“I’ve seen the enemy, and it is me”

Psalm 40:12-17

“For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.  They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.   Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.   May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.   May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their shame.  But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”   But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me.
You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay.”

I’m sure you have heard the phrase; “I’ve seen the enemy, and it is me” how well that applies to King David but does it also take residence in your life and mine.  His sins had overtaken the King, and most of his troubles were because of his sins.  And what about verse 13; is David’s cry any different than ours?  No, we also cry out to the Lord, save us, help me, and then we often try to blame it on those wicked people who are out to get us.

I wonder if God may not be using those who we want to destroy us as tools in His hand to bring us to confession and repentance?  I am well aware of how God does this in my own life when we get full of ourselves, and as a young man in my thirties I almost gave away everything chasing after lust.  But God, how I love those two words, yes, but God sent both the prophets and the enemies into my life to bring me to see sin as God does.

As I watch the current events in our Nation, and I wonder if verse 14-15, is not what is happening to those who hate our President.  “Let those who seek to take my life be disgraced and confounded.  Let those who wish me harm be driven back and humiliated.   Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be horrified because of their shame.” (HCSB)  I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I do know the word of God is active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

As we finish this chapter, David is asking a blessing on all who are a seeker of God, and that they would rejoice and be glad in the LORD.  Do you find joy and love for the God of your salvation?   And like all of us who stumble and fall short of God’s glory, we like the King proclaim; You, oh Lord are our helper and deliver us.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

With the right Heart Attitude

Psalm 40:6-11

“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.  Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.  I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.  As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!”

Often as one studies the Scriptures, it requires focus and a desire to obey what the Lord is instructing His people or children to do.  When the Psalmist states in sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, one must ask why?  For it is apparent that God established livestock, the best male without blemish for a blood offering in Leviticus chapter one.  And in Hebrews 9:22, “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”  Once a person understands they do not meet God’s requirement, and they needed a male without sin or blemish to take their place, and so God sent His only Son, to die for the sins of all people.

We have not yet answered the why question, let’s attempt to the best of my understanding to do that.  Religious people often meet a requirement, God calls for a sacrifice of a male lamb without blemish, but it must be with the right heart attitude.  God’ looks at the heart and not at the action, this not only has to do with sacrifices but also with those who go by the name Christian giving a tithe to the Lord.  If you attended a local church, and are taught the truth, you must support that ministry, but it must be with a right heart attitude.  You will find the answer to “why” in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Let’s be real clear, all other ministry outside of the church is not a tithe; it’s an offering of how the Lord has blessed you, if you’re a doctor or Lawyer and give free service to someone in need, you have given a gift, but it is not a tithe, and God is clear the local church is where the tithe must go, but not out of reluctance or compulsion.  If you are in a local church and the word of God is not preached; why are you still there?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Jesus stepped into our Timeline

April 23, 2019

Psalm 40:1-5

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.   Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!  You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds, and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.”

God who lives outside of time has no timeline and is not in keeping with our will, and desires.  Often we the undisciplined Church; want it now; we do not know how to wait on the Lord.  Unlike David, the pride of life and the desires of the world gods and have removed any thought of the rescue the mission of the Cross, and the blood offering that paid for all who would receive Jesus as Lord.

May I suggest the necessity of the courses on “My needs as a sinner & God Provision.” Where were you when God gave you the faith needed to seek confession and repentance?  Are you one of the many who have made a god who approves of all your thoughts and actions, then I got some bad news? He not the God of the Scriptures.  I often go back to 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”  Often, I had to do so for I am a mess, and have always been a poor test taker.  But each time I’ve examined my self, I had to agree with Isaiah the prophet.  Do you recall his words from Isaiah 6:5, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”  

And each time a loving Father reminds me of a meeting I had with him in Victoria, Texas at a hotel room, where I passed the only test that matters.

So as David has done in this Psalm, my prayer is God will use this to turn your heart back to Him, the only source of joy and peace.  “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds, and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

I will follow Jesus no matter the cost

Psalm 39:8-13

I meet with a younger man than myself on most Mondays, and you do not have to be very young to be younger than me.   This morning after checking on his family and his workplace where he ministers in the role of a general manager at a car dealership, Paul said, let me share Job 42:1-5 with you this morning.  It reads this way; “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  You asked, Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’  Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.  “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” 

 I asked this question, what did you take away from these verses?  Paul answered, it’s about having a close fellowship with the Lord, if I move away from Jesus, I will not only not see His hand working in my life, but I will not hear His voice.  And let me add that was not the way Paul said it, but it is what I recall was the essence of his reply.  I remember saying something like God is so big, and His ways and thoughts are so much higher than mine, often I would be wise to  by faith to just listen to Him speaking.  But we both concluded, it is dangerous to speak about God without knowledge, but it is beautiful to seek His face with this heart attitude, I will follow Jesus no matter the cost.

To me, that is in keeping with the verses, from Psalm 39, that we are exploring today in verse eight, a desire to be free from all our sins, and the psalmist to escape the attacks of the wicked.  In verse nine, we find David not trying to defend himself against his many sins, so he keeps a check on his mouth before God.

In verse ten, we find Psalmist asking to remove the discipline from him for often, God uses the people of this world to bring one of His children to an understanding of sin in their lives.  David feared God’s discipline and we find in verse 11, why he is afraid that God will remove the things that are dear to him, almost as an after thought David states, all humanity is but a mere breath, and God gives or takes away.

I believe that if we understand verse 12, we are moving in the right direction; David is saying I’m just passing through this world, heaven is my home, and God has his attention.  David is not only aware of the sin in his life but has confessed, like Job, your ways are not mine, for what counsel can a breath say to the One that gives them breath?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice 

Keeping Silent - Passing on the Blessing

Psalm 39:1-5

“I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”  So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good.  But my anguish increased; my heart grew hot within me.  While I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:  “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.  You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

I am told that the Psalmist is upset with God for allowing the wicked to prosper, and he was keeping silent to keep from sinning.  Well, guess what, we live around such people who have no fear of God and many like________, and the _______ who believe they have hidden their evil actions. (You fill in the name)  I understand what this Psalmist is telling us, it is not easy to keep your tongue from speaking the names of such evil people.  And as his emotions ran wild, then he ask the Lord to show him the end of his life and the number of days he had left.  Not sure if God did that, but this I do know he came to this conclusion; “Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.”

Psalm 39: 6

“Surely a man goes about as a shadow!  Surely for nothing, they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!”  It matters not the profession, many a person has achieved great human accomplishments, and yet few are remembered by name to the public at large.  Many a person has sacrificed and toiled long hours to leave wealth to a family or child, only to have it wasted in a few short years. I believe it was Albert Einstein who said this, "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

One who follows the teaching of Scripture has this counsel; “A good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren, but the sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.”  (Proverbs 13:22)  Jan and I are leaving what God has given us to    our family, also to organizations that are being faithful to help the under resourced people of this world and share Jesus’ gospel with them.  To the best of our knowledge, we have been committed to the Lord and He has provided; our prayer is that these organizations and our family will also be faithful.  But, we will not care for we will have finished our race, and will be in the presence of our Redeemer Jesus Christ.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

The Discipline of Christian's

Psalm 38

Our actions have consequences and wrong actions for a follower of Christ will show us past and present sins, and we need to ask for forgiveness from a Holy God.   As followers of Christ, we have something David did not enjoy, and that is the Holy Spirit of God taking residence in our bodies.  That means He will lead us in righteous living, in seeking after the good and not evil, but it is a matter of our will, and it requires a disciplined life to walk in the Spirit and not follow the desires of the flesh. 

David was no different than us, in that as King he had wealth and power and most of the time he did good and not harm, but when he messed up, he brought on himself the discipline of God.  Verse 1-8 states, the following; “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!  For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness; I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.  For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.  I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.”

What should you and I take away from this?  Sin brings about discipline from a Holy God, but unlike David, we have the Cross and it is clear, God took His full anger and wrath out on His Son.  God is just and loving He would not take it out on us for Christ took all our punishment.  But as we look at discipline, it’s never enjoyable, not for a parent, nor the child, but it is necessary to raise a godly child.

Shall we look at Hebrews 12:7-11, and it is my observation that I live in a nation that has abandoned the teaching of discipline, parents no longer as a whole discipline for in doing so they might warp the child’s self-esteem.   And as a nation, we are reaping what we sowed, children that have never known how to live under discipline in any area of life, feel they need a government that will give them everything.  Without training, we have crippled a generation of young people in all areas of life, work is a bad word and capitalism is greed.  Who is teaching this?  People who have never known anything but the fruits of capitalism and live in a nation where everyone can have success.

I will end this with these words from Hebrews 12:7-11,  ^“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?   If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.   For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Note: Parents should never discipline a child when they are angry, but model the Father’s example and make sure the discipline brings about true repentance.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice

Will your goodness achive God's grace?

Psalm 37:35-40

“I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a luxuriant native tree, but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found.  Consider the blameless, observe the upright; a future awaits those who seek peace.  But all sinners will be destroyed; there will be no future for the wicked.  The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble.  The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them because they take refuge in him.”

As we conclude chapter 37, these thoughts filled my mind; we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  You will find that in Romans 3:23-25a, ^“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,^[a] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”  Many have bought the lie that your goodness will achieve God’s grace, but Scripture is unequivocal on this point.  The great prophet Isaiah had this word to each of us from God; “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

The apostle Paul gives this insight on how to attain faith to trust and believe in an unseen God, in Romans 10:17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  So a wise person would look to Jesus and listen to what He has to say.  Not much is different from the times when Jesus walked on earth, the religious wanted God on their terms, so they designed Him to fit their mold, so, like the fool, who said there is no God, they missed grace.  Do you recall Jesus’ answer to a non-question by the Pharisee named Nicodemus? You will find this in John 3:3, “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” It is later in chapter 3 of John we read verse 16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 

A fool will never receive this life-changing message from Jesus, for they have established in their hearts there is no God.  Many a church member also will miss the faith to believe for they have decided to have a God of their making, and one that almost worships them for their goodness. 

But the good news is God is into redemption and all who come to Him by faith believing that Jesus was raised from the dead, overcame death and the grave, defeated sin, you will find the way in Romans 10:9-10.  You may want to read Luke 21:25-28, it is Jesus telling us about His second coming and our redemption.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice