Seeking wisdom, craving grace

Random experiments

2011-12-28T13:35:00.005-05:00

Just testing out some HTML stuff... trying to become a "real blogger."

How do you do a block quote?

Well, it is something like this. It has to be a long quote, long enough to form a block. So I will keep typing for a bit and see if I can create enough text to form a block. What do you think, is this enough?

I did that without paragraph markers. I will do this next blockquote with paragraph markers and see what difference it makes. I am very intrigued to hit "publish" and discover what happens.

Well, that was underwhelming.

I guess you only need to mark the paragraphs in a blockquote if there are more than one.

Next I will try to create...(drumroll please)...colored text.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wow. I don't know how I did that. I even changed the font.

This takes forever, though. How do you ever get to content when formatting takes so long???

Well, that's all I have time for today.

good-bye!

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

2011-12-10T13:58:00.007-05:00

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
(NIV)

Yesterday I had a really bad morning. In undergoing this horrible morning, I succumbed to a very bad attitude. And when I say, "very bad attitude," I am talking major sinful heart.

I was angry at the Lord. I know I have no right to be angry with the Lord, but there you have it. I was mad. And I told Him, "And now I have to read Deuteronomy, and I'll bet I will get nothing out of it. Nothing. Because it is Deuteronomy." Never mind that I often count Deuteronomy as my favorite Old Testament book. Never mind that I have been deeply blessed through many passages out of Deuteronomy. There was something wrong with me and wrong with my heart, my attitude, my mind, my perspective.

I read Deuteronomy 25, and all the way through I thought, "See, nothing to help me. See, no word from God for me here."

And then I read the verses above, the last verses in the chapter. They hung with me. "When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven."

There is always a spiritual application from Deuteronomy. God spoke to the Israelites about their physical enemies who fought against them over the possession of the land, concrete real-estate. We have enemies, too. Ephesians 6:12 says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

My struggle is against sin, the sin that gets me when I am down, that besets me when I am weak. When my body hurts and tragedies are happening all around me and I feel like the Lord does not hear my prayers, when I feel like a helpless pawn that Almighty God just messes with to accomplish His purposes without mercy or compassion for my experience, this is a time when Satan can do to me spiritually what the Amalekites did to Israel physically: "When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind..."

In heaven, God will remove us from the presence of sin, the devil and temptation. He will, after a manner of speaking, "...blot out the memory of Amelek from under heaven."

This is what it means to be free. This is cause for thanksgiving. This is the mercy of the Lord poured out on a sin-oppressed woman who is looking forward to His coming with hope.

Deuteronomy 16:19-20a

2011-11-30T10:45:00.005-05:00

Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone...
(NIV--1978)

I think this is harder to do than we assume.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is giving God's word regarding how the tribes and towns should govern themselves; they should appoint fair judges and officials. There is, of course, a national, governmental application of this truth. But there is also a personal, spiritual application.

We must live fairly, justly. Micah 6:8 says, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This means that it is displeasing to God when we make decisions based on whether we like somebody or not rather than on the facts of the matter. We are not to show preference to the people who invite us to their homes and drop off Christmas cookies. We should love them and appreciate them. But if an issue arises, we should not assume their blamelessness over someone else simply because they have been nice to us.

If two people need help, we should not automatically decide to help the one we know better and like more. We should consider the facts: who needs help the most? Who may have a support system of help other than us... and (more importantly) who may not?

This is tremendously difficult.

It is difficult for anyone in leadership: school administrators, teachers, pastors, even parents.

And speaking of just leaders, within each of us, our "will" is the thing that controls--leads--our decisions and actions. We must surrender our wills to the perfect will of God and behave in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, forcing our behavior to reflect His justice and fairness rather than our natural inclinations.

Justice is a big deal to the Lord, and I think we often don't even have a clue what justice is.

Two verses from Deuteronomy 8

2011-11-22T10:00:00.005-05:00

(#1) Deuteronomy 8:5
Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.
(NIV)

Usually when I think about how God disciplines us, I think of Hebrews 12:5-11. Or even Proverbs 3:11-12. It makes me feel secure and comforted that this idea is even much older than either of those references. I love finding beautiful spiritual truths in the oldest books of the Bible. I especially love finding the gospel in the most ancient texts.

(#2) Deuteronomy 8:16
He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
(NIV)

Again, we are looking at God's discipline. Why does he do it? To humble and to test us "so that in the end it might go well with you."

Nobody likes to be taught a lesson. Nobody likes to be corrected. And certainly nobody likes to be humbled or punished. But God does it for us for our good. We must learn who we are, and who He is, and this process can be unpleasant for those with strong wills and rebellious spirits (most of us). But it is only when we understand our place in His universe that we can bow before Him in humble thanksgiving and accept the gift He gives... not manna but Jesus, the bread of life.

Deuteronomy 7:6

2011-11-19T15:22:00.002-05:00

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.
(NIV)

I absolutely love this verse.

It reminds me of 1 Peter 2:9 --

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
(NIV)

Deuteronomy 5:29

2011-11-18T12:44:00.002-05:00

This is the heart of God:

Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always,
so that it might go well with them and their children forever!
(NIV)

most of Deuteronomy 5:5

2011-11-16T14:17:00.003-05:00

(At that time I stood between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) ~Moses
(ESV)

Moses was a prophet, and this is what a prophet does. He stands between the LORD and the people who need the LORD, and he tells the people the word of the LORD.

A prophet brings God's word to the people.

Jesus was the perfect prophet, and He was also the perfect Word of God (John 1). He brought Himself from God to us, because He was the only one who could do this job perfectly.

Jesus brought Himself to us; Jesus gave Himself for us.

Deuteronomy 4:2

2011-11-15T07:18:00.003-05:00

You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I have commanded you.
(ESV)

This is a gross generalization, but as I read this verse, it occurred to me that, with the Talmud, Jewish people tend to "add" to the Word of God while at the same time, with a faulty idea of what grace is, many Christians tend to "take away" from God's Word, particularly the Law.

Psalm 119 is a very long Psalm, but it gives us a good perspective on what our attitude toward the Law of God ought to be. Although it is very long, one only needs to read a portion of it to start to understand its message.

I wonder what would happen to Bible-believing people if we all spent a little more time reading Deuteronomy and Psalm 119?

Deuteronomy 3:22

2011-11-14T11:03:00.002-05:00

You shall not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you.
(ESV)

I've started reading through Deuteronomy. My tentative plan is to read Deuteronomy and finish it at the end of the year. Then I'm hoping to start reading through the Bible again, and this time I want to try to do it in the ESV. I've read through the NIV twice. The third time I read through, I did a combination of NIV and NLT, which I think is not a bad way to approach reading large portions of scripture. However, I'm hoping that now I am a big enough girl to read through a more literal translation.

God will fight for me.

2 Kings 5:15

2011-11-10T20:29:00.002-05:00

A verse I picked up from a Bible study I went to today...

Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant."
(ESV)

There is no other god, except for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Father of Jesus, the Creator and Savior of the world: no. other. god.

Just God. And He is completely more than all we could ever ask or imagine.

For yesterday

2011-11-09T09:31:00.006-05:00

I meant to post this yesterday, but somehow did not do so.

Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(ESV)

Our ability to accurately understand the world, the physical universe, and particularly the moral universe, begins with our ability to understand who God is.

Simply spoken: there is a God, and I am not Him. (And, obviously, neither are you.)

The fear of God is understanding the authority and power that God has. God is good. But even His angels are so terrifying that they have to begin each message they bring from Him with "Fear not." When Isaiah saw God, he immediately cried out, "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5) To come before God, the Creator of the Universe, the One above all else -- more powerful, more intelligent, more beautiful, more perfect, more holy -- is an experience worthy of fear. If we cannot understand how fearsome God is, we cannot begin to understand the magnitude of what Christ has done for us in bridging the gap.

As long as we have a warped and inaccurate view of God, our knowledge of all things will be warped and inaccurate. When we resist an accurate understanding of God, preferring instead a more comfortable god from our own imagination, we are fools who despise true wisdom.

Proverbs 30:7-9

2011-11-05T20:34:00.006-04:00

I've just been thinking about this passage lately. The first time I read it, I forgot where I had seen it. I thought it was out of "some book" -- but I didn't realize it was from the Bible. I told some friends, "I read some book somewhere, and the author said ..." (and here I gave the gist of the passage). My friends laughed at me and told me, "That guy was the writer of Proverbs, and that is from the Bible!"

Anyway, it is a very good sentiment. I'm quoting it from the NLT, for accessibility. My kids would complain and say, "Read it from the real Bible." At least, that was how they felt in the olden days. But I kind of like the NLT. I do not, however, approve of The Message. A subject for a different day. Let's get on to the scripture:

O God, I beg two favors from you;
let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty nor riches!
Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich I may deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?"
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name.

(Proverbs 30:7-9, NLT)

I like honey

2011-11-02T13:43:00.006-04:00

I like honey.

But there is something ugly about a fuzzy black bee crawling around inside a flower.

Why should this bother me?

Something else is bothering me today, crawling around in my head and my heart like a nasty old bee in a flower. I am struggling with an idea, with whether something is a sin or not. And it isn't my life, so am I just a busy-body, like that bee? Or do I bear some responsibility because it touches my life? Or am I a judgmental legalist worrying about things that are none of my business? ("On the other hand... there is no other hand!" ~Tevye)

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, give me wisdom.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." James 1:5

Yes, Lord, give me wisdom. I am lacking. You have promised. And now I am waiting for You to give generously without finding fault.

And at the end of it all, please bring a sweet result, like honey. Because You can.

Psalm 86:15-19

2011-10-29T14:19:00.006-04:00

The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
he also hears their cry and saves them.
(ESV)

We are in a cold snap. It frosted hard for a couple of nights, and it's supposed to continue doing so. Flurries of snow have spit at me from the sky.

Our pool was not closed.

This was causing me much concern. I was so concerned, I asked some friends to pray with me about it.

Yesterday (Friday) was dryer and sunnier than expected (it was not sunny, but a few rays broke the gloom on a couple of occasions, miraculously). There was not much wind, either! Shawn stayed home from work and closed our pool. David arrived home in time to help him put on the new winter cover at the end.

The pool is closed.

The new green cover is less depressing than the black covers we've had in the past.

God heard my prayers and took care of me. My husband worked hard.

I am thankful.

Daniel 3:16-18

2011-10-27T13:49:00.004-04:00

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up."
(ESV)

I think it is important to notice that this follows King Nebuchadnezzar's statement, "..if you do not worship [the golden image I erected and am commanding you to worship], you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?" (Daniel 3:15b)

Did you get that? He said, "Who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?"

Who indeed?

That would be MY GOD!

It is a very foolish thing when a human challenges God head-on, very foolish indeed. I recall that someone once said, "Even God couldn't sink this ship." Well, guess what? The Titanic went down.

God is so sovereign, it makes me want to jump up and down and cheer. This is my God, world, and He's got my back.

(P.S. in case you don't know the end of the story, read Daniel 3 to find out what happened, and if you can sit still while you read verses 23-27, then you are a lot more stoic than I am.)

Seven Scriptures

2011-10-26T10:47:00.003-04:00

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Job 19:25-26
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see Him.

Psalm 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Isaiah 55:8
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Revelation 4:11
Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created.

(all quotes from the ESV)

Psalm 117

2011-10-25T12:41:00.006-04:00

I have gotten terrible about gardening, but this rosebush is thriving anyway.

I can hardly believe that this plant has come from where it started to here. I look out the window from my computer and it brightens my day, even this late into fall.

Praise the LORD, all nations!

Extol Him, all peoples!

For great is His steadfast love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.

Praise the LORD!

(Psalm 117, ESV)

Amen.

Ephesians 5:8-10

2011-10-24T17:27:00.008-04:00

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
(NIV, 1978)

The modern American church conveniently misses these verses most of the time.

The principle is not difficult to understand. "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord." In other words, a change has taken place. You are no longer the same as you used to be. What used to be dark has been illuminated by the Spirit of Christ. I know I am using passive voice, but I think it is necessary because we are starting with a self perspective, considering what has happened within our selves. And what has happened has happened by the power of God working in us; we are basically passive, powerless, dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) as the new life from God starts to flow into us. God has arrived, and He has forged a change, a real, honest-to-goodness observable change. Darkness is now light.

And then Paul says, "Live as children of light." If you go back to the previous paragraph (Ephesians 5:3-7), you see the list of things that belong to darkness: sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking. These are the lifestyles of the disobedient, and Paul tells us that those who live in such a way are idolaters and will not have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God; God's wrath comes on those who live disobediently like this. These are the characteristics of those who live in darkness and not in the light of the Lord. They are things that the children of light should not do.

Many people recoil from reading such a statement. They decide that Paul was a legalist, at least in this chapter he was. They decide that this does not fit with their idea of a gracious and loving God who should allow them to pursue their earthy desires and not get in the way of their pleasure, else how could He possibly be loving?

But God's word is quite clear that those who experience the life changing power of the Holy Spirit will demonstrate through their changed lives that He has been at work. This has nothing to do with legalism, and everything to do with a real God who uses His real power to effect real changes in real people. And because all this is real (i.e. true), it is also something that other people can see and observe.

Paul tells us to live as children of light, and then he says my favorite part of the whole thing: "and find out what pleases the Lord."

We have a tendency to think we can decide what pleases the Lord based on our idea of what we think He ought to like, if He is kind and loving and forgiving. We have a tendency to rationalize blatant sin simply because we want to participate in it, saying, "God is nice. He would want me to enjoy this. Even if He doesn't like it very much, He will forgive me because He loves me so much and so unconditionally that He really doesn't care what I do or how I live." (Which is really stupid, the fact of the matter being that God loves us so much that He very deeply cares what we do and how we live, but I will save that rant for a different day.)

We are supposed to find out what pleases the Lord, and I'll tell you what: nobody is going to find out what pleases the Lord by looking deep into his or her own sinful human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). We find out what pleases God by looking into God's revelation to us of Himself: The word of God, scripture.

Scripture is the light that helps us live as children of light. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." (Psalm 119:105, NIV, 1978)

All of scripture is God breathed and profitable (2 Timothy 3:16). And when Paul spoke of "scripture" he was talking about the Old Testament, because the New Testament had not yet been formed; I don't think Paul was arrogant enough to assume that his own letters would one day be in the cannon of God's Holy Word. The Apostle Paul loved the Old Testament, and we should, too. The Old Testament is full of truth about the character of God and truth about what God loves and what He finds detestable. We would do well to read it to find out what pleases the Lord, and to put into practice what we discover there.

Psalm 92:12-15

2011-10-21T12:14:00.003-04:00

(Another tree passage... I think I am trying to collect tree passages.)

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
proclaiming, "The LORD is upright;
He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in Him."

(NIV, 1978)

Psalm 91:9-16

2011-10-19T13:05:00.002-04:00

If you make the Most High your dwelling --
even the LORD who is my refuge --
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

(NIV 1978)

Psalm 90:1-2

2011-10-17T11:00:00.003-04:00

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting
you are God.

(ESV)

Scripture on scripture

2011-10-14T17:33:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to take my scripture slowly lately. There was a time when I raced through the Bible, reading long portions, looking for the big picture, finding patterns and themes. It was good for me to do that, because I am a big picture kind of person. I become impatient when I just get a small piece or a single step in a process. In order for me to understand the relevance of something, I have to get a grasp of the big picture first. After that, I can go back and spend time studying the details, because I understand why.

Now I am in a stage where I am taking small pieces. Sometimes I feel like I am slacking. Other times, I am richly blessed by looking at scripture as though I am looking through a microscope, pondering how the details beautifully support the big picture.

But today I am going to take two different passages I have been working with lately, and I am going to lay them alongside one another. Because sometimes when we see how scripture sheds light on itself, we learn more than we could learn from even the most technical and exhaustive commentaries. The passages I am going to compare are Matthew 5:3-12 (The Beatitudes) and Psalm 86 (which I think exemplifies them). All quotes are from the ESV.

Matthew 5:3 -- Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Psalm 86:1-4 -- Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you — you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

Matthew 5:4 -- Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Psalm 86:3-4, 17 -- Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul... Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Matthew 5:5 -- Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Psalm 86:5-8 -- For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.
[We are meek when we humbly recognize our place beneath the Almighty Creator of the universe.]

Matthew 5:6 -- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Psalm 86:11-12 -- Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O LORD my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Matthew 5:7 -- Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Psalm 86:9-10, 14-15 -- All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God... O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seek my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Matthew 5:8 -- Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Psalm 86:11-12 -- Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O LORD my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.

Matthew 5:9 -- Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Psalm 86:14-15 -- O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seek my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Matthew 5:10-12 -- Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Psalm 86:13, 16-17 -- For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol... Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Psalm 86:1

2011-10-13T14:08:00.002-04:00

Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
(ESV)

Well, I am poor and needy.

We've been studying the beatitudes in Sunday school. Psalm 86:1 reminds me of being poor in spirit, mournful and meek.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
(Matthew 5:3-5, ESV)

I think it is amazing and even a little bit outrageous (dare I say that?) the way the Lord offers rewards to His children.

Psalm 84:11-12

2011-10-12T13:19:00.010-04:00

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in You.
(ESV)

These verses hold some huge promises.

But let's begin at the the beginning. What does it mean that the Lord is a sun and shield?

Let's start by considering how the Lord is like a sun. We've had a nice stretch of weather, but today the sun did not come out. Gray clouds as thick as freshly mixed grout seal off our view of the heavens. I was at the hair salon earlier today, and all the women were yawning and commenting, "I just can't wake up today." I told them, "That's because the sun never came out."

The sun sets our body clocks and helps us to wake up. Who doesn't feel more positive and hopeful on a beautiful, sunny day? God also shines His face on us and awakens us to our purpose in Him, strengthening us and urging us on to our potential.

The sun shines on the plants and causes them to photosynthesize and grow, even to store energy that can be passed on to other organisms that consume them. God's power at work in us makes us grow, too, and through our growth we are ultimately able to minister His grace to others.

The sun lights our way so we can see where we are going and what we are doing. It brightens the colors of spring flowers and fall foliage. It ripens crops during the summer months and sparkles on freshly fallen snow in the winter. In a similar way, God grants us vision, direction and purpose, and then He fills us with joy as we walk with Him along the way He has prepared for us.

As the sun is the ultimate energy source for the earth, God is our ultimate energy source. God is a sun for us.

He is also a shield. He covers and protects us. He is strong and trustworthy. But, as a shield is useless in battle if left behind in the castle keep, so the protective nature of God diminishes when we stray from His will. You really need to think of this concept in context of the entire psalm (84), which is all about being close to God. He is our shield, but if we ignore Him, stray from Him and immerse ourselves in sin and rebellion, we ought not assume that He will prevent calamity from overtaking us. He might even cause a calamity, in order to jog our memories and prompt us to turn back to Him.

The scripture says, "The Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

That is pretty overwhelming. The NIV translation replaces the words, "those who walk uprightly" with the words, "those whose walk is blameless." This used to discourage me, because I know that I am certainly not blameless. I figured that, blameworthy as I know I am, I must not qualify for this promise. Then I realized that it is a promise to me anyway, because IN CHRIST, I actually am blameless, because of the blood He shed for my forgiveness. He will keep me blameless while He is making me blameless (1 Corinthians 1:4-9, 2 Corinthians 5:21). So it is not that we are perfectly upright all the time, but that we are learning to depend on Jesus to keep us upright more and more each day.

And if we are learning to depend on Jesus to keep us upright more and more each day, then He will bestow favor and honor, and not withhold anything that He knows is good for us. Of course, that doesn't mean we will always get what we want... the more we mature, the more we begin to understand that what we want is not always what is good for us. I may want a better job, or a different house, or to live closer to my extended family, or to have better health insurance coverage, or to be healed from fibromyalgia, or to move to a sunnier climate.

But ultimately I need to trust God with my desires, as well as everything else, and then I will understand that verse 12 is true: "O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in You."

It always seems to come back to our ability to trust God. Two things I need to pray for:

(1) Lord, please make my desires more in line with Your will.
(2) Lord, please help me to trust you more.

Psalm 86:5-7

2011-10-11T10:38:00.003-04:00

For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
listen to my plea for grace.
In the day of my trouble I call upon You,
for You answer me.
(ESV)

This was my verse yesterday.

I'd had a bad go-around with my 16 year old. I was feeling like the Worst-Mother-In-The-World.

I am so thankful that we can go before the Lord and plead for grace. I have made so many parenting mistakes since the beginning. Sometimes I wonder how the Lord ever could have entrusted me with four children. What was He thinking? But I know His thoughts are not my thoughts, nor His ways my ways (Isaiah 55:8). And so I have four children, and I often need to throw myself down on my face before Him and beg for forgiveness and grace.

He is good and forgiving. He does answer me. My 16 year old is still speaking to me. Maybe we will do something nice together today.

Psalm 84:10

2011-10-06T18:03:00.012-04:00

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
(ESV)

Two things strike me: humility and irony.

Humility
The psalmist would rather be a doorkeeper, a servant, in God's house than a bona fide resident in the tents of the wicked. He humbly understands that it is more blessed to be near God than to seek position and status for oneself, and ultimately more gratifying besides.

He would rather spend one day with God than a thousand days apart from God, which leads us to the

Irony.
Ironically, those who are near to God are the ones who will inherit (what? yes!) eternal life. So you don't have to choose between one day of sunshine, joy and blessings in the presence of God or a thousand elsewhere. Rather, your options are a miserable-temporary-existence-that-is-headed-towards-death-and-destruction OR eternity in God's house, where you will be blessed beyond anything you can even hope for or imagine, forever and ever and always, amen.

If it were not so difficult for us mortals to comprehend the ratio of the days we live on earth in comparison with all eternity, there might be a much higher percentage of people willing to follow the Lord come what may.

Psalm 84:8-9

2011-10-05T08:01:00.004-04:00

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob!
Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of Your anointed.
(ESV)

These verses are about approaching God: "...hear my prayer, give ear..."

I think it is very interesting that the psalmist says to the Lord, "Behold our shield."

Usually the Psalms tell God that He is our shield; they don't ask Him to look at our shield. For instance:

Psalm 3:3
But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

Psalm 18:2, 30
The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold... This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 28:7
The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.

Psalm 33:20
Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.

Psalm 115:9
O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

Psalm 119:114
You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word.

...you get the idea. God is our shield. So in this Psalm it is slightly unusual and strange that the Psalmist should say, "Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of Your anointed."

If God is our shield, what is going on here?

I picture Jesus as our shield, and God looking into the shiny metal surface of this protective battle gear, seeing His own image, perfectly reflected in His Son who covers us with His grace. Jesus, God's anointed.

It is because of Jesus that we can pray to God and have audience with Him. It is only by the blood of Christ, spilled on our behalf, that we can have access to the Father.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Hebrews 4:16, ESV)

Psalm 84:5-7

2011-10-04T10:07:00.008-04:00

Blessed are those whose strength is in You,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
(ESV)

Blessed are they whose strength is in You.
Our strength is not in ourselves, our flesh, our own accomplishments.
Everything we are is from God. He made us: our bodies, our minds, our talents, strengths and gifts. But beyond that, as we grow closer to Him we realize that everything we do depends on Him. We need His Spirit in our hearts to guide our decisions, strengthen our resolve, grace our courage and sustain our physical strength. Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5, ESV)

in whose heart are the highways to Zion
Zion is the mountain of God; the Kingdom of God; the Holy City; the new, redeemed Jerusalem. Those who have the highways to Zion in their hearts are those who look forward ("Thy Kingdom come," as the Lord's prayer says)... waiting and working for the day when the Lord returns. He will rule with justice and put an end to sin and suffering. As I have been studying Revelation recently, this is a wonderful encouragement. Revelation focuses much on the terrors of the tribulation that will occur before the end of time, before the new heaven and the new earth. Those whose strength is in the Lord are able to put their focus beyond all that, looking instead, with joy, to the coming kingdom.

As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
On the way to Zion, there are tribulations, difficult paths, desert wastelands. This makes me think of The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie's sister, Betsy, utterly exemplified the person this psalm is describing. Although she was weak and sick, her strength was in the Lord, and her heart was focused on His Kingdom. While Betsy and Corrie went together from one concentration camp to another, Betsy rejoiced in her opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus with many fellow prisoners who had lost hope. With her sweet spirit--the Spirit of Christ in her--she united prisoners, helped people share their resources, soothed arguments, and most importantly, she led Bible studies.

Although they were in what you would call a Valley of Baca, Christ in Betsy made it a place of refreshment. Her love touched people, gave them hope for eternity, nurtured their spirits. Betsy taught Corrie to be thankful, even for the fleas in one of their dormitories, because the fleas kept the guards away so the women could study God's Word together. Like Paul and Silas who sang and praised God in the Philippian prison, Betsy and Corrie brought peace and joy to Nazi concentration camps. Betsy's heart even broke for the Nazi prison guards who were so crippled and blinded by hate. With Christ in us, when we face difficult or miserable times, we have the opportunity, like Betsy Ten Boom, to make our Valley of Baca a place of springs, because of the strength of the Lord that abides within us.

They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
This is our hope. The Lord's strength will sustain us. No matter how bad life on earth may get, the Lord will never leave or forsake those He calls His own. And after sustaining us and carrying us through, He eventually brings us to heaven, glorious heaven, where there are no more tears and no more pain. There, He comforts us and covers us and shows us His glory, which makes the Grand Canyon look like an ant hill. We have so much to look forward to.

Psalm 84:3-4

2011-10-03T10:23:00.005-04:00

Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may lay her young,
at Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house,
ever singing Your praise.
(ESV)

I've seen birds build nests in the letters on the Wegman's storefront. Sometimes birds fly around in Lowes or Home Depot, and they used to be all over the place in Sam's Club.

These verses just make the scene so real and accessible. I picture the psalmist going to the temple to worship, and there in the outer courts, near the altar, he sees a bird nesting.

And what is his response? Is he horrified that a bird's nest has been built there at the altar? Does he try to drive it away? No, he rejoices to see where the bird has its home. He imagines how wonderful it would be to live there in the courts of God, like the bird. He perceives blessing and his heart praises God. He hears the bird sing, and he sings to the Lord with her.

I think we may stay here in Psalms 84-86 for a few days. They are very fortifying, refreshing. In the midst of studying the judgment of God in Revelation, after reading about the judgment of God in Psalms 70-79, these scriptures are a blessed relief. God knows what we need.

Revelation 17:14

2011-10-02T18:31:00.002-04:00

"They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with Him are called chosen and faithful."

In the middle of a daunting chapter about the end of the world, this verse.

You should probably be curious enough to go read the chapter, if you are unfamiliar with it. Revelation 17, a preacher's nightmare for the most part.

And then, this verse.

The Lamb will conquer them. Our Lamb, Jesus Christ, whose blood takes away the sins of the world.

No matter what happens, He has already won the epic struggle of good against evil. He won that at the cross when He died and rose again. Near the end of time, Satan will try to do what he can to cheat the Lamb out of His just reward (our eternal souls). He will make war on the Lamb. But the Lamb will conquer him, vanquish him, and bring us home to heaven... those of us who are chosen and faithful.

That's good news.

Keep on keeping on.

Ephesians 5:1-2

2011-10-01T16:42:00.003-04:00

Therefore be imitators of God,
as beloved children.
And walk in love,
as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us,
a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
(ESV)

I've been going very slowly (very slowly) through Ephesians.

Sometimes you notice things you'd otherwise miss, when you go very slowly. Of the many verses from Ephesians that we memorize and teach to our children, this one rarely makes the cut.

But when you really think about it, isn't this the main point?

We are not naturally drawn to make sacrifices for others the way Christ did. When Paul says, "That I may gain Christ... that I may know Him... and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death..." (from Philippians 3), that is not our favorite verse.

We always just want to take the "good" and not the stuff that appears unpleasant. This is why my husband likes to eat the praline topping off my praline squash dish. This is why many who purport to be pastors preach only that "God loves you" (which is true), and never that Jesus is coming again to judge the world, or that God condemns certain behaviors and lifestyles.

But it is easy to point the finger at what other people miss. What am I missing? What am I ignoring? Do I believe in the goodness of God, trust in His grace and have enough confidence in His sovereign plan that I am willing to sacrifice myself temporarily, now, for the great eternal gain of His Kingdom?

Most days, I do not think I succeed at this. Lord, help me.

Psalm 84:1-2

2011-09-30T09:37:00.004-04:00

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

This is from the ESV.
I pray that it is true of my heart.
Sometimes God has to make things on earth a little bleaker than we'd like them, in order to get us to look up and long for what He has in store for us in heaven.

Psalm 82:3-5

2011-09-29T13:48:00.003-04:00

"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken."
(ESV)

Dear Lord, help me to understand what this means. Sometimes poverty is the result of wickedness. Sometimes the sins of the fathers affect many generations that follow (Exodus 34:7). Lord, how do we figure out what justice is? Do we simply give love and mercy, and leave the justice to you? Is it OK to give money to someone I am pretty sure will spend it on drugs or alcohol? Who are the wicked? Is there a difference between a wicked poor person and a regular poor person? Is there no such thing as a wicked poor person?

I am very confused. But it makes me think of Micah 6:8...

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
(ESV)

Psalm 80:19

2011-09-28T08:58:00.003-04:00

"Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!" (ESV)

"Restore us, LORD God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved." (NIV)

"Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." (KJV)

I actually like the KJV here: Turn us again.

Please, God, turn our hearts back to you. Why are we so prone to wander? Please fix our direction and shine your face on us, your loving, powerful, almighty face. It is only through your Spirit and your power that we can ever be saved. Although Jesus took the miraculous steps needed to save us, although He gave his life to redeem ours by suffering, dying and rising again, we cannot even begin to comprehend or accept the truth about Jesus until your face shines understanding and love for you into our hearts. Teach us to depend on you, to look to you, to follow you. Teach us to love you.

A New Focus

2011-09-27T20:39:00.004-04:00

Today I read some stuff from my old blog, the really old one I did through a teenie-bopper web journal before I started these two. I don't think that old blog exists anymore, and if it does, I have no idea where to find it, but I had been laboriously copying and pasting each entry into Word so I could keep it for posterity, and today I pulled up that old Word document and read some of it.

In the old days, I went through a blogging spell where I did "VOTD" which stood for Verse of the Day. Sometimes I wrote about the verse of the day, and sometimes I simply quoted it.

I am going to try to start doing that again, here.

I hope I can keep up with it.

We shall see what happens.

Smoothie Recipe

2011-04-26T17:36:00.003-04:00

Just posting this here for lack of somewhere else to post it, not that it has anything to do with this blog, but nobody reads this blog, so it doesn't make any difference...

I'm hoping to get Shannon onto eating breakfast, and preferably a healthy breakfast without too many sugar and white flour carbs like your average bagel, juice and coffee breakfast. Also, this is something I can hand her on her way to the car and she can sip it as she goes. The rest of us drink kefir smoothies, but Shanny took one look at kefir grains and refused ever to let kefir pass her lips again.

Smoothie I'm hoping Shanny will like:

Vanilla yogurt (~1/2 cup)
Orange juice (~1 cup)
Frozen strawberries (~2/3 cup)
Two bananas
Oatmeal (uncooked flakes) (~1/3 cup)
Ground flax seed (~2 rounded tablespoons)

I made this today and Jon and I shared it. It was tasty, if a bit grainy, and plenty for two, so if Shanny makes these for herself next year, she can half the recipe. I'd like to try it with a scoop of whey protein powder, probably vanilla. Our bananas were room temperature; it would be better with chilled or frozen bananas. I can't remember if Shannon hates bananas in smoothies. Somebody does. I hope it is not her, because bananas are so handy and affordable.

Finally?

2011-04-26T11:49:00.002-04:00

I think spring is finally here.

It is 71 degrees, for one thing. I went to the doctor this morning and I didn't wear a coat, only a sweater, and a three-quarter length sleeve sweater at that.

The best thing: the tiny leaves are starting to grow, spreading a soft green mist among the bare branches.

Daffodils are up.

Forsythia is blooming. Forsythia is not my favorite, crazy yellow shrub. But it is definitely a sign of spring, so I always welcome it, zany as it may seem.

The hyacinths are up, too. They always look a little forced and artificial to me, but they are undeniably pretty in all their varied pinks, purples and blues.

If it just doesn't snow tonight, I think we'll be in business.

A year later

2011-04-20T11:17:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted here for nearly a year.

It has been a difficult year.

This past winter was brutal. It started early and snowed hard, froze hard, and continued long.

This week is spring break, with Easter coming on Sunday. Temperatures are predicted to be in the 40-50 range with lots of rain. Last night, howling wind, thunder and lightening kept me from peaceful sleep. My daffodils are up, but they look pale in the dim, clouded atmosphere. I don't feel like taking pictures of them. The rabbits ate most of the rest of my landscaping... the holly and the rose-of-sharon are bare of bark. We will likely have to replace a lot.

It is a good atmosphere for practicing Habakkuk 3:17-19.

On a bright note, DJ is doing better.

Bursting

2010-04-23T17:59:00.002-04:00

I took this picture three days ago, but just uploaded it to look at it today. What a surprising insight it gives us into the process of blooming. Full bloom doesn't happen all at once, but each small burst of color is a major triumph.

I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely
for my anger has turned away from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily.
Like a cedar of Lebanon
he will send down his roots;
his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like that of an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

Men will again dwell in his shade.
He will flourish like the grain.
He will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

Hosea 14:4-7

Spring is beautiful

2010-04-17T16:34:00.003-04:00

Life is messy. Sometimes it can really get you down. Sometimes you want to collar people and shake them until some sense gets into their heads. Other times, you want to just curl up in a ball in a dark place, a dark and warm place, and sleep forever.

But God makes beauty from ashes. God makes flowers bloom after winter. God, and only God, brings life from death. Jesus is our hope, our only hope, and in Him we need to abide.

"In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of His people. He will be a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, a source of strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate."
~Isaiah 28:5-6

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion--
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting for the Lord for the display of His splendor."
~Isaiah 61:1-3

Signs of life

2010-04-05T12:22:00.005-04:00

It got up to 88 degrees this past weekend. It was a truly glorious Resurrection Sunday.

My daffodils are blooming!

My lilac bush is budding!

God is renewing the earth once again.

A gift

2010-03-10T11:37:00.003-05:00

So today I am not feeling great. I don't want to go on and on about it, but it's important to understand that I am feeling incredibly weak today. Also, I have a lot to do, so coupled together those factors lead to sense of overwhelmedness.

We took the van to Ford & Bryant early this morning and I came home and went back to bed.

When I woke up, I still felt crummy and could not figure out what to do, whether to shower or eat breakfast first, or what to eat for breakfast.

Finally I decided that I would like green tea and raisin bran, but I didn't think we had any raisin bran. I thought Jonathan had eaten it all. Jonathan prefers cereal that sinks.

Maybe this is flaky and shallow and stupid, but I prayed. I told God that I certainly wouldn't try to test His love for me by basing it on whether we had raisin bran; I know He loves me, and He doesn't have to give me raisin bran to prove it. But, I told Him, in the event that there did turn out to be some raisin bran, it would be a very comforting confirmation of Your love for me.

There was raisin bran.

I feel a little odd about it, but I wanted to give Him praise for that.

What would happen....

2010-02-12T13:47:00.003-05:00

Just think about it. Just close your eyes and try to imagine.... what would happen on this earth if each one of us became willing to extend more grace to others than we expected to get for ourselves?

A verse for all of us

2010-02-01T15:56:00.010-05:00

I want to share a verse that is precious to me. It may be a comfort to many people. I need to share it with my children and ask them to memorize it as they head into their futures.

This is Shannon and Laura riding in Shannon's car. It is symbolic of the journey of life, a microcosm of the paths they travel to arrive at their God-ordained destiny. They are not sure where they are headed, but they seem to be enjoying the trip. Well, Shannon does. Laura still has a lot of unknowns.

This is David at his piano. Music brings him great joy. However, he does not see it as a future career path. He is not sure what he will be, who he will become, under the grace of God, but he is thankful for music and the release it affords.

Jonathan is not serious about much. I'm not sure he is convinced that he's really going to grow up. When he was little, I remember urging the other children to beseech God on his behalf and ask that he would live until he was 5. I don't know why I chose 5 as the age to pray for? Did I think he would be set by then, solid, full of health and sensibility? He has called on the name of the Lord for salvation, so in that sense he is set. In many other senses, he has a way to go.

So here is the verse... for me, for them, for everyone...

"The Lord will work out His plans for my life-- for Your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for You made me." Psalm 138:8 (NLT)

Just wanted to share this

2010-01-01T14:44:00.004-05:00

For the word of the Lord is right and true;
He is faithful in all He does.

The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of His unfailing love.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of His mouth.
He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
He puts the deep into storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere Him.
For He spoke and it came to be;
He commanded and it stood firm.

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of His heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:4-11

I needed that today. I need to remember that God is in control. He made it all, and He oversees it all.

I've been to the ocean (hence the photo above). There is not much that makes me think of the infinite greatness of God the way the vast ocean does. In a way, the ocean scares me. It is so big, and so bleak. Many have met their deaths in its great waves.

God made the ocean. Not only did He make it, He has ultimate power over it. He can stir up a storm, and He can calm it down again. He brings in the tides and sends them out. And if He wanted to, he could suck up all the water from all of earth's oceans into a "jar", and that would be that. He must have some mighty big jars in heaven!

This is only a tiny glimpse of the God I serve, the God who created the vast universe, filled with solar systems of sizes beyond the limits of my imagination. He also created all of nature and science: atoms, molecules, sub-atomic parts like nuclei and protons and neutrons. He designed an individual DNA pattern for every living creature. He even worked things out so that every single snowflake that falls is different from every other snowflake.

It's no wonder He could part the Red Sea so the Israelites could cross on dry land, no wonder that He saved them from their Egyptian enemies whom He buried under a deluge of sea water as soon as His own were all safe. It was a mighty miracle for them, but it was child's play to Him. It was easy. Nothing is hard for God.

Nothing is hard for God, and nothing is scary. He cradles the whole universe in His hands, and in Him all things hold together.

The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
He thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of His heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:10-11

God is Great

2009-12-28T11:15:00.002-05:00

I know that the Lord is great,
that our Lord is greater than all gods.
The Lord does whatever pleases Him,
in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and all their depths.
Psalm 135:5-6

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33

God is in control. Doesn't it just make you feel safe to realize that?

Proverbs 11:6

2009-12-23T16:35:00.003-05:00

The righteousness of the upright delivers them,
but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires.

The righteousness of the upright is Jesus. That's why we can be sure of our deliverance.

Evil desires are a trap. Sin is a trap. Satan has the victory when people think they are safe from the penalties of sin and therefore feel free to pursue sin.

Jesus sets us free from Satan's power and from sin and from death.

God rest ye, merry gentlemen
("Be still and know that I am God"--Psalm 46:10)
Let nothing you dismay,
("But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people!'"--Luke 2:10)
Remember Christ our Savior
was born on Christmas Day,
(" 'Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord!' "--Luke 2:11)
to save us all from Satan's power
when we had gone astray,
("But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons."--Galatians 4:4-5; "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."--Romans 5:6)
O tidings of comfort and joy,
comfort and joy!
O tidings of comfort and joy!

Fear and Forgiveness

2009-12-21T10:08:00.010-05:00

Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let Your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.
If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with You there is forgiveness;
therefore You are feared.

Psalm 130:1-4

"With You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared."

What does that mean?

In our culture, forgiveness and fear are mutually exclusive, and fear of the Lord is something that people dodge, avoid and even deny.

So how do we make sense of a statement like this?

"With You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared."

The first thing we need to realize is something we miss all the time: The Christian life is not all about us. It is all about God. It is not about what we get, but about what He has given. It is not about where we stand in relation to our eternal destiny, but about where we stand with relation to our eternal God.

Man-centered theology is so prevalent that we embrace it even as we decry it. We hear the terms "man-centered theology" and "God-centered theology" and we know that God-centered must be better than man-centered. We might even say something about this. But we are so immersed in the man-centered that we cannot even imagine what God-centered is.

This may seem like a tangent, but bear with me: I think Disney's "Little Mermaid" movie is among the worst movies ever made. (Thematically, I mean; it has very cute music, which is a very dangerous thing, indeed.) It has the most destructive message I have ever seen in a movie, but it typifies the American attitude, an attitude that has sadly pervaded the church.

Think about it: Ariel's father gives her good instruction on how to live and be safe. Ariel is dissatisfied with all that her loving father has offered her and must have more (ummm... doesn't this sound a little like Eve in the garden of Eden?). She has been sternly warned not to go above sea level onto land, warned for her own good, by her father who loves her and does not want anything bad to happen to her.

Ariel heedlessly seeks her own way, selling her most precious gift, her lovely voice, to the sea witch, so she can pursue her lover. Why? Because she wants to. She wants her own way, and she takes it, breaking rules and disobeying all the way.

In the end, she gets herself into a terrible, deathly predicament. And what happens? Her father Triton appears and nearly dies while fighting to save her life (which, I remind you, is in danger precisely because she disobeyed her father). And after he saves her and appears Disney-esquely alive after seeming to be dead? She says, "O Papa, I am so sorry I disobeyed you! Will you please forgive me and take me home to the kingdom?" Oh no. Oh, heavens, no!

In the end, King Triton apologizes to his daughter because he was a mean father and did not give her her way. And she gets her way, along with everything she had demanded all along, and everyone lives happily ever after. I was literally spitting mad the first time (possibly the only time)I watched this movie. I never let my children watch it, although I expect that they saw it somewhere.

Sadly, this warped morality is exactly how many people see God and the Christian life. They think the Old Testament Law is like King Triton's rules for his daughters, mean and unreasonable (though possibly meant for good at the time). We are like Ariel, longing for freedom from rules and regulations. Jesus came and died for our sins so that we can have what they call "Freedom in Christ" and thereafter, we are free to sin because we have been forgiven, and God, something like King Triton at the end of "The Little Mermaid," is sorry that He ever placed such a burden as Old Testament Law on us.

With a paradigm like this, it's no wonder we can't understand a verse like, "But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared."

Let's get something straight. Freedom in Christ does not mean freedom to sin. It means freedom from sin. It means that, because God sends His own Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of His children and empower them, we can live lives free from sin. Whereas before, in our fallen flesh, we had no power to live righteously, since Jesus died for us and sent His Holy Spirit to live with us, to comfort, counsel and empower us, we do have the power, through Him, to live righteously. If you do not believe me, please read Romans 6. Yes, the whole chapter. I am not for pulling one verse or phrase out of context. Read Romans 6, because it teaches exactly what I am trying to say here, but it has the advantage of being the word of God.

And if you understand this, then you can start to understand what it means that "...with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared."

"With You there is forgiveness" puts the focus on God as the great Forgiver. The focus is not on the fact that we have escaped an unpleasant consequence. Grace doesn't mean God looking down and saying, "Awwww. I'll let you into heaven anyway, because I am Love and you are a cute little human." No! It is about God totally blasting away the stronghold of sin and hurling Satan into the depths so that we can be free forever. (See Revelation 12:10-12. Really, please read it.) God is mighty and full of grace and love and truth. He is the only one who can forgive us, because all of our sins are ultimately only against Him (see Psalm 51:4).

"Therefore You are feared" means, at the simplest level, that the forgiven one has been able to grasp something of the magnitude of what God has done and what this says about God, about who He is and the extent of His power and His might as well as His grace and His love.

I think corollary to grasping the extent of God's love comes a heartfelt love and appreciation that expresses itself in the desire to be pleasing to our God and Savior who has done such magnificent wonders for us. And along with this deep desire to please God, because He is so unutterably wonderful, comes a fear of displeasing Him, a real fear. If we can begin to grasp how worthy God is of our lives being a living sacrifice for him (see Romans 12, yes the whole chapter), we fear letting Him down. This is not a paralyzing fear, because 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. It is a fear that drives us to the source of our righteousness and makes us utterly dependent on Him. And being utterly dependent on our Lord is a very safe dependence to have, because He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promises, and He always keeps His promises.

Back to Psalm 51 (I mentioned it earlier, you should read that, too), the Psalmist cries out: "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me." Now, I do not think that God threatens to take His Holy Spirit away, but He does warn us that continual sin will grieve the Holy Spirit and quench our ability to utilize His power. (See Ephesians 4:29-32 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22). So although God will not take back our salvation from us, we should live with a certain amount of fear at the effects that sin can have on our lives and particularly what sin can do to our relationship with Him.

We should indeed fear displeasing our great Forgiver and damaging our close fellowship with Him. Without Him, who can stand? Without Him where is hope? He is everything to us, and we need to apprehend that and live accordingly.

Who is Jesus?

2009-12-17T14:58:00.007-05:00

There is a child in our Sunday school class who does not believe that Jesus is God.

He is a bright child, and very active and verbal. He has also been afflicted with a serious case of brash, youthful arrogance. I am not sure how to handle him. I do not want to humiliate him. However, I do not believe that it is right to allow him to declare, in front of the other children, "Jesus wasn't really the same as God. My dad says there's no way Jesus could actually be God."

Because God is wonderful, He has been leading me to verses that clearly proclaim the divinity of Christ.

Romans 9:5
Theirs [the Israelites'] are the patriarchs, and from them are traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

For years I have been teaching that the Old Testament is about the nation of Israel, because they are the ancestors of Jesus. And only today I noticed that what I have been teaching is clearly and simply explained in this one specific verse. Glory to God! The nation of Israel is specially blessed because they are the ancestors of God. Jesus is God!

Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.

The child, the baby, the son of Mary is our Mighty God. The Bible says so. Jesus is God!

Titus 2:13
... while we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our God. It doesn't get much clearer than this.

Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [Paul said to the Ephesian elders]. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood.

Whose blood paid for the church? God's own blood. That's what it says. I am not making this up. Jesus was the one who shed His blood, and this is the blood that bought the church, God's blood. Jesus is God.

John 1:1-3, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word was God, it says, and then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That's Jesus. Jesus is the one who became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus, who is God, became flesh and lived with humans on earth. I didn't even highlight the fact that this passage also states that the Word is the one who created the heavens and the earth, and Genesis 1:1 specifically states that "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Jesus is God.

Please read this slowly and worshipfully...
Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.

Jesus is God.

There are other supporting scriptures that you can read on your own:
John 10:30
John 14:9
Philippians 2:5-11
Colossians 2:9
Hebrews 1 (the whole chapter, but particularly verses 8-9)

Jesus is God. If you don't believe the Bible, or if you do not believe in God, this means nothing. But if you accept the Bible as God's Word, you cannot deny that Jesus is God in flesh, "God incarnate" as the old theology states.

1 John 4 speaks of testing the spirits. Whether a spirit is true and good or false and wicked hinges on one thing: what does it do with Jesus? The Spirit of God in someone "acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh... but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God." Acknowledging Jesus means understanding who He is, that He is God, not just agreeing that he was a guy like any of the rest of us, a guy who just happened to be born in the year that changed BC to AD.

I think I am going to need to have a serious talk with this child. If you read this, please pray for me.

Hope

2009-12-12T13:48:00.006-05:00

Fallen leaves remind me that the earth is in a constant state of flux. Although God, in grace, grants us the gift of beauty in the nature with which He surrounds us, nature is not constant, except in its constancy of cycles. Night follows day. Winter follows summer. Harvest follows planting. Death follows birth.

I sometimes become discouraged at the suffering that God uses to refine us, because this, too, seems to be a constant. There is virtually no growth without pain, no change without loss, no improvement without discipline. Sometimes this truth makes me feel tired. I am a lazy person.

Last year I spent much time in Job and then in 1 and 2 Peter. These books of the Bible teach a lot about suffering. I should be strengthened and built up; I know God promises to stay with us, helping us, holding us up, carrying us through. He is our shield and the lifter of our heads. Such a baby I am... I don't want my head to need lifting.

Lately, God has brought me to the Psalms in the 120's. Psalm 121 is one of my all time favorites. It was such a comfort to read it the other day. You should read it, too, if you need a word of encouragement. But, today I am going to write about Psalm 125, verse by verse.

Psalm 125:1
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

We will endure forever if we trust in the Lord. We will not be shaken. Our eternal destiny is secure as long as our trust is in the Lord. It's going to be all right.

Psalm 125:2
As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people both now and forevermore.

I just love that imagery. God is there, as solid and steadfast as the mountains around Jerusalem, surrounding us and protecting us. He will even outlast the mountains of Jerusalem when the earth comes to an end. He will remain forevermore, our shield and protector.

Psalm 125:3
The scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil.

This is a little harder to understand. I think the key is where it says that the scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous. This means that God has a territory reserved for His people where evil cannot reign, where we will be utterly safe from any evil influence, and where His perfect justice is absolute. One of the things that astounds me most about the idea of heaven is this: I will not even be tempted to sin anymore; there will be no more battle with the sin nature. I think this verse supports that.

Psalm 125:4
Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, to those who are upright in heart.

Once I was reading the Psalms and I became very disheartened at the promises and blessings on the righteous. My own sins and daily failings keep me well aware that I am not righteous, blameless or pure. I remember thinking, "That would be great, if it only applied to me... but clearly, I am not righteous." One day, while I was reading a Psalm and thinking this negative and self-incriminating thought, God's voice broke through in my mind and He told me, "You have the righteousness of my Son. It is in Him that these promises apply to you. I have imputed my Son's own perfect righteousness to you, through grace, so that you may indeed be counted among the righteous." (You can find proof of this truth in Romans 3:22, 5:17, 10:4, and especially 2 Corinthians 5:21.) It was a most wonderful and glorious day when God brought this truth home to me. I had heard it many times, but on that day, He spoke to my heart and I understood. When the Psalmist asks the Lord to do good to the righteous, he really is asking the Lord to do good to me.

Psalm 125:5
But those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers.
Peace be upon Israel.

OK, I know we aren't supposed to gloat. But I think this means that everyone who enjoys hurting us and forever refuses to be sorry will be banished by God from the presence of His children, and peace will reign.

Yes, "peace be upon Israel" means peace to the children of God, and that means those of us who believe, putting our faith in him. Galatians 3:29 tells us: "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Abraham was the father of Israel (Israel the nation... he was grandfather of Jacob who was renamed "Israel"). If we are Abraham's seed, then we count as the children of the promise, the chosen ones of God.

I don't know about you, but I needed this lift today. God is surrounding us like a range of mountains, keeping us safe, and blessing us with peace.

Merry Christmas!

God is happy

2009-11-14T20:38:00.009-05:00

The first time I ever heard John Piper preach, probably in 1987, Shawn and I walked into his church, Bethlehem Baptist, with no idea of what to expect. We had heard that he was good, but beyond that, we knew nothing.

It was just as his book, Desiring God, was being published. The sermon was about Christian hedonism. By Christian hedonism, what Dr. Piper means is that humans were created for happiness: we crave it, we miss it, there is a void inside each of us that longs for it.

Because we are sinful beings living in a fallen world, we seek happiness in all the wrong places. But in truth, happiness is within our grasp: our joy is in the Lord. And the best thing about it is, unlike any other pleasure we may pursue, the pleasure that we find in God is--get this--good for us!

You can be addicted to God and never run short of your supply of Him, because He is limitless, and it is His joy to fill us and overflow from us in glory and grace. (see Psalm 81:10, Isaiah 55:1-2, John 10:10, John 15:11)

The point is that God is the source of all that is good, and He loves us and shares His goodness with us to the glory of His name and for the good it does us to be filled with joy.

It brings God great joy to bring us great joy.

Inherent in all this is a fundamental fact that is missed all the time. All the time...

God is happy. God is joyous. God is filled with pleasure and delight.

I had never thought about this before that day when I sat in a lovingly cared for old church building in Minneapolis, listening to John Piper preach his heart out.

God is happy.

Psalm 115:3 says, "Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him."

As I sat there, I was stunned, completely and utterly stunned. God is happy.

God is not worried. God is not in despair. God does not look down at the sins of man and wonder, "Oh whatever shall I do now?"

God is completely and utterly in control. He is sovereign. He is in charge of all history. And on top of that, He is omnipotent and omniscient. That means He is all mighty and all knowing.

Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases."

Psalm 33:10-11 "The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations."

Psalm 139:1-4 "O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord."

Ephesians 1:4-10 "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will--to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ."

1 Peter 1:20 "He [Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake."

Perhaps I will take these scriptures individually over the next few days and write about them in more depth.

But I just have to share my wonder at this, my wonder and excitement and joy and relief. God is not up in heaven wringing His hands and worrying that we will mess things up. He knew we were going to mess things up before He ever created the world... that's why He chose Jesus and planned our redemption before He even made us.

God is not worried, so we do not have to worry... we can trust Him fully and believe that, as He promises, His purposes will all be accomplished!

God is happy, so we can be happy. We can serve Him with joy and confidence because He is in control, because He is our sovereign Lord, and He does indeed have the whole world in His hands.

Does this mean that things will always go the way we want them to go, that we can expect Him to give us fulfilling relationships, nice houses, plenty of food and clean water, and no illnesses?

Heavens no! Not here. God knows what is best for us, and it isn't always what we think is best for us. We need to humble ourselves and trust Him, even when it doesn't make sense, and never lose our expectant hope for eternal redemption.

Grace

2009-11-12T12:50:00.007-05:00

The really amazing thing about this flower: it's blooming outside my window, and it is November. November. In New York.

God is so gracious and merciful. I was bracing myself for February today, thinking about the upcoming sleet, snow and frigid weather. But today it is November 12, the sun is almost shining, and there is a white rose blooming outside my window.

Sometimes God is gracious in up-front, out-right kinds of ways... like in giving me a rose blossom in November.

Other times, His grace comes in stranger packages.

The other day I was reading in Isaiah, and I came across this verse:

"The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death." (Isaiah 57:1-2)

It reminded me of the story where wicked King Jeroboam's son became very ill, and Jeroboam sent his wife, in disguise, to ask the Lord's prophet whether her son would live or die. God was planning to send judgment on Jeroboam, a terrible judgment that would be awful to behold. Regarding the king's son, God gave his mother this message: "As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good." (1 Kings 14:12-13)

We always assume that earthly health, wealth and prosperity are the blessings of God, but sometimes the opposite is true. Sometimes God takes a person out of this life to spare him earthly pain. And sometimes God strikes a man into disaster in order to break down his mistaken belief that he is fine on his own and has no need of a Savior. This looks harsh from our point of view, but in truth it is a mercy, because it takes a man headed for eternal disaster and points him toward heaven instead. Sometimes God uses discomfort in this life to help us prepare and look forward to the next life, the real one, the one without an end.

We should not fear death the way we do. We need to remind ourselves that God is sovereign, and everything is part of His plan. This is hard; it goes against every natural fiber of our being. It requires super-human faith, the faith and trust that come only from God.

For those of us with faith, we should remind ourselves every day:

"...to live is Christ and to die is gain."

(Philippians 1:21)

Because, believe it or not, in heaven, God has much greater wonders for us than even a white rose blooming in November.

Faith and faithfulness

2009-09-16T11:38:00.006-04:00

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
Hebrews 11:8

However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Romans 4:5

Abraham's faith was credited to him as righteousness.
Romans 4:9b

Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
Romans 4:16

If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:29

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6b

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8

...from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:15

These scriptures all highlight the role of faith. Faith is the means by which we are saved. In fact, to say that a person has faith is the same thing as saying that a person is saved. Faith in Jesus Christ equals salvation.

Where does faith come from? Faith comes from God. Faith is what was lost at the the Fall in Genesis 3, and it is what we regain in Christ when we are reunited in a relationship with God.

Apart from God, our spirits are dead within us. When He reaches down and touches our spirits with His Spirit, the life of His Spirit vitalizes our spirits, sparks faith, and brings spiritual life where none existed. This is a supernatural miracle.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Grace is God's favor towards us. The term that is commonly applied here is unmerited favor, which basically means undeserved favor. God did not favor us with salvation because we deserved it. He does not choose the good people, the smart people, the strong people or the rich people. He chooses whomever He wants to choose, and upon those undeserving people, by grace, He bestows the gift of faith, which we have seen is tantamount to the gift of salvation.

How do you get faith if you want it? There is only one source of faith: God. There is only one way to get it from Him, and that is to humbly ask Him for it. Ironically, you won't even want to ask for faith unless He has already touched your spirit and breathed into it. It takes faith to desire faith. Only God can break into the cycle of a dead spirit and bring out life.

Faith is the essence of salvation. It is believing that God exists, and it is believing His promises. It is the kind of belief that translates into action; it affects what you do because it permeates and shapes your entire mind. That is what faith is. It's a wonderful thing to think about.

Faithfulness is something different.

You might think that faithfulness is the quality of being full of faith. After all, it is "faith" plus "full," two words put together. When the Bible speaks of "the faithful" as a group of people (for example, in Psalm 31:23), then it does mean that we are talking about a group of people who are full of faith.

However, even here, we need to draw a line. "The faithful" is not the same term as "faithfulness."

So what is faithfulness? To begin to understand it, we need to look at it first as an attribute of God Himself. When we say that God is faithful we mean something quite different from when we call people "the faithful." The simplest way to understand is to break it down into two simple sentences:

1. Faithful followers of God exhibit faith in God by trusting and obeying Him.
2. Our faithful God always keeps His promises and is completely trustworthy.

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 7:9

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
Psalm 145:13

So when Galatians 5:22 says, "The fruit of the Spirit is... faithfulness..." it is not talking about basic faith. Basic faith is what brings salvation, which brings the indwelling of God's Spirit in the first place. Faith, salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit are all the same thing, or aspects of the same thing. This is the root from whence all the fruits of the Spirit are able to grow.

So when Galatians 5:22 says, "The fruit of the Spirit is... faithfulness..." it is talking about how the Spirit of God in us enables us to reflect God's quality of faithfulness. This means that we keep our promises. We are true to our word. We are completely trustworthy, even to the point where God can trust us to keep our covenant with Him, not because of what we are like, but because of what He has done in us... He can trust His own work.

A faithful husband stands by his wife through good and bad, and keeps his marriage vows.

A faithful friend is there when you need her.

A faithful dog camps out by your bedside when you are sick.

These are everyday examples of faithfulness, not hard to understand.

Faithfulness has less to do with the faith of the person who is faithful, and more to do with the fact that others can be safe putting their faith in such a person.

When the Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness, it means that we are learning to keep our promises as God keeps His.

I just felt the need to explain this difference, and I hope I have been more clarifying than confusing.

Apology

2009-09-15T10:22:00.002-04:00

I'm sorry I have not been writing here.

I struggled with my devotional times this summer. After awhile, I joined a Beth Moore study on the fruit of the spirit, but I didn't even finish that. I got hung up the week we were to study faithfulness, because she kept talking about faith rather than faithfulness. It is very important to study and and learn and understand what faith is. Without faith, you can't be saved, so it is absolutely critical. However, the fruit of the spirit is faithfulness, not faith, and faithfulness is different from faith. Which is why there are two different (albeit related) words.

Anyway, I didn't know where to go with my consternation, so I stopped doing the study and I stopped going to it.

I started reading 1 John with my daughters.

I am also, finally, reading my brother's book on Revelation and taking notes (which makes all the difference).

Last night I got to discuss Habakkuk with my older son. That is an opportunity you don't get very often.

I feel dry, but I do keep going back to Psalm 63.

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. They who seek my life will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God's name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

I have felt dry, but maybe it was more that I was not in control of my devotional times this summer. And maybe I am not supposed to control them. Maybe it is OK.

Obedience

2009-08-15T11:46:00.004-04:00

This plant is called obedient plant. It pretty much stays where you plant it and does not overtake your garden. This puts me in mind of spiritual obedience.

We used to sing a hymn, Trust and Obey:

When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His word,
What a glory He sheds on our way.
As we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
But to trust and obey.

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command..."
(John 14:15)

He also said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."
(John 15:9-12)

Beauty

2009-07-27T16:14:00.003-04:00

July 25

July 26

July 27

July 28

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.
Philippians 4:8

We need to do this, not out of pleasure so much as out of desperation. Our desperation should lead us to heights previously unknown, in the presence of God.

Still alive

2009-07-15T15:31:00.001-04:00

I am doing a graduation party and will not be posting until after July 18.

2009-07-01T14:39:00.008-04:00

So I said I would be posting on Tuesdays and Fridays, but for the past two weeks I have only posted on Wednesdays, and it looks like that's about to happen again.

The above is actually a photo of my daisies. I photoshopped it to death... cropped it, played with the colors, then distorted it with washes and effects. I'm sure many would say I ruined it.

The daisies, by the way, are weeds. They grew in my garden, and I left them. Here's hoping they don't utterly overtake everything next year. I also have Shasta daisies; they have not bloomed yet, and when they do, they will be quite a bit bigger, but they won't last as long as these have.

I tend to second-guess myself and wonder whether I am doing the right thing. Should I photoshop my pictures? Should I leave the wild daisies to grow in my garden? Should I keep daisies in my yard at all, since I am allergic to them? Why didn't I wear sunglasses to my son's graduation, since my eyes are itchy and watery from my daisy allergy which is provoked by the daisies I keep in my garden?

I could drive myself absolutely batty worrying over these things. Sometimes I do.

Today in VBS we studied Peter's denial of Christ.

The thing that deeply comforts me is that Jesus warned Peter and, at the same time, reassured him that it would come all right in the end: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31)

"I have prayed for you..." What awesome words of comfort. And Jesus prays for us, too. "Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." (Romans 8:34b)

Jesus prays for us, but, you know, we pray for each other, too. Although it is a wonderful feeling to know that my Lord and Savior prays for me, it is not quite as astonishing as the fact that He knows and controls the future. Now THAT is what really makes me feel safe and secure. Look what He said to Peter: "When you turn back..." Not if you turn back, but when you turn back. Jesus knew that Peter would turn back to Him after his failure, that he would be restored, that he would grow and become effective for the Kingdom, carrying out a powerful ministry.

The same is true for us. We do not have to beat ourselves up and fret over our mistakes. We need to confess our sins, receive His forgiveness, and move ahead with confidence in His power and grace, believing that He is the God who creates beauty from ashes, that He can use every circumstance in our lives for our good and for His glory.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

FYI

2009-06-25T11:21:00.001-04:00

Instead of writing every day, I will be posting one or two times per week. My plan is to do this on Tuesdays and Fridays, but that will flex according to the family schedule.

Blossoms

2009-06-24T11:57:00.009-04:00

In case you can't tell from this perspective, the yellow flower in this photo is a tomato blossom. Tomato blossoms are not the most beautiful flower in the garden, but they hold some of the most wonderful promise... the promise of delicious, red, ripe, juicy tomatoes!

Blossoms signal beginnings. Actually, the bud is the beginning, and then the blossom, finally culminating in fruit.

Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Before the beginning, there was nothing: no plants, no people, no life. In fact, I do not think there was even any space or any time. I think that God created time, and then space, kind of the way I mixed topsoil, peat moss and compost together in my raised garden bed this spring. I was preparing a place to grow tomatoes, and other vegetables and berries. God was creating a place to raise eternal souls.

Yesterday I was reading about Aaron's rod that budded.

Numbers 17:8, "The next day Moses entered the tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's staff, which represented the house of Levi, had not only sprouted, but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds."

The main point of this story is to confirm the spiritual authority of the tribe of Levi, and particularly the authority of Aaron and his sons within that tribe. God had charged the priests (Aaron and his sons) and Levites (the rest of the tribe of Levi) with the care of the Tabernacle and the overseeing of the sacrificial system.

Going back a chapter, we see that some Israelites had challenged Aaron's role and wanted to burn their own incense before the Lord.

Numbers 16:3, "They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord's assembly?'"

God instructed the head of each tribe to bring a staff to the Tabernacle. They were to write their names on these staffs and leave them in the Tabernacle overnight. God's plan was to put an end to all this bickering by sending a sign of His favor to the staff of His chosen leader. God said that the staff of the man He chose would sprout.

In the morning, Aaron's staff not only sprouted, it also budded, blossomed and bore fruit. Or, nuts, as the case may be. This is interesting because if the staff had merely sprouted, observers could have accused Moses and Aaron of replacing Aaron's staff with a sprouting branch from an almond tree. But God did a huge miracle and made the staff sprout, bud, blossom and bear almonds all at the same time, something that never happens naturally in nature. There was no explaining away this sign.

This is also a beautiful picture of how God brings life from nothing. My grandfather had a cane. It was rather a distinguished cane, shaped and polished and given a rubber end to keep it from skidding. There is no way that cane would have started to grow, apart from a miracle of God. Aaron's staff, and the staffs of the other men, were just as lifeless as my grandfather's cane, yet God brought life from Aaron's.

Ephesians 2:1, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins."

Just as the cane of Aaron was "dead," totally devoid of life, so were we before the Spirit of God breathed into us faith and life and a hunger for Himself.

When we live through the Spirit, we bear fruit that is pleasing to God. Just as I await tomatoes at the sight of the first blossom on one of my plants, so God looks forward to the fruit He knows we will bear by His grace and through the power of His Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-23a, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..."

Did you ever think of how Spirit-fruit in our lives gratifies the Lord even more than a bountiful garden of vegetables gratifies us?

Still pondering the same questions...

2009-06-17T12:14:00.005-04:00

If you have ever grown flowers, you know that they do quite an amazing thing. They turn their faces to the sun. Sunflowers are the funniest, because their huge blossoms twist slowly around to face the sun throughout the day.

I am still pondering on the thought of what it means to have the Lord turn His face toward us and make His face shine upon us. (See the previous post).

Today's scripture is from Numbers 8:1-4. It is about the lampstand that God had told Moses to direct Bezalel and Oholiab to craft for the tabernacle (Exodus 25:31-40, 27:20-21, 37:17-24, 40:24-25). We know that the lampstand was a symbol for Jesus, the light of the world.

The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you set up the seven lamps, they are to light up the area in front of the lampstand.'"
Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold--from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the Lord had shown Moses.
Numbers 8:1-4

The lampstand was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms. Exodus 25:33-35 explains that the ends of the "branches" of the lampstand, where the oil was poured and lit, were to be cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. This must have been a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

Aaron, according to God's directions, set up the lampstand with the lamps "so that they faced forward on the lampstand."

Somehow this reminds me of flowers turning to face the sun, which reminds me of God turning His face toward us and making it shine on us.

Which brings me back to the questions I asked in the last post...

What does it mean for the Lord to make His face shine on us?

What does it mean for the Lord to turn His face towards us?

Are these things the same or different?

Scripture for the day

2009-06-15T22:30:00.003-04:00

The Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them."
Numbers 6:22-27 (The Priestly Blessing)

What does it mean for the Lord to make His face shine on us?

What does it mean for the Lord to turn His face towards us?

Are these things the same or different?

A Psalm for the Day

2009-06-12T11:42:00.006-04:00

After the rainstorm we had last night, my white peonies don't look like this anymore. The huge, lush blossoms take on water like sponges and fall to the ground with the extra weight, losing petals on the way. I guess it is a lesson in excess... if we live in luxury and surplus, when troubles come, will are more ill-equipped to deal with them than ever. But, just as I love my peonies, God loves us and comes out to clean us up after the storm. Of course, there will have to be some drastic pruning...

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us, Selah
that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. Selah
May the peoples praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You.
Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.
God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
Psalm 67

A verse about respect

2009-06-11T15:13:00.005-04:00

This is also an angel face rose. It is similar to yesterday's rose, yet unique. I think it is amazing how God makes each plant grow, and each blossom on each plant. As every bud unfolds, it is like a song of praise to the Creator who formed it and filled it with color and fragrance.

I did not have any inspiration for what to post here today, until I read Chris's comment from yesterday. Now I know what to share.

Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:32

We often let this slide, and it is to the utter detriment of our culture. We see old people as a "nuisance." They don't know how to use computers, or cell phones. They don't know what Facebook is (and they might not even care!). Often they are hard-of-hearing and we have to repeat ourselves when we speak to them. They are weaker, slower, and more confused than they used to be (never mind that they were the ones who taught us the alphabet, bandaged our scraped knees and cleaned up our vomit in the middle of the night when we were little).

If you put yourself in their place, you will suddenly understand why they get a bit cranky and defensive sometimes. With the breakneck speed of technological progress these days, anyone over the age of 25 might start to feel threatened. When we feel threatened, we get defensive, and when we get defensive, we get cross. It's just the way it is.

Yet old people have beautiful memories to share of days gone by. Sometimes the old way really was the best way, but we never take time to slow down and hear about it. No wonder our elders get frustrated, trying to tell something important to young people who constantly accelerate off to grasp the urgent all around them. The urgent is not always the same as the important, and often precious treasures of timeless truth are dashed aside for the sake of urgency.

Not only do we lose a valuable perspective when we marginalize the aged, we set ourselves up for a bitter and unhappy old age.

I read a story that went something like this:

Once there was a family, a father, a mother, and a little daughter. They lived happily in their cozy home, until one day the father's father died, and his dear old mother came to live with them.

This grandma could not hear very well. She had a bad back, so it was difficult for her to help with chores. She tried to contribute to the family as best she could by sitting in the corner and sewing or knitting.

As days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, the mother became bitter and resentful of the old woman. She gave her the worst chair in the house, a three legged stool that wobbled to one side, while she kept the best chair for herself. Then she shoved her mother-in-law into a corner of the room where there was very little light. "She's almost blind, anyway!" said the mother.

She shouted at the old woman to get out of her way when she was sweeping. She scolded her harshly when she spilled her tea, and gave her an old cracked mug, explaining, "She would only break one of my nice china tea cups!" She fed her only the crumbs and leftovers after the family had finished eating, "She can't taste anything anyway, and she certainly doesn't work hard enough to need much food!"

In the evening when the fire was burning, the mother sat close to her husband before the fire, in a comfortable rocking chair, while her mother-in-law sat in her cold, dark corner alone. The mother spoke softly to her husband about the day's events, and if the old woman asked a question about what was being said, she shouted, "Don't bother us! You can't hear anything anyway!"

The little girl played with her toys on the hearth, but her ears were open and there were eyes on the back of her head.

One day the mother noticed her daughter playing with her dolls. She paused from the bread she was kneading and listened as the little girl made a pretend conversation among them. "Over there, grandmother! Go over there and get out of my way!... Oh, please excuse me, could I have a drink of water, please?.... No! I'm too busy!"

The mother furrowed her brow and went on with her bread.

Later that same day, the little girl climbed up into her mother's beautful rocking chair my the fire. She rocked back and forth and smiled brightly, humming a tune. "What are you doing there, my child?" the mother asked her. "Oh, I'm just thinking about when I am the mother and I get to sit in this nice chair by the fire, and you are the old grandmother on the tipsy stool in the corner."

That evening the mother gave up her place in front of the fire to the grandmother, inviting her to sit in the rocking chair. She even gave her a pillow to sit on. And she let her have the first helping of each recipe she had made for supper, served on the very prettiest of her dishes.

This woman learned a lesson that was to her own advantage. If we would obey God's commands concerning the aged, we would not only guarantee better treatment for ourselves when we are old, we would have the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of the aged, a resource God has given us that we largely ignore.

Some scripture for the day

2009-06-10T18:41:00.003-04:00

This is called an "angel face" rose. I like that name.

Today I am just going to publish a montage of Bible verses that comfort me when I get all worried about the state of the world.

The way of the Lord is a refuge for the righteous,
but it is the ruin of those who do evil.
Proverbs 10:29

Come and see what the Lord has done, how awesome His works in man's behalf!
Psalm 66:5

He rules forever by His power, His eyes watch the nations--let not the rebellious rise up against Him.
Psalm 66:7

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance. From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on earth-- He who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name.
May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.
Psalm 33:12-22

Verse of the day--Leviticus 15:19

2009-06-09T10:38:00.004-04:00

This is a picture of a peony. It is pink, pouffy, pretty, and incredibly girlie. I picked it because: (1) God made it grow in my yard, and (2) today's post is very girlie.

Just so you know, I am reading through the Bible, and I am in Leviticus right now (you may have noticed that a few entries back). Often I will choose a verse of the day from where I am reading, and today it comes from Leviticus:

When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.
Leviticus 15:19

If you go on to read the following verses, you find that anything this woman lies on or sits on or touches will be considered unclean, and anyone who touches her will be unclean. If a man approaches her for sex, he will be unclean for seven whole days.

Do you see what this means? Where has this law been all my life?

"Unclean" means that she has total reprieve from household duties for the seven days she is bleeding. As in, why would she clean if everything she touches becomes unclean? That means no cleaning and no laundry! Are you getting the idea? She can't cook for others, because everything her hands touch is unclean.

Do you see the beauty, the absolute wonderful marvel of God's Law? He says: leave the woman alone, for goodness sake, while she isn't feeling well. Stay away from her and give her a break from her daily routine.

If we followed God's Law in this, I'll bet there would be almost no PMS. I think PMS comes from trying to act normal when you don't feel normal, an unnatural strain that God never asked us to undergo.

Also, there is no condemnation for this uncleanness. The woman didn't have to offer any sin sacrifices at the end of her seven days or anything like that. All she had to do was rest a week, then wash and get back to business. I could be so happy to live under this system...

Verse of the day--Lamentations 3:24

2009-06-08T13:21:00.004-04:00

Along with Bible verses, I am publishing some pictures of things that God is making grow in my yard! Every spring and summer, when things start to grow, the grace of God amazes me all over again. I am about the worst gardener in the world, and yet God brings me things like this columbine, right in my very own yard.

Our verse...

I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."
Lamentations 3:24

The Lord is my portion. The LORD is my portion.

I think this means when everything is divided up in the end, and the final reckoning is passed out, and we all get what we have coming... I get THE LORD.

This is a most wonderful and encouraging thought. The treasure that surpasses all treasures is mine. Jesus is mine. MINE!

Have you ever sat at dinner with your family and passed around, say, a lovely casserole of macaroni and cheese, and there was one particularly beautiful, mouthwatering corner with perfectly golden browned cheese on the top, and you hoped and hoped for that portion? Or have you hoped for the middle piece of cake? The biggest strawberry? The pinkest, juiciest steak?

At a potluck dinner, you never know what your portion is going to be. But when you belong to Jesus, He is your portion.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:26

(OK, that was 2 for the price of 1--what a bargain!)

Rest

2009-06-06T12:49:00.002-04:00

This blog will be officially unattended on the weekends. I will not be posting or moderating the blog on Saturdays or Sundays. Feel free to peruse old entries you may have missed, and leave any comments you feel led to leave. I'll be back on Monday!

Scripture Passage of the Day

2009-06-05T09:14:00.003-04:00

Oh God, You are my God,
earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You,
my body longs for You,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

I have seen You in the sanctuary
and beheld Your power and Your glory.
Because Your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify You.
I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise You.

Psalm 63:1-5

Verse of the day--Leviticus 3:17

2009-06-04T17:25:00.007-04:00

I had trouble picking a verse of the day today.

My reading was Leviticus 3-6. I was hoping to find a verse of the day in my Proverbs or my Psalms, but nothing jumped out. So I guess this is it:

"This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: you must not eat any fat or any blood."
Leviticus 3:17

Admittedly, in reading about the sacrifices, I was not thinking deeply about the significance of each directive. I just read about them, and a couple of things jumped out at me.

(1) The parts of the animals that were set aside for God included the fat, the backbone, the tail portion, the kidneys along with the fat connected to them, and the liver and something called "its covering".

This does not appear to me to be the prime edible part of the animal. It reminds me of my grandma, my father's mother. During the Great Depression, she had her family convinced that her favorite part of the chicken was the wings, and she encouraged them always to set a wing aside for her. This, while making sure that her husband and children were fed the choice breast pieces and the meaty thighs and drumsticks.

I'm not completely sure, but it looks to me as though God commanded His people to give Him the portions that were not particularly good and healthy for humans, reserving the prime protein-packed servings for His people to eat. Something to think about...

(2) There was blood everywhere. After reading (in Exodus) about all the labor and attention to detail that went into making the Tabernacle and setting up God's dwelling, it seems odd to me the way they threw blood around everywhere while they sacrificed... God commanded them to sprinkle blood on all the sides of the altar, to pour blood out at the base of the altar, to take a finger and apply blood to the horns of the altar (and depending on the sacrifice, this could be the horns of the brass altar of sacrifice, or the horns of the golden altar of incense inside the Tabernacle).

Does this bother anyone besides me? There is a place where it gives instructions for cleaning blood that has been splattered on the priestly robes, but other than that, there are no cleaning instructions that I see. The Israelites donated their best gold, silver and brass and their purple, blue and scarlet thread, along with many other treasures. They spent time and care crafting the dwelling place of God exactly according to His instructions. And then they proceeded to muck it all up with blood.

Did all this blood dry into a sort of patina? Did it flake? Did it smell bad? Over days and weeks and months and years of sacrifice, there must have been tons of blood poured out at the base of the altar. Did it fertilize the ground? Did flowers grow?

I really cannot conceptualize this. We have our nice, tidy studies on the Tabernacle and we talk about the significance of the number of golden rings or the beauty of the weaving or the tinkling of the bells sewn along the hem of the high priest's gown. But if you were transported back in time to where you could walk into the courts of the Tabernacle, I think the thing that might overwhelm you most would be the shear volume of blood, and the cry of animals as they were slaughtered while sinners in need of forgiveness held their hands on the animals' heads.

It seems to me that God went to great lengths to demonstrate that blood must be shed in order for us to gain entrance into His presence. (Hebrews 9:22--without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins) How many nearly countless bulls, rams, sheep and goats were burned on the altar, their blood poured, sprinkled and smeared according to a myriad of instructions?

Hebrews 10:4 says, "..it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." But what it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do, the blood of Jesus did, perfectly and completely. No more sacrifices will ever be needed, now that the blood of the precious Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world.

Verse of the day--Proverbs 10:18

2009-06-03T15:08:00.003-04:00

"He who conceals his hatred has lying lips,
and whoever spreads slander is a fool."
Proverbs 10:18

This is an interesting proverb. It seems like a catch-22... if you conceal your hatred, you're a liar. But, on the other hand, if you go around talking about how much you hate someone, you are a fool. What should you do?

Well, obviously, you should not hate people (Matthew 5:21-23). It's a heart issue, and we need to have hearts of love. Where do you get a heart of love? How can you love difficult people who drive you crazy? Only by the grace of Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit who lives in God's children (1 John 2:3-6).

This proverb presents an impossible situation. If we search for the answer, we find that we need a miracle, we need Jesus, the Maker of new hearts.

Verse of the Day--Psalm 57:1-2a

2009-06-02T10:33:00.005-04:00

Have mercy on me, O God have mercy on me,
for in You my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of Your wings
until the disaster has passed.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills His purpose for me.
Psalm 57:1-2a

Last fall and into the Christmas season, we memorized Psalm 57:1 in Bible study. It speaks for itself with little need of any explanation. God is our protector and refuge in time of disaster. I am so thankful to have Him.

This morning I added Psalm 57:2a because I think it is significant to remember that God has a purpose for each of His children, and He will fulfill it. We never have to fear that God will fail, because God absolutely never will fail. His purposes will be accomplished. Knowing that this is truth, we can be sustained in even the most terrible times, the bitterest disappointments, the most painful illnesses, the most frightening circumstances.

God is in control. His purposes will be accomplished. We, His children, can huddle in the shelter of His wings and wait out the storm. The disaster will pass, and when it does, God will still be God, and those of us who are in Him will still be alive and well.

Verse of the Day--Exodus 33:14

2009-06-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest." Exodus 33:14

Yesterday was Sunday, and a very busy Sunday it was. Actually, the busyness started on Saturday, with a Youth Choir "retreat" to a local amusement park for the day. On Sunday, the "retreat" turned into a "tour" and Jonathan needed to be at church extra early to travel to another church where he and his friends were to perform a concert.

I got Jon all delivered, and settled in to teach my Sunday school class of third and fourth grade students. After Sunday school the girls and I met up to attend the Cove service, a smaller, slightly quieter service that our church offers as an alternative to the main service. However, Shawn and David were on tap to play instruments in the main service, and Shawn was singing special music in the main service with his men's acapella group, "Theophonics."

Laura is in Youth Choir, too, but she was unable to go on the touring part of the tour. She and Shannon teach Sunday school to three-year-olds. Also, she and David had a school commitment after church to play in a concert at their high school. So they had to slip out of church as soon as the sermon was finished, skipping the closing song, and hurry over to school.

Laura and David also got an early release from the school concert, because they had a piano recital at 4:00 p.m. They detoured home to change their clothes, and the rest of us (minus Jon, who was on tour) actually arrived at the recital before they did.

After the piano recital, we all hurried back to our church where we met up with Jon, Laura changed her clothes one more time, and the Youth Choir finished their tour with a concert at home, this time with Laura in amongst the sopranos.

By the time I got home I was exhausted. I was so tired, I threw my back out sleeping last night.

This morning my Bible reading included Exodus 31-34. Exodus 31:12-17 is an exhortation to rest on the Sabbath. I was humbled and convicted at how busy I had allowed myself to become over the weekend, and particularly on Sunday. I know that this busyness is not good for my body or my spirit. God wants us to rest. He commands us to rest. Why can we (I) not remember that His commands come from a heart of love, and that they are good for us? (Deuteronomy 10:13)

Often our busyness becomes a point of pride in our lives. "How are you doing?" someone asks. And we respond with a self-satisfied sigh of pretend aggravation, "Oh, I'm so busy!" It is a quasi complaint; really, we feel validated that with such busyness in our lives, so much we are obliged to do, we must be very significant people indeed.

How beautiful that God's promise is, "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest." He did not say that He would provide us with a long list of important jobs and social engagements; He said He would give us rest. And this original statement was made to the Israelites after they had sinned by making the golden calf, but now were coming back to the Lord, begging Him to be their leader and not to send them into the Promised Land without His presence. Grace all the way.

It is not only an Old Testament promise, either. Jesus said, "Come to Me , all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

Jesus is never in a hurry, never out of breath, never cross because He has overscheduled Himself, never stressed. As we seek to grow in His likeness, let us remember to try to humble ourselves to a simple life and learn to rest in Him. Let us honor the Sabbath. He is perfectly capable of holding our lives together when we do.

Verse of the Day-- Exodus 30:25

2009-05-30T14:30:00.005-04:00

"Make these into a sacred annointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred annointing oil." Exodus 30:25

As God lays out the precepts and procedures for Tabernacle worship, He fully engages all of the human senses. The preceding verses in Exodus 30 list an exact recipe for the sacred annointing oil, which was comprised of myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant cane, cassia and olive oil. It must have had a very distinctive aroma.

I make preparations from essential oils. The scents come in tiny bottles of essential oil, and I mix them by drops in "carrier" oils which are predominantly unscented, or very lightly scented. I can custom make moisturizers, preparations to treat various skin conditions, and facial products. I have a small cardboard box in my closet where I store all my essential oil materials, and it smells so nice!

Reading the recipe for sacred annointing oil makes me want to go online and order the ingredients to try it out and see what it was like.

However, God's Law goes on to warn against casual usage of the sacred annointing oil... "Anoint Aaron and his sons [the holy priesthood chosen by God] and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. Say to the Israelites, 'This is to be my sacred annointing oil for the generations to come. Do not pour it on men's bodies and do not make any oil with the sacred formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people.'" (Exodus 30:30-33)

I'm pretty sure "cut off from his people" means put to death, but even if it just means that he would be banished forever, it is a pretty harsh consequence for stealing a perfume recipe. Or is it?

The issue is what is sacred. There have been many discussions about the sacred and the profane. Sacred things are holy, set apart, things of God. Profane things are common, earthy, and sometimes sinful. The books of the Law show God making clear delineations between the two and keeping them separate.

Under grace, we who belong to Jesus are sacred, because we have His Holy Spirit inside of us. Everything we do should have that sacred aroma of His presence about it. 1 Corinthians 6:19 reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in us because we have received Him from God.

Sometimes we take for granted the incredible blessing God has bestowed on us in granting us this sacred standing. Sometimes as we live in this physical, material world, we feel that to be set apart and holy is too hard and we blur the line between the sacred and profane, assuming (wrongly) that since we are sacred, anything we do is therefore sacred by association. Sometimes we actually stop living like God's children and seek instead to emulate the world. I don't expect that this is particularly pleasing to Him.

Under grace, rather than being required to obey an impossible system of laws, we are filled with the Holy Spirit who enables us to love God, love God's Word, and love God's ways. Ultimately this begets Spirit fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22), and we start to act like Jesus, and eventually even look like Him (see Ephesians 4:17-32, Colossians 3:1-17, 2 Peter 1:3-11).

Then, when we come before God, we not only look and sound beautiful in our actions and our words... we even smell beautiful. His sacred annointing is poured out on us (2 Corinthians 1:21--He anointed us), and we are perfumed with the glorious scent of His grace.

Verse of the Day...Exodus 27:21

2009-05-29T08:50:00.000-04:00

In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
Exodus 27:21

The Tent of Meeting is also known as the Tabernacle, God's dwelling place. God gave precise instructions to Moses for how this dwelling place was to be built (Exodus 25-30). Scripture records in detail how explicitly the Israelites followed God's instructions (Exodus 35-39). God's promise throughout was this: "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them." Exodus 25:8

Besides the Tent of Meeting, this verse refers to the Testimony. That is the Testimony of God, God's Word, otherwise known as the Commandments of God, which Moses received on the mountain, on tablets of stone. These stone tablets were stored in the Ark of the Covenant, in the Holy of Holies, in the deepest room of the Tabernacle, the place where God dwelt.

When I read about the Tabernacle, I am always struck by how the beauty God asked them to craft was hidden under layers and layers of coverings. The golden Ark of the Covenant was hidden in the innermost part of the Tabernacle, and was not to be seen by anyone except the High Priest, and even he only approached it once a year.

This hiding away speaks to me of humility. We are not to flaunt our blessings, but to keep them quietly in our hearts and treasure them. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, she did not go around boasting. She did not say, "I am the mother of God, and angels sang at his birth!" No! Luke tells us, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19)

This hiding away also speaks to me of prudence. God is holy and wonderful. Matthew 7:6 says, "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." We are to guard the things of the Lord with reverence and awe.

But today's verse tells of a light in the hidden place, a light that was kept burning all night, every night, so that the testimony of God would never be in the dark. You can read about the beautiful lampstand that kept the interior of the tabernacle lit (Exodus 25:31-40). This light was a witness that God is real, that He is alive, and that He desires to show Himself to us.

God showed Himself to us through Jesus, His Son.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made. Without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." (John 1:1-5)

"When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" (John 8:12)

Jesus is the light of the world, but we are to emulate Him, to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). That must be why Matthew tells us Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matthew 5:14)

We must burn with holy passion for Jesus, so that the world will see and wonder and long for God. This is our witness, not that we shout in people's faces, but that we dwell in God's presence and, like Moses, emerge with a glowing face (Exodus 34:29-35).

Do you remember the old children's song...

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
Give me oil in my lamp I pray,
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,
Keep me burning till the break of day.

May we have a lasting passion for Jesus that never goes out.

Accountability

2009-05-28T22:51:00.000-04:00

I'm finding that I need a little accountability.

I'm out of a routine right now, and my Bible study habits are starting to show it. This blog is to help me, and anyone who wants to travel the road with me, to keep accountable with a daily quiet time with the Lord.

Each day, I will try to publish a verse of the day (VOTD). It will be taken from my daily Bible reading. Some days I will write out my thoughts on it, other days I may just type it out and leave it at that.

Today's verse of the day is Psalm 50:12, where God says, "If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it." This verse fills me with confidence in the all-sufficiency of the Lord. He does not need us to solve His problems! On the contrary, we need Him to solve ours... which He does with wisdom and grace beyond our imaginations (and sometimes beyond our understanding).

God can handle anything. And He loves us, so we can follow Peter's instructions: "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7)