Luke 18:1–8 (KJV)
1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Question
What have you stopped praying about? Is it something you should stop praying about? Did God give you a no answer or like the Apostle Paul the answer of live with the thorn in your flesh.
Or are you seeking justice and like the widow in the above parable you need to be persistent. When it comes to things of the kingdom we should not stop praying.
When it comes to the salvation of lost friends and family I need to be reminded about God’s expectation that I persist in prayer.
I need to be reminded that humans ought to always pray and NOT lose heart. I need to hear the words of the Lord when he says, “shall not God avenge his own elect!”
I am part of that elect and I need to be reminded that God is hearing each and every prayer I bring before his throne and I so wish to be a prayer warrior that moves the very heart of God.
Question: What kingdom oriented things are you praying about? On a daily basis I pray that God would send us more visitors each and every Sunday. Will you join me in this request?
I want to cry day and night about the salvation of lost family members, asking that God would do a sovereign work in their life. I don’t want God’s hands to be tied or limited when it comes to saving my lost relatives. I don’t want their freewill to win over God’s sovereign convicting, life-changing, faith-giving influence.
In eternity, what will it be like to discover stories about God’s plan that His heart be moved to save souls through the prayers of the elect who cry day and night?
It is time to get back on our knees and start pounding on the door of heaven, crying day and night that God would hear and answer our prayers.
For His Name's Sake
Question: Why did God lead you to the path which results in righteousness?
According to Psalm 23:3 the Good Shepherd leads to in the path of righteousness. This path that has made you righteous, is making you righteous and will ultimately result in complete righteousness is a path that you discovered because He led you to it, is leading you along it, and will finally lead to through it to eternity.
Why then does He lead people in the path of righteousness? What is the ultimate reason? The Psalmist tells us—He does it for His Name’s Sake.
For the sake of His Name—not my name, my name is not what is important in this universe—it is His Name which is important. God glorifies Himself in the saving of men, women and children. He is redeeming a people which will all in the end thrilled in the exaltation of the Son of God and the Father will be well pleased in that exaltation and this is why God has chosen to led you in the path of righteousness.
The psalmist, King David, reminds me once again that it is not about me.
Why did God make me? Why did God save me? Why is God saving me? What is my purpose in life?
God made you for His Name’s Sake. My purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever in whatever I do (1 Corinthians 10:31).
According to Psalm 23:3 the Good Shepherd leads to in the path of righteousness. This path that has made you righteous, is making you righteous and will ultimately result in complete righteousness is a path that you discovered because He led you to it, is leading you along it, and will finally lead to through it to eternity.
Why then does He lead people in the path of righteousness? What is the ultimate reason? The Psalmist tells us—He does it for His Name’s Sake.
For the sake of His Name—not my name, my name is not what is important in this universe—it is His Name which is important. God glorifies Himself in the saving of men, women and children. He is redeeming a people which will all in the end thrilled in the exaltation of the Son of God and the Father will be well pleased in that exaltation and this is why God has chosen to led you in the path of righteousness.
The psalmist, King David, reminds me once again that it is not about me.
Why did God make me? Why did God save me? Why is God saving me? What is my purpose in life?
God made you for His Name’s Sake. My purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever in whatever I do (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Forsaken by the Father
The prophetic utterance described in Psalm 22 of “My God My God why have you forsaken” me is beyond my comprehension.
Perhaps the closest thing to one ever experiences that remotely relates to this experience that our Savior went through when the wrath of God poured hot on the sins of the world on the Lord Himself would be losing a good friend.
Now I have lost some good friends, friends that I thought would be with me till Jesus came again but for issues related to the fall of man and the sin that encompassed the world are no longer my friends.
But I can’t relate to the perfect intimate fellowship that the Son of God had experienced with God the Father and God the Spirit for all eternity past. I can’t relate to eternity past. I can’t comprehend the love the Father has for the Son. Perhaps those who have been married for 50, 55, and 60 sixty years to the same spouse can understand just little more than me what it must have been like for the Son to longer experience the presence of the Father in His life.
To utter “why have you forsaken me” helps us understand just a little bit more what our Savior did for us on a cross 2000 years ago.
So then we must ask very simply, is any sacrifice too much for our Lord? Is any burden too much for the One who gave all for us?
Can I really give too much?
Is it possible to serve too much, love too much or do too much for the one who was forsaken for me?
Perhaps the closest thing to one ever experiences that remotely relates to this experience that our Savior went through when the wrath of God poured hot on the sins of the world on the Lord Himself would be losing a good friend.
Now I have lost some good friends, friends that I thought would be with me till Jesus came again but for issues related to the fall of man and the sin that encompassed the world are no longer my friends.
But I can’t relate to the perfect intimate fellowship that the Son of God had experienced with God the Father and God the Spirit for all eternity past. I can’t relate to eternity past. I can’t comprehend the love the Father has for the Son. Perhaps those who have been married for 50, 55, and 60 sixty years to the same spouse can understand just little more than me what it must have been like for the Son to longer experience the presence of the Father in His life.
To utter “why have you forsaken me” helps us understand just a little bit more what our Savior did for us on a cross 2000 years ago.
So then we must ask very simply, is any sacrifice too much for our Lord? Is any burden too much for the One who gave all for us?
Can I really give too much?
Is it possible to serve too much, love too much or do too much for the one who was forsaken for me?
God Keep Me from Sinning
Genesis 20:1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Question
How sovereign is God? This is a very hard question. Theologians have wrestled with understanding God’s power and man’s free choice to do and NOT do things for thousands of years.
I want you to notice two verses in this text in verse four Abimelech had not had any sexual contact with Sarah—he states that he was innocent. In and of his own choosing he has yet to approach Sarah about a physical relationship. Why—look at verse 6.
Why—because God had kept Abimelech from sinning against Himself in and through Sarah. God, in a dream, says to Him, “I know you haven’t sinned against her it was I who kept you from sinning.” The sovereign God kept him from sinning—now someone wants to ask—could he have sinned against her? No. The text says God kept him from sinning. God had decided that Sarah was to remain pure in her marriage to Abraham. Therefore, He intervened in a unique and powerful way to protect Sarah from Abimelech’s polluting contact.
This is what I want God to do in my life. I want him to rule so powerfully in my life that He keeps me from sinning. I don’t want to sin. And I don’t value freedom so much that I want Him to leave me a choice to sin. I don’t want the choice to reject God. I don’t want the choice to walk about from my faith. I don’t anything to separate me from the love of God.
On the contrary, I want God to take away choices to sin. I need Him to silently, invisibly, powerfully, sovereignly rule in my life in such a way that He is removing opportunities, temptations, thoughts, and or choices to sin.
Isn’t this how the Lord taught the disciples to pray?
“Lord, rule in my life in such a powerful way that you guide me away from temptations and deliver me from sinful influences” (ref. Matt 6.13).
I want to spend more time praying like this--how about you?
Question
How sovereign is God? This is a very hard question. Theologians have wrestled with understanding God’s power and man’s free choice to do and NOT do things for thousands of years.
I want you to notice two verses in this text in verse four Abimelech had not had any sexual contact with Sarah—he states that he was innocent. In and of his own choosing he has yet to approach Sarah about a physical relationship. Why—look at verse 6.
Why—because God had kept Abimelech from sinning against Himself in and through Sarah. God, in a dream, says to Him, “I know you haven’t sinned against her it was I who kept you from sinning.” The sovereign God kept him from sinning—now someone wants to ask—could he have sinned against her? No. The text says God kept him from sinning. God had decided that Sarah was to remain pure in her marriage to Abraham. Therefore, He intervened in a unique and powerful way to protect Sarah from Abimelech’s polluting contact.
This is what I want God to do in my life. I want him to rule so powerfully in my life that He keeps me from sinning. I don’t want to sin. And I don’t value freedom so much that I want Him to leave me a choice to sin. I don’t want the choice to reject God. I don’t want the choice to walk about from my faith. I don’t anything to separate me from the love of God.
On the contrary, I want God to take away choices to sin. I need Him to silently, invisibly, powerfully, sovereignly rule in my life in such a way that He is removing opportunities, temptations, thoughts, and or choices to sin.
Isn’t this how the Lord taught the disciples to pray?
“Lord, rule in my life in such a powerful way that you guide me away from temptations and deliver me from sinful influences” (ref. Matt 6.13).
I want to spend more time praying like this--how about you?
God Keep Me from Sinning
Genesis 20:1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Question
How sovereign is God? This is a very hard question. Theologians have wrestled with understanding God’s power and man’s free choice to do and NOT do things for thousands of years.
I want you to notice two verses in this text in verse four Abimelech had not had any sexual contact with Sarah—he states that he was innocent. In and of his own choosing he has yet to approach Sarah about a physical relationship. Why—look at verse 6.
Why—because God had kept Abimelech from sinning against Himself in and through Sarah. God, in a dream, says to Him, “I know you haven’t sinned against her it was I who kept you from sinning.” The sovereign God kept him from sinning—now someone wants to ask—could he have sinned against her? No. The text says God kept him from sinning. God had decided that Sarah was to remain pure in her marriage to Abraham. Therefore, He intervened in a unique and powerful way to protect Sarah from Abimelech’s polluting contact.
This is what I want God to do in my life. I want him to rule so powerfully in my life that He keeps me from sinning. I don’t want to sin. And I don’t value freedom so much that I want Him to leave me a choice to sin. I don’t want the choice to reject God. I don’t want the choice to walk about from my faith. I don’t anything to separate me from the love of God.
On the contrary, I want God to take away choices to sin. I need Him to silently, invisibly, powerfully, sovereignly rule in my life in such a way that He is removing opportunities, temptations, thoughts, and or choices to sin.
Isn’t this how the Lord taught the disciples to pray?
“Lord, rule in my life in such a powerful way that you guide me away from temptations and deliver me from sinful influences” (ref. Matt 6.13).
How about you?
Question
How sovereign is God? This is a very hard question. Theologians have wrestled with understanding God’s power and man’s free choice to do and NOT do things for thousands of years.
I want you to notice two verses in this text in verse four Abimelech had not had any sexual contact with Sarah—he states that he was innocent. In and of his own choosing he has yet to approach Sarah about a physical relationship. Why—look at verse 6.
Why—because God had kept Abimelech from sinning against Himself in and through Sarah. God, in a dream, says to Him, “I know you haven’t sinned against her it was I who kept you from sinning.” The sovereign God kept him from sinning—now someone wants to ask—could he have sinned against her? No. The text says God kept him from sinning. God had decided that Sarah was to remain pure in her marriage to Abraham. Therefore, He intervened in a unique and powerful way to protect Sarah from Abimelech’s polluting contact.
This is what I want God to do in my life. I want him to rule so powerfully in my life that He keeps me from sinning. I don’t want to sin. And I don’t value freedom so much that I want Him to leave me a choice to sin. I don’t want the choice to reject God. I don’t want the choice to walk about from my faith. I don’t anything to separate me from the love of God.
On the contrary, I want God to take away choices to sin. I need Him to silently, invisibly, powerfully, sovereignly rule in my life in such a way that He is removing opportunities, temptations, thoughts, and or choices to sin.
Isn’t this how the Lord taught the disciples to pray?
“Lord, rule in my life in such a powerful way that you guide me away from temptations and deliver me from sinful influences” (ref. Matt 6.13).
How about you?
Genesis 19 God Rescues Lot and Destroys Two Cities
Genesis 19
24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
21st Century Application
Before we charge God with being too wrathful in the destruction of cities and nations from the beginning to even today for He is the same God that does NOT change (Malachi 3:6).
Let us examine the moral and ethical breakdown of values which occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Perhaps we have forgotten how much the sin of homosexuality makes God sick—it is an abomination to Him. At its very heart it says “God you got it wrong. What works best is not one man and one woman loving each other”—what it says is, “God we know better.”
And this is precisely the issue in these two cities. One day two “new” dudes show up at Lot’s house and the word gets out--two sharp young men are at Lot's house and instead of young ladies talking about those sharp men something just the opposite happens. A group of men show up at Lot’s door with the intent of each and all having their way with them all night long in a wicked, sick, perverted, ungodly, and wretched way. What God had intended as a wonderful God honoring, God glorifying act, first occurring in the very garden He created, had become a sinful perversion of men doing with men what is a perversion to the glory of God. Any view, opinion, or perspective less than that is a secular, humanistic view which has been corrupted by an ungodly agenda seeking to legitimize an unholy lifestyle.
Then to make matters worse—notice Lot’s response. In a noble attempt to protect the men as their host, Lot offers his two virgin daughters to a savage band of men intent upon knowing sexual pleasure that night. Again what we see is a man whose entire value system had been completely warped by the world he was living within. Daughters who were by God’s single plan to experience the joy of knowing one man are now moments away from being known by male after male all night long—until there is no purity left and nothing to offer their husband as a prize possession of honor and dignity most glorifying to God.
Finally, we see in this passage of scripture that even the girls have been influenced by the world and lack any true commit to glorifying God in maintaining their virginity until God brings them a husband. In Lot’s new home, after being rescued by God’s mercy, the daughters make dad drunk and have their way with him, also in what appears to be noble idea, that is maintaining the seed of father, but this too is a tremendous perversion of God’s intent for families.
Ultimately, God’s patience for revival ran out and the lack of righteous people present in these two cities led to its full and complete destruction with the exception of Lot and two daughters.
What choice did God have? Shall we, as mere sinful mortals, charge God with injustice when the perversion of values and morals is presented right before our faces in the sacred text? How can God remain just and NOT judge? God forbid.
Moreover, the question that begs to be answered is how much time does America have?
Years ago this sin was kept in a closet but those days are over—a radical agenda is seeking to pervert the value system of every man, woman and child until even those made righteous through the finished work of Christ question if homosexuality is really an abomination as presented in the Word of God. Every attempt is being made to normalize what is a perversion. And like our first parents Satan is tempting born-again Bible believing Christians with the same question: “Is that really what God said?”
Maybe those words aren’t the word of God. Maybe Paul was really a homophobe and Romans 1 is not the Word of God; maybe those words are mere human words and not divinely inspired, sacred, God-breathed words, penned by a man inspired by God the Holy Spirit—God forbid.
If it offends you to hear the Word of God proclaimed with boldness, perhaps you need to examine who or what is influencing your value system more than the Bible. Lot, as a righteous man, had a worldview that was just as warped as it can get—is yours?
May every man and woman who has been influenced to change their value system or lifestyle run to the only place of forgiveness--the cross of Jesus Christ--and find the power of the gospel more than sufficient to change their worldview, forgive their sin, and deliver them from a lifestyle of sin.
24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
21st Century Application
Before we charge God with being too wrathful in the destruction of cities and nations from the beginning to even today for He is the same God that does NOT change (Malachi 3:6).
Let us examine the moral and ethical breakdown of values which occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Perhaps we have forgotten how much the sin of homosexuality makes God sick—it is an abomination to Him. At its very heart it says “God you got it wrong. What works best is not one man and one woman loving each other”—what it says is, “God we know better.”
And this is precisely the issue in these two cities. One day two “new” dudes show up at Lot’s house and the word gets out--two sharp young men are at Lot's house and instead of young ladies talking about those sharp men something just the opposite happens. A group of men show up at Lot’s door with the intent of each and all having their way with them all night long in a wicked, sick, perverted, ungodly, and wretched way. What God had intended as a wonderful God honoring, God glorifying act, first occurring in the very garden He created, had become a sinful perversion of men doing with men what is a perversion to the glory of God. Any view, opinion, or perspective less than that is a secular, humanistic view which has been corrupted by an ungodly agenda seeking to legitimize an unholy lifestyle.
Then to make matters worse—notice Lot’s response. In a noble attempt to protect the men as their host, Lot offers his two virgin daughters to a savage band of men intent upon knowing sexual pleasure that night. Again what we see is a man whose entire value system had been completely warped by the world he was living within. Daughters who were by God’s single plan to experience the joy of knowing one man are now moments away from being known by male after male all night long—until there is no purity left and nothing to offer their husband as a prize possession of honor and dignity most glorifying to God.
Finally, we see in this passage of scripture that even the girls have been influenced by the world and lack any true commit to glorifying God in maintaining their virginity until God brings them a husband. In Lot’s new home, after being rescued by God’s mercy, the daughters make dad drunk and have their way with him, also in what appears to be noble idea, that is maintaining the seed of father, but this too is a tremendous perversion of God’s intent for families.
Ultimately, God’s patience for revival ran out and the lack of righteous people present in these two cities led to its full and complete destruction with the exception of Lot and two daughters.
What choice did God have? Shall we, as mere sinful mortals, charge God with injustice when the perversion of values and morals is presented right before our faces in the sacred text? How can God remain just and NOT judge? God forbid.
Moreover, the question that begs to be answered is how much time does America have?
Years ago this sin was kept in a closet but those days are over—a radical agenda is seeking to pervert the value system of every man, woman and child until even those made righteous through the finished work of Christ question if homosexuality is really an abomination as presented in the Word of God. Every attempt is being made to normalize what is a perversion. And like our first parents Satan is tempting born-again Bible believing Christians with the same question: “Is that really what God said?”
Maybe those words aren’t the word of God. Maybe Paul was really a homophobe and Romans 1 is not the Word of God; maybe those words are mere human words and not divinely inspired, sacred, God-breathed words, penned by a man inspired by God the Holy Spirit—God forbid.
If it offends you to hear the Word of God proclaimed with boldness, perhaps you need to examine who or what is influencing your value system more than the Bible. Lot, as a righteous man, had a worldview that was just as warped as it can get—is yours?
May every man and woman who has been influenced to change their value system or lifestyle run to the only place of forgiveness--the cross of Jesus Christ--and find the power of the gospel more than sufficient to change their worldview, forgive their sin, and deliver them from a lifestyle of sin.
Theophanies and the Trinity
Theophany is the word we use to describe the visible manifestations of God. The primary theophany was more specifically the appearance of Christ (Christophany) but there are other biblical examples of these theophanies.
One such example is found in Genesis 18:17 and starts out with “the Lord said.” Now every the “Lord said” is not a theophany but in this passage the Lord is walking and talking directly with Abraham.
This is the place where Abraham intercedes on behalf of Lot with the Lord negotiating him down to a promise of not destroying Sodom if ten righteous people can be found in the city.
The Lord and Abraham meet and talk face to face. What an amazing thing—certain beyond my comprehension—but fully reconcilable with the entire body of truth when I realize that the disciples did the same thing. They ate, slept, walked and talked with God—Jesus the Son of God—for a portion of their adult lives.
We know that Abraham spoke with a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God because Jesus later told the disciples that no man has seen the Father (John 6.46) except himself—He is the only man that has seen the Father.
So what we know to be true is all theophanies are christophanies regardless of where in Scripture they occur. Even in the Garden of Eden God the Son was the one walking with Adam.
All this is only possible if God is a triune God. If he is One but NOT three persons then we can’t have Jesus saying no one has seen God and Abraham conversing with the Lord.
The doctrine of the trinity is essential to the reconciliation of truth with truth; without it the scripture contradicts itself and passages like Genesis 18:17 contradict 1 John 4.12.
This is precisely why the early church affirmed this critical doctrine in the Apostle’s creed and it became a standard of measuring whether someone was orthodox in their theology. Anyone who denies the trinity is a heretic.
One such example is found in Genesis 18:17 and starts out with “the Lord said.” Now every the “Lord said” is not a theophany but in this passage the Lord is walking and talking directly with Abraham.
This is the place where Abraham intercedes on behalf of Lot with the Lord negotiating him down to a promise of not destroying Sodom if ten righteous people can be found in the city.
The Lord and Abraham meet and talk face to face. What an amazing thing—certain beyond my comprehension—but fully reconcilable with the entire body of truth when I realize that the disciples did the same thing. They ate, slept, walked and talked with God—Jesus the Son of God—for a portion of their adult lives.
We know that Abraham spoke with a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God because Jesus later told the disciples that no man has seen the Father (John 6.46) except himself—He is the only man that has seen the Father.
So what we know to be true is all theophanies are christophanies regardless of where in Scripture they occur. Even in the Garden of Eden God the Son was the one walking with Adam.
All this is only possible if God is a triune God. If he is One but NOT three persons then we can’t have Jesus saying no one has seen God and Abraham conversing with the Lord.
The doctrine of the trinity is essential to the reconciliation of truth with truth; without it the scripture contradicts itself and passages like Genesis 18:17 contradict 1 John 4.12.
This is precisely why the early church affirmed this critical doctrine in the Apostle’s creed and it became a standard of measuring whether someone was orthodox in their theology. Anyone who denies the trinity is a heretic.
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