Miles McPherson

Pastor Miles begins today’s message with a biblical metaphor: human marriage is a representation of Gods relationship with us. He is the groom, preparing heaven for us, and we, the bride, are to prepare ourselves for Him…Just as the Bible compares a godly relationship to marriage, it compares our worship of anything (other than God) to adultery. Adultery can easily kill a human marriage, making it nearly impossible to recover. Likewise, the worship of idols, even putting our trust in things other than God, can destroy our relationship with Him.

Prophets from the Old Testament, were law enforcers who challenged nations and individuals to be loyal to God’s law…If people and nations obeyed the law perfectly, they wouldn’t have needed prophets to and encourage them to return to God’s law. But, of course, in their imperfection they did not obey perfectly and therefore needed reminding and encouragement…today we need those same reminders to encourage us to obey God’s law…And that’s where His Word comes in.

We’re going to forge ahead into the next book of genre looking at “Law Enforcement”…Whenever there is a violation in a sports game, a referee blows a whistle or throws a flag and then issues a penalty. In a store, security officers are present to enforce rules, just as the highway patrol cruises the freeway in search of law violators…Like these modern-day rule-enforcers, the prophets in the Bible had a simple job; when people were not obeying God, prophets would encourage obedience to the law, which God gave to Israel as a framework for a relationship with Him. The main purpose of a prophet was not to tell the future, but rather to correct those who were not living according to the law and outline the consequences for their actions.

In which areas of life do you need to seek the Lord’s wisdom? Are you going about things in your own way instead of asking God what is best for you? For example, there was a woman in a financial bind who could not afford her home mortgage. Rather than seek out God’s advice on money, she tried everything in her own power to hold on to the house. As a result, eventually the bank foreclosed on the property and the woman was evicted and made homeless for over a month. She lost everything because the fear and respect of God was not in her heart, so she did not seek His opinion for her finances.

Would you like to be wiser…In the Bible we read about King Solomon, the wisest and richest king the world ever knew. But what set him apart from so many other people…When God said he would grant any one thing for which Solomon asked, Solomon passed by riches, fame, and power all for the sake of gaining wisdom. At the time, Solomon was wise enough to know that with wisdom he could get everything else, which was true then, is true now, and always will be true…So today Pastor Miles will continue our study of Soul Food and further explore the poetic language of Proverbs, written largely by King Solomon.

Currently we’re looking at the Poetic Language from the book of Psalms and the issue of vengeance or getting back at someone…God is not our good luck charm, enacting the positive and negative things we desire Him to do. If you have an issue with someone but that person has not offended God, don’t expect Him to intervene. You may have a distorted view about what really happened! Only God knows what is inside a person’s heart…Also, God grants vengeance to those whose lives have a righteous cause and a righteous pattern…

We’re going to explore some of the Hebrew poetry of the Bible, the intent of which is to empower our souls with emotional expression. As humans, we experience a range of emotions in our lives and our relationships with the Lord. Poetic language helps us to communicate with the Father, crying out in anguish, honoring and praising Him, thanking Him in joy, pleading for assistance and, as in today’s message from Psalm 35, praying for vengeance for our enemies.

We looking at the Poetic Language of the bible that includes Job Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon…The Psalms are songs and prayers that demonstrate different types of communication with God, such as praise, the expression of our struggles, motivation, and more…Isn’t it wonderful that if we are feeling down and need help, we can pray Psalm 74?. If we are feeling overwhelmed by the weight of the world, we can pray Psalm 69. If we want to praise God “just because,” we can pray Psalm 117.

We’ll be looking at the next genre of lessons which focuses on the Poetic Language or as Pastor Miles calls it, “Soul Food”…There are 5 poetic books in the Bible; Job Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon however poetic language is used throughout the bible…Poetic language, like soul food, empowers our hearts and minds to communicate to God and like God.

This week; Miles covered the Ten Commandments and how they apply to us today…But the Old Testament Law extends far beyond the Ten Commandments…In fact, there were over 600 rules that the Jews had to fulfill in order to be admitted into the kingdom. The problem is that nobody could follow these rules perfectly because we are not perfect! But, in His wisdom, God had a plan to cover this as well; He was going to send His perfect Son to fulfill all of the Law’s requirements once and for all…Jesus came not to destroy Old Testament Law, but to fulfill the Law.

Today we continue series called “The Royal”…It’s the story of a child who is to gain a kingdom and has a wise sage teaching him how to read the literature so that he may one day be a great king. The child represents us, the Christian nation. The wise sage is the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom is God’s kingdom which He has prepared for us.

As we’ll discover in today’s message, some of the Old Testament law applies to us in letter and spirit; the actual law just as it is written applies to us, as well as the meaning behind it. Some Old Testament law applies only in spirit…Pastor Miles will give the basic guideline that if an Old Testament law is reinforced in the New Testament by Jesus or those writers who followed after Him (such as Jesus reinforcing the importance of the Ten Commandments), then we’re to follow the letter and the spirit of the law.