The Work of Your Hands

“I bow down toward your holy temple

    and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,

    for you have exalted above all things

    your name and your word.

On the day I called, you answered me;

    my strength of soul you increased.” (Psalms 138:2-3 ESV)

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

    you preserve my life;

you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,

    and your right hand delivers me.

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;

    your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.

    Do not forsake the work of your hands.” (Psalms 138:7-8 ESV)

If we are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, and so we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, then we will have the same enemies as God has. And these enemies could well be those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. They could even be pastors of church congregations. But they oppose the Lord and his commands by how they conduct their own lives.

For those who walk in sin, and according to the flesh, and not according to the Spirit, and not in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord, in practice, walk as enemies of God. Even if they give lip service to the Lord, if sin is what they practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to God, then they are enemies of God, and they will also be our enemies if we are, indeed, following Jesus Christ with our lives wholeheartedly. For we will be an offense to them, because we take God and his word to heart.

Especially since we live in a day and age when the Word of God is being altered and diluted to suit the sinful desires of human flesh, and when so many pastors of church congregations are diluting the gospel of our salvation in order to tickle itching ears and to make the gospel message more agreeable to the ungodly, if we still hold to the truths of the Scriptures and to the gospel that Jesus Christ and his NT apostles taught, we should expect to be opposed even by others professing faith in the Lord Jesus.

And if we think about it, who were Jesus’ strongest opponents when he lived on the earth? They were not the people out in the world who made no professions of faith in God, but they were his fellow Jews, his neighbors, some of his family members, and the religious rulers and people of influence in the temple of God and in the synagogues. They are the ones who hated him and wanted him dead because of the things that he did and said. And so they harassed him at every turn until they finally arranged for his death.

So, it should not surprise us if we are opposed and ridiculed and laughed at and mocked for our walks of faith by others who call themselves Christians. And Jesus said that if we follow him with our lives that even our family members will be against us, though not necessarily all of them. But we should expect to be opposed and rejected and even mistreated by the members of our own birth families if we take God’s word to heart and if we follow the Lord in doing what he says that we are all to be doing.

For we live in a day and time when so many are being taught a gospel message which makes no requirements for self-denial and for death to sin and for walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands in righteous living. So many are being taught that they can just acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and now heaven is guaranteed them, and it can’t be taken away from them, but regardless of how they live. And some are even taught that they don’t have to repent of their sins nor obey our Lord’s commands.

So, if we are remaining faithful to the teachings of Christ and of his NT apostles, especially with regard to what they taught was the gospel of our salvation, then Satan is definitely going to be after us to try to bring us down, and he will use other humans to do his dirty work to try to trip us up and to trap us or to try to discredit us and/or to turn others against us, because he wants us to fail, and he wants to silence us. So we need to hold fast to Jesus and trust him to carry us through it all.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

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