THE QUEEN OF SHEBA

By Shirley Wiggins

“…, she was overwhelmed.” 2 Chronicles 9:4b (NIV).

Scripture references:  1 Kings 10:1-13;  2 Chronicles 9: 1-12; Matthew 12: 42 (vv38-45); Luke 11:31 (vv29-32; 24-26); and  2 Peter 2:20.

One day, as I was driving to a nearby town to meet my daughter for lunch, I heard Dr. Vernon McGee’s sermon on the radio.  He was speaking about the Queen of Sheba.

His words grabbed my attention, and I couldn’t wait to look into the Scriptures with the idea that this would make a good Bible study.  Two things immediately stuck in my mind then, and others have developed since, as later I hastily perused the Scriptures in anticipation of a deep and thorough study. 

1)       She had a lot of questions in her heart and mind, and when she asked them of him, King Solomon told her everything God revealed to him.  Neither God nor Solomon withheld truth:  God revealed ALL to Solomon, who, in turn, told ALL he’d been given to the Queen, withholding nothing;

 

2)      How far this woman traveled to get answers to her heart-questions;

3)      The Source to whom the Queen sought out at much time, trouble, and expense to herself; and the sources people of today look to for answers to our hearts’  issues;

4)      I can’t help but wonder:  how deep are our heart’s probing questions?  Are we only concerned with who wins next week’s American Idol contest, or are we genuinely concerned about the deep and life-altering events of today?

5)      Compare what it was that overwhelmed the Queen of Sheba with what overwhelms women (men, boys and girls) today.  Oh, Lord, may we be overwhelmed with those matters which overwhelmed the Queen of Sheba!  Amen.

Other considerations in my mind were, and are, how lax and lazy our generation seems to be concerning anything to do with God and His Word as compared with the Queen’s arduous trip, which Dr. McGee said could have taken several months. 

Even today, those who seek God seem to have as their priority a quick and easy answer – not willing to dig out what God has preserved in the Bible for our knowledge and for our good, and not willing to wait long even for the proverbial quick and easy answer.

I am thankful for all of the insight God has given to so many great men and women who devoted their lives to relationship with Him, and the study of His word.  Their books are filled with so much information about the Bible, and about the people of the Bible and the culture of the world. 

What a wealth of resources available to those who desire in-depth studies of God’s Word.   People like Matthew Henry, A. W. Tozer, Charles H. Spurgeon, Hannah Whitall Smith, Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray, and many, many more.

I love to pull out their commentaries and books and glean from their God-given wisdom about Him and His word.  God’s great Wisdom is available to any person who will invest their time and energies in seeking His face through His Word!¹

I was intrigued that day when I ran across the statement in 2 Chronicles 9:4b (NIV), referring to the reaction of the Queen of Sheba when she met King Solomon and saw His way of life:    “… she was overwhelmed.”  :     “…there was no more spirit in her.”(Amplified Bible and NKJV.)  “… she was breathless.” (NASB.)   

The reason for my excitement at discovering her emotional response was two-fold:

1)      My recent journal writings entitled, Whelmed Over (Almost Overwhelmed) were about  my own personal feelings of having no spirit left within me; and my resulting forays into the dictionary and the Thesaurus to get a deeper and clearer understanding of just what the term “overwhelmed” is conveying about this human experience in today’s world ; and

2)      Learning that other women were feeling equally as “overwhelmed” as I.  During lunch that day, my daughter had shared with me that she felt “overwhelmed;”  my granddaughter, in a conversation earlier in the week , had used the word, “overwhelmed,” to express her feelings resulting from a current situation in her life; and, lastly, on my drive home that day, my neighbor had mentioned in a telephone conversation how  “overwhelmed”  her daughter was feeling as a result of a series of things taking place in her life.

It seemed then, and now, that it is not coincidental that so many women are feeling overwhelmed.  I also believe that just as many young girls and boys, and men, are likewise experiencing some of these same feelings of being “overwhelmed.”

 I was reminded again that when I am dealing with something that affects me so deeply as to distress me, very likely there are many others dealing with life issues which leave them feeling distressed and overwhelmed.

And, most importantly, I am reminded that whatever distresses people also distresses Jesus Himself.  Whenever any of us are overwhelmed with the distresses of life, Jesus Christ is the One to Whom we may turn for relief, and peace. 

He is the One who can and will lift us up and deliver us from all our distresses.  Psalm 107 is an interesting and revealing account of the wonders of God’s love and forgiveness and mercy toward people whose own sins brought them to reside at a place called, in one Bible translation, “Wits’ End.”

It is noteworthy that the Queen of Sheba was overwhelmed at King Solomon’s wisdom, wealth, and relationship with the Lord.  It was to the king’s God that she ultimately paid verbal tribute:

“Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on His throne as king to rule for the LORD your God.  Because of the love of your God for Israel and His desire to uphold them forever, He has made you king over them to maintain justice and righteousness.”  2 Chronicles 9:8.

When I researched the Scriptures referenced at the beginning of this piece, the things I read inspired me, motivated me, and caused me great concern.

The Queen had heard very great things about King Solomon concerning his wisdom, his wealth, and his relationship with the Lord.  She made that long and arduous trip for the purpose of ‘testing’ this king to see if all she had heard could possibly be true.

“She said to the king, ‘The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true.  But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes.  Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard.”  2 Chronicles 9:5-6.

The account of the journey taken by this majestic queen to know the certainty of all she had heard is filled with meaning for people today.  Such great reports about King Solomon had reached her country, things so great that she was unable to believe them unless she saw them for herself.  Her desire for truth was so great that she was willing to journey "to the ends of the earth" to know the certainty of what she had been told by others.

 There is an important and timely warning for our generation today, as noted in the New Testament, of what Jesus said about this Queen:  “The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here.”     Matthew 12:42.

One greater than Solomon has come!  The apostle Paul said we may have the very mind of Christ! 

Christ Jesus said His Holy Spirit will live in believers and will teach us all things. (See John chapters 14-17.)  Jesus promised that … “the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”   John 14:26-27.  See also 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.

Jesus died on the Cross, was resurrected from the dead, ascended back into heaven. He died and rose again that mankind could be reconciled to holy God through the forgiveness of their sins by placing their faith in Him.¹

What a fortunate people we are!  We may well be the generation still living when Jesus makes His triumphant return to earth to gather His people to Himself!

We need not be deceived by false teachings or teachers.  We must not rely on what we hear from others.  We must go to the true Source, no matter what it costs us in terms of time, expense, trouble or inconvenience, in order to know Truth for ourselves. 

We have the opportunity and the responsibility of seeking the Truth for ourselves, and encouraging others to do the same.  Truth matters.

Come and see for yourself, this great God and King of Kings and Lord of Lords! 

Open His treasure Book and go exploring in the study of His reliable and faithful Word.  Begin, or joyfully continue on in, your own Journey of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Jennifer Rothschild is a beautiful example of the grace and beauty of the Lord  Jesus Christ’s indwelling power in a human life.  One of her songs is entitled, “Hear the Journey Call.”  Let me leave you with the words to her song:

Hear the journey call, hear the journey plead;

It beckons me to live beyond belief, 
 

It calls me to a place, whispering His grace.

I will walk the path He leads me on,

‘cause I’ve heard the journey call…”

He’s calling your name!  Can you hear Him?  Open His Word and hear Him!

 

 

¹ Reconciliation to God requires that you must first have a relationship with Christ.

John 3:16 says:  “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life, you are encouraged to pray a simple prayer confessing your sin and asking Jesus to cleanse you of that sin.  As you repent and turn from your sin to Christ, and “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9.)

If you have just prayed to receive Christ, tell someone!  And, go to church this coming Sunday!

 

WHERE WILL YOU BE ON THE LORD'S DAY?

By Shirley Wiggins

 “The first day of the week, Sunday,  adopted by the early Christians as the day of worship” of the Lord God.  The full phrase “the Lord’s Day” appears in the New Testament only at Revelation 1:10…   Christian worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, was based on the occurrence of Jesus’ resurrection during the early morning hours of a Sunday…”  It has been associated with Sunday observance also with its being the first day of creation.¹

Sunday is the Lord’s Day.  The day set aside for His people to come into His church and hear His word preached, and taught.  A place and time for families.   Families are to love one another and fellowship together, speaking kindly to and about other family members.

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we become family with our Christian siblings, and under the headship of our heavenly Father, who adopted us into His royal family, we love each other.

“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.  For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be.  We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3 (NASB).

On every Sunday, “The Lord’s Day” – the day set aside for its special purpose, we have another opportunity to come together in His house to worship, praise, and sing glad songs to Him and about Him:  His faithfulness and loving-kindness to people.

I wonder, though, as I/we/they/you  (the collective “we”) gather in, each in our own certain churches of worship, when we see each other, what do we see?

Does any one of us ‘see’ with clarity the multitudes laboring under the heavy loads of Life?  Do we recognize suffering when we see it?  Hear it? Touch it?

 Do we perceive the hidden, deep emotions of the people around us:  the loneliness, the desperations, the disappointments?

“On every pew sits a broken heart” – a phrase I’ve heard, and the title of a book by a Billy-and-Ruth-Graham daughter.

I wonder if there might also be as much truth in this rendering of that statement:

“On every pew sits a multitude of broken-hearted people.”

Rare, indeed, I believe it would be to find even one person (man, woman, boy or girl) not laboring under their own personal sorrow.

Jesus Himself was (is) widely known as “The Man of Sorrows,” and the Bible speaks many times, and in many places, of His sufferings.

But, what do we “see” as we come into the church?  Saints?   Sinners?   Slackers?   Repeat “offenders”?   Failures?   “Less-than desirables?”  The Faithful …. Or the Faith-less (in our own opinion)?

Those who do not measure up to our own standards of righteousness:  the undesirables… the un-dependables… the drop-ins and the drop-outs….  The weak and wayfaring ones, and the wandering and erring ones.

The “hypocrites” (how dare they show their faces here?!)?

The outcasts:  the discouraged;  the despairing ones, the dejected, the disappointed, even the dis-jointed ones:   disabled spiritually.

What are we thinking?  Believing? 

What do we see?  More importantly, what does God say about what He sees?

One thing God says in both Old and New Testament alike is:

“For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings.”  Hosea 6:6 (AMP Bible)

“Go and learn what this means:  ‘I [Jesus] desire mercy [that is, readiness to help those in trouble] and not sacrifice and sacrificial victims.  For I came not to call and invite [to repentance] the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God), but sinners (the erring ones and all those not free from sin).”… Matthew 9:13 (AMP Bible).

Mercy -  beautiful and kind compassion born out of grace…The same kind of grace that God gives to each of us.

The very thing each human desperately needs is what God desires…

A related thought:  How much of what ‘we’ are laboring under in the form of our own individual, personal sorrow is the result of a mistaken belief – a faulty view of the world born out of a deceptively false view of the God who made the world? 

The God Who made the world is the God of love, compassion, kindness, abundant grace and forgiveness.

No matter who holds the false and deceptive belief, the ultimate outcome always results in personal sorrow for one or many.

Conclusion:  Sin, by deception, resulted in the death on the cross of Jesus Christ, and from that sacrificial suffering was born the mercy God desires – abounding grace, resulting in the salvation of souls, one by one,  resulting in many.

Let us be sure that we make room on the pew beside us for all of God’s people to come in and feel welcome in the household of God’s family.

“We know that we have passed over out of death into Life by the fact that we love the brethren (our fellow Christians).  He who does not love abides (remains, is held and kept continually) in [spiritual] death…. By this we come to know (progressively to recognize, to perceive, to understand) the [essential] love:  that He laid down His [own] life for us; and we ought to lay [our] lives down for [those who are our] brothers [in Him].  But if anyone has this world’s goods (resources for sustaining life) and sees his brother and fellow believer in need, yet closes his heart of compassion against him, how can the love of God live and remain in Him?  Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity). … And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [habitually] practice what is pleasing to Him.  And this is His order (His command, His injunction):  that we should believe in (put our faith and trust in and adhere to and rely on) the name of His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and that we should love one another, just as He has commanded us.  All who keep His commandments [who obey His orders and follow His plan, live and continue to live, to stay] and abide in Him, and He in them.  [They let Christ be a home to them and they are the home of Christ.]  And by this we know and understand and have the proof that He [really] lives and makes His home in us:  by the [Holy} Spirit Whom He has given us.”  1 John 3:14,16-24 (AMP Bible).

Let us go joyfully to church this Sunday and listen and learn and pray and sing and fellowship with our family!  God loves to see His family together in His house of worship and prayer. 

Remember, your place is saved there for you, and your family members will be looking for your face in the crowd!

 

 

 

¹The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, ©1987 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; Grand Rapids Michigan.  Page 662.  See also Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Matthew 28:1.

A GODLY MOTHER

by Hallie Gipson

With Mother’s Day only a few days away, it’s natural for our thoughts to turn to mothers – our own mother in particular. If our mothers are still living and our relationship with them a good one, we might be focused on purchasing just the right card that conveys just the right sentiment, or that perfect gift we know our mother will love. But for some, Mother’s Day evokes memories of a relationship that is or was stormy, hurtful, or non-existent.  

Regardless of the current relationship with our mothers or our memories, we must use God’s standard set forth in His holy word for being a godly mother. We are called to account for our actions even if our own mother was not a godly example for us to follow.

If you are not a mother, please don’t be discouraged that your gifts of nurturing and molding children for the Kingdom are not being used. You can become a “Spiritual Mother” by pouring those gifts into the life of a child being raised by a single parent, a child being raised in a foster home, an international student who’s far from home – the possibilities are endless! There are many ways to love, encourage, and nurture the children around you and make an impact for the Kingdom.

The only way to be a godly mother is to be a Christian mother – you must first have a relationship with Christ. 

John 3:16 says:

            “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever

            believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life, I encourage you to pray a simple prayer confessing your sin and asking Jesus to cleanse you of that sin. As you repent and turn from your sin to Christ, and “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. (Romans 10:9) If you have just prayed to receive Christ, tell someone!

When you have the love of Christ in you – in your heart – then the love you have for your children and family will flow from that love-relationship with Christ.

The Bible tells us that God created all life – even from the beginning – so we are to value life as God values life.

Genesis 1:27: “God created man in his own image . . . male and female He created them.”

            Psalm 139:13: “For You (God) formed my inward parts; You (God) wove me in

            my mother’s womb.”

The Bible also says that “children are a gift from the Lord.” (Psalm 127:3).

That’s a great thought!! You can consider your children presents from God Himself!

So how do you care for those precious “gifts” – your children? The “tips” that follow may seem simplistic. Each one is certainly a deep topic in itself and worthy of more development than I have chosen to give for this article. My desire is to give you food for thought as you reflect on Mother’s Day and to point you to the best “know-how” book there is – the Bible!!

1. LOVE

What is love? The Bible tells what love is in 1 Corinthians 13:

§         Love is PATIENT – not getting short-tempered when your children are fussy or cry for a long time.

§         Love is KIND – being gentle, not rough.

§         Love DOESN’T GET ANGRY EASILY – even when your children misbehave and do things you have told them not to or just get on your last nerve for no apparent reason.

§         Love PROTECTS – do everything you can to keep your children safe and out of danger both physically and emotionally. Guard their hearts by carefully monitoring what they watch, what they listen to, and what they read.

§         Love NEVER FAILS – always love your children no matter their behavior.

2. DISCIPLINE

§         You want to discipline and correct your children out of love and not anger. If your children can learn to obey you, then they can someday learn to obey God, submit to Him, and also submit to those who have earthly authority. The goal of a Christian mother is to raise children who will grow up believing in Jesus Christ.

3. TEACH/FEED them God’s word.

§         Just like you give them milk and food for their bodies, you must give them food for their souls. Food for the soul is found in the pages of God’s word, the Bible. It’s never too early to start telling your children Bible stories and singing hymns to them.

4. SERVE them.

§         When you serve someone, it means putting that person’s needs ahead of your own, even when you are tired or would rather be doing something else.

§         Jesus is the greatest example of what it means to serve others.

ü      He healed the sick – Mark 1:34

ü      He fed the crowds of people – Matthew 14:13-18

ü      He washed the disciples’ feet – John 13:5

§         Colossians 3:17 says: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him..”

5. TAKE THEM TO CHURCH.

• Sunday School is a great place for your children to learn more about Jesus. It’s also a great place for them to interact with others their age in a Christian environment.
• Attending church also places us in an environment to grow spiritually by studying God’s word and hearing others teach His word. The more you know about God, the better equipped you are to teach your children.
• Being with other believers in worship is also a great encouragement. The fellowship you will have with other mothers at church will be a good reminder that there are women who face the same joys and trials of parenting as you do. And you might find an older mother willing to give you some wise and godly advice about raising children. 

6. PRAY for them.

§         Your prayers for your children are the greatest gifts you can give them.                 1 Thess. 5:17 says: “Pray without ceasing”. You can pray all day long for them – when you are feeding them, dressing them, bathing them, playing with them, putting them to sleep.

§         Prayer also helps you to stay in a right relationship with the Heavenly Father. He will enable you through the Holy Spirit to be a godly mother to your children.

If God has blessed you with children, then you have a high calling indeed!

Proverbs 31:30

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”