A People for His Name

Lessons from the Unique Greatness of Job

July 22, 2017

Two remarkable statements by God reveal the unparalleled excellence of Job among all the people who were alive on the earth in his day:

Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.

An analysis of these statements provides all believers with profound instruction.

Comparative Divine Assessment of Human Excellence

God twice informed Satan that Job was uniquely excellent in his day (Job 1:8; 2:3), a truth that Satan would never have been able to know otherwise. These statements show that God had assessed all people who were living at that time and deemed that Job was superior to all other human beings in the qualities that God valued the most.

As human beings, even redeemed ones, we are incapable of correctly making such an assessment. Nonetheless, we must not allow our inability to lead us into holding any false views about divine assessment of all human beings—God knows and cares about who in the world is uniquely excellent in His sight!

Based on this revelation, we learn that God makes comparative assessments of all human beings and that it is false to say that in the sight of God we are all deemed to be equals because whatever good qualities we have in us are solely due to the work of God in our lives and the fruit of His grace bestowed upon us. Being saved by grace alone does not mean that we are all equally excellent in the sight of God!

Divine Desire for Human Excellence

God inspired the writer of Job to record these profound statements for our benefit. We can be certain that through this revelation, God has made known that He desires that all human beings strive to be excellent before Him in all the same ways that Job was.

We must not allow the contemporary overemphasis on grace to detract us from our continually pressing on for such excellence. Knowing that God makes such assessment of human excellence and knowing that Job attained such excellence should impel us to strive to be as Job was before God!

Cosmic Significance of Human Excellence

Knowing that God informed Satan about the unique excellence of Job and challenged Satan to consider Job’s excellence teaches us about the profound cosmic significance of human excellence. We do not have any way of knowing what God through us desires to display to fallen spirits in heavenly places.

We must live our lives with the awareness that comparative divine assessments of human excellence matter to both God and other heavenly beings. Let us allow these lessons that we learn from the unique greatness of Job to challenge us to strive to be uniquely excellent on the earth for the glory of God!

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Interpretation, Theology

A Telling Article about the Ungodly Origins and Nature of Rock Music

July 15, 2017

This fairly recent article (2012) explains the origins of rock music. It is not written by a “wacko” fundamentalist with an ax to grind—the author is a rock musician.

Reading this article (and many others like it) should make clear to any Christian the ungodly origins and nature of this musical style. God demands that we “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11), including any such musical styles.

Note: I did not watch any of the videos that are in this article and would recommend strongly that you do not do so either.

In CCM, Discipleship

On Praising God for His Role in Our Being Born

July 8, 2017

Scripture instructs us to praise God for numerous things. The author of Psalm 71 teaches us to praise God for His role in our being born:

Psalm 71:5 For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. 6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

Have you given God thanks and praised Him for taking you out of your mother’s womb?

In Discipleship

On Obtaining A Good Report by Faith!

July 1, 2017

Reading in Hebrews recently, I noticed again an important verbal and conceptual link:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it [faith] the elders obtained a good report.

Hebrews 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

By noting that the writer of Hebrew begins and ends this glorious chapter with the same statement, we can be certain that he intends to highlight the truth that all the “heroes of the faith” spoken of in this chapter obtained a good report by faith! Let us do the same.

In Discipleship, Exhortation

We Must Live Godly Because of the Angels!

June 23, 2017

God intends that biblical revelation about angels transform the way that believers live. Because of the angels who observe what we as believers do, we must live our lives not only with the awareness that we are in the sight of God but also with the awareness that we are in the sight of angels.

2Ki 6:16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. ¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Mat 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

1Co 4:9 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

1Co 11:10 For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

1Ti 5:21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.

Heb 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

We must live godly because of the angels!

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Interpretation, Theology

Assigned Musical Meanings and Christian Use of Rock Music

June 15, 2017

Numbers 10:1-10 reveals that God directed His people to make two silver trumpets and then assigned specific meanings to various uses of those musical instruments. For example, blowing the trumpets signaled that the entire assembly gather at the door of the tabernacle (Num. 10:3) whereas blowing only one trumpet signaled to the princes to gather to Moses (Num. 10:4).

This passage shows that certain humans have been supernaturally directed concerning assigned musical meanings communicated by specific uses of certain musical instruments. Paul’s instruction to the Corinthians concerning an apparently well-understood response to a trumpet being used in a specific way (1 Cor. 14:7-8) may attest to something similar or may in fact refer back ultimately to God’s revelation to Moses that Numbers 10 records.

Scripture also reveals that demonic spirits have influenced human beings to do many things without those human beings having any knowledge about such influence directing them to do so (1 Chron. 21:1; 2 Chron. 18:21; Acts 5:3).

Just as God directed His people to do specific things with musical instruments that would convey specific assigned meanings, it is entirely possible that demonic spirits have influenced human beings to do things with musical instruments that communicate specific assigned meanings in the heavenly realm, meanings which are entirely unknown by humans and unknowable by them apart from supernatural revelation (either divine or demonic) about those meanings.

To hold that demonically assigned musical meanings to human use of musical instruments in specific ways is impossible has no biblical basis and goes against specific divine revelation about supernatural influences on humans that have directed them to do things that the humans had no knowledge were their actually doing what the supernatural beings wanted the humans to do. We must consider also that various rock musicians have testified of demonic influence upon them in their producing and playing their music.

Aside from the corrupting influences of rock music on its human hearers, we must consider the possibility that rock music has a demonically assigned meaning to it such that anyone who plays music in that style communicates anti-God sentiments to supernatural beings, sentiments which are humanly unknowable. Such a possibility provides one more valid reason for Christians not to listen to, play, or use rock music in any other way.

In CCM, Interpretation, Theology

A Vital Matter of Prayer for All Believers

June 12, 2017

Paul informed the Corinthians that his prayers for them included prayer about a vital matter: “I pray to God that ye do no evil” (2 Cor. 13:7). We need to learn from this Scripture that praying for ourselves and for others that we would do no evil is a vital matter of prayer for all believers!

Let us pray frequently about this vital matter of prayer!

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Prayer, Theology

Will You Suffer Loss When Jesus Comes?

June 7, 2017

True Christians can and will suffer loss when Christ comes and judges His own:

1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

¹⁴ If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

¹⁵ If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

¹⁶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

¹⁷ If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Let us beware that we do not deceive ourselves on this crucial point!

In Discipleship, Theology

A Profound Contrast to Learn From

May 31, 2017

Faced with many hardships, Jacob exclaimed, “All these things are against me.”

Gen 42:36 And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.

In reality, God was orchestrating the troubles that he was experiencing for great good for Jacob and the Israelites (cf. Gen. 50:20).

When we encounter hardship, especially multiple challenges at the same time, or sequentially, we should not respond like Jacob by thinking that everything that is happening is against us. Instead, we must view all that happens to us properly based on what God has told us He is actually doing:

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

With Paul, if you are a Christian, rest confidently in knowing that “all these things” are not against you. Rather, our Father is making them all work together for His glory and our greatest good.

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Theology

The Importance of Learning from Biblical Examples of Self-Talk

May 28, 2017

In His omniscience, God knows every thought that every angelic being, every human being, and every other thinking being has ever thought and will ever think. With His perfect knowledge, God has chosen to record for our profit *selected* thoughts of both angels and human beings.

Because God is perfect in His wisdom, we can be certain that He has recorded the thoughts of His creatures that are the most profitable for us to learn from. How carefully then ought we to study what God has revealed to us in His word about the godly and the ungodly self-talk of His creatures!

In Discipleship, Exhortation, Theology

Comparative Divine Assessment of Human Excellence

Divine Desire for Human Excellence

Cosmic Significance of Human Excellence

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