The Oath of Office from the official website of the Senate of the United States begins with the following line: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic“; Those last 2 words were what I reflected on, as July began and as the United States of America celebrated its 247th Independence Day.
Foreign, and domestic. In our continuing journey to appreciate all that Christ has done for us, I believed that it was proper for us to see how through His finished work, we ourselves are defended from all enemies, foreign, and domestic. Understand that from one perspective the enemy of our soul would try to condemn us two ways – through self-sabotaging, domestic thoughts, and through a sheer bombardment of foreign words. And this is precisely why we jumped into Psalm 139 in such detail; For us to know that we have a Father who is Mindful, Precise, Present and Supportive towards us gives us peace no matter what the world would have us think about ourselves. Mama Nitz followed up by discussing Psalm 140 and Psalm 141; Just as the Lord protected David from his enemies, and from his worst enemy, King Saul – So we also have the advantage over the enemy who would try to stir up wars continually against us.
This month is the Anniversary month of the Good News Community Church as a whole, and our dear Pastor John mentioned that a theme he had for the churches was, simply, to seek. And on that note, we will be talking about the aspects of seeking as we approach our actual anniversary celebration, on the last Sunday of this month.
During our trip to Mindanao, I mentioned that Pastor Rey N jumped the gun by telling the leaders there, that it is time to seek the Lord. And here I ask myself and you, the congregation: What are the advantages of seeking the Lord? Well, in my thinking about all of this, I believe we’ve been led back to the Psalms for what I think would be a set of verses we’d be meditating on, not just today, but for the rest of this month:
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.
Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalms 34:1-4
Simply put, we will bless the Lord, our mouths shall continually praise Him, our soul makes its boast in Him; We will magnify the Lord, much so that the humble would hear and be glad, and we shall all exalt His name together. What could possibly have us going so all out? Well, consider that we are able to pour it all out, because we sought the Lord, and He answered us and delivered us from all our fears. This tells me that if we seek the Lord, do not be surprised if you end up praising Him and enjoying Him.
For today, however, we shall see one aspect to seeking – that is, that we seek, in order to learn. Isaiah 2:1-4 says the following: It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
The prophecy as mentioned by Isaiah proclaims that the Lord shall be established, and multitudes would gather. They would agree among themselves to ‘go up to the mountain of the Lord’, so that they would learn His ways, and walk in His paths. Going through this, I’m brought to remember – I had the bittersweet privilege of ‘inheriting’ my father’s iPhone 4 after he passed away, and as I was going through the stuff he had on there, there was a voice memo of him sharing Proverbs 16:3: ‘Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established’. Friends, two things: When we say that we seek the Lord, it means that it requires commitment from our part – we commit to gather together as in fellowship, and we commit to going ‘up to the mountain of the Lord’ which implies intention. Second, when I say that we learn from Him, we’re saying that our thoughts and plans would be established, by way of our learning His ways and His paths.
So putting it all together – when we commit (as individuals or as the body) to intentionally involve the Lord in all we do, do not be surprised if we learn more of His way, that we would see where we need to correct our own thoughts and plans. In other words, we learn by way of correction.
But it doesn’t stop there. Jeremiah 33:2-3 states the following: “Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it—the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Simply put, we learn by way of correcting what we already have in place, and we also learn by way of revelations that we were not aware of yet.
So seek the Lord, and you will learn. I could end there. But you and I know there’s more to this.
Last August 28, 2023 I had the privilege of joining Pastor Rey N, Mama Suzette and my own Mother in fellowship. I made notes of what we were talking about, and I found some interesting points to ponder on – I’d like to share one of them today. Considering the struggles of the 80s-90s church versus today, I thought that back then the name of the game was propagation: That is, to promote the Gospel, and to tear down anything that goes against it. In today’s climate, where everyone and their mother has quicker and more convenient access to volumes upon volumes of data and information, the name of the game has shifted, from propagation to discernment. To look at this from another point of view, there was a time that we thought to ourselves that the definition of famine back in the day was lack of food. Today, we’re beginning to realize that a new definition of famine is creeping up – there’s plenty of ‘food’ now, but no nutrition.
After our discussion, Mom shared that one verse, Hosea 4:6 – ‘My people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge’; and just as there’s a lot of junk food that smothers nutrition, there’s also a lot of useless data and information, that drowns out the wisdom.
So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
John 18:33-37
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17
Friends, I end quickly with this: In this season where we should seek the Lord and learn, let us not forget that before we even wanted to learn, it was Christ who came and taught us the Truth – by being the Truth, HIMSELF.
I’m not sure if I’m going to end it this way literally, but let’s see how it goes.
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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