The Quiet Place?

"Be still, and know that I am God...”
(Psalm 46:10 – ESV)

We don’t need to go to some quiet place, empty our minds, and wait for God to speak. We need to find our quiet place, when we open our Bible, and hear Him talk. This Psalm, like many others, is not about the sound of silence but of the voice of the Lord, the mighty power from the mouth of God (Psalm 29)! He is not asking us to do something; He is telling us that He is going to do something.

Who is God talking to in this verse? What does stillness mean, and what does it mean that we will know God? Does it mean we will know God through it, in other words that we will know God by practicing stillness? How will we know God through it? Does this verse imply that we will know God through voices in our head, or spirit? Or does this verse mean we will know God is still in control through our tempests if we will stop striving to save ourselves in our own ways against the storms and instead look to the Lord, and then we will realize His ways?

This Psalm teaches us, not that we must be still to hear Him, but that God’s creation and God’s enemies will be still when THEY hear Him! God will protect His children from ultimate calamity and catastrophe. When the environment is unstable and the atmosphere is unsettling our God is our refuge. In this Psalm God is giving comfort to His people but in this particular verse He is declaring something about those things that cause trouble in our lives. God is telling us that He will silence all the storms with His own voice.

When the turbulence mounts, when the turmoil boils over, whatever your troubles in life are, you can look to the Lord. Whatever is causing you unrest, God is the place to find rest. Whatever is causing you to turn away, the key is to be still and remember, reflect upon the fact that God is in control. Look at the verses prior to this one within this Psalm, and realize God is Almighty. No matter how hard the once steady ground beneath you now shakes, or how many strong mountains are crumbling down around you, no matter how high the waves are, and how hot the battles become, no earthquake, volcano, hurricane, or war can stop God from being in charge.

It isn’t simply that we become still and hear God some other way, but that if we are still we can reflect on who He has revealed Himself to be already. It is not that when you make time you make God speak, but when you will be still and listen to what He says in the scripture, then you will hear Him more clearly through life’s turmoil and trials. In this life there will always be turbulence and tempests; will you always have trust?

This is a call to worship Him for who He is and marvel at what He has done, and will do, not a call to listen for new sounds. It is a call to hear His majesty even when everything else is shouting as loud as it can. This is not about us being silent; this is about God making the loud noises of negativity be silenced before Him and His people.

He is not telling us what to do, He is telling us what He will do. This is like the Lord Jesus calming the raging waters (Mark 4:39). When God wants to make them quiet He will, and nothing can stop Him, for He is invincible.

The world screams and shouts, but all the sounds of violence He can silence. This is not about some secret power you can have, but about reflecting on the power He has. This isn’t about some secret encounter you can enter into, but about the open demonstration when something encounters Him. You want to see God work? Stop and take a look around, be still for a moment, and reflect on Him.

Meditation is about reflecting on things God is, and things He has already said and done, not expecting Him to speak to us afresh with new revelation just because we are being still and quietly waiting. He has already spoken and we don’t seem to want to be still and hear that, so why would He “reward” us for doing what we are supposed to be doing already? Just who is God in this relationship? You want to hear something from God? Listen to what He is saying here in this Psalm.

Now in the first place, this is God speaking to the storms, but it also applies to us. This is God calming the chaos and we are stilled with wonder and worship. Now He often does it in our own situations, but no matter what we have to go through, it is only temporary. We can rest assured because God will raise His voice one day and we will rejoice in that day.

Just one word from God can silence any commotion; even in the midst of the Great Tribulation His Word will silence the raging war of Satan (Isaiah 11:4, 30:33 / 2 Thessalonians 2:8 / Revelation 19:15, 21). He is the One who will eventually, in His timing, say “enough!”

When our earthly father shouts, “quiet!” the whole house calms down. When our Heavenly Father shouts, the whole earth stands still!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Out from the Shadows

After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.
(Judges 3:31 – ESV)

A huge problem today is that we often think that we are not hiding in the shadows of sin because we are not “sinning” as bad as we used to. But I am talking about more than that. We cannot think that we aren’t hiding away when all we do is live our Christian life isolated from the non-Christian world. We cannot be so content to occupy the back roads that the enemy has made inroads to our main roads. They may leave us alone for now, but they will advance if we don’t stand for Christ. I am talking about spiritually, of course. We cannot sit back and retreat into a Christian ghetto, isolating ourselves into our little Christian caves, because the enemy will eventually make its way into any place we retreat to. No, we must live boldly as martyrs out there in the real world, proclaiming the gospel even if it means, and especially if it means, persecution. We must be living the light of Christ, out in the open, out where people can see us, can see the light, and can experience Christ through our lives and our witness.

Shamgar was plowing, occupying his own piece of land despite everyone else fleeing and fearing and leaving off normal business. This is probably why he was challenged. When the rest of the people are falling into sin or simply compromising, their bold witness is lost. That is when we need modern day deliverers to stand as a standard of the Lord, to give hope to the helpless. This is why we need judges today, to show the people just how far they have fallen into sin and away from the power of God to shine as lights in this dark world. The judges’ example judges the sin, it says no, we as Christians do not have to live in fear, we do not have to hide in the shadows, we do not have to act like the rest of the world, we will stand up when the world is beating us down, even if we are put down into the grave for it.

Their example judges the sin, but it also points to Him, to Christ, who has judged sin, and who empowers us all to be delivered out of the hands of the enemy, from out of the shadows, out from the fear, and back into the highways of holiness, shining again as bright lights to the way of God. We need a revival of true religion today. The answer is not simply “come to our cave” unless it is also “go out and be brave”.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

Time to Break Out

...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(Matthew 16:18 – ESV)

A holy life: that is what people are afraid of, that is the fear of Easter, the wrong kind. “I’m afraid if I trust Jesus I won’t enjoy my life.” Well, if you don’t trust Jesus you are already dead. Christians fear that if they fully surrender to God He’s going to make them miserable. Friends you need to get to know God better than that! Break out of that cage you’re in!

Jesus sets new boundaries for us, not the gates of fear but the guard of grace, the yoke of Christ. His school teaches us to live in Godly fear while losing worldly fear. People think they live without boundaries but they are actually caged in by their own sin and living in fear of the unknown. People think Christians are caged in but they are the ones who are truly free. Free from the power of sin, death, and hell. Yes we still sin and we put up the gates, put the chains back on in a sense but again, when we see Him working to remove unholy fear and working to instill holy fear that is when you know resurrection power is working in your life, when we have a holy fear we will lead holy lives. The resurrection takes away the wrong kind of fear and replaces it with the right kind of fear (Matthew 10:28).

We know how the resurrection affects our eternal destiny, but in the here and now it is about the gates of hell, of fear. 1 John 4:18 – Perfect love casts out fear. This verse is speaking primarily of the fear of death and eternal judgment, and that is the first fear that Jesus drives out with His perfect love. For fear to be cast out means it must have tried to enter in, or that fear can be driven out. It is not that we won’t ever have any fear at all but that fear is overcome by love, and we see His love in the crucifixion and resurrection. Sometimes fear has come in and we need to have it cast out by perfect love. Fear has many manifestations. Let us remember Matthew 27:46 – my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? – We see His compassion but it is undergirded by a real conviction. The more we become convinced about the resurrection the more it can help us to overcome fear in this life. We need to ponder it and preach it to ourselves every day, to preach the gospel to ourselves.

We may not know all the answers but we can know Him is the answer and begins to give us answers as we trust in Him, as to why people suffer, why evil and war plague our planet, and why Christians have lost so much credibility as people who know how to love. When we see our Savior suffer the pains of hell for us, and yet still cry a very certain call out to the Father, we begin to see that He can deliver us from any depth of despair, and that we can trust Him no matter how far we have sunk into sin or sorrow.

Resurrection removes fear. Now fearless faith doesn’t mean reckless in the sense of tempting God it means trusting God. Not, “I have no fear so I am going to spend all my money on some project”, but, “I am without fear so I can withstand any onslaught”. We do need to get these things categorized in our minds correctly. I am not saying that we will live these spotless lives of super triumph in every situation. No I am saying we can have real feelings and still have real hope. We can be like Jesus and feel and be real, hurting in the short term but looking to the long term. Seeing through both the narrow and wider lens.

Proper distinction will lead to proper understanding. Fear is not sadness or depression; we can have sorrow but still have joy. Not having fear doesn’t mean we are foolhardy, and it doesn’t mean not taking care, or a lack of respect or disobeying authority. Freedom from fear is the freedom of faith. The fruits of faith are the fruits of a fearless life (Romans 8:31-39).

He has delivered us from the greatest fear, the fear of the unknown. When we see Him working to remove unholy fear and working to instill holy fear that is when you know resurrection power is working in your life. When we have a holy fear we will lead holy lives. We will not only feel free to die but we will feel free to live. We can bring true compassion because we have true conviction. If you get real with God He will be real to you. If you trust in Jesus Christ and in the resurrection, the gates of hell will not prevail against you. When you fear God you don’t have to fear anything else.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Terror of Temporal Things

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
(Matthew 16:21 – ESV)

When Jesus Christ died and rose again, the power of death was broken. He conquered death itself. Now, as members of His Body, we are also members in His victorious army. We can storm the "gates of hell" and rescue people from the clutches of death, rescuing those who are in fear. The gates of hell will not prevail against the assault of Christ's victorious Church. Our mission is to act on the truth of Christ's statement and snatch the captives as "brands from the fire" (Zechariah 3:2, Jude 23). It is not the picture of the forces of hell attacking Christ’s Church, but of death’s lack of victory over the Church. The Church is built upon the Messiah, and death, the gates of hell, will not prevail against it by keeping Christ imprisoned. Death cannot stop life (1 Corinthians 15:54). Death cannot overpower the Church. The gates of hell shall not prevail. Why? Satan has the gates, but Jesus has the keys (Revelation 1:18).

Now, Christ delivered us from eternal hell and from the fear of a living hell. The resurrection takes away the fear of death, physical, spiritual, and leading to a lack of fear in the emotional as well. The resurrection takes away the wrong kind of fear and replaces it with the right kind of fear (Matthew 10:28). Fear is everywhere, but this is the process and progress of the gospel in our lives, the removal of fear. King Jesus takes over and starts clearing the house, as we trust Him (Mark 4:26-29). When we see Him working to remove unholy fear, the fear of men, the fear of being secure, the fear of being lonely, the fear of being poor, and working to instill holy fear (the fear of God), that is when you know resurrection power is working in your life. When we have a holy fear we will lead holy lives, and we will have holy gladness and holy boldness, and the gates of hell will not prevail against us.

Some Christians don’t often realize this, that Christ is working in us to remove fear from our lives. We may not have a fear of death but we let other fears come in and disturb us. This is why we need the ongoing work of the gospel to penetrate our lives, to release us from the smaller fears. The big gates are down but we are inside the inner gates still.

Gates are the things held up to keep people out. The gates of hell are like the caging of our souls in fear. The world the flesh and the devil all try and box us in but Jesus breaks us out those things that would cause us to fear (economy, health, injustice, conspiracy theories). When we find ourselves in fear of the things the world fears, we are obviously being worldly. Now this needs to be understood correctly, I am not saying we just rush into everything haphazardly, or that we shouldn’t make plans, no, not that at all. But we should, as Christians, never be subject to the terror others have about temporal things.

People think everyone is against them, and it is true, all the forces of the enemy want your destruction, but as a Christian, Jesus has His power in you, and you have a choice. Those things that would like to box us in, to cage us, to surround us with gates, those things, and those boundaries are what Jesus Christ has broken. The power of grace is the power to storm the gates as it were, to crash through with the gospel so as to rescue those that are in fear. When we show them the power of Christ over the greatest fear, and how it has transformed us, then we can begin to allow that power to transform the rest of our lives piece by piece. We may have great difficulties but we see Christ and how He overcame it all for us, and so no matter how far down we sink He has been lower and that cry lifts us up, as we know He has been lifted up out of that pit we too can be lifted. When we see Him working to remove unholy fear and working to instill holy fear that is when you know resurrection power is working in your life. When we have a holy fear we will lead holy lives. That is the right kind of fear, the fear of Easter.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

The Gates of Hell

…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(Matthew 16:18 – ESV)

The bible declares that our sin is why Jesus went to the Cross and our salvation is why He arose from the grave (Romans 4:25). We can be justified by faith because the resurrection proves that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. The resurrection is a cornerstone of the Christian faith.

Abraham believed in the resurrection power of God (Hebrews 11:17-19). Also, Job 19:25-27 / Isaiah 26:19-21 / Daniel 12:1-3 all speak of resurrection. Jesus resurrected Lazarus, and Jesus is not only resurrected, as He said He IS the resurrection and the life (John 11:25).

Now there is another place where Jesus spoke of His resurrection, and we want to look a little closer today at Matthew 16:18-21 because it contains a fundamental promise that many people have never thought about from this passage. An important area of misunderstanding about the Church has to do with the phrase, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Many use Matthew 16:18 to affirm that the Church will endure no matter what evil might come against it. People say “the gates of hell” as if it is the forces of hell against the Church but that isn’t what this means primarily. What did our Lord mean by this statement? What are "the gates of hell"?

In biblical times, the gates of a city were the key points in the city's defenses. To "possess the gate of your enemies" (Genesis 22:17), meant to conquer your enemy. When the gates of the city were breached, the attacking army had won. The city was conquered; the gates had not prevailed.

So what about the gates of hell? The Greek word used here, translated as "hell," is actually the word "Hades." Hades is not the same as hell, or "the lake of fire," but is a word that is used to describe the "realm of the dead". For example, in Luke 16:23 the word "Hades" is used to describe the place where the unbelieving dead await the final judgment. This distinction is also used in Revelation 20:13-15 where "death and Hades are thrown into the lake of fire."

This background reminds us that all unbelievers are held captive behind the gates of Hell. John 3:18 says whoever does not believe is condemned already, but in Hebrews 2:14-15 we learn that by His death Jesus destroyed the power of the devil which is the fear of death.

So what are the gates of hell? The fear of death is what the gates of hell are about. It is the gates of death (cf. Job 38:17, Psalm 9:13, 107:18, Isaiah 38:10). So Matthew 16:18 reads like this – Upon this rock (Jesus as Messiah) I will build my church, and the gates of hell (fear of death) shall not prevail against it. It is not so much about the assault of the powers of darkness but that the Messiah and His Church will never perish, and Jesus will die but not stay dead. This is the main point of the passage, clearly seen by looking at verse 21. He is predicting His own resurrection, and also the resurrection of all believers. The Church will not fail because Jesus will not fail to rise again. This is a prophecy, not just that He will resurrect, but that we will resurrect also (cf. Romans 8:11 / 1 Corinthians 6:14 / 2 Corinthians 4:14).

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©