I have been reading the story of Hagar. She’s the servant to Sarah who ends up carrying and birthing Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. Ishmael was the child of the bondwoman, the slave. Isaac was the child of the freewoman and heir of the covenant promise from God.

Paul in Galatians talks about us being heirs of the promise and uses this analogy, saying that the children of the bondwoman don’t inherit the promise along with the children of the freewoman.

I recently gave some Bible verses to a grateful young woman who was convinced she must be the child of the bondwoman, a vessel created for destruction, because she felt like she was trying to find God but couldn’t find Him. She wasn’t experiencing Him even though she believed in Him.

But in Paul’s letter to Timothy, he says that we can change our common vessel to one of honor.

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21

We see the work of grace in Hagar’s life. Her state is changed. She goes from slave to matriarch.

She’s a servant who then is given to her master. She flees harsh treatment, but she obeys when told to submit to her harsh mistress. She bears a son who is promised greatness. She has her eyes opened to the gift of water for life.

When Hagar first flees, God finds her by a spring of water, but she doesn’t see the significance of the water. It would mean life to her in the future, but she doesn’t hold onto it. Later, when she runs away, she doesn’t find the spring. She and her son are dying of thirst. She doesn’t believe the promise like Abraham did. She doesn’t know by faith, as Abraham did, that her son will live to fulfill the promise of descendants. She remains in the wilderness and doesn’t find the land of promise. She didn’t have faith on her own, but for Abraham’s sake, the faith-filled friend of the Lord, the Lord hears the boy’s cries and saves him.

The Lord opens Hagar’s eyes to the water that was there all along. Jesus died for all according to the Scripture (2 Corinthians 5:15). The gift of living waters for life eternal are on offer for everyone, but it’s a work of God’s sovereign grace that our eyes are opened. But here, we have a slave with no faith of her own saved by the faith of another.

Don’t go to heaven alone. Bring others with you. Pray for others. Give others the knowledge of God. Partner with God in the gospel. Lead them to the living waters.

Maybe you’ve heard it mentioned that the first time worship is used in the Bible is when God asks Abraham to worship Him by sacrificing His son, Isaac. But I realized that in the same chapter, Genesis 22, we read the first use of the word love in the Bible. God calls Isaac the one Abraham loves.

One Bible study technique is to look to the first time a word is used to find its definition. Here we could see love defined as that which we need to offer as a sacrifice.

And what is worship? An offering of what we love. All that you love gets put on the altar. It all gets put on the altar, given over to God to be put to death.

God sends down His holy fire on the altar and it either gets consumed or consecrated to the Lord’s purposes and given back for His purposes.

We only get one love. What do we love most? What needs to be offered as worship?

Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

We love ourselves. We offer ourselves, all of who we are.

Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, mind, soul, strength.

All of your everything goes to God alone.

We love others with God’s love.

We only can love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). When we believe and accept His offer of life, He pours into our hearts His Holy Spirit. That’s His Love poured out.

Love isn’t stagnant. It has to move. It’s like light. It doesn’t remain still. We receive love only to pour it back out.

Every blessing gets offered back to God. We don’t fall in love with our blessings. We don’t fall in love with each other or with ourselves. It’s all from God and for God.

We live as living sacrifices. We offer ourselves and everything in our lives up on the altar. We live in the midst of the consuming fire that removes what’s not of Him and consecrates for His purposes. Each day is an offering of all of our everything to God. It’s all from Him and for Him.

And in the offering is praise and thanksgiving, eternal gratitude for all of the everything because it’s all part of His perfect purposes. The joy in receiving the blessing and the joy of offering back the blessing are one and the same because Christ alone is our joy. Our pleasure is His presence and we choose to go up the mountain and worship because we have only one true love, and He’s worthy of our worship.

“What they understood as weakness deserves my every praise.”

That’s a line from the CityAlight song, “His Glory and My Good.” It’s what sparked this article. The line is talking about the cross. Jesus was mocked hanging there. People challenged Him to come down to show His strength and power.

He was displaying His every strength in His weakness on the cross. Think of the strength to choose the cross and to keep choosing it until it was finished.

What strength He had to die for their forgiveness instead of speaking the word and having the mockers struck dead! What strength to submit to His Father and the perfect plan and not looking to Himself, even when feeling abandoned under the weight of the separation of sin.

He trusted His God. He endured in the strength of the Spirit, and so do we.

It takes a lot of strength to remain in weakness, to make the choice of weakness.

There are ways to get out from under a lot of situations. We can get into debt to get the money we need. We can get medicines to relieve a symptom. We can consult an expert, hire a handyman, etc.

We feel like we’ve taken care of something, but we’ve just solved one problem and maybe created more in the process. Debt is certainly a problem. Medicines have side effects and don’t necessarily get to the root. Even if the handyman does a great job, time and money were spent. What were God’s plans with that time and money? Did you consider?

It takes a lot more strength to stay in weakness, in need, in not knowing how and when things will get better. But that’s the true place of rejoicing.

We thank God when we get the “fix” to a problem, even if we made it happen ourselves. But we’ll just lose our thanksgiving when the next problem comes.

The place of “rejoice always” and “give thanks in all circumstances” is knowing our God’s strength in our every weakness. It’s knowing His goodness and absolute perfection in everything. The “fix” isn’t what we want. It’s His perfect will working out perfectly in and through our lives.

Our will isn’t our ease and comfort and things getting back to normal. Our will is God’s will being done. Our desire is to see God glorified and the many come to righteousness. God’s view is from eternity. He’s the one with the plan. Wait on Him. Be of good courage and wait.

Rejoice in the weakness of the “helpless” waiting. We have a God ready to help and mighty to save. Wait in rejoicing and thanksgiving because you aren’t really waiting on something to happen. It’s already happening. He’s already working out His perfect plan.

Praise God!

“Holy, holy, holy” is the most famous example of the triplet, the thrice-repeated phrase. Repeating it three times shows its certainty, its completeness. It’s being emphasized. God wants you to get the point.

What else do we see repeated three times? How about this Scripture from Isaiah 43? What word is there three times?

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:2

Through…we’re meant to go through. There’s no rapture before the tribulation. Tribulation is a gift for the believer. It’s proving our faith, making it pure gold. It’s refining the gold, making us bride-ready. We want the tribulation. We want to go through the trial. The abundance is on the other side. The double portion was waiting for Job when he got through the trial in faith and righteousness. He could have cursed God and died and ended his trial. He would have missed the double-portion life.

We went through a time with no money. We could have gone into debt to get what we needed. We didn’t. We lived in faith and righteousness. We trusted God and He came through. We live in a home debt free. We have two cars debt free. We could be living enslaved instead of free if we hadn’t gone through.

We had no money because we left our income. We trusted the Lord to provide. We could have gone into the world and gotten jobs and be working hard for a living instead of living in the rest of living and working for Jesus. We live in the double portion when it comes to provision. It’s one of the territories of the “Promised Land” that we’ve come into. Another is in our marriage; we’ve come through and live in the double portion!

There is no fear of the trial. It’s God preparing a blessing for you. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Rely on Him to bring you through in faith and righteousness. He’s in control and always working for your good. Trust the God who loves you and will never leave you. Read the surrounding verses from Isaiah 43.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
² When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
⁴ Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life.
⁵ Fear not, for I am with you… (Isa 43:2-5)

And let me leave you with one more triplet. These are all from Revelation 22.

“I am coming quickly.”

“I am coming quickly.”

“I am coming quickly.”

King David: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. (Psalm 145:13)

Nebuchadnezzar: For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. (from Daniel 4:34)

Our church had a guest preacher who pointed out the connection between these two Scriptures. I spoke to him after the service about how King Darius proclaimed something similar after Daniel is rescued from the lions. “His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.” It’s the same sentiment with some different words.

The pastor mentioned the idea that the kings were learning that from Daniel. It made me wonder if Daniel went around with a song on his lips.

Any Psalm of David was written before the Babylonian exile, which is where Daniel was during his tenure with these kings, and others.

I started thinking about how Daniel lived among this pagan people. He’s an example to us of how to live as Christians in an idolatrous culture.

We don’t see him preaching. We don’t see him railing against their idols. We don’t see him defiant, though he disobeyed their law. We see him as very submissive and respectful to his captors, but also entirely steadfast in his devotion to God despite circumstances. 

He was obviously a man of integrity, but he was taken captive and made a eunuch. That probably hadn’t been anywhere in his future plans. But he doesn’t turn bitter toward God; he honors His God who not only allowed it all to happen but had His perfect purposes in it.

Daniel is a beautiful example of how we are part of the whole and experience the consequences of the whole, but also of how God sees the individual and knows how to separate out His own.

Daniel quietly asks for kosher food. He leaves it up to the man in charge, just asks respectfully and God honors his heart. I assume he’s eating together with others and they see that the Hebrew boys are eating different food. He’s not hiding it. He’s also not flaunting it. Daniel doesn’t make a speech about the new law Darius signs forbidding prayer to God; he just goes and prays as he always did, with the window open toward Jerusalem. He doesn’t hide. He doesn’t make a scene, either. He honors God, but he also shows honor to the king.

Christians shouldn’t be disrespecting elected officials. It’s unchristian to do so. We should be praying for them. We should be humbling ourselves. We should be living in utmost integrity. We should look different from the world, not partaking of their delicacies, whether gossip or the latest hit movie.

We live in the world, but not of it. We don’t have the world’s ambitions and lusts. Our desire is set on knowing the Lord and making Him known. Our purpose is pleasing God and we walk in our one commandment, to love others.

And if we live loved and live to love, they will see and they will know, and we pray that when they do, they will put their trust in the Lord.

God used Daniel, quietly living out loud, to turn the hearts of kings to faith in the one, true, everlasting God.

I was reading John chapter four, the Samaritan woman at the well. She is lives in a city in Samaria and has a seeking heart. God lets her find what she’s looking for.

The mouth speaks the overflow of the heart. What does she speak? The first thing that comes out of her mouth is about where it’s right to worship. Can she worship God on their mountain or do they really have to worship in Jerusalem where they aren’t welcome?

Jesus answers her heart. He knows her heart. He says that the location doesn’t matter. It’s the heart of worship that matters. God is seeking worshipers! How exciting is that? He wants worshipers. We can fulfill a desire of God by being a true worshiper! Will you worship in spirit and in truth? Set your heart on God alone.

Be wary of Christian songs that teach doctrine of man. Word of Faith is a doctrine of man that teaches pride and prayerlessness, and it is creeping into music. “Speaking Jesus,” “claiming my victory,” and “praise as a weapon” are used in Word of Faith. Speak truth in your worship. There are “worship” songs that have us talking to ourselves instead of to God. Make sure you are worshiping God and not self. Be wary of modern worship songs that are written to create a feeling or written to get us active and involved. It’s written for the flesh. We have to keep the focus on God and off ourselves. Honor Him with your worship.

The conversation continues. The Samaritan woman learns that Jesus understands the sin she lives in. But He sees her heart. Her heart is seeking. There was something else on her heart. She’s been looking for the coming of the Messiah. She was seeking. She found. Jesus reveals to her that He is the Messiah.

What happens? She turns evangelist and tells the whole city. They gather to Jesus. The city comes to a saving knowledge of Christ. A city is saved because of one seeker, because of one person. It wasn’t her righteousness. It wasn’t her diligence in service. It was her heart set on true worship and the coming Messiah.

Where has God placed you to be the one?

I want to end there, but the chapter doesn’t end there. There’s an official whose son is dying. He goes to Jesus. The son is healed. That’s the end of the story. He got what He sought from the Lord.

What are you seeking after? Don’t seek the gifts. Don’t seek revival for the sake of revival. Seek to be a true worshiper and set your eye on the coming Messiah. What does that mean? It’s an eternal worldview. Nothing of the world can hold your attention or draw you away from your purpose. Jesus is coming. He will be our judge and He will reign in righteousness. If that’s true, think about what’s important today, and do that?

The Father is seeking worshipers. Jesus is coming. Will He find faith on the earth? Will you be the one He’s looking for to bring the many to righteousness, to bring the hearts He longs for to saving faith? He just needs one.

This past Friday, the last Friday in August, I ended up doing four baptisms at my friend’s house. We’ve arranged a Friday night Bible study for the people baptized, though others are being invited. This coming Friday there are others already asking to be baptized. This was all unplanned. I was asked to teach the Bible study. I had suggested someone else, but they decided I was the one to do it, so it feels like I am back ministering in the city. I have no vision for what this is or is to be. I’m just doing the job the Lord puts in front of me each day which means I’m just loving whomever the Lord puts in front of me each day.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

My first ministry outside of serving in my home church and leadership in the Christian fellowship group on my college campus was in the city of Chester. It’s a little place south of Philadelphia. It ranks high in unemployment and all such things including violent crime. Back then I was still a teenager, nearly 30 years ago. I ran a summer camp and then a Saturday program for kids in the city.

Maybe five years ago I got invited to speak at a church in the city. I met Tameka. Actually, I went up to her and gave her a hug. I thought I knew her. She looked so familiar. Turns out I knew her brother, a camp kid. We got connected and I started visiting her regularly, about once a month for awhile, to encourage her in the Lord. She sometimes calls me her “mother.”

Just the other week, the Lord told her to have a “revival meeting” on Friday. She told me that I was a name she heard that was to be there. She wanted me to teach on baptism. I asked her if we had a way to baptize people. She said no. I said, “Well, I teach on baptism, I’m going to say that it’s your death, burial, and resurrection. It would be weird to say to people you can get your new life in Christ next week.” She got a pool from Family Dollar and put out on Facebook that you could come from 6-8 on Friday and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and be baptized. She’s just awesome like that.

I showed up along with some family of hers. They set up tables of free food and clothing. No one came the first hour, so there was no meeting as we might have imagined. But in the second hour people came and I ended up baptizing three people. The first video they cut off when she came out of the water. Then they learned to film the rest. The first girl said she “felt it come off in the water.” I talk to them about the old passing away and the new coming. I command anything unclean to leave and ask for the Holy Spirit. I don’t know what to expect next. [Update: They have asked me to lead a Bible study for them, but it hasn’t gotten organized yet.]

Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.’ Jeremiah 32:36  

In Jeremiah we have the story of the Babylonian invasion. The northern kingdom of Israel has already been taken away by Assyria. We have Judah left. They are going to be killed or taken captive to Babylon. In Babylon is where we have the story of Daniel. The Israelites will exiled there for seventy years.

In the book of Revelation, we see Babylon as a wealthy, sinful nation. When she is destroyed, all the merchants of the world weep because they were the ones who bought all their stuff. It’s not hard to see that as America today. I’m sure we are by far the world’s largest consumers. Personally, I see in history how satan has always been working to bring about the end times when he will rule over all the earth. We see empires rise up and fall. We see antichrist like leaders rise up and fall. I think satan is always working toward it and always building up a Babylon, always within the confines of what God allows for His greater purposes.

In the verse from Jeremiah it says how they are going to be given over to Babylon, by sword, famine, and pestilence. That made me think of the tribulation, there will be sword, famine, and pestilence. That stood out to me and made me think of Revelation 6.

The tribulation is a shaking. It will separate the wheat and the chaff. Will you stand firm or get carried away? There will be two choices, relying on God or not. You can trust God to protect and provide and save and be your God, or you can rely on yourself to be your own god and turn to your own understanding to save yourself.

If you couldn’t use money, couldn’t buy or sell, couldn’t work, etc. could you walk away from all that and trust God? Or, would it be much easier for you to justify doing whatever was asked so that you can do those things, justifying that God understood you needed those things and would forgive?

Anytime you catch yourself justifying, giving reasons, stop dead in your tracks! That’s what the enemy does. God doesn’t give reasons. He asks us to act in faith.

And, yes, there is forgiveness, but not when we are in living in the continued conscious choice of sin. That’s not how that works. We need to repent. You can’t repent if you are planning to just keep living in it. If we deny God, He denies us. That’s a Bible promise.

There is one way through, and that’s in the only way, THE WAY, Jesus Christ. We must be in Christ. He is our protection, provision, the very way through. Relying on self will leave you like these…

They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness. Isaiah 8:21-22

Or, you could be among the faithful.

These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. Revelation 17:14