Read the Bible in a Year (17JUN19)

PSALMS MOMENT – (17JUN19) My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The psalmist is prophetically writing about the sufferings that Jesus would endure when He was on the cross. In Aramaic, Jesus cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus felt abandoned by God on the cross as the sins of the world rested on His shoulders. He felt alone with no one to turn to because this was a mission that only He could fulfill. He was the sacrificial Lamb who willingly gave up His life for the benefit of all mankind. The Bible says, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (John 10:18). Jesus was not forced to make the ultimate sacrifice, but He gave Himself up by His own free will. Yet, He was in an emotional state of loneliness, for when He needed his Father the most, He could not feel His presence. There are times when we too may feel alone and forsaken by God, but no one knows what we are going through better than Jesus. Although He felt alone, the Father was there, but had to allow Him to give the act of Love that only a Father can give.

The psalmist was given further insight into the contempt that Jesus would encounter for the very people that He was dying for. The psalmist wrote that the people would mock and say that since He believed upon the Lord, then let Him deliver him. We can see that the prophecy was fulfilled in Matthews 27:39-44, “Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads  and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him,’ for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” Just as they scoffed at Jesus then, people are still doing the same thing today. They do it by mocking those who follow Him and uphold the ordinances of God. They call us Bible thumpers, doom and gloomers, homophobes, xenophobes, Islamaphobes, bigots, and other names that correlate us to hate. Yet, this is to be expected because Jesus said that if they did it to Him, they would do it to us. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18).

The psalmist wrote that God taught Jesus to trust in Him from the womb and was his Father. Jesus learned to totally rely on his Heavenly Father as He grew up, for He was no ordinary child, but He was the Son of God. God had a relationship with His son as He was growing inside of Mary’s womb. The psalmist wrote a request for God to be near him because trouble was all around. God had to protect Jesus from the moment that He was born because Herod wanted to kill Him. The Bible says, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi” ( Matthew 2:16). Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, was given a dream to flee to Egypt for a time. No one was there other than God to rescue Jesus, but He had been sent to rescue everyone else.

The psalmist prophesied that the Savior’s mouth would be dry where His tongue stuck to His mouth. In the book of Matthew, the author wrote, “Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink” (Matthew 27:48). One can possibly imagine the sun’s heat beaming down on the Savior as He hung on the cross. It would cause one to be hot, sweaty, and thirsty, which is why He had been offered the vinegar in fulfillment of this prophecy. The psalmist continued with his prophetic word by writing that the Savior’s body was on display where people stared and gloated at him. They divided His clothes and cast lots for His garments. Luke, the physician and apostle wrote in his gospel, “ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. “And they divided up his clothes by casting lots” (Luke 23:34). Being crucified was a death meant to humiliate the convicted person even up to their very last breath where all could see and be warned not to follow in the supposed criminal’s footsteps. Everything that the psalmist wrote was fulfilled and just as it was then, the Bible is still being fulfilled in today’s times.

Jesus came so that we could have the most precious gift offered to man – the gift of salvation. God gave the gift to man, but many have rejected Him because He did not come in the package that they thought He should be in. The Jews were looking for a king who would rescue them from Rome, but God was sending them a King who would rescue all of mankind from sin. Today, Jesus is still offering Himself as a Gift to the entire human race. Unfortunately, many are rejecting the Gift because they do not want its contents. One day, probation will close, and the gift will no longer be offered. Many will find out too late that they were deceived by the master manipulator, and what they thought was the deal of the century was a contract of death for eternity.  May God help us to be a light unto this dark world, so that those who will, will choose the Gift of Eternal Life before it’s too late. Something to ponder….

QUESTION OF THE DAY – (17JUN19) The psalmist wrote, “In you, Lord, my God, I put my truth.” Many of us can say that we trust the Lord when things are going well in our lives, but how many of us can keep that fuel going when we are put to the test? The day is coming when many of us will have to face that challenge. Jobs such as teaching will, if not already, be challenged when it comes to teaching a subject that goes against the statutes of God. Pastors will be forced by the government to either marry gay couples or lose their tax-exempt status and close their doors. Doctors will be forced to either perform transgender surgeries or lose their licenses. Wedding coordinators will be forced to leave their professions due to the law suits they encounter. Want-to-be parents will not be allowed to adopt if they adhere to Christian standards, and the list continues to grow. Will you still place your trust in God should the day come for you to make a stand of faith for God? I pray that we are all preparing our minds and hearts now to say, “Yes, I will stand.” Something to ponder….

 

PSALMS MOMENT – (17JUN19) The psalmist wrote the 23^rd Psalm as a testament of what the Lord had done for him. We can take great comfort in the Lord if we understand the true meaning of this psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:11-13). The Shepherd takes good care of His sheep. When we have Jesus, there is nothing that we truly lack. He provides all of our needs according to His riches in glory. Jesus placed under shepherds to care for His sheep as well, but some who call themselves shepherds do not love the sheep. Therefore, if the right amount of money, status, fame, or shepherding location is not up to their standards, they will abandon the sheep because they were only there for hire. This, unfortunately, is taking place in many of today’s churches. This is why it is ever so important to have a relationship with the Good Shepherd for yourself.  Where man will fail you, the Lord never will.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  

The shepherd’s job is to feed the sheep. What do sheep eat? They eat grass and they need a calm flow of water to drink, so that they will not be scared. Sheep are not known for their great intellect, so the shepherd has to take them to where they can graze and make sure that they are not in a place that frightens them. The Bible says, “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). How do we feast as sheep? We feast on the Word of God which is how we come to  know the Bread of Life and the Living Water. Many people are spiritually malnourished, and it is because they are not eating the proper diet of prayer and studying the Word. They are filling themselves with empty calories such as ungodly books, movies, magazines, music, sports, lust, money, jobs, and other things unrelated to God. As in the natural, if you do not eat properly, your body will suffer, it is the same way spiritually. We cannot sustain ourselves spiritually if we are not living on the Bread of Life and depriving ourselves of the Living Water which is Jesus.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Shepherds in biblical times had to not only watch over the sheep, but they had to be the sheep’s physician. There were no veterinarians to call, so whatever ailed the sheep had to be taken care of by the shepherd. Likewise, Jesus restores, heals, and fixes the wounds of the soul. Many people have suffered from the wounds of sin because they walked down a path that was not of God. The Good Shepherd, however, heals us because He is the Great Physician and knows how to mend our broken pieces back together again. “And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). Jesus not only heals us, but He guides our feet down the path of righteousness because He is glorified when we honor and serve Him. “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21). The Shepherd is there to guide us on the path of righteousness, and He has given us His word, so that we may know His ways.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

The Good Shepherd protects us during times of danger. This is not to say that we will not have to walk through perilous times in the spiritual and sometimes in the natural, but He is always there. Many Christians are walking through death’s valley in various parts of the world where they are being persecuted and slaughtered. Yet, Jesus is with them as they give their lives willingly for His name’s sake. Even if it is not death, many of God’s children are going through individual valleys of depression, anxiety, abuse, ill health, unemployment, finances, loneliness, divorce, and other battles within the valley that they are facing. Nevertheless, we do not have to fear because Jesus’ rod and staff comforts us. The shepherd uses the rod to prevent the sheep from being harmed if a prey comes near, and if the sheep get caught somewhere and needs to be rescued. Therefore, we never have to live in fear because our Shepherd is always there alongside us. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

The Good Shepherd will make your enemies watch the blessings that He gives to you after He brings you through the valley of death. We can be reminded of the story of Job, and after he prayed for his friends, the Lord gave him twice as much as he had before, and he was given gold and silver by the ones who were not there during his situation. “All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring” (Job 42:11). Job’s friends had accused him falsely of being an evil man, but the Lord allowed them to see his double-fold blessing after all the talking they did. Sometimes, your enemies may gloat over your misfortunes, but God will allow for them to see Him do miracles in your life, and give you a Holy Spirit anointing that will close up their mouths and leave them dumbfounded. The enemy may have access to your physical possessions if God allows, but he cannot take your anointing unless you give it to him.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

When we stay in the dwelling of the Most High, we do not have to worry about not having the Lord’s blessings upon our lives. This is not to say that we will not have challenges and times of trials, but we know that if we do not give up and allow the Good Shepherd to lead us, we will see the end result being one of victory. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).  Something to ponder….