I’ve heard a number of quips about 2020, certainly an atypical time in American life, for sure! Worldwide life, really.

Yet late last night the Lord directed my heart to this verse: “They did EAT of the FRUIT of the land of Canaan THAT YEAR.” Joshua 5:12, part of it.

The year Israel entered the Land of Canaan!

“That year,” not 2020 indeed. More like 1405 BC, I am told. But still, an epochal year for Israel!

Now, may I talk about the “years of our lives?”

Does anyone remember the year you were saved? That would be 1952 for me, a lad actually. But Jesus made me His born-again child … by Grace through Faith!

What about the year Jesus comes again? No one knows (yet) that date! But it will certainly happen, based on the Promises of God’s Word! I’d love to be alive then … when the “trumpet” sounds!

What about the year of your greatest fruitfulness to the Lord? We all, based on Psalm 1, will bring forth fruit, but not necessarily constantly. Not at the same rate anyway. “In his season,” the Psalmist says we will bear such fruit. Still … may we be like Rachel of old, praying … “Give me children, or else I die.” Quoting Genesis 30:1, except we should be hungering for spiritual children, souls to be saved! “The fruit of the land,” harking back to my Text verse!

But now, what was the year you finally developed a voracious spiritual appetite? (IF you have developed one!) That’s the main application I get out of this Text … “But they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” No longer manna, but the corn (grain) of Canaan!

I am emphasizing the verb “eat!” Are you yet eating the fruit of Canaan? That land being a picture of Holy Spirit controlled living, victory! (There were yet giants in Canaan, who had to be defeated by the Power of God and the Jewish army! We too in our Canaan land will have to overcome some enemies!)

Are you still drinking just the “MILK” of the Word? Shame on you, if so. That’s Peter’s term, 1 Peter 2:2.

Or have you (what year did it happen) advanced and grown into devouring the “MEAT” of the Word? (Paul to the struggling Corinthians: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with MILK, and not with MEAT: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” 1 Corinthians 3:1-2

“They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.”

Will it be for you 2020? Just don’t let it be 2021 0r 2022, if our Nation still exists then.

Or was it some year in the past?

Eating God’s Word, Preacher?

Yes … “Thy WORDS were found, and I did EAT them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16, quite a verse!

Whatever the year, when you learned (taught by the Spirit, the only way to achieve this) to properly “eat the fruit of Canaan” … a great level of maturity was reached in your life.

All to the Glory of God!

May you have (a wish, a prayer) a great YEAR in the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Anyone hungry?

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Our focus verse today is taken from Psalm 28:7. Read it very carefully, please.

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, AND I AM HELPED: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

These inspired Lines sure do “brag” on the Lord, otherwise called “exalting” Him. Acknowledging Him to be both “Strength” (in Hebrew meaning “Power, Might, Boldness,” even “Victor”) and “Shield” (meaning “a large defensive piece of armor,” defending one from head to toe to my life.) These nouns, when placed in tandem like this, may very well may represent … God’s protection both offensively and defensively!

Wow!

More … the Lord is trustworthy! “My heart trusted in him,” testifies the Psalmist David. This verb implies believing, leaning, following the Lord to this degree, I have not a worry (care) in the world. He will handle it all, everything I am facing!

Then we come to the core, heart of the verse, and the title of today’s Lesson … “I am helped.” In Hebrew “azar” (root of the Bible name “Ezra”) means “to support, to succour, to prop up.”

Has God ever strengthened your feeble knees (Isaiah 35:3)? Or lifted up your sagging (exhausted) hands (Hebrews 12:12)? Or gently put His Hand under your languishing head (Psalm 3:3)?

Has He ever helped you? (That definition of “succour” means literally “to come running” to be of aid!) Many a time seems like the Lord has come running my way! Right on time, too!

Yes, “I AM HELPED!”

Daily, by Him!

So … what should my response be to this divine Help?

The rest of our Text verse … “Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.”

“Therefore” (a conjunction here) means “as a result, consequently.” Because He has helped me!

I will “rejoice!” Greatly rejoice, in fact! An emotional word, “alaz,” usually resulting in singing and shouting!

Then I will “with song” … “praise” Him too! “Yadah” is the verb, literally (though reverently) “throwing” words of gratitude and appreciation His Way, to the Lord!

So, when God helps you … how many times today will that happen … respond these two ways:

First … rejoice!(A heart function!)

Second … praise Him!(A mouth, tongue function!)

One might call this … “Bible obligations when accepting God’s gracious Help in our lives.”

Let’s read the verse once more … “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, AND I AM HELPED: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.” Psalm 28:7

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Paul the Apostle, after being saved at least two decades, still longs to know Jesus (in a deeper way)!

My proof verse for such a statement … Philippians 3:10.

“THAT I MAY KNOW HIM, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

How well do YOU know Jesus? And YOU too, Brother Bagwell? Do we not all, like Paul, crave a closer, more intimate relationship with our Lord?

“That I may know him,” the verb here being “ginosko.” Perceiving Him and understanding Him … those ideas are involved. My laptop Lexicon says of “ginosko” … a direct quote: “a knowledge grounded on personal experience.”

Wow!

HOW does one “know” the Lord like this?

Surely, through His Words … the New Testament is full of them, especially the Gospels of course. In 1 Timothy 6:3 Paul calls Jesus’ Vocabulary … “wholesome words.” I say “Amen!” Study Jesus’ Sayings!

Through the Holy Spirit … “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of himself; He shall glorify Me.” Jesus spoke these words in John 16:13-14.

Through prayer … in John 14:13 Jesus promises “And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do.”

Through abiding in Him, no doubt, consciously being aware of His sweet Presence! One of His expectations of us … “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you.” Reciprocal indwelling, John 15:7.

Paul, I feel, accomplished his goal!

He more and more as time progressed … KNEW THE LORD JESUS … in an ever deepening way!

Again I ask, how about us?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Then Paul lists the ways He wants to know Jesus better … “in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.” Look at that remarkable order! Chronologically reversed! Number one … Resurrection! Number two … His Sufferings, both in His Life and His vicarious Death I suspect.

Because … Paul first (unlike the Disciples) knew the Resurrected Jesus! (Beginning with the Apostle’s miraculous Damascus Road conversion!) So he next wanted to know Jesus in His sufferings, including Calvary! (Here illogical order mentally becomes 100%perfect order theologically, spiritually!)

Whereas the Twelve knew Jesus in the flesh first … His sufferings … then (finally) they knew Him as the Resurrected Saviour!

Interesting!

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Many of you know the verses already!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every WEIGHT, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus ….” Hebrews 12:1-2

The dear Holy Spirit here clearly distinguishes between a “weight” and a “sin!” I assume most of you my “students” (readers) here today know already what sins can do! How they can dangerously block our Fellowship with God. We also know what to do about them, “confess them and forsake them!” (Both Proverbs 28:13 and 1 John 1:7 illustrate this Bible truth.)

But what are “weights?”

In fact, in our Text that noun (“ogkos,” used only here in all the New Testament) is singular, “weight.” While its grammatical companion “sins” remains plural!

The Lexicon (dictionary) says that “weight” here means a “bulk,” a “mass,” a “protuberance” (something “sticking out”) that ruins the symmetry or balance of a runner! It obviously will diminish his effectiveness, his speed too!

Thus, a “weight” is something that’s “inconsistent” with my Christian life! It just does not “belong!” It does not “look right!” It is something that “shows up” that is not complementary to my overall Christian testimony!

Maybe like a cigarette in the hand of a Preacher?

Or a pornographic magazine before the eyes of a Believer in Jesus?

Or a loud, dirty month belonging to a (so-called) Christian?

None of the above will send you to Hell … if you are really saved. If you have been washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son!

But Oh … how they will hinder you!

How they do not “belong” in a godly man’s (or woman’s) life!

You just can’t “run” as well (for Jesus) … if you have those cumbersome “weights” attached to your uniform!

Now in closing … another Line from Paul the Apostle … just before he is about to die as a martyr for Jesus. “I have finished my course.” The noun (and direct object) here is “dromos, the Greek “race track!”

Paul sure leaned how to get rid of those “weights,” didn’t he?

Now, ask the Lord to “inspect” your life! To look for any “irregularities,” any “encumbrances” that might slow you down!

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)

I want that “prize” in Christ Jesus my Lord!

I’ve written today not about “weight-lifting,” but about “weight shedding!” One might even call it “shaping up!” In a spiritual (but impacting the physical) way, to the Glory of God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Daniel 2:21 remarks … of Almighty God:

“And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.”

To change (“shena” in Hebrew) means “to alter.” For example, the Tribulation will be so fierce, so lethal … that Jesus said: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” But Who can shorted those darks days of worldwide war and devastation? Only our great God!

See? He can change times and seasons! (I think God on occasion “changed” the times certain Kings (wicked or good) who reigned in Israel or Judah! (Like the 15 years added to Hezekiah’s life!) See 2nd Kings 20:6 for proof.

He further “removes” and “sets up” … our Lord does! Another way of saying He promotes or demotes! (Psalm 75:6-7 … “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But GOD is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”)

Wow!

Then look at our Text yet again … “He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.” God is the Lord of “illumination” as well!

This inspired Line proves that no mere man or woman is a complete reservoir of Wisdom, God’s Wisdom. (Only Jesus was That, Colossians 2:3 says!)

Even the already “wise” person … can clearly be given more Wisdom! Hence … the whole Book of Proverbs maybe! Hence verses about what to do when you “lack” Wisdom! (James 1:5 comes to mind. “If any of you LACK wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”)

Each day then God can “teach” me more Wisdom and Knowledge! Even of Jesus (in His humanity) we read: “And He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52

Then too, Jesus’ very words (Him “owning/personalizing” the Psalms like He does) … “The Lord GOD (the Father) hath given me (Jesus God’s Son) the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” Isaiah 50:4

Wow again!

This verse today (Daniel 2:21) encourages me.

“More Wisdom, Lord. More Wisdom, please …!” So should we consistently pray.

Our Text is logistically located in Daniel Chapter 2 (Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue Dream), where God reveals all the coming world powers that will rule this earth … until Jesus comes back again and sets up His Millennial Kingdom!

Yes … God holds in His All-powerful Hand, and All-knowing Heart … the world’s calendar and calculator and ultimately, its educational curriculum!

We are on the winning side!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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