“I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust.”

Psalm 91:2

We live in a broken and fallen world. We are constantly reminded of that when we see the daily news.   Each day is filled with the reporting of devastating natural disasters.  On top of that is the endless display of the actions of wicked and sinful people who have no knowledge of God nor any regard for God.

In addition to that is the challenge of daily life.  Ordinary working people struggle to provide the basic necessities for their families.  That struggle is made even harder by a government that intentionally creates inflation through its unsound monetary policies.  Inflation robs people of their labor and their wealth. It forces people to work harder and longer.  But their labor purchases less.  Then there is the challenge of taking care of aging parents,  handicapped children or seriously sick loved ones.   The bottom line is that life is hard!   Often we would like to find a place of escape; a place of refuge that provides safety and gives us a break from the daily grind of life.   

The Good News is that the Lord Jesus has provided us with such a place!  That Place is found in Him!  That place is found in His Presence!  And the Lord invites us into that place!  There is peace there.  There is safety and security there.  There is comfort there.     

In that place, He speaks to us through His Word.  In that place, He strengthens us. In that place, He encourages us. In that place, He guides us and directs us.  In that place we find rest.  In that place we find encouragement.  In that place we find joy!   And in that place we find hope!  In that place, we see everything in light of the eternal.  In that place, we are reminded that everything we are currently facing is only temporary!  We are reminded that life is short and that life in Him and with Him, even now,  is eternal.  Let us rejoice and be thankful that the Lord has provided such a place for us!   He is our refuge!     That is the blessing and the reality of the redeemed! 

“To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.  The word of the Lord is offensive to them.  They find no pleasure in it.”

Jeremiah 6:10 NIV 1995 Edition

The people of Israel,  in Jeremiah’s day,  were so caught up in their sinful and rebellious lifestyle that their hearts had become hardened and they completely closed their ears to the Truth of God’s Word!  God had sent His prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others,  to give them warning after warning of God’s grief over their sin and His impending judgment if they did not repent and turn back to Him.  These warnings went on for several years.  But despite the Word of God being spoken to them again and again and God’s personal dealings with them in sending the remedial judgments of drought, crop failures, pestilence, locusts and defeats at the hands of their enemies, they still refused to hear the Word of the Lord and turn to Him!  They found the Word of the Lord offensive! The reason?  The Word of the Lord exposed their sin!  And they did not want to hear it. 

Just a few weeks ago, a Bible-believing Pastor, Jack Hibbs, of Calvary Chapel in Chino, CA was asked to lead a prayer before the House of Representatives in Washington DC. According to the House Rules, obviously formulated by the liberals and atheists in Congress, you cannot mention, God as Father or mention the Name of Jesus Christ in your prayer.    The pastor went off script and prayed a prayer that acknowledged God, our Heavenly Father,  Jesus as the only Redeemer,  Savior, and Lord and asked for forgiveness for the sins of the nation and reminded those who were making decisions for this nation that one day they would stand before the Judge of all the earth and give an account unto Him for the decisions they make.   The liberals in Congress and the media went ballistic!   They were highly offended by the Truth!  (You can look this up on YouTube). 

The gospel is offensive to those whose hearts have become hardened toward Christ.  It always has been.  It always will be.  But just because people will not hear does not mean that we stop speaking the Truth of Christ!  God still warned Israel, even though they refused to hear.   He did that so that there would be no excuses when the people stood before a Holy God!   So, keep telling the Truth!  It still matters!   

Rev. James W. Black

“What is man that thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.”

Psalm 8: 4-5  KJV

Have you ever thought about the glory that God gave to man?  It is first mentioned in Gen.  1:26. The glory of man is that he is made in the image of God!  Think of that! Man was created to be the highest expression of God in the earth!  It was God’s intention, from the very beginning,  that the character and nature of God would be expressed in the earth through the life of man! Therefore, man’s glory would be a reflection of God’s glory being manifested in and through him!   

When man sinned against God through willful disobedience,  the Light of God’s glory which flowed from within the spirit of man was extinguished.   Instead of being guided by the Light of God, man would now be living and walking in the darkness of sin. Instead of man being a reflection of God’s glory, man would now reflect the nature of the evil one!  (John 8:44).

But through the power of the cross and the mighty resurrection of Jesus, that glory has been restored!  (Col. 1:27).  Through the New Birth (John 3:16), the Light of God’s glory now illuminates our once darkened spirit and we are able to see and walk in His Light!   We can once again express the image of God in the earth!   

While we may not always express it perfectly (because we have not yet been perfected), we have been re-commissioned to be the expression of God in the earth once again. Just as Jesus came to make the Father visible (Col.1:15), we are now called to make Jesus visible!  What a calling!  What a mystery!  What a glorious thing this is!  May we continually yield to Him and seek to be the fullest expression of  Him we can be! 

Rev. James W. Black

“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

James 4:17 KJV

We live in a culture that has all but lost any consciousness of sin. Because the culture has abandoned Biblical Truth, we have no standard  by which sin can be recognized or identified.  We have become much like it was during the days of The Judges (10th Century BC) when “every man did that  was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 KJV).   But the Word of God declares  that we “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”(Rom. 3:23 KJV).

But what is sin?  How do we define it?  We normally think of sin as doing certain things that are bad.  And  while such  things are certainly sinful, that still does not describe what it is.  In reality sin  is more than our outward actions. (Matthew 5: 27-28).

Major Ian Thomas in his classic book, The Indwelling Life of Christ, defines sin very clearly.  He says, “Sin is anything that falls short of God’s glory, so that God will evaluate sin as any behavior that falls short of what He does, what He says, and what He is.  Sin therefore, is exposed simply by relating our behavior to God’s behavior.  God is perfect and by that perfection you and I recognize sin, because sin is anything that falls short of His perfection.  God Himself is therefore the only standard by which sin is recognizable.” (Page 49). 

Sin, therefore, can only be recognized in the light of God Himself!  In the light of God’s perfect holiness,  we become keenly aware of our imperfection. (Isaiah 6: 1-5).  And we see that anything that is not perfect is sin!  Such a realization means that all of us are in trouble!  We all fall short of God’s Holy perfection!  Such a  revelation of His holiness and perfection, causes us to want to try to hide from His Presence (Gen. 3:8). 

But the Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus has paid for all our sin in full!  (Col. 2: 12-15).  And He has give,  to all who will receive it, His very own righteousness and perfection! (2 Cor.5:21).  Therefore because of His finished work on the cross , He now welcomes all who have received His very own righteousness into His Presence!  And we are completely accepted by Him!  Oh, what a Savior we have in Jesus!