Lilies of the Field

The world has been enduring the results of the curse for approximately 6,000 years. Every child of God longs for that day when there will be peace on earth, when righteousness reigns under the kingship of Jesus, and when the battle between good and evil will have come to an end forever. There is a reason we get stirred up deep in our souls when we hear the Hallelujah Chorus being sung. While our flesh fights to hold on to parts of our worldly existence, our spirits yearn for that which we were created. When we experience or witness injustice, that battle between our flesh and our spirit ensues. Where do we run for the healing of our deep wounds? To whom do we turn? The instincts of the believer are to turn to the Lord for help.  In Jeremiah 8, the weeping prophet, said in verse 20 of his people that the, “Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.”   Considering their spiritual state, he saw a judgment coming for them and there was no remedy, no healing balm, an

I listened to a ten-second blurb of an interview done recently with a well-known celebrity who has been accused of a crime. What she said struck a chord with my own heart. She was speaking about the pain of realizing how quickly people can turn on you. This type of treatment from people who really do not know us does not bother us nearly as much as it does from those who know us well—those with whom we have had an intimate relationship. Jesus experienced both. First, Judas, one of His own disciples, betrayed Him, then the crowds turned on Him almost overnight. Psalm 35:12-16— They repay me evil for good, to the bereavement of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer kept returning to my bosom. I went about as though it were my friend or brother; I bowed down mourning, as one who sorrows for a mother. But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together. The smiters whom I did not know g

A federal trial looked nothing like what I would have expected it to look like. Every witness who takes the stand to testify to the truth must raise his hand (no Bible) and answer affirmatively to the question: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? No “so help you God”. When God has been removed from the United States Federal Justice System, the citizens of our country are in real trouble and heading for serious judgment. So, my question is this: To whose truth does the witness on the federal witness stand testify? And is the Court bringing judgment by the authority of God or by its own authority? John MacArthur has said this: What is truth? One of the most profound and eternally significant questions in the Bible was posed by an unbeliever. Pilate—the man who handed Jesus over to be crucified—turned to Jesus in His final hour, and asked, “What is truth?” It was a rhetorical question, a cynical response to what Jesus had just revealed:

How does the Lord bring our hearts filled with pain and suffering to a place of trust? How do we get from the immediate reactions of our flesh to an abiding hope-filled place of praise in our spirits? Biblical lament takes us on this journey where we move from our complaints to confidence in God. At the very beginning of my prison trial, the Lord directed my heart to Psalm 62. At once, I knew He was calling me to wait and trust. A monumental feat in the flesh, and strange to its reasoning as well, one would tend to think that the sooner the Lord would respond to our pleas for help, the greater our trust. Over time, I realized the faulty logic in that statement because my relationship with Him has been developed over time as I have learned and am learning to trust Him. My relationship with Him is based on a history of His steadfast faithfulness to me. It is good to wait upon the Lord for all the blessings we gain along the way. Psalm 62— My soul waits in silence for God only. From

What are imprecatory prayers? How common are they? Should we pray them today? What do the following verses have in common besides the fact that they are all found in the New Testament? Luke 10:10-16; Galatians 1:8, 5:12; 1 Corinthians 16:21-22; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2 Timothy 4:14; and Revelation 6:10, 19:1-2. All these New Testament verses involved certain judgment that is coming spoken in language, at times, in the form of a prayer. When we pray: Thy Kingdom come…what are we praying for? To pray that the Lord’s Kingdom would come is to pray that all other kingdoms and those who oppose God’s reign would incur divine judgment. It is a prayer of blessing for the church but for curses upon the kingdom of the evil one. Jesus also used imprecatory language in Matthew 23 in His diatribe against the scribes and Pharisees. Speaking of Judas, Jesus said in Matthew 26:23-24— And He answered, “He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. The Son of Ma

In C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series, Aslan, the only character who appears in all seven books of the series, is the lion who parallels Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. In the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , we see this quote: “Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion.” “Ooh,” said Susan. “I’d thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion” . . .. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. . .” “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’” In our look at an imprecatory psalm such as Psalm 35, this quote from the above classic may come to mind. As believers, we approach the wrath of God with reverent fear. For those who are of this world, the very enemies of God—even those who may believe that God is only love—the Lion who is the King of Judah is not safe. Still, He is good. The heart of the imprecatory psalms is a deep longing for justice by those who had be