Scripture Treasures

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life ~ Proverbs 13:12   How many of us long for something so much we are heart sick in waiting for it? Even the longing for “normal life”, whatever normal was before covid, is a longing many are feeling today. But what I am thinking of may even be deeper than that. For many years, I lived in a province far away from my family. I deeply loved where I was, but there was an emptiness within. It was the emptiness of missing family. When I knew God was calling me to come back to my home province and minister, a different joy filled my heart, for I knew all the birthdays, the special occasions and seasons, all the life that had functioned in between my yearly visits, would be now available to me as well as my relatives. For me, it was a tree of life. Before that though, there was a different longing inside, but I could not put a name to it at the time, other than to say, “There has to be something more [to life]...

…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith ~ 1 John 5:4   What does it mean, we “overcome the world” in this Bible verse? Well, I believe there are a few ways in which we do this through our faith in Jesus Christ. We overcome the darkness of this world, the sin, the depravation, the lusts which call us to follow. We do not do this of our own accord, but through the power of the Holy Spirit with which Christ has endowed us with. The Holy Spirit within, if we listen to Him, calls us toward all that is like Christ, toward all that is holy. We also overcome evil with good. The Bible tells us in Luke 6:27 to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” and even more so, “bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:28). Again, we do not have the natural tendency toward these principles. Our natural tendency is to hate when we are harmed, to get angry and offended. But, through the power of...

The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? ~ Psalm 118:6   The coronavirus has done strange things to our world aside from the physical sickness it brings. I for one, am cautious when I am walking along the street and meet another human being. I make sure I now distance myself, whereas before all this began, I would smile and greet the passerby without moving away. I am cautious when I am in a public building, and that too is rare these days. But there, I am cautious as to how many people may come and go, or may stop and be near me. I have never liked big crowds, but I have also never been cautious when in them. My whole mindset has changed since covid-19 emerged in my world. Many people today are not just cautious, but they are afraid and living in fear of what another may inadvertently (I would hope) do to them by spreading this disease. They live, terrified of what people can do, what the disease can do, and what the isolation is doing to them...

To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you, LORD my God, brought my life up from the pit ~ Jonah 2:6   These words are contained in a prayer Jonah uttered while in the belly of the great fish. We cannot really understand the term, “roots of the mountains” if we do not live by a sea. Jonah here is talking about the hidden rocks pushed out by the mountain into the seabed. It was here he was trapped and barred in as the great fish swam along the base of these mountain “roots”. They were the walls to his dungeon, and the “seaweeds” were his chains as he was trapped inside the fish. For those who do not know the story of Jonah, he was a man sent to Ninevah to warn the people by God. It was a warning he was to take so help them see they must change their ways of life, or destruction would come upon them. Jonah instead decided he would run away and not do the bidding of God, so he hopped aboard a ship to leave. A big storm soon came upon...

“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” ~ Acts 5:20   It has always been the time for us to stand and proclaim the Word of life to all people, but I think ever more so now in this day of covid. All we need speak is built on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His is the ultimate sacrifice which brings life to all who believe in Him. At this point in time, the disciples were delivered out of prison…to what prison were you delivered from? What freedom do you have now in Christ because of His saving grace? I know that which Christ has saved me from in my past life. A life of feeling lost, a life of verbal slander and abuse, a life of not belonging or being loved. But all that has changed in my coming to accept that Jesus died for me. I am now a child of the King! I am filled with His Holy Spirit, and when my time comes to walk through death’s door, I know I will be with Jesus forever! Just as Paul uttered the words to the R...

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength ~ 1 Corinthians 1:25   Through my years as a pastor, I have taken courses or looked at programs to study how to develop the church further in a declining Christian world. Books have been written on vision plans for the church so as to know their church’s “ministry goals.” Books have been written telling us how to plan for growth, success, grow disciples, develop dedicated tithers. As good as all those books are, and I do believe many have good advice for us as church leaders, God is bringing more people back to Him today than at any time we have known in our lifetime. Not one author could have written the book we are now writing as a Church Universal. Because a virus has invaded the world, more people now are searching for God, searching for answers to all life’s questions, which includes what will happen when I die. God did not cause this virus, I want to make that cl...

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him ~ Ecclesiastes 3:14   We live in a perplexing time, one we could not have foreseen just a few brief months ago, yet here we are. Everything we do is uncertain, but that is a common analogy of humanity; it is nothing new. We are by our very nature, imperfect and fleeting, with both our lives, and our power, and our works. We do not live forever as a mere human being, nor can we control that aspect. Death comes to every human being, creature, and to nature itself. Death comes to buildings, to creativity, to stars, to seasons. That is our condition. God, however, and everything He does is forever. That includes us, for His intent was not that we die, but that we would live with Him forever. Even creation itself will one day be restored! We live now in a fallen world, full of sickness, depravity, ill morality. But, when the time comes i...

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline ~ 2 Timothy 1:7   These are good words for this day we are living in, for many are living in fear of the pandemic which has invaded our world. We can live in bondage to fear and panic, though this is not the way of God, or the way in which He desires us to live. On the other side of living in fear during these days of the virus, are hearing the stories of how people are caring for others in ways that keep the social distancing rules in place. I am always touched by the showing of people standing in a hospital parking lot in front of their cars, keeping the six feet apart (two meters) and honking their car horn, or clanging instruments to celebrate the work our hospital people are doing for us, or to hang a sign in a window which encourages those who might happen to read it to stay strong, that they are not alone. This is to live with power and a sound mind. It does not give in to fea...

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits ~ Psalm 103:2   Sometimes we have to be reminded to give thanks to God. When times are good, it is easy to remember that we owe so much to the great God who gave all to us. It is when our times are tough and life is not going our way that we forget all the benefits God has granted to us. The psalmist is doing some self talk here, and we are reminded that we at times have to do that as well. Being down in the dumps, or mildly depressed is natural and normal, if it lasts for a day or just a few days. When it becomes clinical, and we cannot escape the feelings of darkness, we must recognize we need more help than self talk, but here, this is just what the psalmist needs and it is what he gives to himself. He is calling his own soul to recollection, and he does so emphatically. “Bless the Lord, O my soul…”, do not forget the many favours God has continually brought to your life! He has worked in wondrous ways in the past, an...

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life ~ Revelation 22:17   Who would not want to receive something free? Yet, still the call comes forth for people to “Come” knowing that people will refuse. No one is excluded in the invitation, for the Holy Spirit reaches out to all. And what is it to come? It is to hear the Gospel message about Jesus Christ and accept Him as Lord and Saviour in your life. It is to feel the pulse of the Holy Spirit and respond to Him, to welcome Him, to make room for Him. It is to hear the prophets of old and the church of the new and to respond to their witness, “Come! Come to the waters which refresh, which give life, which fill the empty soul for eternity!” Oh, we live in a dry and thirsty land in 2021. Our souls are void of God, living not only in the midst of a pandemic of the body, but also of our spirit. As a people,...

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished ~ 1 Chronicles 28:20   These words are for me today, are they for you? I want to quit, to give up, as COVID puts on so much pressure and brings so many changes into my life. Is the distancing, the isolation, the time which seems to stretch on and on as this disease continues spreading getting you down and wearing thin your strength? Yes, I am there too, and then these words come to me, “He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the temple of the Lord is finished.” Speak to my heart, Lord God, for I need words of encouragement today! Remind me you are here, and you will lift me from my discouragement, my fears, my stresses, neither will you leave me. Then, He does speak, through an ancient king’s words of ...

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective ~ James 5:16   Being humbled in the presence of another is generally not an easy matter. Instead, we want people to think highly of us, and to praise us. We do not want people to know how we let others down, how we make mistakes, how we fall short in our eyes, or in their eyes, and especially when it comes to God’s eyes, and letting Him down. If we can keep our faults hidden, all the better, right? According to James, the brother of Jesus, the answer is no, it is not until we confess our sins and faults to each other that we can truly be as Christ. Confession keeps us humble as He was humble, confession keeps us from pride and vanity and self-applause. Some faith groups believe in confession only to a priest or an elder, but James is not saying that here. It is plain: confess your sins to each other! And pray for each ...

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him,   rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness ~ Colossians 2:6, 7   It takes faith to receive Jesus Christ into the heart, to believe he is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, the Messiah which was promised. Hebrews 11:1 tells us plainly “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” It is to see with the “eye of the soul”. It is the soul which receives Christ as Lord, and it is the heart which is changed by His teachings, His love, His life and His Holy Spirit which lives then within the believer. Paul the Apostle is urging the believers to continue on in this faith by which they were reborn, and to continue on believing in Him, though they were surrounded by false teachers who were trying to introduce worship of angels. He was the One they were to imitate in grace, l...

“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;  though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” ~ Isaiah 1:18   These words, spoken by the Lord himself, grant to us insight into His great love and mercy! He, who is the injured party, as we sin against Him when we sin, seeks for the return of you and me as sinners to himself. He is the offended party, He does not need us, yet He d es ires to be reconciled to us. “Your sins are like scarlet,” His words say, which is to say that our sins are like something which has been double-dipped in sin. Our sins are not a stain, but our sins have been dyed into our very soul. This means that those He seeks to redeem are not those who are of high moral standards, but in fact are considered as the foulest and most tarnished of sinners. Those He seeks are past the level of reclaiming, yet it is to these the Lord God extends His invitation. He gives to us full...

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his ~ Romans 6:5   I actually like how the KJV spells out the first part of this verse: “For if we have been planted together…” What a beautiful analogy of death, for though most people fear death, it is beautiful as it is a transition from one life to the next. I am not saying the way every death occurs is beautiful, some are violent, painful, and horrific experiences. I am talking though about the actual act of death itself, for it is a type of planting, whether that is in loss of life, or in loss of materialist value. In the death of a seed, all the forces of decay bring about a new shoot which springs up to bear new fruit! That is beautiful. This is how the death of Jesus Christ is explained by Paul, for His death brought forth fruitfulness in repentance. Christ by His death, redeemed a whole world, a lost world. We too, by dying to our self, and allowin...

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die ~ John 11:25   Jesus was speaking to Mary, who in her grief, poured out her heart to Jesus, for her brother Lazarus, Jesus’ friend, had died. If Jesus had been here, Mary said, her brother would still be alive. How difficult that was for Jesus, for though He knew Lazarus would be raised by the power of God, this was a foresight of how others were going to grieve Him too. The Cross was ahead of Him and soon it would be His reality. He would hang upon that Cross, and He too would die. The promise though, is not only for himself, but for all who believe in Him – though they may physically die, they will live on forever, for His life would be an offering for all the lives of men and women everywhere, and He would rise up! He would willingly die on the Cross for the sins of all people, so that they would have eternity and resurrection fulfilled in them. Many people toda...

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.   Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear ~ Acts 2:32, 33   Peter, once timid and bumbling, now speaks with eloquence and courage to the crowds, showing that Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, was predicted, and the proof has been observed and witnessed! Jesus is alive! Peter may have been speaking to the crowds of perhaps 120 people, but he is speaking to us as well! Jesus rose from the dead after being put in a grave, but on the third day, He rose! What wonder and mercy! What grace and glory! For, the promise was that Jesus would send a Comforter, a Guide, an Encourager, and a Truth Conveyer by the name of Holy Spirit! And we, as they, are witnesses to this event, this wonder, this blessing in our lives! We who believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him into our heart are filled with...

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ~ 1 Peter 1:3   Easter weekend may have passed by, but its power continues! There is none other to praise but God the Father, for by His power Jesus was raised from death to life! Today is a new day, a bright day, in Jesus’ Resurrected Life; and it was for those disciples of old and it is for us as His disciples today. We have the promise of a new birth, for Jesus had told His friends the Holy Spirit would not come if He did not leave, and that promise is for those of us who believe in Him. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ gives us new life and new hope! Peter, we know, knew this first-hand, for he had abandoned his Lord before the cross. He who had promised Jesus he would die with Him had fled in fear and panic. Only John stood at the foot of the cross as Jesus was dying in agony. Peter over the next few...

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant ~ Hebrews 9:15   Jesus came as a baby, grew into a man, suffered as a criminal, died on a Cross meant for sinners, to be exalted to the right hand of God the Father! This He did for you and me! Our weak body He took on, our crimes were placed on His head, our punishment He withstood, so that we might have a place with Him in glory!! He kept His covenant promise to the end and beyond, becoming for us a mediator, He slew the enemy of our soul in that one act, setting us free from the bondage by which we were held! “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!” He is the atonement for our sin, once, for all people, so that we might have peace in our heart and mind...

He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee ~ Luke 24:6   Without the resurrection, Jesus would have been another good man, with good ethics, with good healing powers. He brought peace and love to those who followed him, and that is all He would have been remembered for. He would have been thought of as a man like Elisha, Elijah or Mohammad, a prophet of the past. But for the resurrection which no one could anticipate, and the wonder of it no human eye ever comprehend, Jesus is more than just another man and much more than a prophet. Luke certainly, as a physician, would have thought twice about the stories of a resurrected dead man. Yet he was convinced of its reality, though he was a man of science. There is proof that He is alive, it is irrefutable, and Luke believed it, as we that live with the fellowship of Jesus Christ today believe it! Jesus had foretold it, though they had forgotten, and the question is, who would not? ...

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit ~ John 19:30   Only a few of His disciples had heard these words, for most had already fled and were in hiding. The Beloved Disciple, John was there, the women including His Mother was there, and the soldiers were there to witness and hear these last words of our Lord. “It is finished.” He had accomplished all that His Abba Father had planned for Him and the world. The mission had been accomplished and Satan had been overcome! The way now was open to the holy of holies, symbolized by the curtain in the Temple torn from top to bottom. Yes, all now could come to God without the stain of sin upon them! All could stand before Him, the Great Judge in heaven and be called saints, wearing the garb of white. For us, He took the drink, the vinegar, the mockery, the shame of the cross. For us He finished His course, so that our sufferings might be finished, that our temptatio...

But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ~ Mark 14:61, 62   In the evening, Jesus was captured in the Garden of Gethsamane and taken in for questioning. The dawn would bring about a new day on the earth, the last day in this God-man’s life, and a day of great sorrow for all His disciples. Jesus never faltered; He knew His life was to come to this moment, and having had prayer and being strengthened by the angels, He was ready for what the world would throw at Him. Jesus knew though His Father’s plan, for as He answered as to whether He was the Messiah, His response affirmed He was a part of the “I Am”, a part of the Godhead. He was not of this earth, He was deity! And though Satan thought his plan was better than God’s, Jesus here spells it out plain: He woul...

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins ~ Matthew 26:28   This is a day called Maundy Thursday, the day and evening when Jesus moved on to Jerusalem to sit at the Passover table with His disciples in the Upper Room. It was here in this room where Jesus, Servant King, knelt and washed the feet of His followers, including the one that would soon betray him to the Chief Priests and Scribes for 30 pieces of silver. It was here where Peter said, don’t wash only my feet, but all of me. And Jesus reply was that “those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean…” (John 13:10). It was here, in this Upper Room, where Jesus explained again the sacrifice He would undergo for them and the whole world. Jesus made a covenant, which means con, together , and venio, I come , which signifies an agreement by which His blood would ratify the covenant. It is an oath, and the terms of this oath meant that Jesus’ bloo...

And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain,      and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation ~ Revelation 5:9   Today is the day when Jesus was betrayed by his disciple, Judas. He was sold for 30 shillings. Judas thought Jesus was on the wrong track; He was supposed to have come to conquer the Romans, to free the people of Israel from their tyranny. Instead He seemed to want only peace and talked about His kingdom being elsewhere. This was not what Judas had signed up for. But also, on this day, another occurrence took place – that of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. In John 12, the story tells us Mary took a pint of an expensive perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. Of course, Judas was there as well, and he objected to this worship of Jesus, but was told by Jesus to leave her alone. She was preparing Him for His burial. Ove...

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him ~ Hebrews 9:27, 28   We don’t tend to think much about our own mortality, not until we are forced to, such as in times like what the world is encountering now. With the pandemic, COVID-19 rampaging the world, mortality has become forefront to many people’s thoughts. Yet, not much is different, for we will all one day die, and this is as it has been since the beginning of time. Do we now, during this time, begin to wonder what will happen to us after we die? Will we, because of COVID-19 begin to ponder the after-life in equation with the life we have lived up until this point? There is a judgment coming to our soul – are we prepared to meet it? Many, I am afraid, are not, and most certainly cannot have a friendly look at death without Christ...

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ~ John 1:29   During the Passover Feast, a lamb was sacrificed. Lambs were continually sacrificed, morning and evening, for the Jewish law intended to point out the continual efficiency of the blood of atonement. This sacrifice carried away the sins of the people, though only by representation. It was a temporary way of receiving forgiveness for sins committed. God had a better plan, a permanent plan, a plan for all mankind and not just those of the chosen race, the Hebrew people. His plan was for the whole world. John the Baptist points to Jesus as God’s plan for the atonement of mankind’s sins. It is for this He came and was born as incarnate, bearing our body’s image to take to the cross, our sin. Upon that cross, our sins and our punishment hung there with Him. Only Jesus qualified to do this, for as the paschal lamb was sacrificed at Passover, so Jesus was a...

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Matthew 21:9   When anci ent people applied  to their king for help from their situations, they used the word, “hosanna”. The word literally means, “Save now” or “save, I pray now”. This therefore was an appeal to a king, and is in fact the first time Jesus allowed himself to be called King! I wrote yesterday how Jesus rode before this crowd on a donkey, an animal which was never used by a king of the earth, and an animal which was despised by this culture. Yet, here we have Jesus Christ hailed as King! The crowds recognized and acknowledged Christ as their king, and they looked to Him for their deliverance. Christ easily could have claimed this for himself! Hailed as the “Son of David” adds excitement to the calls of “Hosanna”, for the words signify Him as the promised lineage in David’s kingd...

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey ~ Zechariah 9:9   This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 21:5, a day we will celebrate this coming Sunday, known to us as Palm Sunday. Israel had never had a truly righteous king. David, known as “a man after the Lord’s own heart” was not wholly righteous, nor was King Solomon. There were many good kings, but not one was Righteous! All had made mistakes, all had sinned in some way before the Lord. God had promised one would come, and He would be a great conqueror! How, we may wonder, did Israel become so confused as to think the Saviour would come to conquer the world with government power? Here it is plain that the Saviour would come in lowly fashion, not as triumphant kings of the land came. Kings of the earth ride in state, in pomp, on a mule, which was taller than a donkey. Usually white mules were th...

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life! ~ Matthew 20:18, 19   Jesus had predicted this journey before. They had been many times up to Jerusalem, but this would be their last time with their Lord. This is the third time Jesus had told his disciples about his passion, but all too often they had let it slip from their memory. Jerusalem would be the scene of His suffering, and His thoughts were to warn His disciples, to prepare them for what was to come. In detail Jesus tried to tell his disciples the outcome of this final trip. Too much they could not understand, too much they let slip past their mind’s eye, too much went past them without thought of what it all really meant. Would we have been any different? Are we now any different? A sacrifice s...

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ ~ Romans 10:17   If only everyone who heard the message of Christ would believe! We know it is not so though. The language here does not really translate well, for in other places, especially Isaiah, the reading in Greek was written as “Who has believed our report, you must admit that faith comes by that report.” Faith does not exist unless there is a message, or a report, to be heard or, especially, believed. The point is, we can talk until we are blue in the face and have no words left within us, but that does not mean the listener will believe. But, they will definitely not believe unless they hear the message from those of us who have the story of Jesus to tell. I was listening to a radio preacher yesterday and he very plainly condemned us modern day Christians about our not telling the message. We have lost our focus he said, in knowing that the world around us is a l...