“Now when the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.  When the time of mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife; then she bore him a son.  But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  2^nd Samuel 11:26-27

One of the most liberating truths about coming to know Jesus Christ is the freedom it brings; Freedom from the penalty of sin, from the power of sin and eventually from the presence of sin (John 8:32).  However, freedom in Christ cannot be separated from responsibility, from accountability.  This New Testament doctrinal truth is illustrated (as are many) in the Old Testament in the life of King David.  David chose to disengage himself from his soldiers and stay at home in a time when kings usually went to war.  During this time of idleness, he saw Bathsheba, lusted for her, committed adultery with her, tried to cover it up and ultimately was responsible for seeing to the death of her husband, Uriah the Hittite.  What some in the world might overlook, the Lord held David accountable!

There are two significant things regarding how the Lord held David accountable, and we would be wise to learn them.  First of all there was an afflictive aspect of God’s dealings with him.  The Lord said, “The sword shall never depart from your house…I will raise up evil against you from your own household…You did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel…” (2^nd Samuel 12:10-12).  True to the Lord’s Word, the baby Bathsheba would bear would die.  Tamar, David’s daughter would be raped.  Amnon, his son would be murdered by Tamar’s brother.  Absalom, his son who led a rebellion against his father would be killed.  David’s concubines would be ravaged in full public view.  And Adonijah, another son of David would attempt to seize the throne in defiance of David’s stated wish for Solomon to succeed him as King.  Just as surely as the Lord said concerning the Word that comes forth from His mouth, “will not return to Me empty…Without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it!”  (Isaiah 55:11)

But do not fail to see and learn that there is a second aspect of God’s dealing with David, and it was and is REDEMPTIVE!  “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ and Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die’”  All of God’s Judgments of His people are ultimately redemptive!  Our freedom in Christ is certain, and His Grace is so amazing that, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!” (Romans 8:1).  As surely as we confess our sins, “God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”  (1^st John 1:9)

In 1992 there was a scandal in Washington DC (really).  It came to be known as “Rubbergate.”  People in congress are allowed to write checks on the “congressional bank” up to the limit of their congressional “salary.”  In 1992 sixty-six congress persons wrote about 20,00 bad checks (more than their “salary”).  The value of these 20,000 checks was $10,846,856.  That brings to my mind Jesus’s last word on the Cross.  It was “tetelestai” which roughly means “completion”.  In the market place it meant “Paid in Full”!  Something tells me politicians are not through writing “hot” checks, but Jesus Christ’s payment for salvation will never be returned for lack of sufficient payment!  Praise the Lord, It is finished!

Jon Moore

“Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”  2^nd Corinthians 9:6-7

One Sunday a pastor sensed the offering time as a “teaching moment” prior to his message, and he asked the congregation the following question, “Do you look on giving to the Lord something you have got to do, or something you get to do?”  He went on to say that if Jesus is our Master, then giving is something we as believers get to do, but if Money is our Master, then giving is something we as believers have got to do!

The apostle Paul had received a pledge from the church at Corinth that they would take up an offering for the believers in Jerusalem who were literally starving due to a great drought in that area.  He would soon be coming to collect their promised gift to take it to Jerusalem.  He sought to encourage the Corinthians to fulfill their promise by reminding them of the results of giving cheerfully by faith.

He reminded them that this ministry produces thanksgiving to God (v10).  The believers in Jerusalem would recognize the giver of the gift being the Corinthians, but the author of the gift as the Lord God Almighty!  Paul also emphasized that their gift would fully supply the needs of the saints in Jerusalem (v12).  Prayers and words of encouragement are good and needful, but tangible gifts fulfill the challenge of tangible needs!  Then Paul pointed out that this gift would spur the saints at Jerusalem to both glorify God for the Corinthians obedience (v13), and also pray in the Corinthians behalf (v14).  Thus by the Corinthians cheerful giving by faith, their obedience would produce praise, provision and prayer!

Some years ago a banker figured out the two small copper coins (quadrans=1/64^th of a denarius [one denarius=average daily wage]) the widow gave to the Temple treasury in Jerusalem, drawing 4% interest compounded semi-annually would be worth $4.8 billion-trillion (That is 17 zeroes!)  today!  Cheerful giving in response to the Lord’s leading produces meaningful results both in the giver and in the receiver.

Jon Moore

“But as He was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, ‘Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.’”  Acts 24:25

My father’s father, “Grandpa” Moore lived in a day when people, “Never put off until tomorrow that which could be done today!”  It seems to have become more convenient to, “Never do anything today that can successfully be put off until tomorrow!”  Procrastination seems to be the watchword for our day.  That reminds me of a man in the Bible, a Roman governor by the name of Felix who put off his opportunity to place his faith in Jesus Christ, and the results were disastrous for him.  What about you?  Has there ever been a time in your life when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone, for the forgiveness of your sins and a new eternal Life in Christ?

Felix’s first mistake was to assume that he was in control of his life, that he could decide what he would do about the claims of Christ on his life whenever he (Felix) wished.  He made the same mistake the men did on Mar’s Hill outside of Athens, Greece in Acts 17.  When Paul spoke to those men about their need of Christ, “They began to sneer” and said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.”  But Acts 17:33 says, “So Paul went out of their midst!”  And there is no Biblical or historical evidence that after Paul left Athens that he ever returned there.  Those men were listening to him for both the first and last times!  We would all do well to learn that the time to do business with God is when God is doing business with you…

In 1896 William Jennings Bryan was asked to give the major speech at the Democratic National Convention.  The nominee for the Democratic Party for President of the United States that year was expected to be one of two other men.  Mr. Bryan was simply the “favorite son” nominee from his state.  After two rounds of voting neither man had received a majority of votes, and a movement began to elect Bryan as a “compromise.”  After the third round of voting, Mr. Bryan won the nomination.  When asked by the media if his opportunity to speak had made the difference, he reportedly said, “Yes, and that is about all we do in this life.  We are given opportunities, and we either use them, or we lose them!” 

The question for today is, What have we done with the opportunity God has given to each of us?  I pray you will use that opportunity, and not lose it, for God’s glory and your own good…

 Jon Moore

“Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!” Philippians 2:5-8 Amplified Bible

More and more believers today are expressing frustration over their failings in living the Christian life. Often asked questions are, “Why can’t I have victory in my prayer life? In my family life? In my financial life?” The answer to each question is found in the questions themselves, the repetition of the personal pronoun “I”! Victory will never be found apart from the Victor Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the key, the essence, the Life-source! We are instructed to let Him be our example in humility (v 5). That humility is seen in two ways. First, He stripped Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity, the attributes that make God God (v 6,7). Secondly, He abased and humbled Himself still further, and carried His obedience to the extreme of death (v 8)!

In short the relationship between Jesus the Son and the Heavenly Father is to be the example for our relationship between the believer and the Son. Jesus Christ lived His life on earth as a man (He consistently referred to Himself as the Son of Man), yet not just any man, but man as God intended man to be! He was yielded to the Father, occupied by the Father and totally available to the Father for His exclusive use! He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” John 6:38 Believers are not called upon to live a “copy” of Jesus’s life, but to yield ourselves to Him, rejoice in the knowledge we are occupied by Him (in Christ, and Christ in us) and daily make ourselves available to Him for His exclusive use! Just as the Father expressed Himself in both words and deeds through the Son’s humanity, Jesus Christ stands ready to express Himself in both words and deeds through each believer’s humanity…

Jon Moore

“…as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him…For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete…”  Colossians 2:6,9,10a

As is so often the case, New Testament doctrines are often illustrated in the people, places and/or events in the Old Testament.  This is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they (the Old Testament Scriptures) were written for our instruction (2^nd Corinthians 10:11).  I could not begin to tell you how many times I have opened my Bible to 2nd Kings 4:1-7 to read how a prematurely widowed Hebrew woman was taught that when she received the Lord that she was given all of heaven!  She, like every modern-day believer in Jesus Christ is complete in Christ!  How many times I have been discouraged, read this passage and been reminded of the great treasure that I, too am complete in Christ, and He is more than equal to any need, or emergency that will ever arise in my life!

She told Elisha, the man of God (v 7) that her husband had died, and the creditor had come to take her two children to be his slaves (v 1).  Apparently the couple had borrowed money in his lifetime, and now the lender was coming for his money.  If he were dishonest, he could set the rate of interest so high that the boys would never pay off the debt.  They would be enslaved for a lifetime.  Elisha then did something on the surface that seems shocking.  He asked the woman what she had in the house!  She was in need, and Elisha asked her what she had!  He was not mocking the woman.  He simply knew the ways of God more intimately than the woman did!  He knew that if this couple knew the Lord, then God had already made provision for them.  Sure enough, she remembered that she had a jar of oil (v 2).  This would be the very resource that would meet the need of this woman and her two sons (v 7).  However, we sometimes overlook, as this woman did (v 2) the provision the Lord has made for His people. 

When Moses asked the Lord how the people would believe that he had been sent by God to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt, the Lord asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?”  Moses explained it was his shepherd’s staff.  The Lord told him to throw it down.  Moses obeyed, and the staff became a serpent.  The Lord told Moses to pick it back up, and it became a staff again.  But from that point on, it is now referred to as “The staff of God!”  When we fully surrender our life to God, He doesn’t keep it, but gives it back.  But it is never the same, it is stamped by His ownership, and we as ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things!

If we think we can handle our problems ourselves, we usually try, so we rarely see any more of the Lord in our life than we realize we need!  That is why our greatest opportunities to see the work of God in your life are our problems, our needs!  Do you have a God-sized problem?  Go to the Lord; Wait before Him; Listen to Him; Obey Him!

Jon Moore