The promise must die first

We know the promises of the Lord and know that they stand fast, but time and again we reach a place where we feel that the Lord has left us in the lurch and not fulfilled his promise to us. We then become disheartened and even angry with the Lord.

However, if we reflect on the matter we will find that the Lord has not left us in the lurch, but that we misunderstood the promise or did not grasp the time for the fulfilment of the promise correctly.

In any case it is not simply a matter of promise and fulfilment that go together like cause and effect – although it does have a lot to do with this as well.

A promise from the Lord is akin to his Word going forth and we can also apply the parable of the sower to it. The sower sows these promises, but some fall next to the road and are eaten by birds, a portion falls on rocky places and is scorched and some are choked by weeds. Even those that fall in good soil do not come up immediately.

When one looks at the old pilgrims in the Bible, one notices that for them also  promises did not come up immediately. I quote a few examples of people who received the promise, but never the fulfilment  (because God determined something better for them):

1. Hebr. 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak and Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, v.34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. V.35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. V.36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. V.37 They were stoned; they were sawn in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins; destitute, persecuted and ill-treated -  v.38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. V.39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

In Hebr. 11:13 the scriptures also say - All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.

Those for whom the promise indeed went into fulfilment, it also took a long time – until they became disheartened and bade the promise farewell. For them the promise first had to die.

          1        Jacob received the promise that his brothers would bow before him, but it cost him slavery, prison and a famine before it came to pass.

          2       Abraham had to leave his family and journey to the Promised Land, but it cost him famine in Canaan and an embarrassment in Egypt before he could go and live there – and even then he neglected the promise by allowing Lot to live there.

          3       John the Baptist had the promise of the Lamb of God and later had to ask – Are you the one who was to come?

We receive the answer in 1Cor. 15:36 - How foolish, What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. V.37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed… V.38 But God gives it a body as he has determined.

So also with the seed of the Lord. He fulfils his promise after he has sown it in the shape of a seed and awakens it in a shape as determined by him, but he awaits it like the farmer: 

Remember the scriptures in James 5:7 – Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.

We also just have to wait for the promises until our souls have received the early and late rains, because the Lord also awaits them patiently.

As best example I hold up to you the promise of the Father in John 3:16 - For God so loved the world…

Here he says nothing about the Lord Jesus having to die – yet that promise had to die on the cross so that we could receive the promise of salvation and John said ahead of time, but did not realise, that the Lamb of God first had to die.

Will we then not see the promise from a distance and believe and welcome it and, like the farmer, patiently await it?        

PK Odendaal July 2008  

The Simplicity of the Gospel

One of the aspects which drew me to our church was the simplicity of the Gospel. When the Lord saved my soul, many churches, preachers and other persons gave me their version of the Gospel and eventually I found it so complex that I was completely confused. What worried me even more was that I could not testify to other people because I was not able to understand such a complex gospel or to carry it across.

When I entered the church as a novice, my expectations therefore were the same as that of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:11 – “I thought that he (Elisha) would come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?”

The Mayonnaise Jar

Priorities in your life are very important. They will determine your every decision you make, the course of your life and ultimately tour destiny.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day is not enough;
remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and started to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

Noah's Ark Life Lessons

All I need to know I learned from Noah's Ark
* One. Don't miss the boat.
* Two. Remember that we are all in the same boat.
* Three. Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
* Four. Stay fit. When you're 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.
* Five. Don't listen to critics, just get on with the job that needs to be done.
* Six. Build your future on high ground.
* Seven. For safety's sake travel in pairs.
* Eight. Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
* Nine. When you're stressed, float awhile.
* Ten. Remember the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by professionals.

* Eleven. No matter the storm, there's always a rainbow waiting.

Grief and sorrow

I attended the funeral of the dearest 22 year old daughter of a friend of mine yesterday, and afterwards I had to take the time to consider grief and sorrow.

They are demanding enemies.

Kings and Priests

We know that we must (one day) reign as Kings and Priests. I have had a statement given to me recently, by a friend fo mine, that we are now reigning as Kings and Priests over the earth. I think, no doubt, he bases his statement on :

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

My first reaction was - no - it cannot be. The time has not come, we are only Priests, because we serve reconciliation and atonement with God through the the Blood of Jesus Christ as in :