Today’s Reading: Psalm 79-80, Romans 11:1-18

Today’s Reflection:  Romans 11:7   What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded

What exactly is it that those of us who have received Christ by faith have obtained, the which Israel “hath not obtained”?  Consider the following scriptures:  Speaking of Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel, it was said in Hebrews 11:10, “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”  Then verse 13 says of the multitudes following him, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”  

Who could agree with me that it would appear they were looking for not JUST a city, but a Kingdom?  Dear reader, I propose to you that, in fact, Abraham and his descendants were looking for the Kingdom of God while here on Earth.  Not convinced?  Consider this; when John the Baptist came to introduce Jesus Christ to His people Israel, he preached “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Furthermore, Jesus picked right up where John left off, preaching the exact same message; “Repent:  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus further explained in Luke 17, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”  You see, Israel was looking for a brick and mortar, Earthly kingdom with a King sitting on the Earthly throne, not realizing that God’s Kingdom is delivered inwardly, then manifested outwardly through faith and obedience to His Word!

Here’s my final thoughts on this; we have within us the very Kingdom of God, if we have received Christ as Savior.  In short, it is now our time to seek God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness through faith and obedience, so that HIS will is done on Earth as in Heaven!  We have all of Heaven’s authority and resources at our disposal; so let’s build!

copyright © by Gary D. Caudill

 

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Ezra 6:12b …I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with speed.

Does the work of The Lord and the word “speed” even go together? Look at this! King Darius was moved by God’s hand to aid (and even help finance) the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and his instructions were for it to be done with speed!

Now, I will have to be honest; somehow I do not see many of today’s churches (at least where I live in the southland of America) moving with speed in the work of God. If anything, we have more of a tendency to drag our feet than we do to move our feet with speed!

And why is that? Well, I’m sure that there are many different reasons, depending upon who you ask, but I wish to explore at least a couple of things that I have observed over the years since I’ve been in ministry.

First, please allow me to point out that I do understand that a church can only move as fast as the limitations are removed. For example, in verse eight of our text, the king secured financing for the work of building the temple, “that they be not hindered”.

The truth is, limitations do hinder the speed of progress! In this case, it was finances. This may or may not be a hindrance to the work with which you are involved, but the key question we need to all ask ourselves is this; are WE the hindrance? If it is not a lack of people, a lack of money, a lack of buildings, tools, equipment, etc., then many times it is just a lack of motivation.

Furthermore, I think sometimes we like to over-stay our welcome in God’s waiting room. That is, we get stuck in “waiting” on The Lord, when in fact The Lord might now be waiting on us! This may sound a bit too radical for some of my readers, so please do not misunderstand what I’m saying.

I do not intend to belittle the necessity nor the power of prayer whatsoever; but I will say that I think sometimes the biggest hindrance to God’s work is that we claim that we will just “pray about it”, but then too often we never really do, or worse, we pray about things that God has already instructed us to be doing.

Prayer should always give us guidance for our future decisions, but it should also push us to make them! Prayer should never stagnate our growth; rather, it should spurt our growth! Prayer should never be an excuse, but rather it should be the engine that moves us to action! Let’s speed up!

Pastor Gary D. Caudill