Tim Hayes – Page 55

Inhabiting Eternity

YHWH is eternal, having neither beginning nor end (He 7:3): He inhabits eternity. (Is 7:15) He’s outside time and space, being ever present in every moment of time, and continually abiding beyond the boundaries of time. (Jn_8:58)

It’s difficult to fathom the nothing elseness of only God, when there was nothing but God … no time, no space, no light or dark … just the self-existent eternal Being. The instant of the beginning, the great I AM Who never began … created space and time, Earth and Heaven. (Ge 1:1) If we can say “before” this instant, when there was no space or time, the triune God was, and only God.

And as YHWH is ever present in every moment of time, in every place with everyone, He is spending eternity with you, and with me, in this very instant. For an infinite past, and an infinite future, God is experiencing you, and me, in each moment of our existence. This experience never began in God, and it will never end in Him.

As YHWH is infinite in His existence, He’s also infinitely infinite in every facet of His being, as He infinitely occupies all of space and time. He is infinitely beautiful, infinitely majestic, infinitely holy, infinitely just, infinitely wise, infinitely merciful, infinitely loving. He is infinitely perfect in an infinite number of ways … the ultimate expression of infinitude.

How does one not worship a timeless Being! Sit back in awe at One so majestic, so mysterious, so altogether immense and powerful! How can we doubt His wisdom, goodness or faithfulness? Getting lost in the infinitude of God, let’s feed on His majesty, finding all that’s worth finding in the grandeur of the timeless One.

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Speak To Yourself

Worship should be as natural as breathing; God commands us to be constantly talking and singing His Word into our minds and hearts. (Ep 5:19) This is one way we’re to take the sword of the Spirit, joyfully percolating in worship and praise (Ja 5:13), teaching and admonishing ourselves and others through inspired lyrics. (Co 3:16)

What’s important in our singing is the truth we’re driving into our minds, not how good we feel. The words we’re engaging with are much more important than the music itself. If we drop the tune, do the words themselves still move us deeply toward God, cleansing and feeding us?

Much of our worship today has a catchy up-beat melody but it’s shallow, evoking emotion that’s not rooted in truth; it’s imbalanced and warped. This isn’t worship; it feels good but it doesn’t edify our spirits, heal us, and free us in God.

God tells us what kind of lyrics we’re to be singing: Psalms, perfectly balanced, packed with God-oriented truth. They don’t deceive us and warp our focus; they point us continually to God’s magnificence and the beauty of His Way.

Like a bird that can’t help but sing, let’s be continually filled with inspired worship, tuning our hearts daily to sing His praise.

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All Patience and Longsuffering

God describes spiritual strength in terms of endurance and tenacity; thriving under extreme difficulties with all confidence and joy. (Col 1:11)

The more we align with God, the more we’re equipped to live according to our design: to enjoy Him as He is for Who He is, regardless of our circumstances. In fact, the more trying our lives become, the more opportunity we have to glorify Him, enjoying Him in the perfect gift of every moment, finding all our satisfaction and contentment in Him.

Trials then become treasures (Ro 5:3-5), precious opportunities to show God and others how delightful and amazing He is to us (1Pe 1:7), and also to further strengthen us, perfecting us such that we fall behind in no other virtue. (Ja 1:2-4)

In keeping our eyes on the Eternal One, our light affliction works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2Co 4:17); we walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Col 1:10)

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Take the Sword

Imagine … you have a beautiful, glittering sword, perfectly balanced and incredibly sharp. Etched into the blade are elaborate depictions of how it’s used in battle.

You’re fascinated by all the cool stuff you can do with it … pound nails with the handle … in a pinch it even makes a cool screwdriver. It’s great for hacking down weeds and digging holes, cutting hair, peeling apples and chopping up food. It makes a great baseball bat and golf club, and it looks awesome hanging over the hearth! When you’re bored you can reflect sunlight off the shaft or even lay it down and spin it like a top. The applications seem endless!

But when the enemy comes around and starts clubbing you down, beating you up and smashing your stuff, your sword hasn’t been much help. Butting him with the handle doesn’t work too well … the thing seems pretty useless in a fight.

Wait!! Those etchings on the blade …

God says, “take … the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ep 6:17) What does He mean? What does God actually tell us to do with His word? (De 6:6) How do people in the Bible use the Bible? (Ps 119:11)

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To Reconcile All Things

When two accounts of the same thing differ they must be reconciled. Whether it’s numbers that are off somewhere, wrongs that haven’t been righted, or truth that’s not yet been told … to have perfect closure everything’s gotta make sense. ‘Til then there’s waiting, anticipation, unrest … hope.

Like a Cosmic Accountant, Jehovah’s keeping track of everything, and as of now, things aren’t adding up. There are vast gaps between what should be and what is. The former is grounded in God’s nature and will, the latter in the free will of Man.

But this present conflicting experience is temporary: one Day it will end. God, the great Reconciler, is “pleased … to reconcile all things unto Himself.” (Col 1:19-20) One way or another, everything and everyone will eventually align with Him. (Ro 14:11)

“Everything will be alright in the end; if it’s not alright, then it’s not the end.” Only God sees the end from the beginning and He, for One, is pleased with how it all turns out. For now we endure, believing God is good; we patiently await that Day, when justice will prevail, when all will finally be well in the universe. Our hope will be sight; our anticipation reality.

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Raise Them Up

Fathers have an awesome responsibility to their children to “raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ep 6:4) Though fathers are uniquely suited for this work, nurturing and admonishing isn’t easy for men, even in a perfect world.

To nurture is to care for and encourage the growth or development of someone, providing a safe and inviting atmosphere that enables a child to realize all the potential God has designed into them. Admonition is authoritative counsel or warning. At a high level, I think nurturing and admonishing our children involves at least the following:

Constantly initiating open family discussions about how to align our lives with God (De 6:6-7), sharing life experiences with them and warning them of the dangers of disobedience;
Giving children freedom to choose when consequences are reasonable, and allowing them to experience the consequences of their choices (2Th 3:10); and
Asking them penetrating questions, challenging them, and teaching them how to think for themselves. (Mt 18:12)

If we’re content with merely paying the bills and providing a lot of nice things, and we neglect to engage our children spiritually, should we be surprised if we ultimately lose them to the world? If we don’t teach our children how to think, how to make wise decisions, and how to pursue God, who will? But in order to teach these things to our children, we must first learn them ourselves.

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That Which Is Holy

You know the kind, quick to speak their mind, and to shut down all who see things differently. How should we respond? Or should we?

Speaking up at the wrong time or in the wrong way can get us into trouble. Yeshua warns us to be careful when conversing with the world: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” (Mt 7:6) Looking at His life helps us get what He’s saying.

Jesus Christ offered truth only to seekers, actually hiding it from the rest. (Mt 13:10-11,15) He delighted in God revealing His ways only to the poor in spirit (Lk 10:21), exposing emptiness through penetrating questions rather than persuasion.

God exhorts us to “be swift to hear, slow to speak.” (Ja 1:19) Truth is constantly bubbling over all around us (Ro 1:19-20), offering life and nourishment to anyone who’s sincerely interested. We must not strive to make our point, but offer truth in meekness (2Ti 2:24-6); listen well and prayerfully weigh any verbal response. Unless we’re engaged with a humble truth-seeker, it’s likely better to pray than to reason.

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Bold as a Lion

Righteousness, being aligned with God and His ways, produces boldness. (Pr 28:1) It’s not reckless arrogance or disregard for others — but holy, loving fearlessness.

Like a lion, the strongest among beasts that turns not away for any (Pr 30:30), the righteous are accompanied by omnipotence; we never stand alone. We don’t fear what others might do to us (He 13:6) because we’re armed with a willingness to suffer (1Pe 4:1), knowing the enemy can only move with God’s permission and that whatever He allows is for His glory and our good. (Ro 8:28)

Saints shamelessly pursue godliness regardless of the world’s disdain, testifying by word and deed that its works and ways are evil. (Jn 7:7) Wisdom dictates when and how we live this out, but one thing we’ll have in common … holy boldness.

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Effectual Fervent Prayer

God is pleased as we ask Him to move nations, to intervene so we can live quietly and peacefully in all godliness and honesty. (1Ti 2:1-4) It only takes one righteous soul to change the world: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (Ja 5:16b-18)

So we are encouraged to pray diligently and earnestly for God’s protection and favor (supplications), requesting His aid (prayers) and praying for (intercessions) and giving thanks for all people, especially those in political power (1Ti 2:1-3), always giving thanks for all things. (Ep 5:20) We are praying for our political leaders, especially for president elect Donald Trump, our society, and our world. Please join us!

Here’s our evolving prayer list:

(Ps 118:8-9) Keep our hope in You, not politics.
(Ps 27:11) Teach our leaders Your ways; deliver them from the wicked.
(Ps 33:10) Overturn the evil schemes of the wicked.
(Pr 20:26) Purge corruption throughout our government.
(Ro 13:4) Punish those committed to evil.
(Pr 25:28) Secure our borders.
(Pr 14:15) Help us see through media propaganda to find truth.
(Pr 14:34) Establish righteousness in our land.
(Ps 11:3) Give us righteous judges.
(Nu 24:5, 9b) Cause us to bless Your people Israel.

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Do Good

In this last US presidential election, the Left promoted arguably the most corrupt candidate to ever run for office; the Right offered us (so it seemed) a brash, lying, womanizer promoting conservative values for the first time in his life; the third-party trampled basic Christian morality (pro abortion, sodomy, etc.) and consistently polled below 15%. To say there was mass confusion among US Christians about how to vote, or whether to vote at all, is an understatement; at the voting booth I was still struggling. But I think now I have an insight to guide me next time around.

The essence of loving our neighbors as ourselves is seeking their welfare; God tells us to use every opportunity to do good unto all (Ga 6:10); living otherwise is actually sinful. (Ja 4:17)

So if we have an opportunity to vote, we also have a moral obligation to cast our vote such that it will promote the most good (or minimize evil). This might be different than voting for who we like more (or dislike less). Voting for one with no realistic chance of winning is effectively the same as not voting; practically, it does about as much good. Yet the best choice, the one that does the most good, may not be obvious.

Voting for someone doesn’t necessarily mean we like them, or that we agree with everything they say and do. In a choice between a demon and the devil himself, when a choice is going to be made and we have a voice, doing good means trying to choose the lesser of the two evils.

The enemy is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1Pe 5:8); the father of lies leverages every means at his disposal, including politics, to take us down. Through passivity, failing to resist him, neglecting opportunities to do good, we hand him real victories; we must be continually speaking and praying and living to promote the best way … God’s way.

So let’s do good by praying for this new president (1Ti 2:1-3), that God will give him holy wisdom and fierce strength to renounce and expose corruption, and to encourage righteousness and justice in our world. (Is 59:4) Let’s be aware and informed, looking past the media propaganda, willing to get the facts and both admit when he fails and defend him when he does well.

And let’s pray for those who’re thinking differently than we are, or not thinking at all … for those who didn’t vote, or didn’t vote for the collective good. Let’s listen carefully to them and try to understand their point of view in its strongest form. Let’s learn from them, yet also gently challenge them with facts, with reason, prompting them to reconsider. Let’s question them, unsettle them, and encourage them to take a step toward God.

Being wise as serpents yet harmless as doves (Ma 10:16), let’s buy the truth; let’s be informed, understanding the issues facing our nation and our world, in meekness and godly fear ready and more than willing to identify, learn from and answer every divergent point of view. (1Pe 3:15) Let’s promote the kingdom of God, one soul at a time. (Ja 5:19-20)

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