“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
Taste and See
Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.
Psalm 34:8
It is good to taste food and drink. By doing so we can tell whether it tastes good or bad. Sometimes when we taste things, we don’t like them and then we never try it again. Years ago, my husband and I tried yogurt when it first became available where we lived. We couldn’t stand it, but our kids loved it. Over 20 years have gone by and we didn’t eat it. Now we are 50 and decided to give it a try again and we like it!
Why did it take us so long to try yogurt again? We knew it was healthy and our kids like it. Was it the taste? Was it the active cultures that would be in our bodies? Were we afraid to try something new and when first taste didn’t met with what we expected it to be, afraid to try it again?
Most people are like that when it comes to taste and see what God is all about and
all the fuss about being reborn and being a Christian. Some people think that it
all sounds good and well, but it requires something more to give of self, that one
has to give up things that they like, that they are not ready to and think they have
plenty of time. It just doesn’t taste right because it goes against what the world
says. Others jump right in, throwing their hands in surrender to the Lord, diving
right into His Word and learning right from the beginning what He wants and requires.
Some think God is really great but as they begin to know the way of the Lord, they
figure out that it is a lot of work. Some want God to do it all for them. Some think
that His Laws are harsh. Some don’t like His Laws because they are living lives in
direct conflict with them.
I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips (Psalm 34:1). Here are the basics for a relationship with the Lord. I will extol (praise and worship) the Lord at all times. That means that the Lord is always, not sometimes, first in your life. His praise should be always on your lips even when things are not going how we want them to. Many people don’t realize that as Christians we are going to have trials in our lives. “You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. All men will hate you because of Me. But not a hair on your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life” (Luke 21:16-19). It’s a scary thing to realize that when you give your life to God what you give up in the flesh. How many have stopped following the way of the Lord when family or friends started condemning them for standing on God’s Word? How many of those who obey the Word of God only to have their families abandon them? Wouldn’t it be nice if your family understood why you were giving your life to God? How many have let go of God’s commands for the traditions of men? We nullify the Word of God because people say God is too harsh in His rules.
Let’s think for a moment. When we work at a job, there are certain rules or things we have to do in order to do the job right. For a plane to take off and land you have to follow a set of instructions. For a plant to grow, there are basic requirements. You have to crack open an egg before you make an omelet. If you don’t, the job won’t be done correctly and there are 3 things that may happen. Either you will have to do it over, or the product will go out and could hurt someone, or you will lose your job. With a plane, either you will not get off the ground or you will crash. With an egg, if you don’t crack the shell open and correctly, you will have shells in your omelet. The same thing happens with society. If rules and laws are not based upon good and just requirements, society falls apart.
Let’s look at some of the things that led up to the Great Depression. For many years, society had been allowing more and more sexual freedom and drugs had become easily available. The Roaring 20’s were quite “free.” It was not unusual that for years, ‘tonics’ or ‘miracle oil’ contained cocaine and other drugs as well as a good dose of alcohol. There had begun a movement called Prohibition to make drinking illegal. You had those who were overzealous for complete freedom and those who wanted to make everything illegal and neither way worked. Then God brought upon the U.S. and the world, a depression and then a war. As a result, some sense of balance was achieved. People went to churches and many more ways or denominations for Christian churches began to evolve. Now I am not saying that we had a society completely following the way of the Lord, but we did have a better set of morals and values. And I’m not saying that all of the things that were evil was not still occurring but we began to have what appeared to be wholesomeness.
We are now at a point in time where there is a major battle between God’s morals and the devil’s morals.
This world is now at a point of combustion. The evil that is in the world is greater than it has ever been. Behaviors and actions which are completely against God’s laws are being pushed and being made into laws and we as Christians are expected to sit back and accept them or we could go to jail if we don’t. Laws are being enacted to prevent Christians upon whose beliefs this country was founded upon from following their beliefs. The battle is building between good and evil, right and wrong. We have to be ready for it and we have to be strong.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. Psalm 34:15-16
The eyes of the Lord are upon us and God is calling us to make a choice. Now more than ever it’s important to know where we stand. We have to taste and truly see what the Lord is saying to us in His Word. Jesus came to challenge us, to cause division not peace (Luke 12:49-53). Not to abolish the Law or the prophets but to fulfill. Until heaven and earth disappear, His Law remains. (Matthew 5:17-20) We cannot take away His Laws because the evil one has convinced people that God is mean and harsh or that God really doesn’t want us to live with a mistake and so we can kill a child. Or because we lust and we cannot control ourselves that it’s okay to give into adultery, greed, lust, homosexuality, anger or any other thing that takes us away from God. God’s love for us will never cease but our lack of love for the Lord will cause the wrong ending for those who do not follow God. Our reward for following is heaven and for those who don’t, hell.
Those who look to Him are radiant, their faces are never covered with shame (Psalm 34:5). We need not live a life covered in shame doing things we know deep down are wrong if only we would take the time with the Lord and discover His truth. We have to be like Mary and sit at the feet of the Lord to learn His way. Don’t be scared to look deep into your life and compare it to God’s Word. When you find yourself in sin, the wonderful news of our Salvation has already happened. Jesus already died for your sin. Are you ready to die to your sin? Are you ready to taste and see that the Lord is good? All you have to do is except Jesus as your Lord and Savior, repent and change from a life of sin.
A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19). Even though the Lord brings trials into my life, His goodness is always there. I learn so much about myself during these trials, so much I didn’t know before but God knows. And my strength and my faith are so much richer because of the trials. We are God’s children one and all. It is sad how many do not choose to know that. But for those of us who accept the Father and Jesus into our lives, for those of us who allow God’s Spirit to live within, we taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The Lord redeems His servants; no one will be condemned who take refuge in Him.
Psalm 34:22
