S.M. Wibberley’s Blog

“O LORD, the God who avenges, O God who avenges, shine forth.” Psalm 94:1

Lord Jesus, you are the conquering One:

“El,” the God of might;

“Yahweh” (LORD), the Holy One who hates sin;

“Adonai,” the powerful ruler who provides all;

Elohim the One who promises and always delivers.

Yes, You are righteous, you are pure, you are clothed in light and robed in majesty. You look down on all mankind and perceive their heart conditions, the motives, the attitudes, the schemes of everyone. “The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows that they are futile” (Ps. 94:11)

You also are the mighty Judge who, in righteousness, will ride forth in power to bring perfect justice on earth. You will avenge those who have been mistreated, harmed and exploited. You are the wise and just One who knows the exact time to display your righteous anger, bringing judgment, punishment and a proper sentence on those who refuse Your Word, who reject your Truth, who persecute your children. You wait in love and grace, showing patience and kindness, continuing to pour out your goodness on all, working to give all the opportunity for repentance.

There is so much evil in the world today, seemingly unrestrained, yet we know that you have set a limit, holding back evil from its full extent. Lord, we praise you that you are at work bringing judgment in ways we cannot see: bringing consequences, striking down, removing, preventing and punishing.  As evil plays out its role, while evil people “band together against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death,” we can rest assured that you, LORD “will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the LORD our God will destroy them” (Ps. 94:21,23).

In the end, however, the time will come for judgment and you will not be late. In perfect knowledge, perfect justice, perfect perception you will mete out the perfect punishment to each and every one who refuses your offer of entering the shelter of the Most High. To those who reject you as Savior, you will come as Judge.

Thoughts on Psalm 23, the “all purpose Psalm” which encouraged and refreshed me during a difficult time in the Middle East.

“‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want….’ I sure feel like I’m wanting, Lord, but you promise that my needs are being met, so I praise you for this tiredness which makes me depend more on you. Thank you for the truth that this situation is a ‘green pasture’ designed to make me grow.”

The Lord always wants us to think His thoughts and learn the depths of His truths, to see that they are sufficient in every situation. And during this time the Lord has kept us going, protected us from getting sick, and enabled us to more than fulfill the responsibilities He has given us.

In fact, fin these difficulties, He taught us how to serve Him better: since I didn’t have the strength to do all I wanted, He forced me to spend more time in prayer, and to carefully select what to do, thereby making us more effective.

One day when I was discouraged about the believers and workers as well as my inability to solve the problems, we sang a song in the fellowship “When I am weak, then I am strong….” Again, I was encouraged to spend more time praising and praying and the results of this are being seen in those around me.

What a great, wise God we have who is faithful to keep us in the Word and prayer, and to remind us to praise Him in and for all things!

Prayer: “Lord, I confess my lack of meditation on your Word. Help me to delight in it, to persistently memorize it, to personalize and pray it, getting it down into my soul so I may think your thoughts, will your will and enjoy my emotions without being controlled by them. Amen.”

Written in our early time in the Middle East.

“Blessed is the man…whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Psalm 1:1a,2

It never ceases to amaze me how our Lord Jesus works in our lives through our meditating on His Word.

The last few weeks I’ve been so tired that Barbara has had to urge me out of bed in the morning.  Sometimes I felt like a 90-year-old cripple.

The logical thing would be to get some rest, wouldn’t it? However, this is more easily said than done, with having to teach 4 hours of English classes every day plus preparation, responsibility for 12 fellow workers, a number of disciples and the national fellowship plus a family. On top of this there is a stream of visitors in a culture where you can never say, “No.” The visitors often stay until late with the average visit being a minimum of 3 hours.

There has so far been no real break where we could get a prolonged rest, so the Lord saw fit to strengthen us in other ways. Each morning as I stood in the bus line on the way to work, I’d run the 23rd Psalm through my mind, quoting it, personalizing it, praying it.

Thinking those truths was like turning on the “power faucet.” These truths brought refreshment, encouragement and strength and carried us through.As it says in Psalm 1, he who meditates on God’s word day and night…will be like a tree..that bears its fruit in season, its leaf will never wither. Humanly speaking I was close to withering, but God used meditation to save me.  I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

The purpose of our lives: Worshiping God!

You, Lord God, are majestic. Your statutes stand firm because you are mighty. You decreed and maintain the force of gravity, the speed of light, the boundaries of the sea, the law of impenetrability—all continue as long as you desire.

And all of this is done in your holiness, meaning that, along with being pure, you are totally independent of your creation. You are absolutely other than your creatures: we are limited, you are infinite; we are bound to time, you are beyond it; we are weak, you are immeasurably strong; we see so little, you know all; we are foolish, you are complete in wisdom; we are selfish, you are agape love itself.

Like Job, we can only bow before you and say, “You, Lord, are worthy, for you are wise, and have the right to do whatever you desire.”

You rule, teach, guide, control, you direct, decide, decree, you act and no one can oppose you. You, Lord Jesus, are the One to be obeyed, for you are perfect and unchanging, powerful and good, wise and all loving.

More on Yahweh, the Majestic One, the Mighty One, the Magnificent One  who reaches down from heaven into our lives.

In your might, Lord, you hold back the forces of evil, you guide the tides of history, you set up and take down leaders, you begin and end empires and you sweep men into eternity when their time comes.

You, Lord, restrain your might when it comes to salvation. In your desire that we love you, you give people the right to choose, enabling them to decide, wooing them into your kingdom rather than forcing them.

You are great, you are glorious, you are gracious, you are beautiful and you are good.

Contemplating the Magnificence of God

“The LORD [Yahweh] is robed in majesty… Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the LORD on high is mighty.’ Psalm 93:1,4,5

Glory and praise be to You, O Yahweh, the Majestic One, the Mighty One, the Magnificent One.

Your power is beyond comprehension, far greater than the might of a Tsunami rising out of the ocean, sweeping inland for miles, destroying all in its path. Or the power of the great waves in a storm, pounding at cliffs, tearing them away.

To create the sun, you simply spoke. You made it huge, hot and high in the heavens, spewing out tongues of flame millions of miles into space, burning at temperatures beyond our comprehension, emitting heat and light year after year, century after century, millennium after millennium; you control its heat, its light, its life. And the sun is but one of billions of stars in billions of galaxies that you spoke into existence and sustain by your mighty power.

You, O Lord Jesus, also hold together the nucleus of every atom in the universe, keeping positive forces together when they should push apart (“…in him all things hold together” Col. 1:17). Your strength is beyond what the human mind could possibly begin to comprehend.

Another opportunity to nurture your first love for God

You, O LORD God, being armed with strength, formed the earth.

You shaped the mountains, you created the seas.

You hung the earth in space, tilted it at the exact right angle to provide seasons, spun it at the optimum rate to make each day of perfect length, and sent it off into the proper orbit around the sun, moving it at the best pace, making the year’s length just right.

You gave it the moon for light at night, for making tides and protecting us from asteroids.

You keep all in place until your plan is fulfilled, when you will end time and history, creating a new Heaven and new earth.

Your faithfulness is our certainty that the world cannot be moved without your permission.

Truly, we can say with Asaph, “Whom have I in heaven but you, and earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25).

We bow before you, Lord God Almighty, we praise you for your majestic, wise, pure, just and gracious being.

Prayer: “Lord, I give myself afresh to you in offering, bowing in surrender, rising up to obey you in trust, standing to glorify you in wholehearted application of your Word. To you be glory today in all my motives, attitudes, thoughts, words and decisions. Amen.”

In these days of turmoil with many people unhappy, it is good to remember the difference between happiness and joy.

The many unhappy people can tell you that happiness is tied to our circumstances. When things go awry, happiness evaporates like fog in the early morning sun.

Joy, on the other hand continues no matter what, for it is dependent on Jesus, who never changes.

Joy can continue through the worst of circumstances, as Jesus himself showed us. As it says in Hebrews 12, “for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disposing th shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

And in several places Jesus says we can do the same thing. James:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, BECAUSE YOU KNOW that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

 

Joy is released by what we know, not what we feel. Matthew 5:11,12 says,  “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

 

Again, we can have joy because we know there is meaning, reward and a plan in suffering.

And then there is  Romans 15:13 which tells us how to have and maintain joy: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace AS YOU TRUST in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

 

Joy is always available, and we can appropriate it by trusting Him. Truly, Knowing Jesus is Enough for Joy!  Let’s live in that truth no  matter what our circumstance are.

Leading ourselves  well spiritually has to do with nurturing our first love for Jesus. and how to we do that? One way is to meditate on His character. Here’s one of mine to help you, thinking on Psalm 93:1,2.

“The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity”.  Psalm 93:1,2

You, O Yahweh, are the Holy One:

Pure and Powerful,

Sinless and Sincere,

Just and Judicious,

Rich and Righteous,

Glorious and Good.

You are Majestic,

magnificently robed in light,

riding on the wings of the wind,

commanding the stars,

guiding the planets,

towering over all heavenly beings in total otherness.

You move in wisdom and grace,

you are thorough in your thoughts,

powerful in your plans,

precise in your purposes.

You are never shaken, never flustered, never hurried, never late.

In you we can rest, knowing that you are totally trustable and very interested in walking through the day with  us. To you be glory forever.

Written before the election results are known.

In this time wrought with high emotions, I’d like to share some thoughts. Today most people view their emotions as a guide. How often have you heard the advice, “Just follow your heart?”

Emotions are a gift from God, but His intent is to enrich our lives with them, not guide us. Here are three reasons from observation for which I believe God gave us emotions (He probably has more).

A first reason is that God wants us to enjoy what He’s given us: a beautiful sunset, a pleasant concert, a fine friendship, a delicious meal, a sense of achievement. He likes for us to have pleasure in the good things He’s given.

A second reason is to warn us. Our our negative emotions are like the dash board lights on our car. When the oil light, or check engine light, or battery light comes on it doesn’t mean, “turn right at the next road,” or “go faster,” or “continue straight on.” They all mean, “Something is wrong, do something about it!”

Our negative emotions, like anger, jealousy, greed, fear or hate, are warnings to us, that we are thinking wrongly, following the wrong values, or have a wrong perception. For instance right perspective is, “Let every  man be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19,20). If we follow our negative emotions, we almost certainly will get into trouble. If, instead we heed the warning, back off, think biblically and make a Godly decision, Things  will go much better.

A third reason for our emotions is to motivate us. All of us have been in a discouraging situation, when one person speaks up, “Come on! We can do this; we just have to pull together! What do you say?” Everyone’s emotions are stirred, they get up and move ahead.

And so it is now; whoever wins the election, we know that God has a plan and we can join Him, trust Him,, follow Him, not our emotions.