Pastor Bruce’s blog

In life, but especially in the Bible sense, one’s name is representative of who you are.  Take your own name, for example.  Your reputation, your ability to function socially, financially and otherwise has a good deal to do with your name.  Think about someone that you know.  When you mention his or her name to a mutual acquaintance isn’t there a picture that comes to mind?  And don’t you attach a certain credibility to that picture?  In some way, that is the measure of authority that person has in life. 

The Name of Jesus, the Bible teaches, is “above all names” and that sits well with what other portions of the Bible have to say about His authority.  It says that “all” authority is His and “all” is under His feet.  So you and I must bow to that authority.  Forces of darkness must also bow.  And every other entity or situation you can think of, that also must “bow” before the Lord and obey. 

What does that mean for you?  It means that you need to present your life to Him, God “Most High.”  It also means that when you pray and use His Name that if you ask according to His will, whatever you ask is done.  Because His Name is Higher than any other.  But it especially means that we need to love Him the most.  Because if One so great, so above everything and everyone else bends to love you, it’s the greatest love you’ll ever receive.  Love Him with your life, your thoughts, your words and your deeds, love Him with all your heart.  Because His Name is above every other name.  PB

I was just reading today about the end of the life of Moses.  Moses, as you know, was the leader God had appointed for the Israelites when they were in bondage to Egypt and then released by God’s power.  Moses was given great privileges in that he was allowed to relate to God “face to face.”  Imagine the interactions, imagine the awe of being so close to the Lord’s manifest Presence. 

I was floored by something I hadn’t really noticed until today, though.  It’s based on Deuteronomy 34.7.  It says that “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died.  His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.”  Wow.  In other words, Moses didn’t age or lose his strength or senses throughout all his years wandering in the wilderness and leading a rather stress filled “people situation.”  Could it be that his close relationship with the Lord, his daily face-to-face’s with God, put him so close to the source of Life that he didn’t age?  I think it was.

So what does that mean for us?  Living close to the Source of Life changes you.  He gives His vigor, His Life to those who seek Him regularly.  No, our faces may not literally shine with God’s glory as Moses’ did, but our countenance will be different, brighter, when we walk closely with God.  Because He is Life itself.  The door is open wide to us because of the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.  Walk through it and stay close to Him and your heart will be forever young.  PB

I’m away at a men’s retreat this weekend and we’ve spent the whole day considering what the Cross of Jesus actually did for us.  It’s a completely disarming thing to realize that He chose to die in this fashion, to actually die at all, and to do it for us.  How do you say “Thank You” for such a gift?  I believe you give your all for Him and to Him in response. 

But that’s only one thought. The amazing thing that’s on my heart right now is that God loves to heal.  He seems to love healing the condition of man, for one, changing every heart that trusts Him to forgive through His Son.  He came to heal the brokenhearted, as it says in Isaiah 61 and in Luke 4.  But He also heals bodies, physical bodies.  We had a time of prayer for those who had physical illnesses or injuries, just a couple of weeks ago.  One woman who has a degenerative problem in her hip joint (very painful) had the pain removed instantly as we all prayed. Wow.  Another man who had a bad burn on his hand and was in pain and in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, called out to the Lord and the same thing happened.  The terrible pain was gone.  More and more we’re realizing that He purchased our healing by His stripes on the Cross.  We can go to Him and ask on that basis. 

I guess He really is the Great Physician; especially when He heals what no earthly doctor can reach.  That would be the heart of man.  Go ahead, ask Him in the Name of Jesus.  PB