The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalms 23:1

When I was a kid I would often pretend to be a preacher. My father was a pastor so, as most boys do, I emulated his movements and his style. I used a clothes hamper for my pulpit and I opened my Bible and read a passage before shouting and yelling at a room full of imaginary people. I can’t tell you what all I preached or from what passages I read, but I do remember attempting to preach the 23rd Psalm once, and it has always stuck with me.

In my young mind I could not fathom why the writer of Psalms 23 would not want the Lord to be his shepherd. I was reading it as, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want him”. I was making a simple mistake, assuming that the “shall not want” applied to the previous statement instead of coming as a result of it. Because the Lord is our shepherd, we never have a reason to want. What is so simple now caused me such confusion then. I am not sure why I remember that, but I do and I think I know now why I ever felt that way at all.

When you are a kid you never want for anything. That doesn’t mean that you never want anything, it just means that you never find yourself without the necessities of life. That is not universal of course, as there are children all over the world who want for the basic needs of life, but for the most part a kid need never think of how the rent is going to be paid or whether or not there will be dinner on the table at night.

If you never face the wolves you may not understand how important the shepherd is. When you have been provided for and taken care of, it is a little difficult to appreciate the power of that protection and provision. As we grow up we are forced to do for ourselves what our parents or guardians always did for us before. Having faced a few wolves, fallen off of a few paths and been stabbed by many thorns we find such rest and comfort in a good shepherd.

Jesus called Himself, “the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He is so good because He gladly gave His life for all of us. The prayer of little children, “God is good, God is great” is an awesome testimony to who God is. God is good and He is great, and He shows us just how good and great when He shows us His finished work at Calvary.

David is the author of the 23rd Psalm and he knew a thing or two about being a good shepherd. He defended his father’s flock on the hillsides of Bethlehem, once killing a lion and another time stopping a bear that was trying to harm the sheep (1 Samuel 17:34-36). Actually, David said that both of these predators actually grabbed a sheep and David went and hunted the beast down, pulled the sheep from its mouth and then killed it. David was a good shepherd, but Jesus is even better. He will never even allow the lion and the bear to get to you!

Sheep need a shepherd because they are basically defenseless and totally dependent. Thank God that we have a shepherd who watches over our every move, always quick to defend us and who provides us with all things, so that we “shall not want”.

Jesus: The 'I AM'

Exodus 3:13, 14

Moses asked God what he should say if the children of Israel were to ask him who had sent him to be their deliverer. God responded, “I AM THAT I AM”. “I AM” becomes a name for God in this passage that is translated in Hebrew as hayah, meaning “to be, exist”. God is saying that He just IS. There is no other explanation as to how He became or how He got “to be”; He just is what He is.

This revelation of the name of God was not given to Moses to tell Pharaoh. When Pharaoh asks a similar question to the one posed by Moses, Moses answers, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go” (Exodus 5:3). There is no need to prove God’s existence before Pharaoh, for he is not under the covenant of God. For Israel however, they know the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they are looking for a revelation of who this God is.

The establishment of “I AM” doesn’t last long, as we don’t see God calling Himself this again, but instead He refers to Himself as “JEHOVAH” in Exodus 6:3. This is translated in Hebrews as Yehovah and it means “the existing one”. Elsewhere it is rendered by the English spelling of LORD, using all capital letters. Its reference is to the God of the covenant. Each time it is used it is hearkening back to the fact that God is not only powerful, but is faithful to honor covenant.

Following His encounter with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus gives a discourse on being the light of the world, telling the Pharisee’s that they are of their father the devil (John 8:44). He continues on by explaining that if a man keeps His sayings, “he shall never see death” (John 8:51). This infuriates the Jews because they know that Abraham and the prophets were great men, but they are dead, and they feel that Jesus is setting Himself up as greater than all that preceded Him.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56), Jesus said. “Then said the Jews unto him, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?’” (John 8:57). By claiming that Abraham had seen Jesus’ day, He can only be insinuating one of two things. Either He is claiming to be hundreds of years old, having lived in the actual time of Abraham or He is claiming that He is God, having seen Abraham with His own eyes. Recall what Jesus has just said in verse 38, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father”.

“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58).

The New Testament was written in Greek, so the words are not going to be exactly the same, but can you guess what “I am” means in the Greek? If you guessed, “to be, exist” then you are exactly right. Jesus, who would be speaking in Hebrew to a group of Jews, uses the phrase, hayah, which everyone standing there knows is what God called Himself to Moses. This is Jesus saying, “I AM”.

You must decide for yourself if Jesus was and is God in the flesh, or if he is psychotic. There really are no other explanations. If He was who He claimed to be, then it was Jesus saying to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”. For those of us who believe, He is still THE GREAT I AM!

The Chastening of the Lord

Hebrews 12:7

There is a distinct difference between receiving chastisement out of wrath and anger and receiving it out of love. All chastisement that the believer receives from the Lord is out of God’s heart of love and compassion; not a result of God’s anger. Jesus was wounded for our sins and also, “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5). This means that Jesus was disciplined so that we could have peace. God can’t discipline us for the same reason and still remain righteous in His dealings with His Son, therefore all discipline on us is to profit us and make us partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

Did you know that the same Greek word used for ‘chastisement’ is also used for ‘nurture’ and ‘instruction’? It appears as nurture in Ephesians 6:4 when Paul tells parents to raise their children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord”. It is used as instruction in 2 Timothy 3:16 when Paul tells Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. Placing ‘nurture’ next to admonition (which means ‘exhortation’), we see that Paul wants parents to show their children a loving God. In his use of ‘instruction’ to Timothy, he can’t be showing that the Bible beats people, for a book has no power to do so, but it certainly can ‘instruct’.

Remember, it was the translation from Greek to English that brought us these different words. The translators could have used the word ‘nurture’ throughout Hebrews 12, and we would have less confusion regarding the chastening power of the Lord. The author used the same Greek word in each passage, but our rendering of it into one word or the other has a profound effect on our interpretation of these passages.

Why must we always view ‘chastening’ as God beating us senseless? Or why do we assume that it means that God sometimes takes our job away or breaks our car or gives us a disease so that we will be less prideful or more giving? Would you do this to your child? If you wish to teach your little girl not to play in the street, do you shove her in front of a truck and then say, “That’s what happens when you play in the street. Maybe now you will listen to daddy”? That kind of parenting would get you locked up!

The fact that we are sons of God means that we are going to receive true chastisement from our Heavenly Father. This chastisement will instruct us in the ways of righteousness and show us a little more of Jesus every day. As our Father, He deals with us in much the same way that we would deal with our own children. The word ‘chastise’ is ‘paideuo’ in Greek and it means “child-training”. God is training us up as children and the quicker that we think of Him as a Father to little children, the quicker that we will see Him as good.

I think that in our Western culture, we had several generations of distant fathers, and this caused us to view our Heavenly Father in the same light. Dads were seen but not heard from for quite some time, and they were only brought into situations when there was discipline needed. That discipline usually came of the physical variety, and thus our perception of God became that He only steps in when we have done something wrong and then His wrath will be felt. You are His special child, and He is NOT a distant Father. He is right next to you at all times, training up the child in the way that he or she should go. Walk tall believer, Daddy has got your back!

The Name of the LORD

1 Samuel 17:45, 46

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous of all time, all literature included. It appeals to the underdog in all of us; how an undersized boy could face off with an oversized warrior and defeat him using a tiny rock and sling-shot. It gives us the feeling that anything is possible and that the odds are never too long. This story is great for motivational purposes, but it is even better when you know what really happened, and why it happened.

Goliath was the champion of the Philistines and he stood just over 9 feet tall. He had probably never lost even a skirmish much less an actual battle, and he had come to the valley everyday to challenge the Israelites. If he lost the battle, the Philistines agreed to serve Israel, but if he could defeat Israel’s champion, then Israel would belong to the Philistines. Every day he shouted the same threats, and every day Israel cowered in fear.

Along comes young David, a 17 year old boy who tends his father’s sheep every day. He is a soft-hearted kid who has never killed a man in his life and who spends his free time writing beautiful songs. When he arrives at camp to bring his brothers some food from home, he is struck by the lack of fight within Israel. He sees this giant mocking God everyday while no one stands to defend the Lord. David has seen it, and he has had enough!

He goes before Goliath with only a sling and a five stones, while Goliath comes with so much armor that he has another man carry most of it out to the battlefield. Goliath mocks David from the start, cursing him by the name of his gods. David calls Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:36), invoking the truth that Goliath has no covenant, while the circumcised Israelites are living under the covenant of God’s protection. Notice that David points out Goliath’s lack of divine protection which is key in understanding why David took this fight in the first place.

“I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts…” (1 Samuel 17:45). The text spells out LORD with all caps because that is the translators’ way of showing us which Hebrew name for God that David used. By saying LORD, he is using “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, both meaning, “Covenant God”. David is not out to defeat Goliath with strength but with Covenant. God had agreed to honor those that honored Him, and David is taking Him up on it.

When you face off with the Goliaths of this world, don’t face them using your own goodness or morality. Face these giants with knowledge of what Christ has done for you. He has defeated all enemies and placed them under His feet. Know that He loves you and that you are His righteousness. Satan is powerless against the child of God that knows who they are in Christ. In truth, any member of Israel’s army could have had this victory if they had appealed to the same Covenant that young David did. This is why David was a man after God’s heart.

You have opportunity to trust the New Covenant which Jesus cut with His Father, or to trust your own works. Goliath is too big; I suggest you stick with Jesus.

Choose You This Day

Joshua 24:15

Joshua was the first general of the armies of Israel. He was also the successor to Moses as leader over the nation upon their entrance into the Promised Land. The book that bears his name is the story of Israel’s journeys under this great man and its last chapter is his final charge to the people preceding his death.

Joshua’s speech to Israel not only recounts their journey from Egypt into Canaan, but it also ministers of God’s grace. “And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat” (Joshua 24:13). No work went into the cities that they were living in or the food that they were eating, thus these blessings were a result of God’s grace. It is glorious how Joshua, though under the law, takes opportunity to minister to God’s people concerning His abundant grace and favor.

This speech contains one of the greatest proclamations of choice that is recorded in the Word. Joshua has just challenged the people to put away the strange gods which had come from Egypt and to serve the LORD. He lays in front of them the choice as to whom they will serve, “whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell” (Joshua 24:15). Then he declares his own intent, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”.

Note the King James usage of “LORD” in this verse, showing us that the original Hebrew word here is “Yahweh” or “Covenant Lord”. Joshua is declaring that he and his house choose to trust the God of covenant. When you appeal to the God of Covenant, you are holding God to his end of the deal so to speak. As New Covenant saints, when we appeal to Covenant, we are appealing to Christ’s finished work on the cross. What Jesus paid for, we are recipients of, and we should always appeal backwards to the cross to rest in what is rightfully ours by His blood.

Joshua not only declares that he will serve the LORD, but that his house will serve the LORD as well. As the priest of his home he has declared that his entire household will follow after the covenant that God has made and they will trust God to keep that covenant. Men should take this as an example from the great Joshua. Take the lead in your home and steer your family towards the things of God. Be the husband to your wife as Christ is to His church, loving her passionately and speaking sweetness to her, and father your children as the Father loves His Prodigal Son, with open arms and forgiveness of heart. When you lead in this way, you will not have to wonder if there is anyone following, for the household will gladly go after the man who is going after the LORD.

Never forget to open the challenge for following the Lord with as much grace as possible. There is no such thing as “too much grace”, though some will try to dissuade you from referring to this wonderful gift for fear that it will bring a license to sin. Where sin is great, grace is greater and if we can agree that sin is rampant in this world, we should agree that grace is needed now more than ever!

The Fear of the Lord

Proverbs 9:10

Did you know that there is a proper and an improper fear of God? David said that, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psalms 19:9), showing us that proper fear is pure and clean and it will last for all of time. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). Here, we see that there is “godly fear” which comes only from those who “have grace”.

Jesus was confronted by the devil in the wilderness with various temptations. One of those temptations was to take possession of the earth without going to the cross. Satan offered all of it to Christ if Jesus would only worship him (Luke 4:6, 7). Jesus refused, and said, “For it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’” (Luke 4:8). Notice that Jesus said, ‘it is written’, meaning that He is quoting from the scriptures. The only problem is that what He claims was written is not written!

Jesus puts two verses together, both from the book of Deuteronomy:

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 10:20).

In neither verse do we see, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God”, yet Jesus says, “It is written”. In fact, the phrase, “Thou shalt worship the Lord they God” never appears in the Bible until Jesus says it in the wilderness. Rather than assume that Jesus is mistaken, we must take into account something of more importance.

Jesus is the author of Deuteronomy! John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, and then he writes, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was there in the beginning and He was the inspiration for all of the Old Testament scriptures. As the author of the Old Testament, he retains the right to change the wording in the New Testament, thus, when He speaks to Satan in the wilderness, He is not confused, He is simply changing the wording to reflect the Spirit of the New Testament.

With the arrival of grace and truth in the form of Jesus Christ, God no longer wants man to have an unhealthy fear of Him. Now, instead of fear, Jesus changes the words to “worship the Lord thy God”. Every time you read of the fear of the Lord in the Old Testament, you have the right to insert “worship” in its place, for this is how New Covenant believers live. We do not fear our heavenly Father; we worship Him because He is so good.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). As a believer in Jesus Christ, remember that now, “The worship of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The man who is wise enough to worship the Lord for who and what He is is truly wise indeed.

The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalms 23:1

When I was a kid I would often pretend to be a preacher. My father was a pastor so, as most boys do, I emulated his movements and his style. I used a clothes hamper for my pulpit and I opened my Bible and read a passage before shouting and yelling at a room full of imaginary people. I can’t tell you what all I preached or from what passages I read, but I do remember attempting to preach the 23rd Psalm once, and it has always stuck with me.

In my young mind I could not fathom why the writer of Psalms 23 would not want the Lord to be his shepherd. I was reading it as, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want him”. I was making a simple mistake, assuming that the “shall not want” applied to the previous statement instead of coming as a result of it. Because the Lord is our shepherd, we never have a reason to want. What is so simple now caused me such confusion then. I am not sure why I remember that, but I do and I think I know now why I ever felt that way at all.

When you are a kid you never want for anything. That doesn’t mean that you never want anything, it just means that you never find yourself without the necessities of life. That is not universal of course, as there are children all over the world who want for the basic needs of life, but for the most part a kid need never think of how the rent is going to be paid or whether or not there will be dinner on the table at night.

If you never face the wolves you may not understand how important the shepherd is. When you have been provided for and taken care of, it is a little difficult to appreciate the power of that protection and provision. As we grow up we are forced to do for ourselves what our parents or guardians always did for us before. Having faced a few wolves, fallen off of a few paths and been stabbed by many thorns we find such rest and comfort in a good shepherd.

Jesus called Himself, “the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He is so good because He gladly gave His life for all of us. The prayer of little children, “God is good, God is great” is an awesome testimony to who God is. God is good and He is great, and He shows us just how good and great when He shows us His finished work at Calvary.

David is the author of the 23rd Psalm and he knew a thing or two about being a good shepherd. He defended his father’s flock on the hillsides of Bethlehem, once killing a lion and another time stopping a bear that was trying to harm the sheep (1 Samuel 17:34-36). Actually, David said that both of these predators actually grabbed a sheep and David went and hunted the beast down, pulled the sheep from its mouth and then killed it. David was a good shepherd, but Jesus is even better. He will never even allow the lion and the bear to get to you!

Sheep need a shepherd because they are basically defenseless and totally dependent. Thank God that we have a shepherd who watches over our every move, always quick to defend us and who provides us with all things, so that we “shall not want”.

The Chastening of the Lord

Hebrews 12:7

There is a distinct difference between receiving chastisement out of wrath and anger and receiving it out of love. All chastisement that the believer receives from the Lord is out of God’s heart of love and compassion; not a result of God’s anger. Jesus was wounded for our sins and also, “the chastisement of our peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5). This means that Jesus was disciplined so that we could have peace. God can’t discipline us for the same reason and still remain righteous in His dealings with His Son, therefore all discipline on us is to profit us and make us partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10).

Did you know that the same Greek word used for ‘chastisement’ is also used for ‘nurture’ and ‘instruction’? It appears as nurture in Ephesians 6:4 when Paul tells parents to raise their children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord”. It is used as instruction in 2 Timothy 3:16 when Paul tells Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. Placing ‘nurture’ next to admonition (which means ‘exhortation’), we see that Paul wants parents to show their children a loving God. In his use of ‘instruction’ to Timothy, he can’t be showing that the Bible beats people, for a book has no power to do so, but it certainly can ‘instruct’.

Remember, it was the translation from Greek to English that brought us these different words. The translators could have used the word ‘nurture’ throughout Hebrews 12, and we would have less confusion regarding the chastening power of the Lord. The author used the same Greek word in each passage, but our rendering of it into one word or the other has a profound effect on our interpretation of these passages.

Why must we always view ‘chastening’ as God beating us senseless? Or why do we assume that it means that God sometimes takes our job away or breaks our car or gives us a disease so that we will be less prideful or more giving? Would you do this to your child? If you wish to teach your little girl not to play in the street, do you shove her in front of a truck and then say, “That’s what happens when you play in the street. Maybe now you will listen to daddy”? That kind of parenting would get you locked up!

The fact that we are sons of God means that we are going to receive true chastisement from our Heavenly Father. This chastisement will instruct us in the ways of righteousness and show us a little more of Jesus every day. As our Father, He deals with us in much the same way that we would deal with our own children. The word ‘chastise’ is ‘paideuo’ in Greek and it means “child-training”. God is training us up as children and the quicker that we think of Him as a Father to little children, the quicker that we will see Him as good.

I think that in our Western culture, we had several generations of distant fathers, and this caused us to view our Heavenly Father in the same light. Dads were seen but not heard from for quite some time, and they were only brought into situations when there was discipline needed. That discipline usually came of the physical variety, and thus our perception of God became that He only steps in when we have done something wrong and then His wrath will be felt. You are His special child, and He is NOT a distant Father. He is right next to you at all times, training up the child in the way that he or she should go. Walk tall believer, Daddy has got your back!

The Name of the LORD

1 Samuel 17:45, 46

The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous of all time, all literature included. It appeals to the underdog in all of us; how an undersized boy could face off with an oversized warrior and defeat him using a tiny rock and sling-shot. It gives us the feeling that anything is possible and that the odds are never too long. This story is great for motivational purposes, but it is even better when you know what really happened, and why it happened.

Goliath was the champion of the Philistines and he stood just over 9 feet tall. He had probably never lost even a skirmish much less an actual battle, and he had come to the valley everyday to challenge the Israelites. If he lost the battle, the Philistines agreed to serve Israel, but if he could defeat Israel’s champion, then Israel would belong to the Philistines. Every day he shouted the same threats, and every day Israel cowered in fear.

Along comes young David, a 17 year old boy who tends his father’s sheep every day. He is a soft-hearted kid who has never killed a man in his life and who spends his free time writing beautiful songs. When he arrives at camp to bring his brothers some food from home, he is struck by the lack of fight within Israel. He sees this giant mocking God everyday while no one stands to defend the Lord. David has seen it, and he has had enough!

He goes before Goliath with only a sling and a five stones, while Goliath comes with so much armor that he has another man carry most of it out to the battlefield. Goliath mocks David from the start, cursing him by the name of his gods. David calls Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:36), invoking the truth that Goliath has no covenant, while the circumcised Israelites are living under the covenant of God’s protection. Notice that David points out Goliath’s lack of divine protection which is key in understanding why David took this fight in the first place.

“I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts…” (1 Samuel 17:45). The text spells out LORD with all caps because that is the translators’ way of showing us which Hebrew name for God that David used. By saying LORD, he is using “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”, both meaning, “Covenant God”. David is not out to defeat Goliath with strength but with Covenant. God had agreed to honor those that honored Him, and David is taking Him up on it.

When you face off with the Goliaths of this world, don’t face them using your own goodness or morality. Face these giants with knowledge of what Christ has done for you. He has defeated all enemies and placed them under His feet. Know that He loves you and that you are His righteousness. Satan is powerless against the child of God that knows who they are in Christ. In truth, any member of Israel’s army could have had this victory if they had appealed to the same Covenant that young David did. This is why David was a man after God’s heart.

You have opportunity to trust the New Covenant which Jesus cut with His Father, or to trust your own works. Goliath is too big; I suggest you stick with Jesus.

Choose You This Day

Joshua 24:15

Joshua was the first general of the armies of Israel. He was also the successor to Moses as leader over the nation upon their entrance into the Promised Land. The book that bears his name is the story of Israel’s journeys under this great man and its last chapter is his final charge to the people preceding his death.

Joshua’s speech to Israel not only recounts their journey from Egypt into Canaan, but it also ministers of God’s grace. “And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and olive yards which ye planted not do ye eat” (Joshua 24:13). No work went into the cities that they were living in or the food that they were eating, thus these blessings were a result of God’s grace. It is glorious how Joshua, though under the law, takes opportunity to minister to God’s people concerning His abundant grace and favor.

This speech contains one of the greatest proclamations of choice that is recorded in the Word. Joshua has just challenged the people to put away the strange gods which had come from Egypt and to serve the LORD. He lays in front of them the choice as to whom they will serve, “whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell” (Joshua 24:15). Then he declares his own intent, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD”.

Note the King James usage of “LORD” in this verse, showing us that the original Hebrew word here is “Yahweh” or “Covenant Lord”. Joshua is declaring that he and his house choose to trust the God of covenant. When you appeal to the God of Covenant, you are holding God to his end of the deal so to speak. As New Covenant saints, when we appeal to Covenant, we are appealing to Christ’s finished work on the cross. What Jesus paid for, we are recipients of, and we should always appeal backwards to the cross to rest in what is rightfully ours by His blood.

Joshua not only declares that he will serve the LORD, but that his house will serve the LORD as well. As the priest of his home he has declared that his entire household will follow after the covenant that God has made and they will trust God to keep that covenant. Men should take this as an example from the great Joshua. Take the lead in your home and steer your family towards the things of God. Be the husband to your wife as Christ is to His church, loving her passionately and speaking sweetness to her, and father your children as the Father loves His Prodigal Son, with open arms and forgiveness of heart. When you lead in this way, you will not have to wonder if there is anyone following, for the household will gladly go after the man who is going after the LORD.

Never forget to open the challenge for following the Lord with as much grace as possible. There is no such thing as “too much grace”, though some will try to dissuade you from referring to this wonderful gift for fear that it will bring a license to sin. Where sin is great, grace is greater and if we can agree that sin is rampant in this world, we should agree that grace is needed now more than ever!

The Fear of the Lord

Proverbs 9:10

Did you know that there is a proper and an improper fear of God? David said that, “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psalms 19:9), showing us that proper fear is pure and clean and it will last for all of time. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). Here, we see that there is “godly fear” which comes only from those who “have grace”.

Jesus was confronted by the devil in the wilderness with various temptations. One of those temptations was to take possession of the earth without going to the cross. Satan offered all of it to Christ if Jesus would only worship him (Luke 4:6, 7). Jesus refused, and said, “For it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve’” (Luke 4:8). Notice that Jesus said, ‘it is written’, meaning that He is quoting from the scriptures. The only problem is that what He claims was written is not written!

Jesus puts two verses together, both from the book of Deuteronomy:

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13).

“Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 10:20).

In neither verse do we see, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God”, yet Jesus says, “It is written”. In fact, the phrase, “Thou shalt worship the Lord they God” never appears in the Bible until Jesus says it in the wilderness. Rather than assume that Jesus is mistaken, we must take into account something of more importance.

Jesus is the author of Deuteronomy! John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, and then he writes, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was there in the beginning and He was the inspiration for all of the Old Testament scriptures. As the author of the Old Testament, he retains the right to change the wording in the New Testament, thus, when He speaks to Satan in the wilderness, He is not confused, He is simply changing the wording to reflect the Spirit of the New Testament.

With the arrival of grace and truth in the form of Jesus Christ, God no longer wants man to have an unhealthy fear of Him. Now, instead of fear, Jesus changes the words to “worship the Lord thy God”. Every time you read of the fear of the Lord in the Old Testament, you have the right to insert “worship” in its place, for this is how New Covenant believers live. We do not fear our heavenly Father; we worship Him because He is so good.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). As a believer in Jesus Christ, remember that now, “The worship of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The man who is wise enough to worship the Lord for who and what He is is truly wise indeed.

The Preventing God

Psalms 21:3

This verse takes on a new meaning when we can clear the hurdle that the word “prevent” causes. We see “prevent” in a negative light, not a positive one, which causes us to see God as keeping us from the “blessings of goodness”.

In Hebrew, the phrase is “qadam” and it means “to come before, to anticipate”. In other words, it is something good if God is “preventing” because it means that God knows what is coming before it gets here and if He is preventing with the blessings of goodness then He is bringing us good things before we even know that we need them!

It is now, and always has been, God’s heart to function in this ‘preventing’ manner. Like the Father, standing at the end of the lane, watching for the return of the Prodigal, antsy to kill the fatted calf, God is waiting to do great things in our life.

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

This promise is a promise of victory before we even face the battle. When we rest in this sort of promise we have joy unspeakable and peace that passes all understanding. These emotions will spring not from our circumstances but from our knowledge of the Lord’s preventing love and goodness.

Notice that David not only mentions that God prevents with the blessings of goodness but that He also puts a crown of pure gold upon his head. The crown is a symbol of royalty and victory. So confident is David that God is going to make good things happen to him that he believes for the victor’s crown before the battle is waged.

David had this attitude when he faced the giant Goliath. He never claimed that he was going to kill Goliath with his superior sling-shot skills, but rather that the LORD was going to deliver the giant into David’s hand to prove that “the LORD saveth not with sword and spear:” (1 Samuel 17:47). David was bragging of the victory before it ever came because knew that he served a covenant God.

Lay hold of this promise today that the Lord is going to “prevent” with blessings of goodness. Place your trust and confidence in His ability to provide the victory in the face of defeat and then prepare yourself for the miracle of God’s prevention.

Jesus: The 'I AM'

Exodus 3:13, 14

Moses asked God what he should say if the children of Israel were to ask him who had sent him to be their deliverer. God responded, “I AM THAT I AM”. “I AM” becomes a name for God in this passage that is translated in Hebrew as hayah, meaning “to be, exist”. God is saying that He just IS. There is no other explanation as to how He became or how He got “to be”; He just is what He is.

This revelation of the name of God was not given to Moses to tell Pharaoh. When Pharaoh asks a similar question to the one posed by Moses, Moses answers, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go” (Exodus 5:3). There is no need to prove God’s existence before Pharaoh, for he is not under the covenant of God. For Israel however, they know the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they are looking for a revelation of who this God is.

The establishment of “I AM” doesn’t last long, as we don’t see God calling Himself this again, but instead He refers to Himself as “JEHOVAH” in Exodus 6:3. This is translated in Hebrews as Yehovah and it means “the existing one”. Elsewhere it is rendered by the English spelling of LORD, using all capital letters. Its reference is to the God of the covenant. Each time it is used it is hearkening back to the fact that God is not only powerful, but is faithful to honor covenant.

Following His encounter with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus gives a discourse on being the light of the world, telling the Pharisee’s that they are of their father the devil (John 8:44). He continues on by explaining that if a man keeps His sayings, “he shall never see death” (John 8:51). This infuriates the Jews because they know that Abraham and the prophets were great men, but they are dead, and they feel that Jesus is setting Himself up as greater than all that preceded Him.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56), Jesus said. “Then said the Jews unto him, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?’” (John 8:57). By claiming that Abraham had seen Jesus’ day, He can only be insinuating one of two things. Either He is claiming to be hundreds of years old, having lived in the actual time of Abraham or He is claiming that He is God, having seen Abraham with His own eyes. Recall what Jesus has just said in verse 38, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father”.

“Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am’” (John 8:58).

The New Testament was written in Greek, so the words are not going to be exactly the same, but can you guess what “I am” means in the Greek? If you guessed, “to be, exist” then you are exactly right. Jesus, who would be speaking in Hebrew to a group of Jews, uses the phrase, hayah, which everyone standing there knows is what God called Himself to Moses. This is Jesus saying, “I AM”.

You must decide for yourself if Jesus was and is God in the flesh, or if he is psychotic. There really are no other explanations. If He was who He claimed to be, then it was Jesus saying to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”. For those of us who believe, He is still THE GREAT I AM!