How can we apply God’s promises to our daily lives? Are God’s promises conditional? What does it mean to be a child of God? What are some key promises found in the bible? Are God’s promises for me? How can we be sure God will keep His promises? What‘s more important than getting a life-changing handle on what God has promised you specifically? Expect this podcast to help you know who you are...REALLY & to help you live fully believing God‘s promises to you...REALLY.
Episodes
Friday Mar 08, 2024
Friday Mar 08, 2024
Well hey there, hello to ya. Thanks for dropping by the podcast today. It’s a good one, this episode, as we take a look at a promise from the book of Isaiah. What a book - am I right? What. A. Book.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show Podcast, part of the Spark Network, playing via the Edifi app. This episode is sponsored by Alexandra Bowman Photography, located in south central Kansas, and a link to see her work is right here in the show notes. This is episode number 176.
Every book a promise.
How many promises are there in the Bible, exactly? I’ve read that there are over 6000. That’s something like one promise a day for 16 plus years. It’s a book of promise, it’s a book of hope, the Bible is living and active, so says Hebrews. And all those promises? They are all yes and amen for those of us who are in Christ. That’s very good news for us today, don’t ya think?
And so this series, looking at a promise from each and every book of the Bible, all 66 of them, from Genesis to Revelation, well, it’s a good series because it’s so filled with the hope of those promises. God’s track record at keeping His promises is perfect, absolutely perfect. Of course it is, seeing as He is perfect. Total perfection, nothing less.
Isaiah, however, is a big, full, rich book. Sixty-six chapters and so many promises, especially once Isaiah turns a corner in chapter 40 and the hope just pours out. If you haven’t read much of the book of Isaiah in a while, you won’t regret diving in and reading, applying to your life, choosing to believe what is says.
I decided that it would be pretty near impossible for me to truly do a good job, or even a moderate job, of touching on the promises in Isaiah in just one single episode. So today I’m going to share a promise from chapter 43, a really amazing promise, and then I am going to have another episode with other promises. Because we need it, right now, in our current day and age. We need to hear God’s promises spoken aloud, we need it. It’s like oxygen - this is not the time to be holding our breath. This is the time to be breathing deeply and getting life from God’s promises.
Isaiah 43, verses 1, 2 and 3.
CSB
Now this is what the LORD says - the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel - “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.”
Who created and formed Israel? It was the Lord God who created and formed Israel. God was intentional when he formed Israel, when He changed Jacob’s name to Israel, in all His dealings with His chosen people, He has always been intentional. And this understanding of the intentionality of our God reminds us that He is not, nor will He ever be, unintentional with us. He is working in our lives and all around us, and He does so with loving and careful intention.
Your God is intentional. And He is intentional about you.
Do not fear.
These three words are repeated again and again to us all throughout the Bible. And aren’t you glad for that? That the Lord says this to us, for us, again and again and again? I know I am!
God’s call to us to fear not comes with a promise attached. He knows how we are made, that we are but dust is says in the Psalms. And so, He knows what we can and cannot do in our own strength. (Spoiler alert: we can do basically nothing in our own strength and we need Him for every single thing, every single breath, every single moment.) He doesn’t tell us not to be afraid and then leave us with no way of actually not being afraid. He calls us to a life of no fear and then He makes it possible. Do we need faith, do we need to actually believe what the Bible says? Yes. So choose faith, choose belief, choose to obey the Lord on a daily basis. And when you are scared about something, remind yourself, preach to yourself, that God does not want you to be fearful and then pray and ask Him to do what seems like it’s impossible - to truly make you not fearful. He doesn’t say, “Do this,” or “Don’t do that,” and then leave us unable to do or not do said things. Your God is a good God, and your God loves you so very much, and He will enable you, empower you, to not be afraid.
He says here that He redeemed Israel. And in Jesus, we who are not of the nation of Israel are also redeemed. Do we live like we’re redeemed? Are we behaving like a redeemed people? Just food for thought today. God wants us to understand in the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds that we are redeemed…from death, from hell, from all that a sinful and broken world brings at us, and He wants us to live a changed life as a result of knowing that we are a redeemed people. Does that make us look a bit different than those who don’t know Jesus personally and thus aren’t redeemed as of yet? Well, yes. But isn’t that actually good? Doesn’t that difference, that oddness, us being a peculiar people as it says in the New Testament, doesn’t that give other reason to look at us and maybe, just maybe, some will do more than look, they’ll study us a bit and who know? Some will come to know Jesus for themselves because you and I, we are different because we’ve been redeemed. You could look up the word redeemed in the dictionary and check out the definition and see if it describes you as a follower of the Lord Jesus.
He calls us by name. He knows us all, and He knows us each one, and He knows us well, better than we know ourselves. He calls us by our names. Personal? Yes, your God is personal. He knows. Whatever it is that is weighing on you, maybe a skeleton in your closet, maybe someone really did you dirty and you have not talked to anyone about it…God knows. In His knowing of us, we can rest and we can receive His peace and we can just set it all down, lay it down, and receive what He has for us. You are known, because He calls you by your name. Not a stranger, but one whose name is known and whose name is called.
You are Mine, is says next. You are called by your name and the One calling you by name says this: You are Mine.
When God says something or someone is His, who are we to argue?
But we do sort of argue, don’t we?
I don’t feel like this is true (oh, those fickle feelings, always messing with us and playing tricks on the way we think, which ends up impacting the way we live our lives…)
Listen, if He says something is so, then it is. Period. Your input, my advice, the counsel of the billionarist of all billionaires is irrelevant, it is not needed, He never asks for it.
What God says, that’s that. That’s it. Case closed.
You are Mine. Says who? Who says that? God. That’s who. And that’s that. Once He says you are His, well, just let that be settled here in your life on earth as it is already settled in heaven.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
So, sometimes we are gonna go through some stuff. No way around it, gotta go through it, and that’s how it is. But you aren’t alone, far from it, God has said here, promised here, that He will be with you. Okay then. God’s with me as I pass through those waters? Alright. That changes everything!
And through the rivers, they won’t overwhelm you.
You won’t drown in this situation, because that’s the promise here.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior.
I guess we’re fire walkers, aren’t we? Things will be hot sometimes, but God has said we won’t be scorched, the flame won’t burn us because, and here is the promise, because he is the Lord our God, the Holy One of Israel, now think on that for a moment. Think of God doing all those miracles in Egypt, think of it! The Holy One of Israel, that’s who says you won’t be scorched or burned. He is your Savior.
No political candidate is your savior. No job, career, inheritance is saving you. Good health, you’re a marathon runner, a super athlete, got all these friends around you, live in an underground bunker compound or whatever, nope. That’s not the promise. That’s not where it’s at.
The Lord is your Savior.
Will you rest in that promise today?
You won’t drown, you won’t get scorched, you are called by name, you are His, He will be with you and He is your Savior.
Now that’s quite a promise.
Remember, next week we will look at Isaiah again because the promises in this book, they are for you and for me and so let’s know what they are, and let’s believe them.
He’s got you, and He will not let you go.
And I'm adding Isaiah chapter 11 to the show notes to make it super easy for you to read and pray through.
ISAIAH 11
I’ll see you next time!
Bye bye!
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
In our continuing series, Every Book A Promise, let's take a look at the Song of Solomon (or Song of Songs, as it is titled in some Bible translations).
The overall promise of this book of the Bible is that of God's great love for His people.
His love is so vast, so enduring, so perfect that we will never be able to fully grasp or understand it. The depth of His love knows no bounds, and this episode is a reminder of that truth.
There are also a few warnings to be found in Song of Solomon.
Warnings to not awaken love before the proper time.
Warnings not to allow the little, destructive foxes in life to run wild and rampant, thrashing and trashing the things we've been working hard on.
Warnings to place Jesus as the seal over our hearts, and the greatest love of our life, and the one whom we've given our hearts to for eternity.
And the warning to be ready for Jesus to call us home to Him at any moment.
Feel free to ready the following verses in your Bible -
Chapter 2, verse 7
Chapter 2, verse 15
Chapter 8, verse 6
Chapter 8, verse 14
Next time we'll take a look at God's promises to His people in the book of Isaiah...and because this is such a tremendous book, more than one episode may be required to dig into the promises of Isaiah.
Thanks so much for listening today, and if this show has encouraged you, feel free to subscribe or share the link with someone else.
See you next time!
Jan L. Burt
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
In the latest episode of The Burt Not Ernie Show, host Jan Burt returns for another enlightening conversation on her series, Every Book a Promise. Delving deep into the book of Proverbs, Jan invites her audience to explore and believe in the power and specificity of God's promises and how these can lead to significant life changes.
Through three potent verses, Jan echoes the possibilities that arise when we live in our authentic identities and align our faith with God's purposes. With a firm belief in the Almighty, she uncovers the wisdom encapsulated within Proverbs and its power to impact our daily lives.
This episode serves as a challenge and a guide to living life with complete trust in God's promises, emphasizing the immense strength offered in His name, the prevailing of His purposes over our plans, and His ability to guide the hearts of those in authority. From discussing God's constant presence on the throne, to the importance of forgiveness, to the metaphor of God as a 'strong tower', Jan offers a wealth of biblical insights and comforting reassurances.
Tune in for a spiritually engaging discourse that will deepen your understanding of biblical wisdom and offer a refreshing guide to living a faith-filled life. Remember: God's promises are meant to be believed, and the path to life change is only one faith-step away.
Hey there, welcome to episode 174 of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast.
We’re moving along in our series Every Book A Promise, working our way through the entire Bible to find, and believe, promises from God for us.
It doesn’t do a whole lot of good to just know about God’s promises, or even to be able to recite them from memory.
Life change happens when we believe them.
Remember when Jesus was amazed at the people’s lack of belief? And remember when He was astounded by a couple of people who had tremendous and complete faith?
Which category do we want to be part of? In which camp do we land? And do we need to make a move, change camps, head on over to the winning side?
So as we go through all 66 books of the Bible and learn about what God has promised to His people, let’s be sure we are believing these promises. Not just hearing about them, but believing them. Because they are meant to be believed. Our God wants us to trust Him utterly. Let’s go all in and believe God’s promises.
We are in the book of Proverbs for today’s episode.
And once again, it was not easy to choose just one promise to focus on. There is a wealth of wisdom in Proverbs, I think we all know that, but there are also a whole lot of promises. So I’ve got a few verses to share today, and just as a reminder once more, sort of like I am beating dead horse here but it’s important so I’ll say it again, these promises are for you, right now, today, so go ahead and believe them for yourself right now, today.
Proverbs 18:10 NLT - The name of the LORD is a strong fortress; the godly run to Him and are safe.
19:21 - You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.
21:1 - The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD: He guides it wherever He pleases.
So let’s talk about it!
Starting with the last verse I read, ch 21 vs 1. The king, the ruler, the leader, the one in authority - the heart of that person is like a stream of water directed by the Lord. Something about the leadership, rulers, authorities, big bosses, global tyrants concerning to you? Leadership on a small level or a huge one- you can take it all to the Lord in prayer and make your requests about that specific reign or rule to Him, and simply ask Him to do what it says here that He does…direct their heart like a waterway. Just do the guiding, Lord. Turn them from their evil and from doing what is just so wrong and make Your will to be what gets done. You can and should pray like that. And also, recognize that the second portion of the verse is true, too - that the Lord guides their hearts wherever He pleases. He is Sovereign, and He does love it when we pray and He delights to answer prayer, but that does not mean every single prayer gets the answer we want. He may be doing a much broader, deeper, greater work in an entire nation, state, a company or corporation, and a particular type of leader is who has to be in that position or role. And they may not be good guys, ya know what I mean? And yet, God is in charge, He is Sovereign and He is getting things done that He knows need to be done as per the true bigger picture. Other times, we don’t see anything changing in that person’s leadership because there has been no heart change and that could be because nobody is really praying for that particular person to have a God- led heart change.
But the promise still stands, it is still totally true. God turns the heart of the kind like a stream, like a waterway, directing it wherever He pleases. That should bring us comfort.
Chapter 19, verse 21 You and I can make plans, and don’t we do just that? We plan our vacations, we plan out our week, I mean I have a planner on my desk in front of me right now. We plan for celebrations, we make a plan to get some things done on the honey do list. We make plans. But it is so good to remember this promise, that the Lord’s purpose will prevail.
Where is the hope in this verse for us? Well, in the assurance that His will is what will prevail. And I need to know that my will isn’t going to prevail, because if I am honest I can admit that I mess things up and I don’t trust my will, just as I don’t trust my own heart. I don’t want to follow my heart, because the Bible says it is deceitful above all things, above all else, and that is the truth, not just for me but for all of us. So I need to have a promise like this, and so do you, so we can trust beyond our own plans and realize that God’s purposes will prevail. Remember when God says WILL in a promise in the Bible, He really does mean it. This verse from Proverbs is not an exception - God says clearly that He will actually bring about what He has purposed. So keep this in mind on your good days and the bad ones, because He is in charge, He is on the throne, and you can have total peace. His purposes will prevail. And all His ways are good, so we can trust His purposes.
The last verse I want to look at today comes from chapter 18. Verse 10 reminds us that He is a strong tower, His name is a strong tower. The godly run to it and are saved, our safety is there. Provided we are numbered among the godly. And we know that the blood of Jesus, His perfect life, sacrifice, and resurrection are what enable us to be counted among the godly. I am only godly because of Jesus. What a gift He has given us! It never wears out, we cannot exhaust it, the supply of His love and grace and mercy are endless, and we are able to claim verses like this one for ourselves, all because of Jesus. It should astound us, because it is truly astounding.
Do you need some protection? Are you feeling vulnerable? Run to the name of the Lord. It’s more than a worship song, it is truth! The name of the Lord is like a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are saved. Run to Him! But run in the name of Jesus, the Messiah, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the Lion of Judah. Worship Him, run to Him, believe that you are safe in Him. No matter what comes, if everything including the kitchen sink is being thrown at you, this promise will continue to prove true so long as we do as it says, and run to Him.
Jesus is the Name above all names, and our trust in Him, our hope in Him, our belief that His promises are true for us, is never in vain.
Which of His promises has God forgotten about? Nodded off on? Moved out of the driver’s seat? Abdicated?
None, that’s how many. And none of them, not even a single one, will ever not prove true.
I don’t know how we can ever astound Jesus with our faith, our belief, our trust, our lack of worry or fretting or fear, if we don’t go all in with believing the Bible’s promises.
Would you join me in growing your faith today, by choosing to believe the promises from Proverbs, even in the face of whatever adversity you may be facing? Let’s do this together, what do ya say?
Thanks for listening today, and I’ll see ya next time. Bye bye.
Thursday Feb 01, 2024
Thursday Feb 01, 2024
Recommended Reading -
Psalm 1 - Psalm 91 - Psalm 37 - Psalm 103 - Psalm 90 - Psalm 139 - Psalm 145
(If you read Psalm 145 and want to share how it relates to your life right now, please email me at JanLBurt@outlook.com)
Welcome to this episode of "The Burt Not Ernie Show", hosted by Jan Burt. This episode is part of our 'Every Book a Promise' series where we dissect the wisdom and promises contained in the books of the Bible.
It was incredibly difficult to choose just one promise from just one psalm... and so I'm adding a list of psalms to read for yourself. Expect these passages to be life-changing!
Psalm 37 will be our focus for this episode, and the verses discussed on the show are here in the show notes for you to read yourself.
Psalm 37 from the NLT:
3 Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you.
18 Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
19 They will not be disgraced in hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives.
30 The godly offer good counsel;
they teach right from wrong.
39 The Lord rescues the godly;
he is their fortress in times of trouble.
40 The Lord helps them,
rescuing them from the wicked.
He saves them,
and they find shelter in him.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. God's promises are true - and they are true for you today!
See ya next time! Bye bye.
Friday Jan 19, 2024
Friday Jan 19, 2024
2024 Prayer Planner from Shannon Roberts
Jan's Email List (podcast links sent directly to your inbox)
~ Today in the Every Book A Promise Series we are looking at the Old Testament book of Job.
~ From the NLT, verse 1 of chapter 1 says: “There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless - a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. (Oh how my prayer for myself, for my husband, my children, grand babies, and the whole of Jesus’ Church is that this verse would be true of us, by the power of the Holy Spirit. That would be a beautiful way of seeing Matthew 6:33 lived out in real time).
~ verses 6-12 of Job chapter 1: One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser (note that Accuser is capitalized, this is one of Satan’s actual names…not just an adjective to describe him, but who he is, his name is the Accuser)...and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. “Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.” Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless - a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” “All right, you may test him,” The LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.
~ And now we will jump down to verses 21 and 22 of Job chapter 1: well I will actually start in verse 20: Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
~ This is quite a response for a man who, in one day, a SINGLE solitary day, think sunrise to sunset getting this kind of news, his children had all died, all of them, and his livestock and farmland and property, all of it, the vastness of his life’s work, gone. This is unfathomable grief, a moment we see in a life that is pure pain. And Job’s response? Pure worship of the LORD God Almighty in the face of pure pain.
~ As the book of Job progresses, we find Job’s friends coming to him first to sit next to him in silence for seven days, and Job began to have physical affliction at the hands of Satan in addition to all else he had lost, so he was in a ditch in every sense. Life in the ditch is hard. Have you been there? Are you there today? Life in a ditch in every single part of your life all at the same time, that’s where Job found himself. Of no fault of his own. He was blameless, as it says in verse one of Job chapter one. And the Accuser gained access to his life, to do anything but slay him. Revelation talks of a day when men will wish for death but it won’t come, they will continue to live when they so much want to die instead. There are times, seasons, when living, continuing to keep on living for Jesus seems to be the hardest thing, that dying would be preferred. Are you in such a season? Oh I feel you. I grieve with you. I have prayed for those of you in those seasons, prayed as I worked on this episode. This is a show that feels heavy, it bears some weight and I’ve been feeling the weight of it the last week or so. Job paints a picture, a reality, that seems to be so contrary to who God is and how He does things, doesn’t it? And Job’s friends started out so well, caring enough to sit in silence with him in his deep grief. But then, they couldn’t keep quiet any longer. They did not hold their tongues and out came some things that seem like they are totally true. Job must be a deep, dark, secret sinner or this never would have happened to him. My husband recently said this: Job’s friends knew about God, His character and so on, but they didn’t really know Job or Job’s heart. God looks at the heart, it says in 1 Samuel, while man looks on the outward appearance. That’s not just about clothes and hair and style and the drip. It’s about all that we cannot see, all that God can fully see. And when God says, “Accuser, have you considered my servant?” There is no mistake in that. Pain? Certainly. Being misunderstood and maligned by dear friends? Like, the ones you thought got you, your ride or die, doesn’t get you and is gonna leave you to die while they accuse you on their ride outta your life? This is pain on pain on pain. Some of you are in this right now. Look, we are in the last days. Many don’t believe that to be true - and that’s okay, because Jesus said and Paul said that one of the signs of the times of the last days would be that many who profess to believe would not know what time it is on the Kingdom calendar, even though every single bit of it is playing out play by play exactly as He said it would. So those that don’t think it’s the last days, I’d challenge them to really read what the New Testament says about end times and see if maybe they might be among those who don’t believe but think they are full on believers…this is not going to make some folks happy. Cages will be rattled. It’s alright though, because it isn’t me coming up with nonsense. When I see something on the news that aligns perfectly with Bible end times prophecy, I didn’t invent the prophecy nor make that certain news story to happen. I just saw it and filtered it through the Word of God. And we all need to do that. If we’re not longing for His appearing, we probably are loving the world too much and the book of 1 John ought to be in our Bible reading the very day, the moment, we realize we be loving the world and our little old lives in this ratty old world too much. If you doubt it’s the end times, will you read first John and pray before you read it, asking the Lord to show you any part of yourself that is loving the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life? And if that seems like, Nah, I don’t have those issues, read it in the NLT because it says it like this: chapter 2, verses 15 through 17: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (Do you love what the world offers you? Then you do not have the love of the Father in you and you won’t be able to see what time it really is, the set up is all in place, just think about the last week alone what’s happened in the world, the things in the middle east, the ten kings enthroned in what was the Roman empire, things are moving along tick tick tick…but when we love the world, we cannot see what’s happening clearly. We are blinded. We’ve got spiritual cataracts. Craving things, pride in achievements, possessions. Not from the Father. Take pause and read 1 John chapter 2 and pray. The time for getting serious and stop playing patty cake with the world is now, today. Don’t miss this moment!)
~ Job 40, verses 1-5: Then the LORD said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the LORD, “I am nothing - how could I ever find the answers? I will cover my mouth with my hand. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”
~That is how a righteous person responds when God speaks. Hand over mouth. Confess that I don’t know anything. I’m the clay, He is the potter, and I need to be silent and stop clapping back. Even what does not seem like backtalk to us, it likely is clapping back at God in light of His holiness, I mean Job was blameless said God and Job was acting like God’s critic, said God. Clap hands over mouths instead of clapping back with words. Sometimes we need to just shut it, be in awe of His holiness, and simply be still.
~How far removed from this stance is our modern church? The age of grace has in many ways left us bratty, blind to God’s holiness, welcoming all sorts of filth into our hearts and minds and homes and families that ought not to be. Denying His word by what we say, what’s in the pulpits, what’s on our screens, what’s in our minds, the words we speak. God is holy. How did His church come to forget this truth?
~Job 42:1-2: Then Job replied to the LORD: “I know that You can do anything, and no one can stop You.” Oh we need to remember this! Here’s a promise we need to stand on. God can do anything and no one can stop Him. This is a promise, this is truth, and we need to be humble before our God, the One who can do anything and cannot be stopped by anyone. Verses 5-8: I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance. - After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has. So take seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer on your behalf. I will not treat you as you deserve, for you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.” Okay, this is about to get real. Did you hear that? You have not spoken accurately about Me, says God. You have not spoken accurately about Me. And punishment was deserved, well earned, for this not speaking accurately about God. As a podcaster who speaks about God, this hits home. Deeply. This is beyond serious, for me, and it needs to be taken seriously by every single person who writes, posts, blogs, podcasts, speaks to groups, online speakers, YouTube, TikTok, small group leaders, and every pastor in every pulpit. We have got to stop joking around about holy things. If you joke about the blood of Jesus, what are you doing??? Read the final chapter of Job and ask yourself, what am I doing??? Take back everything you’ve said, and sit in dust and show your repentance. God is holy. None of that stuff is fitting for a minister of the Gospel of peace. If I just stepped on your toes, good! You needed it, then! Did it smart? Did you feel that? Did it offend you? Then you needed to feel it, to wince, to be offended! Now what will you do about it? I don’t speak with platitudes, and so be offended at me all day long. Who cares? What does that even matter? But don’t be offended by the Word of God. And stop making jokes, which is mocking, which means making a mockery of things that are holy. There is a holy fire purge coming into the Church that is God’s Church, in case you haven’t noticed. The thing known as the great falling away, it’s happening, in case you haven’t noticed. Let God do His cleansing work in His church, and repent where you need to. And we all need to, every one of us, the one who claims he has no sin is deceiving himself and the truth is not in him that’s 1 John 1:8. There isn't enough time left to keep goofing off. God will have a pure bride, and the bride is His church. Judgment begins with the house of the Lord, and that's 1 Peter 4:17. Are your seeing it happening? Feeling the heat of His judgment? It’s time to repent, as Job did, and as Job’s friends had to do in order to avoid the treatment they deserved, verse 8 of Job 42 says. Do you take God and His word seriously enough to do what it says? If not, why not? If not now, when? Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand. Your lampstand can be taken away, as is described in Revelation. We are not in the age of grace and thus exempt from being a people who strive to be holy, even as our Lord is holy. Yield to the Holy Spirit instead of grieving Him. A fear of a holy God demands it. Today is the day, now is the time, so please, do what the Bible says, don’t just read it but do what it says, as the book of James instructs us. This is the day to get our houses in order, because time’s almost up and we will all meet our holy, righteous Judge very soon. Let’s be ready, because our redemption draweth nigh.
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
Tuesday Jan 09, 2024
Well hey there, hello to you and welcome to 2024. Gonna be a big year for the Kingdom of our God, and I’m so thankful for all He is going to do. Choosing to praise Him even in the midst of things that are not super fun, anybody else want to join me in that? Let’s just thank Him in advance, fully trusting in His unending love and immeasurable faithfulness toward His people. God is so good, and I am so grateful!
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, which can be found via the Edifi app as well as other places you listen to podcasts. A special shout out to those who listen via iHeart Radio - I pray you are blessed abundantly and experience the Lord’s love and favor in the greatest possible measure. This is episode number 171.
It’s time for the show to get back to our series, Every Book A Promise, where we have been focusing on going through the entire Bible, one book at a time, and honing in on promises God makes us in each and every book. It’s been a great series so far and I’m excited to get back into it. Today we’re looking at a book that is pretty well known, and that is an interesting portion of the Bible. Like many other books in the Old Testament, it takes place during a time of exile in the history of God’s chosen people, the Israelites.
What a great encouragement for us when we face difficult times - and if we are honest, which I will be right now, we do face times when we feel like we are in an exile of some sort. Rejection. Serious health issues, or financial issues. Loneliness. Relationships that fall apart. Transitions that are difficult, like a big move, even for a good reason like a promotion of a post college career opportunity, it can feel like an exile in many ways. Take parenting. They say that for 18 years you see your child pretty much daily. And then, after they leave home, over the duration of your lifetime, you will see your child in total for about one more year. That’s very real, and people can be kind of mocking about the empty nest but this is the truth, so of course it is an adjustment. Of course it feels like an exile in some ways. How could it not? For those who make jokes about not being able to wait until they can kick their kids out and change the locks, well, that’s just strange to me and also, when you say that out loud it reminds me of that line from The Help when Miss Leofolt says about her toddler Mae Mobley, “She’s always hungry.” and everyone laughs…everyone but Skeeter, who replies, “You know she can hear you, Elizabeth.” That’s what comes to mind for me when I hear parents speaking like that with their kids in earshot…You do know they can hear you, right? And that they don’t feel loved, seen, protected, watched over, valuable, important…you do realize that words have consequences, right? That God means it when He says that the power of life and death is in the tongue…that means words count for a whole lot more than we like to believe they do.
So when you are in some kind of exile type situation, the Bible, all throughout the Old Testament, holds hope out to you. In bucketfulls, not in teaspoons, not in milliliters. Bushels full of hope. All you have to do is simply receive it. Some of the greatest passages of the Bible were written during times of exile. Some of the brightest beacons of hope were penned during the darkest days of the nation of Israel. And as it tells us in the New Testament, it was all written for our edification, for us to know and understand who God truly is, how He works in the lives of people, and so that we would have ample reason to hold onto Him, the One who not only authors our faith, but also authors all true hope.
And that is where we find ourselves for this episode of TBNES. Right in the middle of the book of Esther, in chapter 6, we can find hope that will, if we choose to allow it to, bring us out of any pit we’re in and fill us to overflowing that our God is right now working in the details, on so many different levels, and has not fled the scene.
Let’s read from the New Living Translation today, starting at verse 1.
That night the king had trouble sleeping, so he ordered an attendant to bring the book of the history of his reign so it could be read to him. In those records he discovered an account of how Mordecai had exposed the plot of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the eunuchs who guarded the door to the king’s private quarters. They had plotted to assassinate King Xerxes.
“What reward or recognition did we ever give Mordecai for this?” the king asked.
His attendants replied, “Nothing has been done for him.”
“Who is that in the outer court?” the king inquired. As it happened, Haman had just arrived in the outer court of the palace to ask the king to impale Mordecai on the pole he had prepared.
So the attendants replied to the king, “Haman is out in the court.”
“Bring him in,” the king ordered. So Haman came in, and the king said, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?”
Haman thought to himself, “Whom should the king wish to honor more than me?” So he replied, “If the king wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king’s own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden - one with a royal emblem on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king’s robes and led through the city square on the king’s horse. Have the official shout as they go, ‘This is what the king does for someone he wants to honor!’”
“Excellent!” the king said to Haman. “Quick! Take the robes and my horse, and do just as you have said for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the gate of the palace. Leave out nothing you have suggested!”
So Haman took the robes and put them on Mordecai, placed him on the king’s own horse, and led him through the city square, shouting, “This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!” Afterward Mordecai returned to the palace gate, but Haman hurried home dejected and completely humiliated. When Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends what had happened, his wise advisers and his wife said, “Since Mordecai - this man who has humiliated you - is of Jewish birth, you will never succeed in your plans against him. It will be fatal to continue opposing him.”
While they were still talking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and quickly took Haman to the banquet Esther had prepared.
Esther chapter 6, verses 1 through 14, from the NLT.
You probably know the backstory, but Mordecai served the king during the exile, and he was Jewish. Haman hated him and that hate led to a plan to exterminate all the Jews from Xerxes kingdom. And that was what Mordecai knew until the moment Haman showed up with the king’s horse and the king’s robes to lead him around the city square declaring that he was being honored by the king. Mordecai could not see how God was working behind the scenes, he did not know that the king could not sleep and so the record of his own history was read to him by his servants (hmmm, might be a bit narcissistic, and this is another great reminder for us that even in exile, under a tyrant who was powerful beyond compare and dangerous, even under a raging narcissist who only focuses on himself - even in that mixed up mess, God can bring a stark reminder of the good you’ve done, the right things you’ve done, and God can make a way for you to get your due). All that God did behind the scenes reminds us of how gracious He is, that He is in the details, we often say the devil is in the details, and he is a mimic and so sure he is, but even the devil is God’s devil, as Luther said, and so we can trust and even expect God to do things behind the scenes that we will have no way of knowing He is doing. Can you remember that next time it feels dark and heavy and all hope seems lost? Will you remember how God took Mordecai’s enemy, Haman, and made him to be the one to give Mordecai the king’s reward and honor? All because Xerxes couldn’t sleep and was reminded of a great thing Mordecai had done for him in the past. He did not go looking for info about who had spared him from an assassination attempt. He was reading about his own life, his own self, might have been all puffed up about his own greatness, but then he sees that his life was spared by one who was never honored, never thanked. Aha - here is how our God works! And Haman went home humiliated - yes indeed, I bet he was.
Even his wife and his friends could see the writing on the wall, that his evil plot against Mordecai would come to nothing. It will be fatal if you continue opposing him. Sometimes when you won’t bow to someone, bow down to them, kiss the ring in some way, they grow in hate. God sees this. God works behind the scenes, in all the little details like sleeplessness, and He brings out of it just what He chooses.
Isn’t this good news? Isn’t this really just the promise of hope, the promise that God sees? He is El Roi (ROI), the God who sees.
And the God who sees you, who is working behind the scenes in the things you cannot see, is trustworthy. He is true to His character and His promises. And this hope we find in the book of Esther is a promise to us that our God will not set us aside, leave us at the mercy of those who hate us, or fail to make note of when we have done the right thing, even when we are in a season of exile.
That’s a pretty solid promise to stand on as we begin this new year, isn’t it?
Let’s get excited about the hope we have because our God sees, and is working in all the details that involve us.
Happy New Year & I hope you have a truly hopeful rest of your day! See ya next time!
Friday Dec 29, 2023
Friday Dec 29, 2023
Well hey there! Welcome back to the podcast, and I hope you had a truly blessed Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, of God with us, and pondering what that has meant for you personally. How has your life changed because of what Jesus has done for you? The little pause between Christmas and a new year is a time to reflect on this and to thank God for as many things as come to mind when you consider what your life and what your eternity would be without Jesus.
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Free 2024 Word of the Year Printable
Quick bit of info and then we’ll jump into this special new year’s episode. If you are like me, you often have a word for the year, and looking back at the end of December, it’s really something to see what the Lord did. Now I have had years when I did not have a word for the year, it just wasn’t something the Holy Spirit laid on my heart and I just did not have one. Many years, though, I do get a sense of a word that the Lord wants me to be aware of, in a way, and to see Him do things in my life that glorify Him, mature and sanctify me. The word isn’t magical - it’s just a way that I sit up and pay attention and take note of things He does. I often write down Bible verses that have to do with whatever word God has given me, and I like to write out praises and thanksgiving in my daily Bible study journal thanking Him for things throughout the year. I have a little printable download that is all about the 2024 word of the year, and it is yours by clicking the link in the show notes. Also, I wanted to share that I have been dealing with some “new” issues with my health, you might know I was diagnosed with heart failure in 2016 and I have been dealing with thyroid problems for a couple of decades now, and so this health problem cropped up recently and you know, my team at the Cleveland Clinic has told me many times that quality of life management is sort of the overall goal of my health care, and this is just another layer to that. It just is what it is, and God is so good, so gracious to me, I am not at all questioning the Lord and do not want to be whiny or complaining about any of this. Sharing this is more to let you know, if you are used to seeing me around and I’m sort of missing in action, this is why. And there are some other things going on that have to do with other aspects of life for my hubby and I, and this is the season of different things, I suppose, so that’s what’s going on. Not gonna share more than that on a platform like this, I have adults kids and a husband and it can get weird for them if I overshare so I’ll leave it at that. But I am mostly at home, and still able to podcast and am also hoping to start sending an email weekly with links to the new podcast episodes for both shows and I have bandwidth to create some free items to share with my email list, so if you’d like to get those, if you grab the 2024 Word of the Year free item I created for you all, then you’ll be added and will start getting emails with podcast links starting in the new year.
Thank you for listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, which can be found via the Edifi app, as well as all the places you find podcasts. This is episode number 170.
Psalm 103. Written by David. An astounding passage from the Bible that can transform the way we pray, the way we see the Lord at work in our circumstances, and the way we view ourselves. For those reasons and so many more, Psalm 103 is the focus for the final episode of the podcast for 2023, and I am treating it as a blessing for each one of you, no matter when you find yourself listening to this episode.
I’ll be reading from the NLT today.
Psalm 103
A psalm of David.
1
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
2
Let all that I am praise the Lord;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
4
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
6
The Lord gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
7
He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8
The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9
He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
10
He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
11
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12
He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
13
The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14
For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
15
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16
The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17
But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
18
of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!
19
The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.
20
Praise the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
21
Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
22
Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.
Let all that I am praise the Lord.
What if we ended 2023 and rolled right on into 2024 doing this exact thing: letting all that we are, every bit of ourselves, praise the Lord? Wouldn’t that be a powerful way to exit the old and walk into the new?
Let. it’s a key word in this psalm. Let. It implies that we have a choice, we have a big say in the matter. Let all that I am, not some or part or most, but all that I am praise the Lord. No part of your life, your thoughts, your heart’s desires and your broken places, are left out here. All of you, all of me, is to be about this praising of the Lord. With my whole heart, I will praise His holy name. I’ve decided to praise Him and my whole heart is going to do just that. This is a decision. It is not a feeling and it is not fickle and it is not to be determined by circumstances, health issues, bank accounts, married or single, young or old. The decision is made and then we praise Him with the whole of our heart, not keeping some of our heart back just in case things don’t work out well for us, just in case we need to run and hide and wallow in self pity or have some excuse for bailing on Jesus (who, btw, never bailed on us…all the way to the Cross, the grave, and then out of that grave, He never bailed on you or on me).
May we never forget the good things He does for us. Never. What a way to end this year and start the next one, deciding that we never want to forget the good things He does for us!
Let’s list some of those good things now:
Forgives all our sins
Heals all our diseases
Redeems us from death
Crowns us with love and tender mercies
Fills our lives with good things
Renews our youth like the eagles
Gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Think of what we have in Christ Jesus! The treasure never ends for those of us who are in His Kingdom, members of His family. We are so blessed, we are super-blessed!
He is compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, abounding in it. Does anybody need to be reminded of that truth today? Has it been brutal in some part of your life, and this is the reminder you need? Let it fall afresh on you today, and carry this truth, these promises, with you into the new year. Don’t set it down, set it aside, drop it on the curb. Hold on to these words from Psalm 103! Let them be your oxygen, and let them anchor you to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith.
He does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. What a comfort these words are! Living in a post-Christian society, and that’s what we are here in America, words of hope like this mean so very much. We deserve, as a whole, a lot of punishment. Wickedness and hate of God run rampant. And yet, He is merciful. Now, does that mean we can be grace abusers and there will never be punishment, consequences, for what goes on in our land? Nope. He is God, and we cannot begin to fathom His holiness. Let us stay close to Him, keep short accounts with Him (that means repent often, repent quickly, and repent for real - stop doing those things you repent of)! He is not a chump, but holy and righteous and just. And yet, this is what He promises us in His Word. Is He not good? Is He not kind? What a God we serve!
His unfailing love is toward those who fear Him. He removed our sins as far as the east is from the west. He is a tender and compassionate Father to His children who fear Him. He knows how weak we are. Our days on earth fly by. He never forgets this!
His love remains forever with those who fear Him. His salvation extends to the children’s children of those who are faithful to His covenant. How’s that for a promise that has more hope, more power, more depth to it than we can even begin to plumb!
He rules over everything, it says in verse 19. No part of your life is out from under His rule. He is Sovereign, and those who fear Him remember His sovereignty.
Praise the Lord, everything He has created, everything in all His kingdom. Let all that I am praise the Lord. Those are the final words of Psalm 103.
May this be your blessing for the coming days and weeks and 2024. Maybe you’ll have a break this week when you can sit and read Psalm 103 for yourself, thanking God for the promises He makes and of course keeps, and trusting Him for the hard things in your life and the things you sense coming in the new year. He is trustworthy above all others, in ways that we can never fully understand. So trust Him to keep His promises to you in the coming days. Won’t He do it?
Let me mention one thing here at the end of the show, I have a friend who is a fellow podcaster and he does some fundraising for his podcast, and he is also a pastor so in full time ministry plus podcasting, and he has been totally honest about the costs incurred in running a podcast and he has shared that this has been a blessing for others as well as himself, to take the cost burden sort of off his shoulders and out of the family budget and others get to share in the podcast ministry, which is a global ministry for him and that’s also true for The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. If you’d like to be part of offsetting the cost of my two podcasts, I’d be so thankful. It does, at a bare minimum, cost several hundred dollars per show per year. And you are welcome to touch base with me about what exactly the cost breakdown is and I’ll share that with anyone at anytime. I’ll add the link to my Buy Me A Coffee in the show notes, because to add a donate button via the podcast platform I use would be another $700 per year for two shoes…so, I went with Buy Me A Coffee. All donations will go toward the show production costs, none will buy me any coffee! Thanks for listening and for helping move the hope of God’s promises to countries all over the world. Every download moves the show up in the search ranks and helps push it out to more people when they search for new podcasts to listen to, and you did that. Thank you! This podcast gained 75% of it’s new listeners last year, so growth is happening every time you download an episode and listen to it. Every single person who subscribes to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show is helping push it out to more potential listeners. The part you play in this cannot be overstated, and the end of the year is the time I want to take to tell you that I am more thankful for you than I will ever be able to express in mere words. Lord bless you a hundred times over in return!
And I’d like to close out the show, and the year, with these words, the very last words from the book of Revelation. This is my blessing spoken over you, and I am so very grateful for you.
Revelation 22:20-21, NLT
He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.
May you be blessed as you leave 2023 and doubly blessed as you enter 2024. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and He adds no sorrow to it.
And next time on the show, we’ll be back in our series, Every Book A Promise, where we are going through every single book of the Bible, all 66 of them, and grabbing hold of God’s promises to us in each and every book. Looking forward to that (and on The Prayer Podcast we will resume our series on praying through the book of James). Oh, one last thing, in my prayer group on Facebook we will be going through all of the Psalms and praying them starting in January, and if you’d like to join that group, please click on that link and you’ll be in the group (also it is a private group in order to keep prayer requests confidential, so no need to worry about sharing prayer requests in that group for worry they’ll be able to be seen outside the group).
Have a blessed start to your 2024, and thank you for being part of the podcast. Bye bye!
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
Wednesday Dec 13, 2023
Mary’s song.
The Magnificat.
Luke chapter 1, verses 46-55 have this beautiful text known as The Magnificat, Mary’s song. How did this young teenage virgin respond after the visitation of an angel with the once-in-history news that she would birth the Messiah?
This is how.
(from the Amplified, Luke 1:46-55)
And Mary said, “My soul magnifies and exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has looked (with loving care) on the humble state of His maidservant; for behold, from now on all generations will count me blessed and happy and favored by God! For He who is mighty has done great things for me; and holy is His name (to be worshiped in His purity, majesty, and glory). And His mercy is upon generation after generation toward those who (stand in great awe of God and) fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His (powerful) arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent the rich away empty-handed. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, just as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
This is profound!
A heart long readied to serve the Lord God Almighty responds in this manner. A hard heart, and immature heart, and self-focused heart, a bitter heart, a clouded heart cannot.
Mary was ready for the task which lie ahead for her, because God had readied her.
This Christmas, can you pause and ask the Lord to show you what He has readied you for? The answer won’t be nothing, because the God we love and serve is always moving, working in and on our hearts, readying us and maturing us and sanctifying us. Take some time to slow down and listen for what He would say to you.
He has not stopped looking on us with loving care. Have we stopped rejoicing in God our Savior?
He who is mighty is still doing great things for His people. Do we revere His name as holy, to be worshiped in His purity, majesty and glory?
He is still helping those who serve Him, and is of course still helping Israel. Have we forgotten what He has remembered - which is His mercy?
Do we know what He has promised in the way that Mary knew what He had promised to Abraham and his descendants? If we forget, or simply know not, what He has promised…aren’t we likely to miss it when He keeps those promises?
And keep them He will.
Mary’s song encourages me every time I read it.
It is beautiful because her simple and complete faith and trust are laid bare for all of us to see. May our faith and our trust be as solid and immovable as hers.
And as a quick aside, I know a pastor who does not like the wisemen all huddled up next to the baby Jesus in the nativity sets we place on our mantles…why doesn’t he like that? Because it is not true to the Biblical narrative, that’s why! I’ll let you read the first couple of chapters of Luke and see for yourself. This pastor, he’s not wrong!
I have a similar pet peeve, if you will…I so much want to buy a sweatshirt that says, “Mary knew.” on it. Not because I haven’t been touched in years past by the song “Mary Did You Know?” but because based on Mary’s life as seen in the Gospels, I think she did know quite a lot…I think we can read The Magnificat and understand that not much got past her in terms of understanding who her Son was. She treasured all these things up in her heart, we read in our Bibles. And treasure is not something one forgets, tosses aside, or suddenly becomes ignorant about. Oh, Mary knew so very much. And what she did as a result of what she knew as her life took a turn that forever altered things for all of history is a challenge to us all this Christmas - what do we know, and how does that knowing change the direction of our life and hopefully the lives of others?
Merry Christmas to you, and as always, thank you so very much for listening to the show. I pray it blesses and emboldens you as you live for Jesus in a world that needs His light.
See you next time!
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Hello there, welcome to this episode of the podcast, I’m your host Jan L. Burt, and I am tremendously thankful you’re listening. In this episode, we’ll be looking at the book of Nehemiah, which holds so much hope, in the midst of genuine opposition, and the wonderful truth that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Let’s jump into this chapter.
God's Best for My Life Devotional
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, found on the Edifi app. Today’s show is sponsored by the devotional God’s Best For My Life, by Lloyd John Ogilvie, available via Moody Church Media. The link to purchase your copy is in the show notes, and if you need a new devotional for the upcoming new year, or maybe a Christmas gift, this devotional is worth reading. It is powerful in that it is life-changing and based solidly on the Bible. It’s on my list to give this year, because it’s a game changer. This is episode number 168.
Nehemiah chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 and today I’m reading from the CSB, from my Spurgeon study Bible.
When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious. He mocked the Jews before his colleagues and the powerful men of Samaria, and said, “What are these pathetic Jews doing? Can they restore it by themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they ever finish it? Can they bring these burnt stones back to life from the mounds of rubble?” Then Tobia the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “Indeed, even if a fox climbed up what they are building, he would break down their stone wall.”
The header for this chapter is titled, Progress In Spite Of Opposition.
Anybody feel like they are up against some opposition? Trying to make progress - maybe in your finances and the economy is fighting you. In your health and man, it’s so hard, this time of year, to make changes or find time to get to the gym, or to cut out your favorite craft coffee…we were in Florida over Thanksgiving and we had some good coffee while we were there, at a place we really love, and it would not have been easy to give up good coffee right before heading down south on that trip. What about trying to make progress for God’s glory, doing Kingdom work, maybe in your family, doing family devotions, Christmas and nightly advent devotions seemed like a great idea but some of those kids, they are in opposition to this idea and it’s hard. Trying to keep the neighborhood outreach going, but nobody else is really helping out and it’s just so hard…Okay, you get the picture. We all have times of opposition. But are we making progress in spite of it? Now, not everything that WE decide to work on is something God is going to bless, because sometimes we’re selfish, sometimes we know He wants us to go over here but those people are difficult and so lemme just go on this a way and start doing this other thing, and God won’t You just bless it same as You would if I’d done what You said? There are times we are doing good-ish stuff but it isn’t God-ish stuff, He didn’t ask us to do this, He said to do that. Or we never even asked Him, we just jumped in, started this new thing, it’s way more than we bargained for and we don’t feel like He’s giving us much favor. Gotta talk to Your Father about these things, my friends. And you also have to do what He says, and ideally do it quickly because obedience matters so much. I’ve got something I am going to do this week, and it’s a busy week, getting busier and busier by the second, but it’s gonna get done cuz He said to do it. By the start of next week, I’ll have it done. Because that’s the timeline He’s given me and I’m going to obey. I want His blessing, I want His favor, don’t you? I want progress in spite of opposition. And satan is against us, because we are part of the family of God. So we will have opposition.
In these verses, we see two men who are just on a tear. They are against Nehemiah, they are against all of the Jewish people who are back in Israel doing a rebuilding work. They are not nice or polite in these verses, and they don’t get nicer or politer (that’s not a word, but whatever) as this book continues. Why do we expect the opposition to be nice and tidy and neat and polite and manageable and not so darn mean when we’re dealing with it because we’re obeying the Lord? It’s not nice. It’s not polite. And often, it comes from the back, the sides, the flanks, not head on directly where we can see it coming and get ourselves ready. Nehemiah kept working, alongside many others, and he also prayed that these attacks would be stopped and their attackers dealt with. In verse 13 we find that things got so rough that Nehemiah stationed people around the vulnerable areas and the lowest sections of the walls with swords, spears and bows. He also reminded the people not to be afraid of their enemies, but to remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord, as they fought for their countrymen and their families and their homes (see vs. 14). Remember the Lord should inspire us to awe. He is awesome, we ought to be in awe of Him. Every so often, take time to stand in awe, to stand amazed, and to ponder just who this God is that you know and serve and love. Need some courage? That’s one way to find it, and not courage based on others, on yourself, on circumstances. Courage in the Lord.
In chapter four we see that they did the rebuilding work with a trowel in one hand, so yes this is manual labor they were doing, literally rebuilding this wall brick by brick, a trowel is used for brick laying type work, masonry, they had the trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. They were working, they were ready to fight and defend themselves, and they were reliant on God. The end of this chapter says they never removed their weapon, even when washing. This threat was real.
Listen, you may feel pushed on, under a heavy spiritual weight at times. Your threat, your attack, it is also real. It’s okay if you need to do your daily work with one hand a keep your spiritual weapon in the other. Put on the full armor of God, and if you haven’t done that in a while or want to know where that is in the Bible, NT Ephesians chapter 6. Get in the Bible daily. Pray daily, and don’t just give God your list and then sign off, but listen for what He might say to you, how He may answer you. And put on worship music. All these are ways to keep a weapon in your hand. The enemy is real, and he hates Jesus and so he also hates you because you belong to Jesus. Use the weapons God has given you, and don’t feel bad about it. We don’t fight against people, our enemies are in the spiritual realm, remember that. And ask the Lord to protect you and to help you, which is what Nehemiah did.
Jump to chapter 8, and we find the people all gathered together and Ezra, from the last episode we mentioned him, he read the book of the law of Moses from daybreak until noon before the people. Verse 3b says, “All the people listened attentively to the book of the law.”
When you are at church, do you listen attentively or distractedly?
Ya know, I have to say, this is in total honesty, we don’t listen as attentively as we ought to. Lots of reasons for this, most of them you already know and don’t need me to mention. But I will say this: church hurt is real, and some folks are in the church each week, they are there, but they have some hurt from prior experiences and they love Jesus and they love His people, but they have been through some stuff and honestly, I do believe some of the inattentive “listening” we find is linked to this. Keep attending church if this is you. Keep praying, keep reading your Bible, keep listening for the Spirit of the Lord to speak to you, and keep allowing space in your life for God to bring you healing. That’s all I want to say on this issue today, but I don’t think I’m wrong that there are walking wounded in our churches and some of those wounds came from within the body of Christ. Thank you to those who are in church even when you’ve been hurt. I’m glad you’re there!
Ya know, maybe the promise for us from this book, for this episode, is that we can rebuild. We can trust God again. And again. We can serve alongside people, even those who are also rebuilding and recovering from a long, hard season. We don’t have to be perfect, to get better before we show up, we don’t have to hide out and avoid the rebuilding work God has for us to do.
We live in a hurting society where God is being rejected and pushed aside at every turn. There are a thousand areas where we can see rebuilding would be helpful. Ask God if He has a work for you to do, to be part of, to join, in the world in which you live. Your workplace, your family, your church, your neighborhood. And as He leads, you follow. If it’s a work that requires you to build with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other, that’s okay. It’s happened before, with success, and God does not change, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Who He is does not shift, and we can ask Him to help us and know that He will.
And if you need some part of your life to be rebuilt, would you be brave enough to believe that God cares for you, about that area of your life, so very much that He will do the rebuilding work that needs to be done, in the way He knows is best, in the timeframe that He chooses, and with the means, resources, people and ways that He decides? Sometimes we’ve just been so hurt, we don’t even realize we never asked Him to help us, to heal us, to rebuild. Go ahead and ask. He’s so good, and His love for you knows no bounds. Rebuild in us and through us, Lord! Do what You do best! Thanks for joining me today and I hope you’ll be back next time - I’m so grateful for your time and I am praying you have a blessed, Christ-centered month of December. Lord bless you! Bye bye!
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Wednesday Nov 29, 2023
Fig Tree Books & More location info
Fig Tree Books & More on Instagram
Well hey there! Hello to you today and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent time resting and also able to spend time with loved ones, and of course had the chance to express your thankfulness for what God has done and will do in your life. He is good and He acts out of His lovingkindness toward His children, and that is something that we should never stop being thankful for. I really do believe that Christians ought to be the most thankful people on this planet. Thanksgiving is a time to express that thankfulness in all sorts of ways, and I do hope yours was wonderful. I am thankful for you.
You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing in the Edifi app. Today’s episode is sponsored by Fig Tree Books & More, located in Branson. If you are planning a trip to the Branson area at any point in the future, I hope you get the chance to swing by Fig Tree Books. You will not regret it, that I can promise you! It’s more than a bookstore, it’s an experience with some of the most rock-solid, Jesus loving believers I have ever met. I’ll have the link to their Instagram here in the show notes as well as a link to their exact address. Fig Tree Books & More, thank you for the work you are doing for the Kingdom, for every prayer you pray with customers, for every product selection you make with such care, for reaching your community and for being a haven for those visiting the Branson area. May the Lord bless you and the work of your hands in ways beyond your wildest imagination. I am thankful for you! This is episode number 167, and today we are looking at the book of Ezra.
The Amplified Bible is what I’ll be referencing for this episode, and I’m going to read a couple of verses from Ezra chapter 7. Verses 9b and 10 say this: …because the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart (resolved) to study and interpret the Law the the LORD, and to practice it and teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.
Ezra lived in captivity in Babylon, so think about Daniel and his life in Babylon and Nehemiah and his calling to work on rebuilding the Temple at the end of this season of Israel’s captivity. Ezra was alive in this same era. He left Babylon and traveled for months to get to Israel, according to verse 9 of Ezra chapter 7. Months of travel. What do we do for months? Like, what’s worth that to us? Granted this was normal in that day, travel from Iraq (which is modern day Babylon) to Israel just took that long, and it doesn’t take that long today, but it is worth thinking about, this idea of what is worth a long journey for us? And have you considered as of late that you are on a long journey? A journey home, to eternity with Jesus. You are on a long trek, you are a pilgrim on your way to your final destination. We as Christians are, in a way, sort of like Ezra. And the destination is more than worth the long, hard road we walk to get there.
When the Temple was rebuilt at the end of this time of captivity, as we see in Ezra chapter 6, the Temple was completed and dedicated and Passover observed in the homeland of the Jewish people once again, then we move into chapter 7 and we see Ezra making the journey to Jerusalem.
The promise in these verses is that when we, God’s people who bear His name, have the good hand of our God on us (not the heavy hand of the Lord on us, as we find in the Bible at times, but the good hand of our God), we are able to do hard things for His Kingdom and His purposes. Ezra had set his heart to study and interpret the Law, the first five books of the Bible written by Moses, the Torah. How about us? Are we set like that? Do we have our hearts set on studying the Bible? It’s easy to answer, yes or no, there is no middle ground or wiggle room on this…the question begs an answer, an immediate and honest one. Is my heart set on studying God’s Word? Yes or no. Can you be brave enough to answer this honestly? And then, be brave enough to ask the Lord to make your heart set upon this, if the answer is no…and make it even more set upon it if the answer is yes? I’m not bagging on anyone, but I am asking an important question that warrants and honest and introspective answer because Jesus held back nothing to save us from death and hell, and He is worth everything, including our hearts set on knowing Him better and better day by day as a result of studying the Bible.
The Amplified says “resolved”. Ezra had set his heart resolved to study and interpret the Law of the Lord. How resolved are we in our study of God’s Word?
Ezra made this long journey to a place that had been decimated and trashed during this terrible exile season in Israel’s history, and at this time it was on the uptick. He was going back home, but to a home that had been broken down alongside a people who had been broken down. Sometimes the journey we make in life is alongside those who have also been broken down. You know, we want those strong leaders to lead us…and I think when we are strong in the Holy Spirit, when we are weak then God is strong in us and through us, that’s good strength. But it doesn’t always look pretty and it isn’t always neat and tidy and polished the way the world tells us our leadership ought to look. Looks don’t seem to matter as much to God as they do to man, to you and to me. Good leadership, chosen and appointed by God, may not look shiny and lovely. Good leadership may be the guy next to you, walking the same path you’re walking, who has answered God’s call to leadership. It may be the lady who is just a few steps beyond you on the road of life, she’s far from perfect and she’s got her hair in a messy bun or a banana clip and she may be walking with a limp…but she’s going where God says to go, following His leading as she obeys His call to lead others. You want leaders who are good followers, who follow Jesus closely and who obey quickly, immediately, because otherwise they’re not fit to lead anybody and they know it. What might happen if that kind of leadership became what we as the Church look for rather than wanting only leaders who look like the world, act like the world, and run the Church like a business, like the world. I have been young and now, I’m getting older and I’ve seen both kinds of leaders. And I know which kind have impacted me the most with the things of the Lord, and it’s not the polished and social media post perfection kind of ones who made real impact. It’s the one just a few steps ahead, been through some stuff in life, and they just keep on loving, serving, trusting, following, obeying and honoring God with the whole of their messed up, messy life.
Ezra may have been somewhat weary before his journey even got started. Anybody else ever feel like that? Lord, I’m so tired from this…and now You are asking me to start this next leg of my race when I’m feeling weary? Sometimes that is how it goes. I’m not against rest, but I think I can honestly say that we can have sabbath rest, resting in Jesus, even while walking the path He’s called us to. How many Bible characters were totally ready for the task God called them to? The blessing came from their obedience. Lack of obedience would not have yielded the same degree of blessing…or likely much blessing at all.
Sometimes we feel weary before the journey begins.
Others were probably weary too, and Ezra as a leader was dealing with his weariness and theirs. It can be hard to lead weary people. Not always, but at times our flesh cries out for ease and after a long season of reign by an oppressor, some happy news may have been pretty appealing. But an honest study of the first five books of the Bible would come with conviction and a real hard and honest look in the mirror. Weary people can want an answer and a solution more than they want to be taught, and Ezra was called in verse 10 to teach Israel what the Bible had to say.
The point here is that Ezra did not have the easy street assignment, and even when he was weary, he still obeyed. That’s the mark of a mature believer. Ezra had a tough role to play, but he did it. Do we want the good hand of God on our lives?
Do we really?
Verse 25 tells us that Ezra was tasked with appointing magistrates and judges in accordance with God’s wisdom and instruction. He was to appoint those who knew the laws of God, and he was told to teach anyone who did not know God’s law.
If hard times come - and I mean hard hard times, not so so hard times, but hard hard times, if those times come, do you realize there may be a special role for you provided you know the Bible well? I’m serious about this! Do you know any part of your Bible well enough to instruct someone about it? Over a cup of coffee, as part of a Bible study group, in a group text of Christian friends. The need may well arise. Are we ready if it does? Because when hard hard times come, people tend to land in one of two camps, and it’s pretty distinct. They either want to know more about God, what the Bible says, how to pray, or they get hard hearted and want to shut God out while blaming Him for everything that has gone wrong. But those that will want to know how to seek and to find the Lord in the hard hard times may need someone to show them the way, to explain the Bible to them, to pray with them. Could that someone be you?
Now these may not seem like promises at first glance, the verses I’m sharing today. But I think they actually are. Can you imagine receiving the call of the Lord to teach people about His word in hard times, in a season that could be considered the tail end of a long spiritual famine?
Church attendance in the United States post COVID has dropped and remained below 50% for the first time since attendance began being tallied or monitored in our country. It’s below and it’s staying below. How’s that for the mark of a spiritual famine? I think we’re in one in the US. It’s also a bit of an indictment on us as a so-called Chrsitian nation. Where will you and I land in this post-Christian era in which we live? Will we be ready to teach others what the Bible says, or fail to be ready? And as far as hard times go, the writing is on the wall, so to speak, when the people in a nation have turned away from, even against, the God of the Bible. We know what happened to such nations in the past. We know from the book of Revelation what will happen to those who deny the Lord God Almighty in the future. And so we understand that in our day, hard times may come, probably will come sooner rather than later.
We also know that persecution grows Jesus’ Church. Hard times drive people to their knees in prayer. And we have this moment, this era, to ready ourselves to serve God in like manner as Ezra when those days come to pass. But only if we know His Word! We cannot teach what we do not know!
In the new year, I’m planning to start sharing monthly Bible reading plans and some pdf Bible study tools and do a weekly study of the psalms in my private prayer group on Facebook, working through all 150 psalms week by week and praying based on what we find in those passages. These are just a couple of ways I hope to encourage people to get in the Word and to learn it, to live it, and to know it well enough to teach it to others. Which is discipleship 101 and Titus 2 ministry in a nutshell.
On my other podcast, The Prayer Podcast, this week I’m going to share and pray from Ezra chapter 8, a prayer for protection that God answered powerfully, you can find this in verses 21-32. And also, side note, on TPP soon we will start a series on the NT book of James and it’s going to be a good prayer series because the book of James brings life change, like, every single time we read it and apply it and study it and believe it and pray that what it says will become our reality. I’d love to have you join us for that series on The Prayer Podcast.
But when we look at Ezra 8, verse 23 from the Amplified, we find this: So we fasted and sought help from our God concerning this matter and He heard our plea. And verse 31 - We set out from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem: and the hand of our God was upon us, and He rescued us from the hand of the enemy and those who lay in ambushes along the way.
Does God answer prayer? Yes
Does God still in our day and age answer prayer? Yes
Can we really expect Him to help us? Yes
Can we talk to Him about anything and everything, specific matters that concern us and not just high and lofty spiritual things? Yes
Can we do what He is calling us to do and make the impact that He wants us to make (or rather, to allow Him to make the impact He wants to make through us)? Yes
Can we get to our destination safely, protected from marauders, fully able to do what comes next once we get to that place? Yes
Can we ask Him to see us safely all the way home? Yes
More than just a single promise from the book of Ezra, preparing for this episode has shown me that the whole of Ezra, the whole book is God’s promises being fulfilled. It’s proof positive that God keeps His promises, every single one, in perfect detail. And it’s a call to be reconciled to God. Our reconciliation should lead us to trust more. If it doesn’t, are we really reconciled? I’m not fully reconciled to someone if I do not trust them. The two go together. Be reconciled to God and trust Him completely.
Pray to Him and listen for His answer to your prayers.
Be like Ezra.
That’s all for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. Thanks for joining me today and don’t forget to check out Fig Tree Books & More when you’re in the Branson area.
See you next time. Bye bye!