Close to GOD - May 9, 2014

Scripture: Psalm 15-172 

1 Adonai, who can rest in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain?
2 Those who live a blameless life, who behave uprightly,
who speak truth from their hearts
3 and keep their tongues from slander; who never do harm to others

or seek to discredit neighbors;
4 who look with scorn on the vile, but honor those who fear Adonai;
who hold to an oath, no matter the cost;
5 who refuse usury when they lend money and refuse a bribe to damage the innocent.
Those who do these things never will be moved.

Message:

The Secret to being close to GOD.

Observation/Promise:
Humans are not perfect. In fact we fail more than we succeed, we are evil more than we are good. But who can rest in the mountain of GOD or who can enter His most Holy presence? Who is worthy? Is anyone ever worthy? There is no one, no one is worthy but those who trust in His Son Yeshua who is worthy can enter the rest of GOD. For when we trust in His Son Yeshua, we begin to be transformed by His grace. We do not act as we used to, His grace and amazing power changes us into the likeness of Him.

Command/Application:

We are not perfect, but with everyday we live, we have to strive to be holy not by being perfect because we can never achieve holiness or perfection on our own. But by being dependent on GOD's grace and humble to accept and receive His mercy and forgiveness when we diligently ask for it each day. For every breath we breathe and the thoughts that my come in and out of our minds may not be pleasing to the LORD. How easy is it for us to judge others when the weakness that they have is our strength but when we remember to be merciful to others because GOD has shown us the same mercy, we ask forgiveness because we understand just how frail and sinful we are. It is not by being righteous that brings us close to GOD, it is by humility and trust in His Son Yeshua. The One who saves.

Soap Ezekiel 36:22-27 - The Holiness of GOD

SOAP - Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer

S: 22 “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. 23 I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am theLord. 24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. - Ezekiel 36

O: God does great things for His people not because we deserve His goodness or are we worthy of His blessings but because He is a good GOD. His Holiness is greater than His anger. Even though HE is a righteous GOD that judges His people, HE does not treat us according to what we deserve. HE is so good that He is willing to do for His people what HE always wanted of them - hearts that love and worship Him alone. The Holiness of GOD is what makes HIM Righteous and Merciful at the same time.

A: I need GOD's grace and power to help me cleanse me and keep me pure and obedient to His will because without His Spirit at work in my life, it is impossible to please GOD. So with faith, we please GOD by believing that HE is who He said HE is. HE will, what HE said HE will do. I have to depend on HIS power and not my efforts to make me righteous.

P: Your Grace O Lord is what I need to live a life that is right before your eyes. I humble myself before You great GOD, make me clean, holy, pure and true. Fill me my entire being with Your Holy Spirit, for no one else can make me obedient to Your ways and give me the desire to do Your will than Your Spirit that is within me. So I need more of You and less of me, each day O Lord I depend on you, in Jesus Name, Amen!

End to Time

22 Give your burdens to the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
23 But you, O God, will send the wicked
down to the pit of destruction.
Murderers and liars will die young,
but I am trusting you to save me.

- Psalm 55

The LORD does not listen only to you during the time that you talk to Him. The LORD is always there watching over you when you sleep, waiting for you to wake up, guiding you throughout the day, waiting until you hear Him call His name again. Do you have to wait for troubles to come your way until you call out to HIM? But even in difficult times, you will be amazed to know that HE is nearer than ever. His word says give your burdens to the LORD and HE will take care of you. More than taking care of you, He has loved you with an everlasting love. His grace are available to you anytime just ask and it is there.

But GOD's eyes are not only on the righteous, and those that need Him. His eyes are constantly watching over the wicked waiting for the time their wickedness is full grown and then bringing them down to destruction, never having any chance to turn back. His grace and mercy are also following the wicked. Waiting for them to turn away from their wickedness and so when they turn back to GOD, His grace and mercy meets them. But there is an end to everything. GOD has given us the chance to repent while we are still here on earth, enjoying what HE has given us. Do not waste your life away, there's always an end to time.

Amazed by His Grace

7 Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. 9 God will do this, for he is faithful to do what he says, and he has invited you into partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

- 1 Corinthians 

The grace of GOD is amazing, why is it? How do we come into amazement of GOD's grace? It is when we rely entirely on GOD. When our faith is not trusting in our own efforts but in GOD's perfection, then we understand that even while we still fail GOD in our lives here on earth, we are confident that we are perfect in the Father's eyes because He looks at us through His Son Yeshua. GOD will give you everything you need to have victory in every area of your life. This is the promise of GOD, that HE will keep us strong until the end so that we will be blameless when judgement day comes. GOD will keep us from falling from grace because HE is faithful.

GOD has united us to Himself through His Son JESUS. WE can't ever do anything right on our own. We are right in every aspect just for the sole fact that we believe in JESUS and put our faith and trust that HE has cleansed us from every sin. HE is our righteousness not our own efforts, not our good hearts. We don't deserve any credit at all! Because we have faith in JESUS, we are pure and holy before the Father in Heaven. Isn't that amazing? When we cling on to GOD, we will always be amazed by HIS grace.

Yeshua the Righteousness of GOD

1 I come to you for protection, O Lord my God.
Save me from my persecutors—rescue me!
2 If you don’t, they will maul me like a lion,
tearing me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
6 Arise, O Lord, in anger! Stand up against the fury of my enemies!
Wake up, my God, and bring justice!
7 Gather the nations before you. Rule over them from on high.
8 The Lord judges the nations.
Declare me righteous, O Lord, for I am innocent, O Most High!
9 End the evil of those who are wicked, and defend the righteous.
For you look deep within the mind and heart,O righteous God.
10 God is my shield, saving those whose hearts are true and right.

- Psalm 7: 1-2,6-10

In this world the righteous and those who belong to the LORD most high are attacked by the enemies of GOD. David the King, often spoke about his enemies, be it the enemies of their nation, or enemies within his palace wall but in this specific verse David talks about a great and common enemy. He is talking about an invisible enemy which are the powers of darkness that use human enemies to be scare and stress David. The common enemy are the kind of enemies that will maul you like a lion and tear you to pieces without any compassion or mercy, this invisible enemy is the devil, the very enemies of GOD. 

We wait for GOD to someday be the greatest and only King this world will ever know and bow to. Someday the LORD will judge every living thing, punishing the wicked and defending the righteous. Righteousness is not just being right all the time but it is standing under GOD's grace because of our faith in Yeshua the Messiah whom HE sent to die for our sins. For we cannot attain righteousness on our own, therefore if we are standing under His grace we can never be the judge of others if they are indeed righteous or not. For the LORD alone knows those who are HIS, those whose hearts are true and right with Him. We have to focus our energies on pleasing GOD and not have to worry or give thought about what others think of us or even attempt to judge others because someday HE will judge us all, will He find you under His grace of faith, declaring you righteous?

After the Judgements

4 When Adonai washes away the filth of the women of Tziyon and cleanses Yerushalayim from the blood shed in it with a blast of searing judgment, 5 Adonai will create over the whole site of Mount Tziyon and over those who assemble there a smoking cloud by day and a shining, flaming fire by night; for the Glory will be over everything like a hupah.6 A sukkah will give shade by day from the heat; it will also provide refuge and cover from storm and rain.
- Isaiah 4:4-6

The LORD is a great Judge over all the earth. His standards of righteousness is higher than any human standard could ever possibly be of. GOD's ways are truly different and higher than our ways and therefore even when we try to do good, we can't ever be good enough on our own efforts and please GOD with our own hearts. When GOD judges the earth, He washes away every trace of dirt of every living being according to His holiness. GOD's judgement are humanly unthinkable but HIS grace after the judgment is a wonderful blessing to anyone whom GOD has chosen to have mercy on. Anyone who is humble enough to submit to GOD's judgement will be a remnant of HIS grace.

The LORD promises to create a covering over the entire place He made His judgements on. His glory will be seen over the remnant of His people who has survived HIS great acts of judgements. For all of us on earth, whether we belong to GOD or not, are being tested, we are being purified, we are being judged by the HOLY ONE. When we pass this season of testing there will be a time of relief, there will be a time of peace and GOD's glory will be like a cloud hovering over us during the day, and a fire during the night, we will never see nights of compelete darkness for GOD's faithfulness will be like a Hupah. A Hupah is a canopy above Jewish couples getting married. GOD's grace will be like a Hupah over us, where we can celebrate and feast for we know GOD's protection is upon us. Nothing will be able to harm us. For HIS love will be like a tent, an invisible bumble sorrounding us providing refuge from the heat of the day and rainy days. How wonderful it will be after every season of Judgement. 

Grace - Undeserved Favor

19 “So write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Help them learn it, so it may serve as a witness for me against them. 20 For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat. But they will begin to worship other gods; they will despise me and break my covenant.21 And when great disasters come down on them, this song will stand as evidence against them, for it will never be forgotten by their descendants. I know the intentions of these people, even now before they have entered the land I swore to give them.”
Deuteronomy 31:19-21

GOD knows and sees everything and seeks out the thing that man cannot easily see which is the heart of man or the the real intentions of a man. GOD knows the intents and hearts of the people of Israel yet HE still brings them to the pomised land flowing with milk and honey. Why? They don't deserve to be there, especially when GOD knows after that they have enjoyed the land, become prosperous and become fat, they will be rebellious and turn away from HIS ways. But still He gives these people abundant blessings that they don't deserve. He even creates a song for them for them to be taught and learn of it so that when they rebel against GOD, they will understand that the song was meant to witness against them. Would it make them remember GOD? Would it make them turn their hearts back to HIM? It doesn't say but the song says so many things about GOD. It says how faithful GOD is to people who cannot be faithful to HIM.

We are just the same as Israel. We can't ever be perfectly faithful to GOD because the Bible says that all of us have fallen short of God's glory, all have sinned, all have strayed away. But the good news is that GOD will always be faithful to us, even at our last breath, giving us a chance, when we stray that we can always turn back to HIM as long as we are still alive. So that at the very end, we can be with HIM in GOD's eternal promise land. So if you know you are in a state that is far from GOD, know this that HE has been waiting for you to come back to HIM. Remember that GOD remains the same throughout all time. HE never moved from where HE was in your life, in fact, when you moved away HE is still with you, still respecting your decision but waiting faithfully for you to come back to the home of HIS heart. Are you still enjoying the blessings even while you are far from GOD? That is His grace on you, our undeserving favor.