Take Your Place

Psalms 23:5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.”

The table of the Lord is a place of abundance, a place of peace, and a place of communion. David draws this picture from the ancient Near East custom, where covenants were often concluded with a meal expressive of the bond of friendship. The head of the honored guest at the banquet was customarily anointed with oil. The cup running over was a sign of abundance. What an awesome picture of the relationship God wants to have with us!

Jesus reinforced this at the Last Supper with His disciples. In Luke 22:15 Jesus says, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you.” (NKJ) In the Message Bible it says, "You've no idea how much I have looked forward to eating this Passover meal with you.”  Then just as the honored guest would have his head anointed with oil in David’s day, Jesus in the custom of his day honors his disciples by getting down and washing their feet.

Sometimes we fail to understand how much Jesus desires to fellowship and commune with us. We become so busy running here and there, trying to meet our needs and the needs of our family, when He already has a table of provision set for us. We are desperately trying to prove ourselves and to demonstrate our value or worth, when He desires to honor us. We struggle with worry and fear in an uncertain world and struggle with the attacks of the enemy, when He has already set a table for us in the presence of our enemies. We struggle in our own might to serve Him, when he wants to anoint our head with the oil of His Spirit to empower us to do what we cannot do in ourselves.

Stop struggling and running and take your place at the Lord’s table.  “In His presence is fullness of joy;

at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalms 16:11) The God of the universe “fervently desires” your presence. He has prepared a table for you and for me. He is honored to have us as a guest at his table. Even more than that, He wants to honor us. We are the apple of His eye, His joy and His desire. He wants to give us honor even before our enemies, for we are His treasured possession and he has redeemed us from every tribe, tongue, and nation by the blood of His Son.  He wants to fill your cup until it runs over.

The one thing our Lord seeks above all else from his servants, ministers, and shepherds is communion with Him. His table is vast and is never lacking. This table is a place of spiritual intimacy and is spread daily with all that we need. David said in Psalms 27:4, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.”

May you be blessed, encouraged, strengthened, and satisfied in the presence of the Lord today.

Andy Clark

Ground Zero

Jeremiah 25:6-7

“Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’Yet you have not listened to Me," says the LORD, "that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.”

We all know “Ground Zero” is the place where the Twin Towers once stood as symbols of capitalism and American economic might. It should be a warning that we should not put our confidence in what we have achieved with our hands, which is temporal and can easily be destroyed.

God had an ongoing issue with His people Israel. He had chosen them, blessed them, and made them great. But instead of worshiping and thanking Him for their abundance, they began to worship the works of their hands. So, God sent His prophets to warn them, but because of the love of the works of their hands, they refused to listen and repent. As a result, God sent the Babylonians to destroy Israel and take them into captivity.

Yet those in Jerusalem and Judah thought it was impossible for it to happen to them because Jerusalem was God’s chosen city and the temple was God’s dwelling place. After all, they were the people of God, and they were worshiping God in His temple. Despite this, God destroyed His city and temple and sent His people into captivity because they continued to worship the works of their hands.

We the church, who are God’s people, must be careful that we, too, do not become deceived into thinking that because we are God’s chosen people and worship God that we will avoid the judgment that God will bring upon this world, if we, like the world, worship the works of our hands.

If we are not watchful, prayerful, and obedient to God’s Word, not only could our nation experience a Ground Zero, but we as the church could face a Ground Zero when what we have put our confidence in is stripped away. Ground Zero is not for our destruction but to cause us to make Jesus, His Word, and His will the center of our lives. It is only when we reach Ground Zero that we will have the courage to stand up and proclaim the lordship of Christ in our society, no matter what the cost, because we have already lost everything for Christ.

Paul said in Philippians 3:7-9, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish , that I may gain Christ.”

Andy Clark

God Apps

This past week at my home group we were discussing the importance of prayer in our everyday lives. We talked about the discipline of having times of prayer at church, in the mornings and evenings, but more than that we needed develop a habit of prayer where we incorporated God into every aspect of out lives. One of the ladies in the group was sharing about how stressful her job was and how she continually turned to God for wisdom and help in dealing with people who had terrible attitudes, got angry, and even cursed at her over the phone.

As she was sharing, another woman in the group picked up on the discussion and began to talk about how hard it is for us to understand, believe, and tap into the spiritual realm. However, we have all kinds of electronic devices, such as I-pads and smart phones, of which we have little understanding about how they work, but we constantly use them to get information out of the air and instantly communicate with people all over the world. Her husband spoke up and said, “What we need is a God app.”

The fact is that we do have God “apps,” such as gifts, fruit, and power of the Spirit, prayer and the Word. Jesus told the disciples in John 16:7-8, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” When we are born again, we receive a tremendous gift from God, the Holy Spirit, the Helper who dwells in us always. We have access to the Author of life who knows all things and has unlimited resources, but we are too busy to learn how to use our God given apps.

My children are much better than I in using their smart phone because they spend hours exploring the limits of its use. It is such a part of their daily lives that they feel they could not live without it. You only get to know the Holy Spirit by spending time with Him and incorporating Him in every aspect of your life. He needs to become such an important part of your marriage, family, work, and finances that you cannot function without Him. He is your one-stop solution to everything.

Jesus said, “When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.  He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.  All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15) 

Don’t just use your smart phone to make emergency calls, or worse yet, leave it at home. Get to know the Author of life who lives in you. He is an awesome genius who knows everything and has infinite resources that are available to you for every situation.

Andy Clark

Seeing the Unseen

Hebrews 11:1,3

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”

I love this quote from Graham Cooke’s The Faith Series. "Faith is action. It is stepping out towards what God has shown you is yours in the invisible realm. If we believe, then we must make an action consistent with that belief. So faith is an external action based upon an internal belief."

While the focus of both Hebrews 11:1,3 and Graham’s statement is the importance of faith as to what we believe and how we act on that belief, there is also a key element that we often overlook that is also an essential ingredient to the will of God manifested in our life. Faith is activated by what we see in the spiritual realm. It is the evidence or the ability to see and bring into reality things not seen. Faith is not a leap into the unknown. It is stepping out towards what God has shown you is yours in the invisible realm.

So, we may have faith but fail to receive because we lack godly vision. Many times our faith is driven by what we see in the natural and what we desire in the natural. We are not laying claim to the invisible but the visible. Our spiritual vision can become clouded by the constant visual bombardment of the world causing us to attempt by faith to lay claim to what the world has to offer rather than what God has to offer.

Paul, who in 2 Corinthians 4:7-17 encourages us to walk in faith in the midst of the challenges we face in life, concludes in verse 18 by saying, “while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” We must refocus our vision, faith, and actions off of the temporary, material, chaotic, decaying world we live in and begin to see what God sees and respond as God would have us respond.

Colossians 3:1-4 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind (or affection) on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” May you see Jesus as you never have before and find Him to be all that you need.

Andy Clark

The Cave

1 Samuel 22:1-2

“David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him.”

It was God’s anointing on David’s life that enabled him to kill the lion and the bear, to kill Goliath, and bring great victory to Israel. It was the anointing that enabled David to play the harp in worship to God to quiet the tormented spirit of Saul and enabled him to become the greatest general in Saul’s army, so that the women of Jerusalem sang, “Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands.”  It was that same anointing that protected and sustained David as a refugee in the cave of Adullam.

It was in the cave of Adullam that God begin to pull together the men that would make David’s army. David’s mighty men started out as poor, disgruntled refugees, the outcasts of Saul’s kingdom. They went in the cave defeated and came out with the shout of victory because they had joined up with David’s cause and vision. It was in the cave of Adullam that they were trained for war and galvanized together as one to become David’s mighty men who would one day conquer and subdue kingdoms.

It was in the cave of Adullam that David wrote the Psalm of praise in 2 Samuel 22.

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

The God of my strength, in whom I will trust;

My shield and the horn of my salvation.

He teaches my hands to make war,

So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You have also given me the shield of Your salvation;

Your gentleness has made me great.”

The anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon our lives not only to enable us to worship God in the good times and to bring us victory over circumstances in life, but also the anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon our lives during our time in the cave, when no one sees us, and the enemy surrounds us and seeks to destroy our souls. It is in the cave that we truly discover God to be our rock, our fortress, our shield, and our salvation. It is here that our true character is tested and our hands are trained for war. It is in the cave that our vision is sharpened, and deep, life-long relationships are formed.

May you discover today the greatness of our God; may His anointing sustain you and  renew your strength and vision for all He has for you.

Andy Clark