinthians concerning marriage, divorce, and singleness.
INSIGHT
Within the bonds of marriage, spiritual, emotional, and physical dimensions exist. The relationship should be established by a spiritual bond out of which flow emotional and physical bonds. When this order is properly maintained, the relationship is balanced and satisfying. However, many marriages take the opposite direction. Out of physical attraction grow emotional bonds, and spiritual bonds may or may not follow. Strive to strengthen the spiritual bonds in your relationships in order to keep them healthy and balanced. Even in a marriage where one partner is unsaved, the relationship will be stronger and more satisfying if your spouse sees the reality of your spiritual life and love for Jesus Christ. (Quiet Walk)
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David’s Army As David was fleeing for his life from King Saul, a rather pitiful and unpromising company began following him, and they became the nucleus of what would soon be his army. Others joined them, and David trained them, “for at that time day by day there came to David to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God” (1 Chronicles 12:22). Soon they were no longer discontented misfits but a remarkable array of “mighty men” (v. 21). One group, for example, was said to be “men of war fit for the battle,…whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains” (1 Chronicles 12:8). In many remarkable ways David was a type of Christ, his life foreshadowing the experiences of the greater “son of David” who would come a thousand years later. In such a parallel, his army is a type of the earthly “host of God,” the great company of those who have chosen to follow Christ, each of whom has been called to “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). The followers of Christ were once also in distress, for the “base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen” (1 Corinthians 1:28). He is now “the captain of their salvation” (Hebrews 2:10), urging that each one should strive to “please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:4). When He is finally ready to take the Kingdom, these will be with Him in His triumphant return and eternal reign (Revelation 19:14; 22:5). HMM |
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Sir Isaac Newton, in a letter written in 1675 to fellow scientist Robert Hooke, wrote, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Chuck Colson was one of those giants for many of us, and it is our privilege to steward his legacy at the Colson Center.
In fact, Chuck believed that his most important legacy, more than any organization or his many books, would be people. That’s why he started what he called the Centurions Program, something that continues today under a different name, the Colson Fellows program. Here’s Chuck Colson, in his own words, on the important vision he had for this program:
I have a burning passion—it’s the first item on my prayer list every day—and that’s to see a movement of Christians raised up from the churches to defend truth in the marketplace of ideas and to live out the Gospel. Nothing less than this kind of an awakening can possibly save our quickly deteriorating culture. That’s why I’m now spending all of my time working at BreakPoint and the Colson Center. One of my major projects is developing Christian leaders who can understand and defend a biblical view of all of life. We call this the Centurions Program.
For the past six years we have brought 100 of the best and brightest into this year-long teaching effort, to study under some of the best minds in the Christian world. It’s demanding: We read books together, view movies, and critique them; do a lot of teaching online; and have three residencies during the year in Lansdowne, Virginia, near our offices.
Our Centurion graduates are like the Marines or the Navy Seals who are on the front lines of the next wave of leaders. Can this work?
Just two weeks ago I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a rally on behalf of the Manhattan Declaration. It was organized by the Catholic Archbishop of New Mexico, Michael Sheehan, and a former congressman named Bill Redmond, who is a Centurion graduate. You can imagine my thrill when I walked into the convention center to see 1,600 participants. And they were on fire!
They were there to learn biblical worldview, to learn how to defend the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty, to learn how to become activists! There were representatives from across the denominational spectrum: Southern Baptists, Nazarenes, Assemblies of God, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics. The Church had come together. And all of this was organized by one gutsy archbishop and one Centurion graduate. They in fact have built a powerful network across the state of New Mexico. So yes, it can be done. (Break Point by Chuck Colson)
March 16
TRIALS
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
John 17:15
God’s way is not to take us out of the difficulties and trials, not to avoid them. His way is to enable us and to strengthen us, so that we can go through them with heads erect and undefeated, more than conquerors in them and over them. And that is a wonderful thing.
We must never grumble at our lot, nor ask doubting questions. We must rather believe that there is always a purpose in these trials, if we can but see it; we must believe that God has laid this thing upon us and that He has left us in this situation in order that we may show forth His glory. The disciples were left in the world to do that, and you and I can be certain that whatever we may be passing through at this moment is a part of God’s plan and purpose for us to show forth His glory.
The world may not recognize you; it may ignore and dismiss you, and others may get all they want from the world. Do not worry about it. The saints have experienced the same thing, and Christ knew something similar: “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!” (Luke 6:26). All is well—you are fulfilling the glory of God even as you go through a trial. Paul came to see that about his thorn in the flesh. “All right, God,” he says in effect, “I asked You three times to remove it, but You are leaving it. I see now that Your glory is going to be shown through me. Very well, I will glory in this infirmity. I will stop asking You to take it away. It is really when I am weak that Your power is made manifest in me and through me.” So we must never grumble. We must gladly accept what He allows and remember that we are fulfilling the glory of God.
A Thought to Ponder
We must never grumble at our lot, nor ask doubting questions.
From Safe in the World, pp. 155-156.
Jesus continues teaching with parables, then returns to His hometown of Nazareth.
INSIGHT
Throughout His ministry, there are periods during which Jesus teaches extensively in parables. Often the multitudes do not understand the meaning of the parables, but Jesus is careful to explain them to His disciples.
This pattern is illustrative of God’s ways: to those who are the most receptive to truth, the Lord grants understanding.
However, for those who do not receive the truth, greater understanding is not given. Light received brings greater light; light rejected leaves darkness. If you hunger for greater spiritual understanding, it is vital that you strive for faithfulness in what you do understand. Then light received can bring more light in your life . (Quiet Walk)
LOVING THE BRETHREN
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. 1 John 2:10
As Christians look at their fellow men and women, they see people exactly like themselves before their eyes were opened, and now they are sorry for them. They begin to love hateful persons instead of hating them. They say, “We are all in the same position,” and they begin to have an eye of compassion for them. Their knowledge of the love of God in Christ makes them love other people even as they have been loved themselves. They are new men and women with a new outlook; they are in a new realm. They feel the love of God in their heart, and they want to love Him and glorify Him, and they know they can glorify God most of all by being new men and women, by living as Christ lived and thereby showing and proving that they are indeed true disciples.
Christ our Lord put this perfectly once in the parable of the man who was a servant and was in trouble. He went to his lord and pleaded for forgiveness, and that lord forgave him. But there was another man who was a servant under the first servant who came to him and made exactly the same plea, but the forgiven servant took the other by the throat and said, “No, I won’t let you off” you have to pay to the last farthing. Well, said our Lord (Matthew 18:23-35), that man must not think he has been forgiven, for the man who does not forgive will not be forgiven.
What this means is that you and I can only be happy about the fact that we are Christians if we find this loving, forgiving spirit within ourselves. It is idle for us to say that we know God has forgiven us if we ourselves are not loving and forgiving. People who say they are in the light but who hate and do not forgive their brother are in darkness even now.
A Thought to Ponder: It is idle for us to say that we know that God has forgiven us if we ourselves are not loving and forgiving. (From Walking with God, pp. 64-65, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. (Abraham Lincoln – 16th President of the United States. (Thanks Nicholas for the quote)
We now have a Facebook page for Small Church Ministries – please invite others to join us on Facebook. Thank you. Look for the logo from the devotionals.