kingdom travelin'

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” Psalm‬ ‭139‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Is this a refreshing truth to you? Or does it strike a chord of fear?

As you ponder your answer, what does it say about your view of the holiness of God?

Does the doctrine of the holiness of God bring comfort to your heart?

An example of that holiness:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah‬ ‭55‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬

1. There is a relationship between joy and suffering:

Romans 5:3

James 1:2

1 Peter 4:13

Hebrews 10:34

Acts 5:41

2 Corinthians 12:9

Philippians 2:17

Colossians 1:24

1 Thessalonians 1:6

2 Corinthians 8:1

Joy comes from grace not circumstances, neither pain nor pleasure can supersede the joy we have in God!

2. Why does suffering come?

One reason is to produce a deeper holiness through deeper faith as we go through.

Hebrews 12:10

2 Corinthians 1:8

1 Peter 4:12-13

This outline from Ask Pastor John podcast. Click ⬇️

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-pastor-john/id618132843?i=1000614289364

This Sunday I’ll be sharing about what we can learn from the book of Acts and the letter to the Hebrews about trouble.

Here are three steps to help us with discouragement, and to cultivate trust.

1.    As soon as you’re discouraged, look to Scripture, remember Jesus is greater than all our troubles. Meditate on faith building verses.

2.    As soon as someone hurts you, pray for them.

3. Thank God for the struggle and ask Him what will he teach you through it? Remember, the struggle now is less than the joy that will come as Christ fills you and changes you. Joy will result.

These are truths in Scripture that have never failed me:

FAITH BUILDING TEXTS:

Joshua 1:9

Psalm 27:1

Psalm 46:1-3

Proverbs 3:5-7

Isaiah 30:15, 18

Isaiah 43:1-3a

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Lamentations 3:22-24

Habakkuk 3:17-19

It has been noted that the ascension of Christ Jesus was the ascension to His coronation at the throne of God.

Tomorrow is the Sunday before Ascension day and I’ll be preaching from the end of Luke and doing a quick survey of some texts in Hebrews. Hebrews has more about Jesus as our High Priest and Mediator than anywhere else. As I’ve worked in these Scriptures this week, my mind has been set toward the throne of grace. (Heb. 4, Col. 3) and then, just now as I read todays Psalms, I saw this:

“O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praises to the Lord, Selah

to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens;

behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice.

Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies. Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.

Blessed be God!” Psalm‬ ‭68‬:‭32‬-‭35‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Glory be to His great name, Jesus, the King of kings!

When we properly dwell on His greatness, our trust in Him grows and we can lay all our cares upon Him, for he cares for us.

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” Psalm‬ ‭57‬:‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Soli Deo Gloria!

“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”” Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Hebrews‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” Hebrews‬ ‭9‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Are we eagerly waiting?

“But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.” Psalm‬ ‭59‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

This is an excerpt from a small book by Leo Tolstoy.

“S., a clever and truthful man, once told me the story of how he ceased to believe. On a hunting expedition, when he was already twenty-six, he once, at the place where they put up for the night, knelt down in the evening to pray a habit retained from childhood. His elder brother, who was at the hunt with him, was lying on some hay and watching him. When S. had finished and was settling down for the night, his brother said to him: “So you still do that?” They said nothing more to one another. But from that day S. ceased to say his prayers or go to church. And now he has not prayed, received communion, or gone to church, for thirty years. And this not because he knows his brother’s convictions and has joined him in them, nor because he has decided anything in his own soul, but simply because the word spoken by his brother was like the push of a finger on a wall that was ready to fall by its own weight. The word only showed that where he thought there was faith, in reality there had long been an empty space, and that therefore the utterance of words and the making of signs of the cross and genuflections while praying were quite senseless actions. Becoming conscious of their senselessness he could not continue them.”

— A Confession by Leo Tolstoy, circa. 1882

Dallas Willard mentions this little book near the beginning of The Divine Conspiracy.

What intrigues me about this little story is this question:

How many so called Christians are ready to be pushed over by the nudge of a single finger?