One day a year based upon President Woodrow Wilson’s bill in 1914 to make the 2nd Sunday in May Mothers day, we honor our moms.
What do mom’s tell us about God? Maybe you have or had a godly mother that taught you the things of the Lord.
Abe Lincoln said
“No man is poor who has had a godly mother.”
Maybe your mother never spoke a word about God, but her actions of just being a mom communicated characteristics of God.
God has characteristics of a mom, this should be no surprise because God created moms and Genesis 1:27 says that He made male and female in His image. On this mothers day I want to look at the Biblical passages that talk about the characteristics of God that are attributed to Mothers.
Why does God so often use the image or picture or metaphor or idea of motherhood to express himself? It’s like we are a child sat on God’s lap and we look up and we say, “God, what are you like?” And God thinks, “How do you explain the wonder of Divine Love and Grace and Strength to a small human child with a limited brain and a limited vocabulary?” And God realizes that the best way is to use a metaphor? is to say, “well, I’m like?” And so he looks around at everything in the child’s life, everything that could be used as a metaphor. What could God compare himself to in a way that would capture some of the mystery and marvel of who He was? And he looks high and low and then he sees the child’s Mom, “That! That’s what I’m like. I am a mother.”
1. Isaiah 66:13 comfort
When Thomas Edison was a young boy his teacher sent him home with a note which said, 'Your child is dumb. We can't do anything for him.' Mrs. Edison wrote back, 'You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself'. And she did, with results that are well known.
There is nothing like the comfort of someone who knows you so well, that can communicate with you and knows what makes you happy, or how to help you.
That is usually our mom but it is always God.
He knows you because He made you.
He can comfort you because He knows what is wrong. You may be going through a relationship problem, God is there.
Maybe you are anxious about something, God is there. Maybe you are struggling with something, God is there. Maybe your mother is not around anymore and you just want that motherly type of comfort, God is there.
The comfort of a mother is something that God uses as an example of in our lives to teach us when we are very young.
The comfort of a little child to know that mom is there to clean up their mess. All of us have mess in our lives that not even mom can clean up and that is where God’s comfort comes in.
2. Luke 13:34 Long to embrace and clean up our mess… Most mothers long for the best for their Children. God does want the best for us and more importantly He knows what is best for us. It is a relationship with Him. Just like a mom desires a close personal relationship with each of her children that is what God wants from us. The way that we can have that is through Jesus and what He did for us to.
3. Luke 15:8-10 Sacrifice. God sees us as lost because of the mess of sin in our lives. Like the women who sacrifices her time to find that valuable coin. God sacrificed something of value to Himself so we can be found. Jesus, remember earlier I talked about the mess that our moms can’t clean. God sent His son Jesus to clean up our sin mess if we trust in Him. And like this passage says “the angels rejoice in heaven when a sinner changes his mind about who Jesus is”
The bible says that Jesus was the Sacrifice for us Eph 5:2 and the Bible says if we trust in Him we will spend eternity in heaven because He and only He can clean up our sin mess
4. But it does not stop there. As Christians we need to Trust God Psalm 131:2 Trust David compared how we need to respond to God with how a weaned child responds to his mom, trusting that his mom will fulfill their needs. A baby that is not weaned cries until it is fed, even if the mom is there saying hold up a minute I will be right there. But an older child who is weaned knows now that when the mom says I will be right there they usually believe and trust the mom.
That is how David looks at God. He trusted God because God had been good to him.
We can trust that God does have a course for us, and cares about every aspect of our lives, we just have to take Him at His Word and trust Him.
Lastly, , No matter what you will always be the child of your mother and mothers have an amazing capability to deeply love their children and could quite possibly have something called unconditional love.
But Unconditional Love is probably something only God is truly capable of.
Once you enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you cannot lose God’s love, Like the Sara Groves complacency, loss of focus or as Paul says nothing can separate us from the love of God. We cannot lose the love of God through Jesus Christ. Romans 8:38-39
We cannot lose the love of God through Jesus Christ.
Whatever your situation this mother’s day know that God is like a mother in your life.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Saturday, May 10, 2008
"Raise my Ebenezer"
“Raise my Ebenezer”
1 Samuel 1100 years before Christ, it was a spiritually dark time for Israel the priesthood was corrupt and people were turning away from God. There was a remnant that were following God but by and large Israel was falling away.
1 Sam chapters 4-6 The Israelites brought the Ark of the covenant into Shiloh they were just defeated by the Philistines and 4000 men fell. The Bible says they the Hebrews shouted so loudly that the earth shook.
Talk about the Ark Priest came into the holy of holies one time a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the priest brought the blood of a goat to atone for the sins of the people
The Mercy Seat and the two cherubim angels and the Lord dwelt there. Contents Ten Commandments, Aarons Rod that budded with almonds to prove that he was the priest and chosen by God , and the Golden pot of hidden manna. These we all reminders of what God did for them.
So of course when the ark was moved for worship they were going to be excited and shout. The Philistines heard the shout and pretty much said lets put an end to this
The Philistines defeated Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant and slaughtered 30,000 people.
When they told Eli the priest that his two sons where killed and the ark was taken he fell over and broke his neck and died.
So the Philistines moved the Ark around for 7 months and during that time they suffered plagues of tumors and rats so they said we have to get rid of this thing. So their priests said send it back with 5 images of gold tumors and 5 golden rats as a sacrifice. They hooked it to two cows and said if it returns to its own territory it was the Lords hand that struck us, if not it was by chance. Well guess what it went to the Israelites field of Joshua in Beth Shemesh
After the ark was in Beth Shemesh and 50,000 people died for looking into the ark they were so disturbed by what happened they brought the ark to Kirjath Jearim which is 10 miles from Jerusalem
Pick up in
1 Sam 7:1-12 Israel was weak and afraid and did not have spiritual focus, but the Lord was the one who did the work.
Vrs 1-2 Eleazar “God is power or help”
House of Israel lamented after the Lord “had sorrow or mourned deeply”
Vrs 3-4 Samuel spoke… If you return to the Lord with all your heart, serve Him and put away false gods.
Ashtoreth- Goddess of fertility and sexuality
Baal-pegan god of nature and fertility
Basically Samuel was saying they had to renounce their perverted sinful selfish ways
These two manmade gods are the eppitomy of a life centered around self.
The promise is that God will deliver them from the Philistines.
What is God saying to us? Change your mind, about who Jesus is believe that He is your Savior. As a Christian change your actions, be obedient and put God first, don’t put other things or people before God.
Vrs 5-6 Then Samuel prayed, obviously praying to the Lord is a center piece to seeing something in our lives change. Notice the Israelites response, the fasted and recognized their sin.
Vrs 7-8 The Philistines heard and attacked, and the Israelites appealed to Samuel to keep praying because they were afraid.
Vrs 9-11 The Lord confused the Philistines and the Israelites were able to drive them back
Vrs 12 Then Samuel put up the stone as reminder.
So in this biblical account we see they received the message, listened to it and God rewarded them, but God was the one who did the work and Samuel wanted to put up a constant reminder of how God will help his people if they listen to Him.
Literally speaking, an Ebenezer is a "stone of help," or a reminder of God’s Real, Holy Presence and Divine aid. Spiritually and theologically speaking, an Ebenezer can be nearly anything that reminds us of God’s presence and help
1 Samuel 1100 years before Christ, it was a spiritually dark time for Israel the priesthood was corrupt and people were turning away from God. There was a remnant that were following God but by and large Israel was falling away.
1 Sam chapters 4-6 The Israelites brought the Ark of the covenant into Shiloh they were just defeated by the Philistines and 4000 men fell. The Bible says they the Hebrews shouted so loudly that the earth shook.
Talk about the Ark Priest came into the holy of holies one time a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the priest brought the blood of a goat to atone for the sins of the people
The Mercy Seat and the two cherubim angels and the Lord dwelt there. Contents Ten Commandments, Aarons Rod that budded with almonds to prove that he was the priest and chosen by God , and the Golden pot of hidden manna. These we all reminders of what God did for them.
So of course when the ark was moved for worship they were going to be excited and shout. The Philistines heard the shout and pretty much said lets put an end to this
The Philistines defeated Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant and slaughtered 30,000 people.
When they told Eli the priest that his two sons where killed and the ark was taken he fell over and broke his neck and died.
So the Philistines moved the Ark around for 7 months and during that time they suffered plagues of tumors and rats so they said we have to get rid of this thing. So their priests said send it back with 5 images of gold tumors and 5 golden rats as a sacrifice. They hooked it to two cows and said if it returns to its own territory it was the Lords hand that struck us, if not it was by chance. Well guess what it went to the Israelites field of Joshua in Beth Shemesh
After the ark was in Beth Shemesh and 50,000 people died for looking into the ark they were so disturbed by what happened they brought the ark to Kirjath Jearim which is 10 miles from Jerusalem
Pick up in
1 Sam 7:1-12 Israel was weak and afraid and did not have spiritual focus, but the Lord was the one who did the work.
Vrs 1-2 Eleazar “God is power or help”
House of Israel lamented after the Lord “had sorrow or mourned deeply”
Vrs 3-4 Samuel spoke… If you return to the Lord with all your heart, serve Him and put away false gods.
Ashtoreth- Goddess of fertility and sexuality
Baal-pegan god of nature and fertility
Basically Samuel was saying they had to renounce their perverted sinful selfish ways
These two manmade gods are the eppitomy of a life centered around self.
The promise is that God will deliver them from the Philistines.
What is God saying to us? Change your mind, about who Jesus is believe that He is your Savior. As a Christian change your actions, be obedient and put God first, don’t put other things or people before God.
Vrs 5-6 Then Samuel prayed, obviously praying to the Lord is a center piece to seeing something in our lives change. Notice the Israelites response, the fasted and recognized their sin.
Vrs 7-8 The Philistines heard and attacked, and the Israelites appealed to Samuel to keep praying because they were afraid.
Vrs 9-11 The Lord confused the Philistines and the Israelites were able to drive them back
Vrs 12 Then Samuel put up the stone as reminder.
So in this biblical account we see they received the message, listened to it and God rewarded them, but God was the one who did the work and Samuel wanted to put up a constant reminder of how God will help his people if they listen to Him.
Literally speaking, an Ebenezer is a "stone of help," or a reminder of God’s Real, Holy Presence and Divine aid. Spiritually and theologically speaking, an Ebenezer can be nearly anything that reminds us of God’s presence and help
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