This week I have been reading from “The Gospel According to Matthew”, and as I have done so God has opened up this telling of Jesus Christ in a new and different way. The words came alive in a way I had never seen them before and in many ways it was as though I was hearing them for the first time. Of all that I read one verse in particular that I had read two days ago stood out and I kept referencing back to it as I read on. I guess I had not really noticed it before or was just more focused on the surrounding verses. The verse that I am referring to is Matthew 16:27, Jesus is talking with the twelve, He asks them who do men say that He is, then He asks them who do they say that He is. Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord proceeds to tell them how He was going to suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priest and scribes, that He would be killed and be raised from the dead the third day. Peter rebukes Him and the Lord says, “Get behind Me Satan!” Then the Lord tells them how to be saved and I have found in this reading of Matthew this same plan of salvation runs through every story and parable, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Then the Lord tells of His coming and this was opened to me like it had never been done before. Jesus is not returning as a man, Jesus as returning as God in all of His glory! “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angles, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). Then in chapter 24 He tells of the end of times and His return and all I could think was, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Really, think about this for a moment. Jesus is not returning as the Lamb of God, He is returning in the glory of the Father, and says that He will reward each according to his works. My question to you is do you really want to be rewarded according to your works?
Let us look at the story of “The rich young ruler”. He comes to Jesus saying, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” In other words he was asking Jesus what work he must do to be rewarded. Jesus gives him the answer immediately when He says, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” This man like most men thought there is something or things that he could do to be considered good, that by his works he could be rewarded with eternal life. Jesus then proceeds to give him the commandments and says that if you keep all of those you will have eternal life. He did this so that the man would see his sinful state before God. What does the law of God do? It brings the knowledge of sin, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). This man is before God incarnate, and he is given the law of God by Him who gave the law and he denies that he has broken the law. Even with that the Lord gives him the way to eternal life. Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). I have heard this story preached about on many occasions and most times the one preaching says that this man’s god was his money. I don’t think so! This man was holding on to something else, something that is even harder for a man to give up than worldly wealth and that thing is self-righteousness. He had a death grip on self-righteousness and was not about to let it go for anything. Jesus said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). This man’s worldly wealth wasn’t the problem, his problem was that he refused to die to self, he refused to give up his self-righteousness and that is what he needed to sell. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25).
So I ask you, do you really want to be rewarded according to your works? I know I don’t, that is why I am not trusting in my works but I am trusting in the works of Jesus Christ to save me from the wrath of the living God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Sheep's Gate
This morning God gave me a message through a short passage in the gospel of Luke and it is that message that I would like to impart to you today. There is an enmity that separates the people of this world from God and that enmity is God’s law. Enmity means a wall of separation. And this wall is a daunting and impossible wall to scale for no one can climb over it, no one can go around it because it is eternal, and it is impenetrable, you cannot break it down. Many try to scale the wall and die trying, many try and walk around the wall and never find its end, and many more try to go through the wall and are crushed by it. The good news is that there is a way through the wall, a very narrow gate by which you might enter and the pathway through the wall is difficult. Most refuse to enter through this narrow gate because they are proud, and many more stray off the path because it is difficult. To enter through this gate you must be; poor of spirit, mournful, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and are persecuted for righteousness sake. No it is not easy to enter this gate and even more difficult is the way.
There are two gates and all people will enter one or the other. One gate is wide and its way is broad, one gate is narrow and its way is difficult. Most people enter the wide gate and walk the broad way, there are but a few brave souls that enter the narrow gate and walk the difficult way. All gates, all doors open into a way and that way if followed leads you somewhere. If the destination you desire is not on the way you are on you will not reach the destination you desire. I live in the United States, in the state of Texas, Interstate highway 35 runs north to Canada and south to Mexico; if my desired destination was Mexico and I got on Interstate highway 35 north I would not reach my desired destination would I, because I was headed the wrong way? Now the two ways earlier mentioned the broad way and the difficult way both have a destination. The wide gate and the broad way leads to destruction. The narrow gate and difficult way leads to life.
So if the narrow gate and the difficult way leads to life wouldn’t you want to find it? Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God gave us directions to the narrow gate. Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is both the gate and the way to life. Jesus is the narrow gate and following Him is the difficult way to life.
Let us look at the world’s religions for a moment. Let us draw a circle around the way in Jesus Christ and a circle around all world religions including atheism. All the world’s religions have one common theme, earning merit with God. If you follow the letter of the law, or if you do all of these good deeds you will earn your way to life. All who are in these religions are trusting in themselves on their own merit. The way in Jesus Christ is different, the believer admits he has broken the law of God and transfers his trust from himself to Jesus Christ. The believer does not stand on his own merit but on the merit of Jesus. This is the narrow gate, you are not good and you deserve to be punished but you put your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross as payment for your sins. You transfer the trust from yourself to the Savior and except His Lordship over your life. You can enter through the wide gate and walk the broad way as most do but that way leads to destruction. There is but one narrow gate (the sheep’s gate) and one way to life though it is difficult.
Now this gate is very narrow and you can only enter it through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins. And this way is difficult because in order to walk this way you most become humble and meek. Self-righteousness has no part on this way it cannot make it through the gate. There is not enough room on this way for pride it must be left at the gate. This way is too narrow for arrogance it must be left behind. This way is much too difficult to carry artificiality; it is too burdensome. Yes only the one who is poor in spirit, who mourns, who is meek, hungers and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers may enter.
I hope you will enter through the narrow gate (the sheep's gate) and walk the narrow way for it leads to life. Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
God be with you,
Mike Peek
There are two gates and all people will enter one or the other. One gate is wide and its way is broad, one gate is narrow and its way is difficult. Most people enter the wide gate and walk the broad way, there are but a few brave souls that enter the narrow gate and walk the difficult way. All gates, all doors open into a way and that way if followed leads you somewhere. If the destination you desire is not on the way you are on you will not reach the destination you desire. I live in the United States, in the state of Texas, Interstate highway 35 runs north to Canada and south to Mexico; if my desired destination was Mexico and I got on Interstate highway 35 north I would not reach my desired destination would I, because I was headed the wrong way? Now the two ways earlier mentioned the broad way and the difficult way both have a destination. The wide gate and the broad way leads to destruction. The narrow gate and difficult way leads to life.
So if the narrow gate and the difficult way leads to life wouldn’t you want to find it? Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God gave us directions to the narrow gate. Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is both the gate and the way to life. Jesus is the narrow gate and following Him is the difficult way to life.
Let us look at the world’s religions for a moment. Let us draw a circle around the way in Jesus Christ and a circle around all world religions including atheism. All the world’s religions have one common theme, earning merit with God. If you follow the letter of the law, or if you do all of these good deeds you will earn your way to life. All who are in these religions are trusting in themselves on their own merit. The way in Jesus Christ is different, the believer admits he has broken the law of God and transfers his trust from himself to Jesus Christ. The believer does not stand on his own merit but on the merit of Jesus. This is the narrow gate, you are not good and you deserve to be punished but you put your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross as payment for your sins. You transfer the trust from yourself to the Savior and except His Lordship over your life. You can enter through the wide gate and walk the broad way as most do but that way leads to destruction. There is but one narrow gate (the sheep’s gate) and one way to life though it is difficult.
Now this gate is very narrow and you can only enter it through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins. And this way is difficult because in order to walk this way you most become humble and meek. Self-righteousness has no part on this way it cannot make it through the gate. There is not enough room on this way for pride it must be left at the gate. This way is too narrow for arrogance it must be left behind. This way is much too difficult to carry artificiality; it is too burdensome. Yes only the one who is poor in spirit, who mourns, who is meek, hungers and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers may enter.
I hope you will enter through the narrow gate (the sheep's gate) and walk the narrow way for it leads to life. Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
God be with you,
Mike Peek
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Love and Sacrifice
There are two things that I would like to talk about today; love and sacrifice. These two words are deep in their significance and meaning, they are a totality of scripture in a wonderful summary. They are so simple, yet so extremely difficult. These two words are both defined by the world and by the Bible, with the definitions in contrast. If you were to take all of scripture as incredibly vast as it is, it can be summarized in love and sacrifice.
The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Isn’t that wonderful? No matter what you have thought, no matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
So let us define love from the Word of God. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Jesus is the expression of God in a man. Jesus before going to the cross gave a command to His disciples, and that command is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only does He tell us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also tells us to even love the unlovable, to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). People will often love someone because being around that person gives them good feelings. When is love true love? Love is true love when it benefits you nothing. Jesus loved the world, and the world spit in His face. Jesus loved the world, and the world beat Him. Jesus loved the world, and the world hung Him on a cross until He suffered and died. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if God loves you like that, don’t you think you should love like God, in loving other people?
The second message is this. God sacrificed everything to save you, so sacrifice everything. God sacrificed everything, Himself, so that you might live. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father gave His only begotten Son. Begotten is the best translation and it literally means came out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is God. So when the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son it is saying He gave Himself. And what He gave was everything. Think about this for a minute, go outside on a clear night and look at the sky and the vastness of the universe and all it contains. Climb a mountain and gaze at the wonder of the earth. Watch the birds fly, fish swim, a horse run, and a child play; all of which magnify the glory of God. Then think about this; Jesus was with God before time began, before creation. God had Him lower Himself to take on the form of lowly man to redeem man from this fallen world. Think about how difficult that most have been, and to do that knowing that the very people He was saving would curse Him, spit on Him, beat Him, hate Him, and murder Him. Amazing!!! Jesus while being fully God was also fully man. The fact that he subjected Himself to this fleshy state is a sacrifice beyond imagination. Jesus felt pain, hunger, thirst, sadness, disappointment, and He also faced temptation.
Let us just for a moment look at one of these, temptations. What an incredible thing it is that God would subject Himself to this. We as fleshy human beings have real physical needs and it is our desire to have those needs met. Sin occurs when a real physical need meets desire, which desire gives way to temptation, and temptation to sin. Jesus while He was fully God He was fully man, and being fully man He was subject to everything we as men are subject to. I will use to describe this, a sin that easily besets a man. God created in man a real physical need to procreate, to have sex and multiply, and what God has created is good. God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God set this to be done within a marriage between one man and one woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5 & Genesis 2:24). The two become one flesh. “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). So God created in man the real physical need to multiply. That real physical need that is good, gives way to desire, a desire to have sex, which is good. Once a man has that desire then he can become subject to temptation. Not all but many women in our society flaunt themselves; they expose themselves in many different ways. So you have a man with a physical need to procreate which gives him the desire to have sex, then a woman with a low cut dress comes into his eye site exposing here breast (her cleavage); so then you have instantaneously within this man a temptation to lust. He has a real physical need to procreate, which causes sexual desire, which is good, and then he is exposed to this woman’s cleavage which gives him the temptation to lust. Lust is an intense, strong, passionate, craving, appetite for, to delight in, or to wish for. So in this case this man who has a real physical need, which causes desire, is tempted to lust. Lust in this case would be that he desires to have sex with this woman that has come into his view, that no longer does he just have an innate sexual desire, which is good, but he desires to have sex with her, the woman he just saw, he takes delight in her, and has an appetite for, which is sin. Lust is sin, Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). There are three things this man cannot avoid: His physical need, his innate sexual desire, and temptation. Once faced with temptation he has a choice; to turn away and put it out of his mind, or to allow his innate sexual desire to turn into a directed desire for the woman that has entered into his vision.
This is but one temptation that men face every day. This is but one type of temptation amongst many. It is so incredibly difficult to wether all of the temptations that you face in just a single day, sometimes in a single hour much less a lifetime. Thank God that Jesus did it for us. God really did sacrifice everything. Can you imagine having the same body we have, and being faced with the same temptations we are faced with everyday and never once giving in to temptation and sinning, the incredible sacrifice that it took. Then the cross; He was cursed by sinful men, spit on, mocked, beaten, carried His own instrument of death, hung on a cross to suffer and die. And He felt everything; the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. Then God the father turns His back on Him and He dies a sinner’s death going to Hell so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus went to hell, He died a sinner’s death, He died and went to hell. But because He is God when He was ready He defeated death and hell and rose from the grave. The sacrifice is so incredible we will never in this life understand it in partiality much less fully. So if He sacrificed everything to save you, shouldn’t you sacrifice everything?
God loves you, so love God and other People. God sacrificed everything for you, so sacrifice everything.
Mike Peek
The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Isn’t that wonderful? No matter what you have thought, no matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
So let us define love from the Word of God. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Jesus is the expression of God in a man. Jesus before going to the cross gave a command to His disciples, and that command is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only does He tell us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also tells us to even love the unlovable, to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). People will often love someone because being around that person gives them good feelings. When is love true love? Love is true love when it benefits you nothing. Jesus loved the world, and the world spit in His face. Jesus loved the world, and the world beat Him. Jesus loved the world, and the world hung Him on a cross until He suffered and died. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if God loves you like that, don’t you think you should love like God, in loving other people?
The second message is this. God sacrificed everything to save you, so sacrifice everything. God sacrificed everything, Himself, so that you might live. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father gave His only begotten Son. Begotten is the best translation and it literally means came out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is God. So when the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son it is saying He gave Himself. And what He gave was everything. Think about this for a minute, go outside on a clear night and look at the sky and the vastness of the universe and all it contains. Climb a mountain and gaze at the wonder of the earth. Watch the birds fly, fish swim, a horse run, and a child play; all of which magnify the glory of God. Then think about this; Jesus was with God before time began, before creation. God had Him lower Himself to take on the form of lowly man to redeem man from this fallen world. Think about how difficult that most have been, and to do that knowing that the very people He was saving would curse Him, spit on Him, beat Him, hate Him, and murder Him. Amazing!!! Jesus while being fully God was also fully man. The fact that he subjected Himself to this fleshy state is a sacrifice beyond imagination. Jesus felt pain, hunger, thirst, sadness, disappointment, and He also faced temptation.
Let us just for a moment look at one of these, temptations. What an incredible thing it is that God would subject Himself to this. We as fleshy human beings have real physical needs and it is our desire to have those needs met. Sin occurs when a real physical need meets desire, which desire gives way to temptation, and temptation to sin. Jesus while He was fully God He was fully man, and being fully man He was subject to everything we as men are subject to. I will use to describe this, a sin that easily besets a man. God created in man a real physical need to procreate, to have sex and multiply, and what God has created is good. God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God set this to be done within a marriage between one man and one woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5 & Genesis 2:24). The two become one flesh. “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). So God created in man the real physical need to multiply. That real physical need that is good, gives way to desire, a desire to have sex, which is good. Once a man has that desire then he can become subject to temptation. Not all but many women in our society flaunt themselves; they expose themselves in many different ways. So you have a man with a physical need to procreate which gives him the desire to have sex, then a woman with a low cut dress comes into his eye site exposing here breast (her cleavage); so then you have instantaneously within this man a temptation to lust. He has a real physical need to procreate, which causes sexual desire, which is good, and then he is exposed to this woman’s cleavage which gives him the temptation to lust. Lust is an intense, strong, passionate, craving, appetite for, to delight in, or to wish for. So in this case this man who has a real physical need, which causes desire, is tempted to lust. Lust in this case would be that he desires to have sex with this woman that has come into his view, that no longer does he just have an innate sexual desire, which is good, but he desires to have sex with her, the woman he just saw, he takes delight in her, and has an appetite for, which is sin. Lust is sin, Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). There are three things this man cannot avoid: His physical need, his innate sexual desire, and temptation. Once faced with temptation he has a choice; to turn away and put it out of his mind, or to allow his innate sexual desire to turn into a directed desire for the woman that has entered into his vision.
This is but one temptation that men face every day. This is but one type of temptation amongst many. It is so incredibly difficult to wether all of the temptations that you face in just a single day, sometimes in a single hour much less a lifetime. Thank God that Jesus did it for us. God really did sacrifice everything. Can you imagine having the same body we have, and being faced with the same temptations we are faced with everyday and never once giving in to temptation and sinning, the incredible sacrifice that it took. Then the cross; He was cursed by sinful men, spit on, mocked, beaten, carried His own instrument of death, hung on a cross to suffer and die. And He felt everything; the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. Then God the father turns His back on Him and He dies a sinner’s death going to Hell so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus went to hell, He died a sinner’s death, He died and went to hell. But because He is God when He was ready He defeated death and hell and rose from the grave. The sacrifice is so incredible we will never in this life understand it in partiality much less fully. So if He sacrificed everything to save you, shouldn’t you sacrifice everything?
God loves you, so love God and other People. God sacrificed everything for you, so sacrifice everything.
Mike Peek
Sunday, December 11, 2011
God is Not Like Us
God had recently led me to read the Bible in 90 days. In the week following I prayed to Him and reflected over what I had read the preceding 3 months and God showed me a couple of different things. As you read the Word of God this rapidly you see things a little differently than you do when you focus on specific passages, you see the overall plan of God unfold before your eyes. Just a few words about the Bible, 2 Peter 1:21 tells us in talking about the Bible that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. In other words God used these men as instruments to write His Words. Just like you would use a pen, pencil, or computer to write what you want to convey to someone else, God literally used these men to write His word. The Bible is written by men inspired by the Spirit of God, it is literally God breathed, the Bible is God’s Words given to man. The Bible is amazing; it is 66 books, written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different authors, on 3 different continents, written in 3 different languages. Most were separated by hundreds of years, yet the Bible is amazing in its clarity of meaning and how the story line flows throughout scripture unhindered, and you really see this when you read it through quickly.
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Food for the Soul
Recently God had me do something that I thought was carrying on with the same but in reality it was something much different. I have read through the Bible cover to cover several times and have read through the New Testament more times than I know, but recently God had me do something a little different. He had me and a couple of other men read His Word in a rapid way. Beginning on the first of September 2011 we were to read the Word of God from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21 over 90 days. I came to repentance and faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in May of 2003, so I began following my Lord at that time. One of the things that He has had me do as His disciple is to read His Word daily. His word is quite literally the food for my soul. Before becoming a believer I was in the church on and off, I read the Bible some and even knew many scriptures; but the Bible was to me a book to read. Sure I believed in God and even believed in Jesus Christ but did not have the Spirit of God because I had not put my faith in Him as the payment for my sins. I was so full of sin too, my heart was deceptively wicked. Sure looking at me as a member of a church you would have never known, I myself did not know. But God revealed to me my sin (my lawlessness), I knew I would face Him in judgment and when I did I was guilty as charged, a law breaker and it was then that the Lord gave me His Spirit, that I believed Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins on the cross and rose from the grave defeating death, it was then that my faith was transferred from myself to Him. He saved me, I didn’t, He did. I didn’t do a thing, He did it. He led me to where I needed to be at that moment when He saved me. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, one minute you’re just like the world, living for yourself; the next minute your prostrate before the Lord with complete gratitude for what He has done, paying the price for your sins. The only way I can explain this is that God gave me His Spirit. The Bible is no longer a book it is quite literally the Word of God, it is God breathed. It is food for my soul; I wouldn’t go without feeding my body so why would I go without feeding my soul.
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
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