Awaken the Dawn

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 108:2-3 Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn. I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations.

OBSERVATION: I love the imagery that this verse expresses. David is talking about waking up early in the day. As he looks over at his instruments, his lute and his harp, they are lifeless and motionless. What better way to waken them then with praise? David didn't need to be wakened by the lute and the harp. He would awaken them. He didn't need to be stirred to praise by instruments. He would stir them.
The same picture is extended to the dawn. Before the dawn was awake, David was, and he was already praising God. The army used to have a commercial that said, "We do more before eight a.m. than most people do all day." David could say, "I praise more before eight a.m. than most people praise all day."
David didn't need a beautiful, sunny day to praise the Lord. He started while it was still dark and was already praising the Lord.

APPLICATION: David was ready, always ready, to praise the Lord. he didn't need beautiful instrumentation to get him into the mood for worship -- he is the one who got the instruments into the mood. He didn't need sunshine. He praised the Lord in the darkness and allowed it to become sunshine all around him. Am I ready, always ready, to praise the Lord?
Praise is not dependent on or determined by skillful instrumentation. We can praise God in dark times. Have I become spoiled, so that I can only praise God when certain conditions exist? David was saying, "I will let my praise create the conditions, not the other way around."
Wake up! and praise God!

PRAYER: Jesus, I praise You. You are worthy of praise. Like David, I want my praise to be an instigator, not a responder. May my praise wake others up to praise Your Name. Amen.

Complicating Ministry

SCRIPTURE: Acts 9:6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

OBSERVATION: The beginning of ministry for Paul the Apostle! Note that the very first thing that God told him to do was, "Go into the city." But then God actually made it difficult for Paul to accomplish what he was told because God made him blind. It seems like a simple enough of an assignment until the Lord complicates it.

We wrongly assume that if God tells me to do something then He will work some magic to make it easier to do, not harder. But that is not the case. We let this thinking guide us so that if something is hard we assume, "I must not have heard God properly."

I think it is also important to note that God made sure that, even to fulfill this very first of many directives, Paul would need the help of other people. People that would help him up and guide him by the hand to his destination. This was a hallmark of Paul's ministry -- relying on other people.

APPLICATION: Two points of application:

1- Don't assume that if Jesus said to do something that it will be easy to do. Sometimes He may even make it harder.

2- Rely on others. It's okay to be led around by the hand. We all have blind spots and need the guidance of others. Later Paul was again led by the arm and assisted, this time by Barnabas. Not because of his blindness, but because others were blinded by his past reputation.

PRAYER: Jesus, rid me of this wrong expectation that ministry would be easy and always fruitful. I'm usually groping around in the darkness. I'm in good company with Paul. Amen.

Don't Shoot The Messenger

SCRIPTURE: Acts 7:25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.

OBSERVATION: The main point is the connection here between Moses and Jesus ("a Prophet like me.") Just as their fathers missed their deliverer, these descendants were now missing theirs.
The observation for more personal use and reflection is that I am certainly no better than these devout Jews. Isn't it likely, even certain, that I misunderstand the means and the methods and messengers that God puts in my life? Should I open my heart and my ears to what Stephen has to say and ask myself, "Have I despised, pushed away or discounted ways in which God brings deliverance to me?"
My thoughts are not God's thoughts! My understanding is not His understanding. The ways that He uses for deliverance may not be ways that I would choose.

APPLICATION: What are some things that I may push away, as Moses was pushed away, that God could actually use for my deliverance?

• Tough times. Scripture says that God delivers us through adversity. Does that mean from adversity, as the thing from which we are delivered, or also through adversity, as the tool that God uses to bring deliverance?
• Difficult people. There are some people that I would be certain God could never use in my life. Really? Moses and Jesus were unlikely deliverers.
• Small, insignificant things. It seems that we are always looking for the big and impressive for deliverance. Moses' background was more impressive than Jesus' background.

PRAYER: Father, I realize that I am not capable or qualified to recognize Your hand and Your deliverance when it comes. Give me discernment that surpasses knowledge. I want all that You have for me, not just that which comes in the package that I approve of.

Is It Useless to Serve God?

SCRIPTURE: Malachi 3:13-14 "Your words have been harsh against Me," Says the Lord, Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the Lord of hosts?

OBSERVATION: The people were being harsh with God in ways that they were totally oblivious to. Their thoughts and their words were derogatory and they didn't even realize it. When they heard this charge by the Lord they probably thought, "Oh, yeah. I did say that..." A greater sensitivity to God, a greater awareness of my thoughts and words would be appropriate.
Then there is the complaint itself: "It is useless to serve God; what profit is it?" These words were recorded in the days of Malachi (though certainly not new with that day), about 2,500 years ago. But they are current today, too. "What good does it do me to live for God?" I have heard these words myself. I think that most people who say them don't even think of it as an accusation or a slur against God, but it is.
It is the wrong question to ask on many levels:

• The timing level. Serving God is not for benefit in this life but in the next. Jesus said not to be satisfied with your reward here and now but desire instead a heavenly reward (Matthew 6:1, among other verses). Hebrews 11 tells us that being people of faith means neglecting comfort here for the comfort of a heavenly city, whose architect and builder is God. Like the prodigal son, we too often say, "Father, give me my inheritance now!"
• The gratitude level. This question also reveals the lack of appreciation that many people have towards God. Like spoiled children, we fail to understand and appreciate the many things that God does for us. He created me. He sustains me. He provides for me. He brings people and things into my life that gives me joy. he puts beauty in the world all around me. In serving Him, I have the benefit and the confidence of eternal life. Death no longer holds dread and fear to me. I have been around enough death beds and funerals to know what a huge blessing that is. He gives me purpose. I would be wise to be appreciative of all these things, and many more.
• The serving level. There is a contradiction within the very question, "It is useless to serve God; what profit is it?" Real servants don't talk that way. Who is the servant and who is the master? You don't serve someone for your profit and benefit but for theirs. The master doesn't justify himself to the servant, but the servant to the master. Jesus talked about a servant who worked all day in the field, came home and fixed his master's supper and still beat his breast saying, "I am an unprofitable servant, because I have only done what is required of me." That may seem excessive, but that is the heart of a servant.

APPLICATION: I'm sure there are many other levels, too. But that gives me something to work with. Those three things speak of: faith, gratitude, and humility. That is the antidote for this accusation against God.

• How is my faith? Do I live for the here and now, for present rewards, or for eternity? Am I willing to store up treasures in heaven and forgo them on earth?
• How is my gratitude? Do I recognize and appreciate the many, many, many things that God does for me in life?
• How is my humility? Very clearly we know that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. What does God owe me, really? I don't want what I am owed because it would be pretty.

PRAYER: Master, You are so good to me! How can I ever thank You for all that You have done for me? Thank You for every reward that is withheld from me now to be received later in heaven with You. Amen.

Where Is God's Honor?

SCRIPTURE: Malachi 1:6 "A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’

OBSERVATION: God is due honor and God deserves reverence, far beyond anyone else on the earth. Where is His honor? Where is His reverence? We have lost the reverence for God in the emphasis of grace and approachability. Hebrews 12:31 says, "Our God is a consuming fire." It does not say, "Our God was a consuming fire." Not 'was,' back in the Old Testament, but 'is,' right now. How do I regain and show to God, my Father and my Master, honor and reverence that He is due?

APPLICATION: I don't know. This will take some extended, prayerful though. It begins with an attitude of reverence and honor. His grace may shield me from the consuming fire of His presence, but He is still a consuming fire. The very fact that I am able to come near, in spite of His consuming presence, just makes His grace all the more amazing. Similar to Moses getting a glimpse of God when he was held in the cleft of a rock but even greater, He has made a way for me to be near to Him. He is still a consuming fire and worthy of honor and reverence.

PRAYER: Father and Master, give me an undivided heart. Give me insight to know how to approach You as a friend but with honor and reverence.

What Shall I Do?

SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

OBSERVATION: Peter's preaching found its target -- people's hearts. It was a bull's eye. The people there didn't hear a disconnected truth or principle, but they connected themselves to what what shared. They knew that it required some response on their part. They asked, "What shall we do?"

APPLICATION: It is important, whether I am preaching or listening to a preacher, or reading the word of God to ask the question, "What shall I do?" The response, or the 'doing,' made all the difference between a word of condemnation and judgement to one of repentance and life.

PRAYER: Lord, "What shall I do?" Today, what shall I do? With the assignment that You have given me, what shall I do? With the resources You have given me, what shall I do? With the mistakes I have made, what shall I do?

Uttermost

SCRIPTURE: Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

OBSERVATION: "To the ends of the earth." Or, as in the King James Version, "to the uttermost part." What did Jesus mean when He said that? Since the other words are all locations, was He talking about geography only, or something else?
The word here is 'eschatos,' from which we get our word 'eschatology," the study of the last things. We see it in reference to the last days just before the final judgement. Is that what Jesus means, be witnesses even until the eschatos, the last days?
If Jesus was speaking strictly geographically, that leaves other questions. If He was telling the disciples, "Preach the gospel emanating here from Jerusalem until it reaches the farthest and most distant points," then I am in the uttermost right now. I think Salem, Oregon, when considered alongside of Judea and Samaria, is uttermost from Jerusalem. Certainly it would have been in the minds of the disciples. Then, is the job finished and, instead of looking for an uttermost, I recognize that I am the uttermost?

APPLICATION: What is my uttermost? It may not be geographic, because I already am that. It may be some other distinction that is beyond my imagination, just as Oregon was beyond the disciples' imagination. I think the spirit of what Jesus was saying is, "Whoever is far off and distant from me, go to them." It can be geography that distances people. It can be culture or experiences or ignorance or anything else. Be creative. Be imaginative. Go to the uttermost.

PRAYER: Jesus, I need to receive Your Holy Spirit, not just to minister to the uttermost, but even to know what that is. Fill me today. Amen.