Rightly Placed Fear

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

I want to continue talking about the Ten Commandments today. You’ll find them in Exodus 20. With the exception of “Remember the Sabbath Day,”  they all begin with this phrase: “Thou shall not.” And even on the Sabbath day we are told, “you shall do no work,” (read that, thou shall not do any work.”

 

To do any of these things that God forbids stirs up His wrath. Note well the setting of His deliverance of these commands on Mt Sinai.  It was not chirping birds and harps, gentle brooks and flowery meadows!

 

Ex 19:16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

 

This setting should strike fear in all of us! In the matter of these “thou shalt nots,” God means terrifying business.  And if we were honest with ourselves and took the time to let each one of these commands break through our denials, we would have to admit we deserve His wrath!

 

 

What a despairing situation for sinners like you and I, and those just delivered from Egypt, Israelites. And right on the heels of the “thou shalt nots,” Moses says this: Ex 20:20  "Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin."

 

The test is simple. Do you fear the wrath of God? Do you desire to not sin? That’s called repentance, and repentance is a necessary forerunner of the gospel, And the gospel when rightly received, removes all fear.

 

Why? Because one understands that the wrath of God against your sins was poured out on Jesus Christ on the cross. All your dark and forboding “thou shalt nots” have been paid for!

 

Proper fear of God ushers in proper reception of the Gospel. Let the Law of God do it’s preparatory work for the Gospel. 

 

Tremble before the Law but fear not from the Gospel. Jesus has paid for your sins.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Get Down and Then Come Up

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

The Apostle John, writing in the Book of Revelation describes Jesus (the Son of Man) as having “eyes like a flame of fire.” Let that word picture sink in for a minute. We are talking about the holy gaze of Christ! Do you, do I dare to meet that gaze!

 

That gaze that penetrates the shadows, where we are prone to hang out, in order to avoid facing our sin. It’s that same gaze that found Peter in the shadows of the courtyard as he denied Jesus for the third time!  

 

Lu 22:61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."

 62 So Peter went out and wept bitterly.

 

Broken by his sin, Peter sobbed uncontrollably.

 

May I ask a very personal question? When’s the last time you were broken by your sin? When’s the last time you allowed Jesus to fix His holy gaze on you through the Ten Commandments?

 

Not just  sin spoken of in generalities, but ten specific things that displease God!

 

  I urge you to slow down and take the time to let each commandment speak to you, but before you start, listen to the word of the Lord given to Moses before he came up the mountain to receive the commandments!

 

It’s from Ex 19: 24, “Then the LORD said to him, "Away! Get down and then come up”

 

The way up the mountain and toward the revelation of God is humility!

 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-These, O God, You will not despise.

 

Admit you are a sinner, then open your heart up to the holy gaze of Jesus and let Him show you the errors of your ways!

 

 Confess your sins and then believing, receive His forgiveness

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

The Blood of Jesus Speaks Louder

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

It’s been a while since the last posting of Today’s Living Word, but I want to continue looking at Psalm 94 and its clear message regarding the culture of life vs the culture of death.

 

Ps 94:1 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongs-O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!

 2 Rise up, O Judge of the earth; Render punishment to the proud.

 3 LORD, how long will the wicked, How long will the wicked triumph?

 4 They utter speech, and speak insolent things; All the workers of iniquity boast in themselves.

 5 They break in pieces Your people, O LORD, And afflict Your heritage.

 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless.

 7 Yet they say, "The LORD does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob understand."

 

I just received the latest copy of the Lutherans For Life publication, “Lifedate,” and on the back page in bold letters was this sobering statistic: 63,443,118 babies have been killed in abortions since Roe V Wade in 1973. That’s 1.2 million a year, 3400 a day, 142 an hour, 2.36 every minute.

With the overturning of Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decision of 2022 one would think the abortion numbers would go down. They didn’t.

 

According to the Planned Parenthood research arm, (The Guttmacher Institute) abortions last year increased by 10% to the tune of 1,926,690 pre-born lives snuffed out in one calendar year.

 

Recently, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies announced that they will begin providing the abortion pill mifepristone (miff eh priss’ stone) in a few select states via a doctors prescription beginning this month.

What a deal, stop by the drugstore for a little cough syrup to end a cold, an while you’re at it, something to end an innocent unborn baby’s life.

 

Sadly there is no shortage of doctors willing to write such a deadly prescription.

 

The Psalm that I have quoted above sounds prideful and self-righteous if it comes from my mouth , but not so much if it comes from the mouths of unborn babes. It is the plea from the blood of unborn children to God! This blood is no different than the blood of innocent Abel crying out to God!

 

Ge 4:10 “The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.”

 

 

Abels blood speaks loud from the ground to be sure, but there is a blood that speaks even louder, and if you have participated in the act of abortion in some way or another, please remember this verse from Hebrews: Heb 12:24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

 

The blood of Abel calls out for vengeance, but the blood of Jesus calls out for forgiveness, know this! Believe this! There is no sin (yes even the sin of abortion, that the blood of Jesus did not pay for on the cross.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

 

Hope For A Lost Loved One

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

Joh 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

 

A word of hope today for those of you who have loved ones caught up in sin and rejection of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  How bad can they be? Can they be as bad as Jacob when He outright lied to his dying father as he sought to steal the family blessing from his brother Esau?

 

If you recall, Isaac had asked Esau to hunt some wild game and prepare it for him as a savory meal, but Jacob brought a savory meal to him instead in a successful attempt to fool his dad.

 

Isaac smelled a rat and asked Jacob how he managed to catch and cook this game so quickly and can you believe Jacob’s reply?  Ge 27:20b, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me."

He lied about God! He brought God into his diabolical fabrication! Apparently Jacob didn’t give a rip about breaking one of God’s commands!  You  know, the one that says, Ex 20:7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

 

In spite of the seriousness of this sin, God did not give up on Jacob, and later on in his life, he got tangled up with an all night wrestling match with God

and everything changed! Jacob, in effect was born again and he no longer served the father of all lies, the devil

 

If God could save a diabolical liar like Jacob, if God could save me, if God could save you, He can save that lost loved one as well. Pray for that wrestling match to come to pass in their lives as God sends the hounds of heaven after your loved ones soul. Dear Jesus hear the bleat of that one lost sheep, leave the 99 and find them and save them.

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Dig A Little Deeper In the Well

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

I was reading Genesis chapter 26 this morning and was struck by how often “wells” were mentioned. Abraham had dug them but the heathen kept filling them up with sand  cutting off the supply of water. Then Isaac comes along and the same problem arises. He dug them and the unbelievers filled them up.

 

It’s what unbelievers do, they seek to cut off the believers supply of “living water.”

 

All this talk about wells and water in the chapter and at the end of the chapter we see this information about Esau, (the son of Isaac) inserted: Ge 26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

 

Where did that come from? Why was Esau’s marriage to unbelievers brought up? Why were Isaac and Rebekah grieved? I believe it came from God’s consistent command to not marry an unbeliever. ‘ Do not be unequally yoked! (2 Cor 6:14)

 

The result of this unequal yoking often results in a ditching of the faith aa the supply of living water is cut off or polluted by the ungodly influence of the unbeliever.

 

This most important first step of finding a life’s partner is often overlooked and sadly under emphasized in the church today. In this matter I would urge the singles in the kingdom to not settle but to seek out a like minded believer for marriage,

 

Before tying the knot, give a listen to this oak Ridge Boys song and “Dig A Little Deeper In the Well”

 

Dig A Little Deeper In The Well (youtube.com)

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Press On

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

Most everyone knows the shortest verse in the Bible right? “Jesus wept.” (Jn 11:35) But do you know the second shortest verse? It’s found in  Lu 17:32 "Remember Lot's wife.”

 

In context, Jesus was talking about escaping God’s impending judgment with Lot’s wife being the example of what not to do! The angels who were leading Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah had strictly told them to “not look back,” (Gen 19:17)

 

But look what happened to Lot’s wife! Ge 19:26 But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

 

She looked back! We can only assume that she was longing for the old life, not willing to forsake it. This is a danger for all of us who have been pulled from the fire. When things get a little rough, we have the temptation to look back to our own personal “Egypt’s” and long for the “good old days” of living the way we pleased.

 

This was the constant problem of the Israelites as God led them to the promised land, they kept looking back to Egypt!

 

Jesus warns us in other places as well: Lu 14:33 "So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

And

Lu 9:62 "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

 

And that’s why we “remember Lot’s wife.

 

That’s why the Apostle Paul reminds us: Php 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Follow Jesus! Don’t look back! All that stuff you are longing for is rubbish, destined to be like the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah! So press on beloved….press on!

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word

Who Told Lot?

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

Ge 13:10 And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar.

 

 

Most of you are familiar with the backdrop here. Abraham and his nephew Lot had been materially blessed by the Lord. They both had a lot of livestock, but there wasn’t enough land to support them both, so they decided to split up.

 

Abraham yielded to Lot and gave him the choice of the land and Lot chose the land that was more lush.

So lush, that he compared it to the garden of Eden.

My question for you today is this, “who told Lot about the Garden of the Lord?”

 

The Lord had closed up that Garden about 2000 years before Lot was born! He didn’t have a Bible, how did he know that such a place once existed?

 

Obviously the fact of the existence of a Paradise was handed down from Adam all the way to Abraham and Lot.

Among other things, it survived the flood and the tower of Babel!

 

The question for you and I is; How is the existence of Paradise and God’s plan for restoring it doing in our families? Have we told our children and grandchildren about the Day when Jesus will return and restore all things, or has it been swallowed up in the flood of our worldly activities and corrupted by the competing babbling voices that seek to stir up doubt?

 

Have we told the next generation of the wrath to come and God’s plan of salvation through faith in Jesus? Have we told them that even now Jesus is preparing a place for them in the new heaven and the new earth.

 

Tell the story! Learn from the generation of Joshua where it was lost in just one generation!

Jg 2:10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for Israel.

 11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;

 12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were  all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word