The Place of Constant Communion

Let’s look at two awesome places of power.

Text for Today – Psalm 15:1 – Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle  Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?

The tabernacle was a place of meeting for the Lord and the high priest.  This was the place, later taken by the Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant resided in the Holy of holies behind the veil.  This was the place where the high priest came to commune with the Lord in behalf of His people, Israel, to make intercession for them, and to assure that the blood of offering for the atonement of the sins of Israel had been accepted by the Lord.  The holy hill was the mountain of the Lord; that place where God chose to meet with His man, the prophet of the Lord, in order to pass down His instructions, laws, and orders through the prophet to the people.  These were the designated points of meeting between God and His chosen servants.  The priest went to God for the people, and the prophet went to the people for God.

The questions in our Text for Today as who is that person that shall abide and dwell in those two places; the place where God hears and answers, and the place where the man of God hears and obeys.  The four verses following our Text for Today answer those questions in a clear and powerful fashion.  As you read Psalm 15 in its entirety, one element seems to really stand out profoundly; TRUTH.  In order to “walk uprightly and work righteousness,” you must know the TRUTH.  In order to “speak the truth,” you must know the TRUTH.  By having His Word (the TRUTH) hidden in your heart, you won’t sin through “backbiting . . . doing evil to your neighbor . . . nor taking up reproach against your neighbor.”  When you are full of the light of the Word of God, the “vile person” will experience the conviction of Holy Ghost.  When you are full of TRUTH, living the TRUTH, you will “swear to your own hurt and change not.”  You will be a person of absolute integrity, keeping your word, regardless of its cost to you.  You will handle your finance Biblically, not allowing desire for increase to cause you to mistreat any other person.

The last verse brings a marvelous conclusion to this Psalm.  “He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”   One might say this is a very exclusive, gated community in which to abide.  People committed to this level of TRUTH are not often found, but I do believe their numbers are increasing.  And as to being a gated community, it is a community that is at the same time both inclusive and exclusive.  Keeping in mind that the gate here is one’s mouth, the person’s mouth is always open to the Word of God (TRUTH), and closed to anything contrary to it.  If you haven’t already done so, make the decision to move into that community today.

Manna for Today – James 3:1-13; Ephesians 4:29

A Most Precious Inheritance

I can’t speak for you, but I want my inheritance that Jesus died to give me.

Text for Today – Psalm 2:8 – (The Lord said)Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.  (Parenthetical insertion is my own)

Jesus said He had come to seek and to save that which was lost.  He also said that He sent us forth as the Father had sent Him.  His plan in relation to His church has not changed.  He expects us to continue in the earthly ministry that He began.  He came and performed that part of the work that only He could do.  He was beaten, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead in order to be the propitiation for our sins.  He was “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed.”  That was the Old Testament accounting, and the New Testament changes the issue of healing to past tense when it says, “by Whose stripes ye WERE healed.”  Thank God for wonderful work of redemption Jesus, and only Jesus, could have accomplished.

Still, however, there are multitudes of lost folk who desperately need Jesus as their Lord and personal Savior.  Without Him they will go to hell.  Jesus is their only answer, and it is our job to bring them to Jesus.  It is our job to bring them to birth through our sowing of His Word continually into their lives, and by our intercessions (the travailing of Zion) to bring them into the kingdom of God.  The task is enormous, the labor intense, and our enemy determined.  However, greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world, and as a result, we are well able to go up, enjoin the battle for souls, and win.

In our Text for Today, the Lord said very clearly that He would give us the heathen for our inheritance if we would ask Him for them.  They belong to Him.  But remember, that faith without corresponding action is dead.  If you ask Him for the lost, get ready to go to work to bring them to Jesus.  If you will ask, and then go to work to harvest the souls for whom you ask, the Lord will keep His Word to you.  And what a precious inheritance!   What should it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his soul?  By the same token, how much profit does it bring to the kingdom of God for you to ask for your inheritance, and then go get it?

Manna for Today – Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Matthew 16:26; James 2:17; Isaiah 66:8