Tell it, Lord!

Tell it, Lord! by Shawn McEvoy He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He said to him, "Follow me!" Matthew9:9 In the margin of my Bible next to Matthew 7:11 is a notation dated 9/1/90. It says: "I love verses with exclamation points!" That particular verse, in case you were wondering, says, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" I wonder why editors chose an exclamation point there, and not a question mark. I also wish I knew the inspiration or emotion that prompted me to make the notation. All I know is that it would have been made during the first or second week of my sophomoreyear of college, and at the time I was a Youth Ministry major. And that the sentiment has continued. Coming across that notation again recently prompted me to look up more verses in which Jesus is credited with having expressed some extra "oomph." Of course, the original manuscripts were not inscribed with modern punctuation marks. Those have been leftup to various translators through the years. In my New American Standard Version of Matthew's Gospel, however, the emphasis has been added to several statements the Lord made, and some of those may be categorized as follows: Rebuke of Temptation Matthew 4:10-11: Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship theLord your God, and serve Him only.'" Then the devil left Him... Matthew 16:23: But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting yourmind on God's interests, but man's." Rebuke of Hypocrisy Matthew 23:23-39: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!... You blind guides, who strainout a gnat and swallow a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!... Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!... O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sentto her!... Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" Matthew 11:18-19: "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon!' TheSon of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds." Matthew 12:12: "Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Stern Warning Matthew 9:30: "And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, "See here, let no one know about this!" Matthew 6:23: "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness,how great is the darkness!" Regarding Spiritual Warfare Matthew 8:32: And he said to them, "Begone!" And they came out, and went into the swine..." Matthew 10:24-25: "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enoughfor the disciple that he become as his teacher, and the slave as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of the house!" Stirring to Faith in Action Matthew 12:13: Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!" And he stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like theother. Matthew 14:16: But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" Matthew 14:29: And He said, "Come!" And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Matthew 9:9: He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He said to him, "Follow me!" Remembering the Father's Provision "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" Making a Radical Point Matthew 12:49-50: "And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold, My motherand My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." Sadness Matthew 26:24, 46: "The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!...Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays me is at hand!" Matthew 18:7: "Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that manthrough whom the stumbling block comes!" Regarding the End Times Matthew 24:19: "But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days!" The Father's Confirmation of His Son Matthew 17:5: Behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, withwhom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" Listen to Him indeed. What is He saying? How emphatically is he saying it? Don't mess around when temptation comes. Don't disregard the spiritual realm and the forces that oppose you. Be stirred to action. Recognize once and for all that God has provided for you like the loving Father He is, so that you are free to do His will without worry. Following Christ is a radical road, but those that betray the Way and put stumbling blocks in the road will be left to God's judgment. Dangerous days are coming. But in the end, your belief is in the Son of Almighty God! Intersecting Faith & Life: Pick another one of the Gospels and study the points of emphasis you find the Lord saying there. ----------------------------------------------------------- GodIs Spirit “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John4:24) Mankind has always struggled with this aspect of God. The Second Commandment prohibited any attempt to represent God by any physical shape (Exodus20:4-5). The triune God cannot be contained by finite attributes. •“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1Timothy 1:17) •“Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” (1Timothy 6:16) Were it not for the Second Person of the Godhead, He whom the apostle John identifies as “the Word,” we wouldhave no possibility of knowing God (John1:1-14). Philip asked to see the Father, and the Lord Jesus replied: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John14:9). But how can this be? Paul explained to the Philippian church that Jesus Christ emptied Himself, took on the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men (Philippians2:7). Our Lord Jesus, our Redeemer and Savior, the same Creator who spoke the worlds into existence, “was made flesh” (John1:14) in order to provide all that was necessary for the thrice-holy God to “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans3:26). Jesus insisted “no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John6:44). Salvation is not possible unless “he that cometh to God [believes] that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews11:6). Jesus Himself told the Samaritan woman, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” HMM III -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The God Who Forgives Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus Christ gave His followers a pattern for prayer that includes seeking forgiveness daily. The invitation to regular repentance is not a means of renewing our salvation, but rather a maintenance plan for our fellowship with the Lord. When we trust Jesus as our Savior, our sins are forgiven forever. The stains from our past, present, and future wrongs are wiped from our record; however, we're a fallen people sowe do continue to commit sin. With the exception of Jesus Christ, no person is perfect. Sin is simply a fact of human life. The Lord's payment for our transgressions means that we can look forward to an eternity spent in God's presence instead of getting the punishment we deserve. Onthis side of heaven, though, we still have to contend with our tendency to do wrong--and we must also deal with the consequences. The Lord's admonition to seek daily forgiveness is a reminder to confess our sins and turn away from them because we are forgiven. God's grace is not a license to sin; instead, it's a reason to pursue righteousness. Bad attitudes, thoughtless actions, and unkind speech do not fit who we are as children of light. We're new creatures in Christ, bought for a price and set free to liveas partakers of His grace. Salvation makes a way for us to enter God's presence, while regular confession and repentance keep the pathway well maintained and free of obstruction (1John 1:9). The so-called "sinner's prayer" need be said only once, but a saint will tap into God's forgiveness every day of his or her life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Living Savior “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hathraised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) There is a popular Christian song whose chorus ends with these words: “You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart.” This may sound spiritual, but this is not how we know He lives! We are saved because of the objective fact that He died for oursins and then rose bodily from the tomb, triumphant over sin, death, the curse, and Satan, alive in His glorified body forevermore. It is this which we must believe in our hearts and confess with our lips. For Him to rise bodily from the grave means that Heis nothing less than God, the very Creator Himself. It is only because of who He is that He could do what He did, and this is what we must believe in our hearts. There are people who believe that Buddha lives in their hearts, or the spirit of “the gods” indwells their hearts, or even that “the Christ” is in their hearts, but “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah17:9). We can believe many things and feel many things that are not so. We know Jesus Christ is a living Savior not because we feel His presence in our hearts but because He rose from the grave on the third day and “shewed himself alive after his passionby many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days” (Acts 1:3). The gospel of our salvation does not rest on our feelings, nor on someone’s teachings,but on the objective, proven, certain facts of history. Jesus Christ is alive, whether anyone feels Him living in their hearts or not, and He is at this moment bodily in heaven at the right hand of the Father (e.g., Romans 8:34). “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).HMM --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Acceptedin the Beloved �To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.� (Ephesians1:6) This wonderful verse assures that all who have been saved by God�s grace have been �accepted� by the Lord. However, this is not just a marginal acceptability. The Greek word occurs only one other time in the New Testament, and there it appears in the wordsof the angel Gabriel to Mary. �Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women� (Luke1:28). That is, we are not merely accepted, we are highly favored by God! This is not because of our own personal merits, of course. It is because God sees us as in His Son; He loves us because He loves Him, and we are in Him. Although Christ is called God�s �beloved Son� seven times in the New Testament (each time directly by the Father Himself), there is only one other time when He is spoken of simply as �the beloved.� This is in Matthew 12:18 (quoting Isaiah 42:1), �Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him.� The love of God the Father for His beloved Son is the root source of every other love in the universe, for it is the one love that is eternal. �Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, whichthou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world� (John17:24). This is what it means to be highly favored in the beloved! This was the prayer of Christ on His way to Gethsemane the night before He went to the cross. We who are in Him are predestined to be with Him in glory, to behold His glory, and forever, as redeemed sinners saved by grace through faith, to be �to the praise of the glory of his grace� (today�s text). HMM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facing Obstacles with Faith - by Greg Laurie � www.harvest.org Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fearthem. �Numbers 14:9 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/facing-obstacles-with-faith/- Listen Have you ever been so discouraged that you wanted to die? That�s how the Israelites felt as they were poised to enter the Promised Land. They said, �If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!� (Numbers 14:2 NLT). These people had lost perspective. They were allowing their fear to overwhelm them. But Caleb and Joshua told the people, �Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them,and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them� (Numbers 14:9 NKJV). God doesn�t want us to run from our giants. He wants us to attack them. For example, let�s take the giant of addiction. Let�s say you have a problem with drugs or a problemwith drinking. Recognize you have a problem. Bring it into the open, into the light of day. Make yourself accountable to someone and realize that you cannot do this in your own strength. Call on God and pray for His power. But don�t just face your giants; defeat them. Don�t leave any backup plan to go back and do that thing again. Deal with your giants.Don�t let them conquer you. Faith and worry cannot coexist because when faith walks in, worry walks out. And when worry steps in, faith walks out. They don�t get along. In fact, they cancel each otherout. Someone has wisely pointed out that when you trust, you don�t worry, and when you worry, you don�t trust. So we want faith in our lives, not worry. Every Christian will face difficulty. The Christian life is not a cakewalk; it�s a conflict. The Christian life is not a playground; it�s a battleground. So let�s face theobstacles that are before us with great faith. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM