Sage Words - Page 2 of 244

The Promise of a Prophet

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” Deuteronomy 18:15

God will raise up a Prophet. Those words come in the middle of Deuteronomy as Moses recounts the exodus to a new generation of Israel poised to enter the Promised Land. Throughout the account and through the rest of the Old Testament, over and over we see the exodus as proof of God’s power and prerogative. He keeps the promises He makes and nothing will prevent those things from coming to pass.

Including this promise about a Prophet.

A few verses later, God says, “I will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.” Deuteronomy 18:18-19.

Those words sound a lot like “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18

The Prophet God promised in Moses’s day came on a Christmas morning years and years later.

We are entering a season of good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Perhaps as we interact with people, we can follow Moses’s example. Think about the promises has God kept in your life. Maybe you’ll find yourself in a conversation something like this…

When Jesus was born, that fulfilled a promise God made hundreds of years before. But God has also been faithful in keeping promises in my life. (Here’s where you mention them.) The most important promise is the one that if I trusted Jesus’s payment for the things I’ve done wrong, I can live forever in heaven with Him.

Share those good tidings! I’ll be praying for opportunities and open doors for you.

Next week we’ll see how the angels did it.

Satisfied

By Paula Leave a Comment

All my life I had a longing
For a drink from some clear spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.

Feeding on the husks around me,
Till my strength was almost gone,
Longed my soul for something better,
Only still to hunger on.

Poor I was, and sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy,
But the dust I gathered round me
Only mocked my soul’s sad cry.

Well of water, ever springing,
Bread of life so rich and free,
Untold wealth that never faileth,
My Redeemer is to me.

Refrain:
Hallelujah! I have found Him
Whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings,
Through His blood I now am saved.

Clara Teare Williams, 1875

Read Luke 15:11-32

(I think it was the word “husks” that made me think of the prodigal son. Sometimes I wonder if we’ve moved much beyond that moment when we came to our senses like the prodigal and made our way to the Father. How often, how likely are we to fill ourselves with the empty and unfulfilling. Our souls will never be satisfied apart from Him.)

The Helmet of Salvation

By Paula Leave a Comment

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; Ephesians 6:17

The helmet protects a soldier’s head.
More particularly his brain.
His ability to think, to reason,
To assess and to respond.

In the battles we face,
Our thought processes,
Our evaluations of situations,
And especially our responses
Must be protected by the reality of our salvation.

Christ has won.
God is faithful.
We are redeemed.
Satan has no power over us.

In every situation
In every skirmish
In every full-on battle.

Christ has won.
God is faithful.
We are redeemed.
Satan has no power over us.

That’s the helmet of salvation.

We Gather Together

By Paula Leave a Comment

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing,
Sing praises to His name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Anonymous, 1625,
Theodore Baker, translator

Read Psalm 5:11-12

(This was originally a Dutch hymn. The author is not known, and the hymn may be the work of several authors over a period of years. Since Holland was a place of asylum for the Pilgrims before they sailed for the New World, my writer’s imagination leads me to wonder if they may have sung this hymn…

The second verse begins, “Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,” and puts me in mind of God with us, that is, Immanuel. What a perfect lead-in to the season of Advent.

Blessings on you, my friends. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Colossians 3:16 )

The Shield of Faith

By Paula Leave a Comment

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Ephesians 6:16

A shield is for defense, for protection.
It is mobile. Big enough to hide behind.
It also bears the marks and scars of previous battles.

It is like everyone else’s,
But yet deeply personal.

No matter how brave,
How strong or
How well-trained,

Only a fool would face the enemy
Without a shield.

So when those fiery darts come…
And they will come
In the coming week, the coming day, the coming moment.
Doubt, despair, desire and more

Don’t be foolish enough to think that
Positive thinking, hard work, good character will be enough.

You must have the shield of faith.
Faith in God who loves you,
Who keeps His promises
Who will never leave you nor forsake you

Faith in a God who sees, who knows,
Who hears and who acts on your behalf.
Faith in a God who empowers, who strengthens
Who refreshes and revives you.

In all circumstances, in every situation, make sure you have your shield.

Mount of Olives: Winning the Battle

By Paula

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. Luke 22:39

The Mount of Olives rises 2700 feet (826 m) above the Kidron Valley. It is part of a three-peak ridge that was at one time covered in olive trees. There was a garden there. Every spring we recount the story of what happened in that garden, but it is usually just a stop along the way of a bigger story, the Easter story.

Today, let’s take a few minutes and climb one more mountain and consider what took place–and what is yet to take place–on the Mount of Olives.

It is a place Jesus resorted to often. Luke tells us it was His custom to go to the Mount of Olives. I can imagine a visit each time He was in Jerusalem. Maybe it began when he climbed the hill with his father as a boy. In this passage, it was a place where He poured out His heart to God. We need a place, a familiar comfortable place to meet God regularly.

It was a place of sorrow and struggle. In some ways, the battle for our salvation was won on that mountain in the intensive prayer session. Scripture doesn’t give the specifics, but I wonder if the temptation Jesus faced that night was even more strident and grueling than His time in the wilderness. In the midst of that struggle, He knew His closest friends would fail Him and abandon Him. The crowds He would soon face wouldn’t grasp what He was doing or the implications of their call for His blood. Although not as intense, we face our own moments of sorrow and struggle alone. We have faced our share of battles that have touched the deepest parts of our soul.

It was a place of deep communion. Jesus reached out to His Father, and God sent a ministering angel to strengthen Christ. When we seek God’s face in the depths of our anguish, He hears and He sends strength and comfort.

It was a place of resolve and victory. By the time Jesus rose to His feet, He was ready to face everything that lay ahead with steadfast resolve. He never wavered. There was no hesitation in His steps, no fear or uncertainty in His voice. Evidence of his victory came weeks later, when His friends watched Him return to the Father’s right hand from that very mountain. Zechariah tells us He will return to that spot yet again to put the final seal on His victory and receive His kingdom. That reality should strengthen our resolve. The victory is already won.

There are other mountains in Scripture besides the ones we’ve discussed. Moriah. Carmel. Tabor. Pisgah. Ebal. And others. Each one stands out from the surrounding landscape. Each one unique, both in the perspective it offers and in the experience of the climb. Perhaps your curiosity is piqued now. Even better, I hope your hunger and longing to see, to know, to experience all the mountain offers won’t let you rest until you climb the next one.

Next week is Thanksgiving here in the US.

I’ll be back the following week as we turn our hearts and our thoughts toward Advent.

The Promise of a Prophet

Satisfied

The Helmet of Salvation

We Gather Together

The Shield of Faith

Mount of Olives: Winning the Battle

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series