Psalm 147:10-11
¹⁰ He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
¹¹ The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.

God wants us to trust Him.

It was the core issue in the Garden of Eden ("Will you trust Me enough to not eat from that tree for no reason other than because I said so?"), and it will be the core issue at the end of the age, as He judges wickedness and the rebellion of all nations against Him.  How will you respond when God unleashes judgments that kill half the population of the earth? (Rev 6:8, 9:15)  God is looking for those who will trust His leadership and agree with His heart so completely that they will sing "Just and true are Your ways!" in the midst of the most cataclysmic judgments in human history (Rev 15:3-4).

The word "faith" does not appear much in the Old Testament, but the "fear of the LORD" actually means something very similar.  Faith and fear are really the same - they are both about a belief in what you do not yet see.  And both are appropriate responses to God.  All of us are going to answer for every choice that we make before a Man who knows everything we did, every thought, and every secret motive perfectly.  Paul said that the appropriate response to that fact is to be terrified (2 Cor 5:11). 

Fear need not paralyze us, however.  From the terror of the Lord, we can move on into trust in the Lord.  He who will be faithful to judge us with perfect accuracy will also be faithful to extend abundant mercy to anyone who asks for it. (John 6:37)

And He loves it.  He actually enjoys people who believe Him and understand His character enough to respond rightly to Him!  After all, it's what He made us for.

A few weeks ago while doing street evangelism, I met a young woman who had heard a message called "23 Minutes in Hell" by Bill Wiese.  The message scared her so much that she decided to get serious with God again and started going to church.  The weekend that I talked with her, she had been scheduled to be baptized, but had decided to wait because there were still a lot of things that she was struggling to let go of.  I had the opportunity to talk to her for almost an hour about the justice and love of God and what repentance really means.  I haven't heard the end of her story.  I'm praying that she was able to take the final step in repenting of her sins - whatever the cost - and fully trusting Christ.

I was impressed by the effect that this testimony about Hell had on her.  Many in the American Church today have a disdain for "hellfire and brimstone" evangelism.  Certainly, there are bad ways to preach about Hell.  But we cannot afford to dismiss the topic entirely - after all, Jesus preached about Hell more than anyone else in the Bible!  Using fear to motivate people to repent is not God's highest purpose, but it is absolutely a Biblical thing to do.

Bill Wiese - 23 Minutes in Hell

This is a testimony given by a man named Bill Wiese who had a visionary experience in which God let him experience Hell for 23 minutes. He backs up the things he witnessed with Bible verses, as he appropriately checked his experience against what the Bible says.

It is powerful, it is scary, and it ought to be strong motivation for all of us to make sure that we have sincerely repented and trusted in Jesus Christ, as well as to make sure that family and friends have heard an accurate presentation of the Good News about Jesus.

Luke 15:7-24

⁷ “...there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. ...

 ¹⁰ Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

... the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³ And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ²⁴ for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

God is more intense than we can imagine.

Jeremy Taylor wrote, "God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy."  In fact, He threatens eternal torment if we will not lay down our rebellion and enter into "the joy of our Master."  His jealousy and wrath are terrible and frightening to meditate on. (Psalm 90:11)

But we must not allow our view of God's intensity to lean in one direction.  The intensity of His wrath against rebellion is perfectly balanced with His exultant jubilant buoyant joy when the rebel lays down his arms and comes home.  There is joy in the presence of the angels of God every time a sinner repents.  Throw away your sermon-illustration idea about "angels dancing".  The angels aren't the ones who Jesus said rejoice - it's the Father who rejoices!

If you know there's something between you and God, then don't beat yourself up about it!  Sincerely admit you've been sinning, ask Him for forgiveness, and then make a plan to stop it for good.  The moment you sincerely repent, on the authority of the Bible, God is shouting for joy over you!

If you still need more convincing, here are just a few more scriptures on God's delight in repentant people: Psalm 51:17; John 6:37; Matthew 5:3-4; Micah 7:18

God is easily pleased.

Many people have trouble believing that, but it's true.  The Bible is very clear.  God is pleased - delights, even - in the simplest, most mundane acts of obedience.

Proverbs 11:1
¹ Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight.

Let me be clear: if you do not belong to Jesus Christ, no amount of good works will do anything to make God accept you, let alone enjoy you.  God is not impressed by good works done by rebels who refuse to accept His leadership (1 Samuel 15:22).  But if you are on Jesus' team - that is, if you have decided that He is in charge of your life - and are sincerely seeking to obey Him, God is mostly happy with you most of the time.

We think of rules like "You shall not cheat your neighbor" (Leviticus 19:13) as being like the speed limit. The state police do not enjoy the fact that you keep the speed limit - even if you are the only one on the road who is.  But the eternal reality is that God enjoys those who keep His law.  Every little decision to say "yes" to His laws and His leadership is cause for rejoicing in heaven.  He is far more easily pleased than we are!

‘A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again," to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again," to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.’

- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

I've fallen behind on posting sermons on my podcast.  Apologies for that!  School and doing the nighwatch in the prayer room have kept me busier than I thought I would be.

Allen Hood - God Desires Mercy

This is a teaching that Allen Hood gave at the Onething 2007 conference. The teaching is based on Matthew 9:13 (Hosea 6:6), and is about how God delights to give us mercy but it is a continual struggle for us to receive it.

The most powerful part of this message for me was Allen's description of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and His commitment to finish what He has started in me. The Holy Spirit is profoundly committed to my maturity. Praise God!

This post is primarily for Terry & D'Ante, the two young men that I met last week, if you should happen to look at this website.  Others may also find it useful, however.

Because of what we talked about when we met, the single most important thing that you can do is read your Bible.  This is not about religion, it's not about ritual, it's not about earning anything from God.  God loves you, and nothing that you can do will make Him love you anymore than He already does.  From the moment that you said yes to Jesus as King of your life, He is thrilled with you.  He actually likes you.  He looks at you and does not see any of the sin that you struggle with or any of the bad things that you have done - He sees you as good, and clean, and pleasing to Him.

So why do you need to read your Bible?  Because remember, this relationship with God is not just about being forgiven.  It is about a kingdom.  Jesus is the King, and He is going to come back to the earth, and take over the entire planet.  It may happen soon, or it may happen long after all of us are dead.  But either way, we don't get a choice about who is going to be in charge of the world or of our lives.  The only choice we get is whether we like it or not!

So the reason we need to read the Bible is because we need to get to know the King.  We need to find out what Jesus is like, what He said, what He did, and what He tells us to do.  And we need to remember that what He tells us to do isn't a suggestion!  That's how a Kingdom works - He tells us what to do, and we do it.  But what's really amazing is that doing what He tells us to do is how we show Him that we love Him.  It's how we express gratitude for the fact that He loved us so much that He was willing to be tortured to death so that we could be with Him forever.

So how do you start?

You need to pick out these three things:

1. A Time - Set aside a time during the day when you have 30 minutes to read your Bible.  It doesn't always have to be the same time, just make sure you do it every day.  One person I know said, "Make an appointment with the King and keep it!"
2. A Place - Pick a place where you can have some peace and quiet.  Maybe alone in your room, or maybe in a public park, or maybe in a coffee shop.  Whatever works for you where you won't be interrupted.
3. A Plan - Know in advance what you're going to read.  I suggest that you start with the book of Matthew (about 3/4 of the way through; in my Bible it starts on page 649 out of 834.)  You want to start with Matthew, which is the story of Jesus' life and what He taught, and just keep reading from there.  I'd suggest that you plan to read just a few pages a day.

Once you actually come the place where you're going to read your Bible, this is what you do:

1. Pray - Ask God to help you understand what you read and to show you something that you didn't know before.
2. Read - as you read the Bible, you want to do "A-B-C":
1. Ask questions - Ask yourself questions like, what does this mean?  What is Jesus asking me to do?  How would my life be different if I really took this seriously?
2. Pick your Best verse - Read slowly, and allow God to show you a particular phrase or sentence that seems really important to you.  Think about that idea for a while.
3. Commit to take it seriously - if the verse you pick is asking you to believe something, then decide that you're going to believe it, regardless of how you feel.  If the verse is telling you to do something, then decide that you're going to try to do it, with God's help.
3. Pray again - ask God to help you do what you've said you want to do.  The wonderful thing is that if you belong to Jesus, then God Himself lives inside of you through the Holy Spirit.  He is really really really strong, and it is really easy for Him to help us if we will just trust Him and expect Him to do it!

And that's it.  If you do that every day for the next 5 years and take it seriously, you will be a completely different person.  If you have any questions or any problems that you want help with, send me an email at: Jeff (at) TodayAndThatDay.com.

May God give you strength on the inside to love Jesus with everything that you have and everything that you are!