You’ve probably seen the home improvement shows where they work on someone’s home or just a few rooms for the whole episode, and then at the is the BIG REVEAL, and all that hard work is shown off to the surprised homeowners. I have caught myself a few times just happening on one of these shows and hooked, waiting along with the everyone else to see what that hard work looks like at the end.
I feel that’s kind of what our Christian life is like. We work hard all our lives to be more like Christ. We put fresh paint on the soul, tear out walls and build in new rooms, put down new floors and rearrange cabinets. Our lives go through a complete makeover when we follow Jesus. And guess what? There’s a big reveal at the end. But it isn’t all our hard work, because everything we’ve done has only been because we have loved Jesus and followed for the work He has put into us. We do not, and never present ourselves to the Lord to say, “see all the hard work I’ve done.” It’s more, “See all that you’ve done in me.” Jesus is the big reveal, because after all the work, we look more like Jesus than ourselves. He takes broken and dilapidated, and turns it into something beautiful.
What do you present Jesus with this morning? A fixer-upper? A model home? A home that could use some TLC? Or what’s left over after a tornado has gone through your life? It doesn’t matter to Him how much or how little you have to work with. He is the Master Carpenter, and He can build something beautiful, even when you thought it was pretty enough, or nothing at all.
My Lord Jesus I pray work in me and through me to become the mansion You have promised. I know I don’t bring much to the job site, and that is only what You’ve given me. But may You work a good work in me, so that I may serve and praise, because I am today what You have made me, and this not of myself, but it is the gift of God. Thank You Jesus. In Your Name, Amen.
What does honor look like to you? I saw a picture not long ago that communicated this concept to me. It was a picture of a young woman bowing low before an older woman. The caption read that the younger woman had been crowned Miss Thailand (not sure about that) and she had come home after her crowning to her mother’s house. The picture was their first reunion. The contrast was startling, for here was this young woman, full of life, well-dressed, and beautiful, her whole life ahead of her. But she was choosing to honor her mother, a shabbily-dressed woman for whom it seemed life had passed by. It was as if to say, everything I am, everything I have accomplished, I owe it all to my mother. I think that is honoring your mother.
It’s strange, considering our world today, how many forget this. Consider that our very existence depended on a chance. We were not guaranteed, but that the person you are today depended on the chance encounter between an ovum and a sperm. It could have been any one of a million sperm. But God knew. And you were conceived. Your mother carried you for nine uncomfortable months. Your father, hopefully, worked hard to raise you for 18 years. They put in a great deal of effort to make sure you would not only survive, but succeed. That’s big.
Today we honor our father’s particularly. These are the men who gave up their dreams and rights to make sure their own children would be able to achieve their own. Do you think your father wanted to watch Barney or Blue’s Clues? Do you think he wanted to go to work everyday? We don’t often account for the sacrifices our fathers make for us, but they did. And there should always be a place in your to honor them.
That being said, I’ve have had too many tell me horror stories about their parents, especially those that took advantage of their children, abused their children, and made their children sacrifice for them. You know, even if you grew up in that kind of household, that that wasn’t right. The shame and wrongness of it violated your inner sense of justice and rightness about what a father (and a mother) really are. But Your heavenly Father has not forgotten. I know it was hard, and part of you may blame God for letting it happen, remember that God has let you sin too. But may I appeal to all of you who know what a father ought to be and hasn’t found him yet. God is the One you’ve been looking for. He is the One who has loved you since the beginning. His love is pure, undefiled, and holy. He wants the best for you, and has offered the very best sacrifice for you to show His love. He sent His own Son, who was maligned and mistreated, and was killed, having all of his personal rights violated and taken away. But God in Christ loves you, paid for your sins, and offers you today a way back, a way forward. He wants you back. He wants to show you what love is supposed to feel like. It’s not about abuse or fulfilling His own “needs”. It’s not about shame and violation. It’s about real, honest love. He loves you, not for what you can offer Him. He loves you, regardless of how broken you are. For you deserve this love, love which has been denied you by men who were supposed to give it to you. For this is the real love of the Father who made you.
Some of us had good fathers, and we celebrate them today. Others did not. And may I invite you then to know the Good, Good Father. He longs to wrap you up in the shelter of His arms, where you will be safe, and no one will hurt you anymore. You are precious to Him. And though you may have run from Him all your life, He considers none of that. He loves in a way that no man could ever do.
Dear Father, though my own father has been a good man, I know you excel him. There’s no competition. I am glad that you blessed me with a great Dad, but my prayer is for all those who didn’t have it so good, whose fathers abused them and molested them, used them and made them ashamed to live. My prayer is for their peace, that they may know you as Father. Father please heal their heart. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
The stars are talking to you. Did you know that? Radio astronomers knew this, and have been recording and analyzing the speech of the stars since they raised their telescopes to listen. Since sound doesn’t travel through space, they listen to the radio signals, the radiation traces, and so on. Stars have distinctive sounds, and stars can be identified apart from other stars, at least in a general sense. Pulsars and quasars sound different than normal, ordinary stars. But in line with what David is writing here, what exactly are they telling us?
Well David actually answers that question in the next two verses:
There is no actual speech or word, nor is its voice literally heard. Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth; its words carry to the distant horizon. In the sky he has pitched a tent for the sun. (Psa 19:3-4)
Ok, so no actual words (think revelation here) is actually spoken. You can’t listen to the stars and get intelligible speech. You can’t get answers from the stars for life’s problems (unlike the claims of astrology). In fact David goes on in this Psalm to declare that the Law of the Lord, His written word, has the ability to perfect and preserve a man’s life. In one sense, without saying it, David is contrasting the fruitless search for wisdom in the stars with the bounteous harvest from the Scriptures. But isn’t he also saying something about what the stars do tell us?
I believe he is. And the key is in the first verse. What is the message of the stars? They are declaring the glory of God. They declare by their existence that God’s wisdom and glory far exceeds our ability to understand it. Every time I look up into the night sky and consider for a moment my place in the universe, my place on this planet, orbiting a small star, orbiting in a larger galaxy, in concert with other galaxies moving through the universe, sometimes I can barely stand. It is that sense of awe that comes over me that is hearing the message the heavens declare. This is God’s pet project. This is a doodle on God’s Post-it note. He can do even greater works than these. This is the glory of God.
Heavenly Father, You have revealed in my inmost being just how AWESOME You are. Thank You. Don’t let me forget it when the Sun comes up in the morning. I love You. In Your Son’s Name, Amen.
What are the events and experiences that have shaped your life? There is a scene in Star Trek V that has always struck me. In the movie, Sybok, Spock’s unknown older brother(?), discovers an ability to take away people’s “pain”, their painful life experiences that formed them and shaped them. It turns out Dr. McCoy had a father who pleads to him from his deathbed, enduring terminal illness, to let him die. Sybok takes away the pain of this experience, and McCoy feels immediately relieved. It resembles a religious experience. When Sybok comes to Kirk, Kirk refuses, saying that his pain makes him what he is. “I need my pain.” While the rest of the movie may be best left to history, that one scene is thought-provoking.
Do we live today on the basis of our life’s pain and suffering? Does our pain (of things and events we have suffered) make us who we are? There is a generation, the Greatest Generation, that is defined by the shared experiences of the Great Depression and World War II. We understand the Boomers, the children of that generation, influenced by the affluence of the 50’s and 60’s, but also by the threat of the Cold War and imminent nuclear conflict. And each generation in turn is shaped by their common experiences. I think my generation, the Gen X’ers, have been shaped by the rise of explosion of information through TV, radio and computers, but also by 9-11. My life would be different if I hadn’t live through them.
But my life has also been shaped by the work and acts of others upon me, throughout various ministries, life experiences, encounters I’ve had with others. I am who I am today because of what I’ve lived through, and I cannot sit here an say I can separate who “I Am” from what “I’ve learned”. My life, as others, has been a process of maturity. I’ve grown from what I was, and I think that is a good thing. I’ve become more skilled, gained more knowledge, and become more mature in my thinking. That is all based my life experiences. I have been shaped both from what I’ve done and what has been done to me.
So the final question is this: Who will I be when all the previous things have passed away? I don’t know how much this bothers you, but it concerns me. There will be no more death, no more crying, no more pain. Sounds amazing, right? But how much of who you are was shaped by experiences with death, grief, crying and pain? What happens when God “takes away your pain”?
Now you may be sitting there and thinking, who wouldn’t want God to do this? This sounds wonderful. And this is why we go back to Kirk’s statement earlier. “I need my pain.” Why does Kirk, or any of us need that pain? Pain is an effective teacher. Pain teaches us the consequences of our actions. When we have placed our trust in the wrong person, or when we have loved and lost, showing us the value of love. Pain was even the instructor at the feet of our Lord, when we realized the pain he went through to save us from our sins, the pain our sin causes in us and our desire to be free from it’s guilt. The threat of eternal Pain in hell prompted many to resist the Devil and follow Christ. In this life, we need pain, because many of us will not act unless pain is applied, whether it be financial pain, emotional pain, intellectual pain, or physical pain. Pain is a powerful motivator. So if God takes away our pain, what does that mean?
It means that in heaven, pain will no longer be the motivator that we needed here on earth. Pain will no longer be needed to motivate us to follow Him, or to rectify our wrongs. Because all temptation will be gone. All sin will be gone. The motivation we have in Heaven will be the love of God. We’ve had just a taste of it here, through the life and work of Jesus Christ. But there, we will be exposed fully to God’s love, His power, His compassion for us that will revealed to us, “there we shall see face to face.” You cannot comprehend what the full impact of that love will be, but I know this: we will look back upon the pain and the suffering, and we will be grateful, for these things led us here into His presence. These things schooled us and directed us to the foot of the cross and the Throne of Grace. We did need them. But there we will need them no longer. And what a sight we shall see, surrounded by glory, the presence of the One who has loved us all along. I’m tearing up just thinking about it. Because we will see Jesus. And He will reach down to us, and he will take his finger, and touch us, wiping the tears from our eyes. He will say, “You’re home now. Come see the place I have prepared for you.”
Lord Jesus, I can’t wait to see you. But each and every day, I learn a little bit more about You. Your face is the first one I want to see when I get there. Please show Me Your path through this world that I may follow, so that when my life’s work is done, I will be ready. Lord Jesus, I love You. May every day be Yours. In Your Name I pray, Amen.
What fills you with the desire to worship? What so moves you to fill the air with song raised in worship of the Almighty? What brings you to awe? I have to admit few times in my life have I recognized that feeling. It’s a feeling that overwhelms you, as if you are standing at the very foot of the throne of grace.
Back in 1997, when the Promise Keepers movement was circulating through American churches, I attended a stadium event in Indianapolis. I will never forget standing and singing with about 40,000 other men hymns of praise. I felt in that that moment that this is what the heavenly choir must be like, maybe even a little bit.
A few weeks ago, my home church had finally played a song that spoke to me, and I responded in praise. I can usually tell because I feel my heart swell and my eyes tear up, because I am truly feeling the praise flow from me to Him, my Lord. These moments feel like they are far more rare than they ought to be, but I am also grateful to the Holy Spirit within me to grant them to me. I couldn’t possibly feel this without His presence.
I hope you have known that feeling too, whether in your own worship time with God, or in the presence of a host all singing and praising with their hearts. May God fill you to overflowing.
To live in shadow usually gives the sense of evil, or bad vibes. Shadow is darkness, rather than light. But as David uses it here, shadow is also protection. To be in the shadow of, say, the walls of a fortress, would imply you are well-protected. To be under the shadow of the the king may imply that monarch’s protection over you. David calls God both a refuge and a fortress here, as well as his protection. That’s quite a statement to make considering that God is a righteous judge of sin.
We are all sinners. We have all made mistakes in our lives, mistake that harm our eternal chances with God in heaven. Were it not for Jesus, we would have no chance of ever getting into heaven. God should scare us. God’s righteousness should make us tremble. We should be afraid of Him. And if you ever came face to face with him, I guarantee, whatever your religious inclination, you would be on your face before Him as I would be. There is just something about God. Maybe it is our inherent knowledge that He is God, regardless of what beliefs I’ve been taught, that is unmistakable. Like every prophet and man of God in the Bible, we fall on our faces before Him because it is the only thing we can do. To say that God is our fortress and refuge is to say quite a thing. It is audacity.
And yet, that what David tells us he is doing. He is claiming that Divine and Holy Presence as his own Protector. He is saying that this God, the God of the universe, protects and shelters him? Who is David to make such a claim? We may say David was a man of God, but he too was a sinner in need of God’s grace. He too needed God’s forgiveness. He too received the shelter of God and His protection.
I don’t know what you are dealing with today, but this same protection is yours for the asking. You may be in a bad spot, dealing with complicated family issues, medical problems, work-related persecution or the like. But God has not forgotten you. God loves you and protects you more than you realize. There are many things worse that can happen. If 2020 has taught me anything, its that you don’t challenge the universe to see what’s the worst that can happen. There is always something worse. It is by the grace of God that we don’t experience it.
I simply and humbly ask that you give God a try before you give up. He will protect you, love on you, heal you, and sustain you. But you’ve got to give God an honest try. You’ve got to give Him your life, your purpose, your selfish anxiety. He will protect you, but only if you let Him do it.
Lord please help me today give up the right to my own destiny. I’ve really messed it up this far. Give me permission to give You the glory, and give you the reins to my life, the steering wheel to my direction. Lord I pray for Your protection. Show me what You want me to do, and grant me the courage to do it. I am weak. I am frail, and am easily distracted. Help me do all that You want me to. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Need some protection today? You might if you are awake. In fact every moment you are conscious, you are in need of protection from the evil one. He is always seeking, always looking to whom he may devour, and you are on the menu. You are especially appealing if you are a believer, since the devil already has everyone who has resisted faith in Christ, for their destinies are certain if they do not repent. But those who have accepted Jesus, they are a different breed, a different kind who receive the devil’s special attentions. He knows his destiny is hell, but he is on the lookout to take as many away from God as possible.
But God will not lightly allow the devil to have his prize. God has not only equipped us with His armor, but also protects us with His army. His promises of protection abound in Scripture, as in this passage. He is determined to keep you in His grace as long as it depends on Him. That being said, He is not the only actor. And you are not completely passive, because the devil often employs Trojan horses,things that get our attention away from God and onto something else. As long as he can draw attention away from God, he has a route inside. These are the darts that Ephesians 6 refers to. They are small, and of themselves insignificant, but they can be effective at pulling your eyes off of Jesus, and that’s all the devil needs. For just as Peter began to sink beneath the waves, so we too will falter in our faith when our eyes have been off of Jesus for too long.
So what do you do if you find your feet have wandered off the path? It’s not too late. For as long as the Lord has you in this world, today, this moment is your chance to repent and get back on the path. If you still love Him and wish to serve Him, He has has never let you go, just return to Father. He has forgiven your sins, and He loves you. He wants you back and will accept you gladly. But never let that be your excuse for continuing in sin. You have an obligation to Him. He saved you from sin in a very humiliating act. Every time you sin, you scorn Him. Don’t allow this ease of return to be your license to walk away. That’s not what this is about.
If you have become a believer for the ease of its forgiveness, then you have embarked on this journey with the wrong destination. God didn’t call you to sin. He didn’t call you to constantly forgive you. He called you to be an example to others, as you model Christ. He called you to be a light in dark places. He called you to witness to the grace you have received so that others may received it too. He called you to be His ambassador in a dark world. That is why He protects you, because He knows you are easily distracted, easily discouraged, and easily knocked off track. He knows you are human, and He works in you to strengthen you, and continually mature you.
Yes, you are under attack from the moment you awaken to the world around, even into your bed and your dreams. But fear not, the Lord goes with you. He will protect you, but especially when you seek His protection. This world is a dark and evil place, corrupted by the enemy. But it is also the creation of God, and in it you will find His handiwork. Be encouraged today that the Lord, He is God. He will protect you. Go forth in confidence that the Lord has work for you today.
Heavenly Father, help me today to remember who I am in Your sight. Help me remember that I have a job to do, and an enemy who will stop only at Your command to derail and discourage me. Please be my Protection, my Guide, and my Light. Lord Jesus help me today to speak Your words to others I meet, that I might offer hope and salvation to those who are lost. I pray these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
I hope you have had a beautiful and glorious Sunday. I got the chance to go to in-person service with my daughter this morning and meet some of her friends. She has been attending youth group with some of her high school friends and this church is different from the on we usually attend, so it was a special treat to see how other people worship on Sunday morning.
The church in question was a Church of God (Anderson), and for the first time in a long time, I knew every song they sang for worship. I couldn’t believe it. But enjoyed every minute of it. I can’t tell you when I’ve been able to so that at the church I regularly worship with. It felt good.
I just wanted to get this out before the end of the day, as we are about ready to head to bed here. I hope you have had a good day, and seek the Lord’s ways in all you do. God bless you on this Lord’s Day.
In a hurry today? Life moving really fast today? Never seem to find your footing? Wait.
The Lord knows exactly what we need. As our Creator and Designer, He knows what we need. We to need to wait. But wait on what, exactly? What are we waiting for?
We have a drive, a need to make things happen. We live under the understanding that if we do not make it happen, it won’t. There are merits to this, calling for people to be proactive rather than reactive. But sometimes, we need to wait. So what are we waiting for?
A classic example of this is found in Genesis. Abraham was promised a son. But he and his wife Sarah were both well along in years. So Sarah, imagining herself in the place of God, suggested that Abraham marry her much younger servant-girl, Hagar. Abraham agreed. Not sure why. But maybe he thought this was how God’s will would be satisfied. He didn’t ask God about it. God didn’t say anything. God silently waited behind the scenes while Hagar conceived and bore a son, Abraham’s first wife to do so, making the child, Ishmael, the heir to his estate. Once all of this was done, however, God speaks. He tells Abraham that Ishmael would never be Abraham’s proper heir. That child would be borne through the octogenarian Sarah, contrary to what everyone knew then and now about conception, pregnancy and childbirth. Ishmael would be relegated to second-born status, and Isaac, the child of Abraham and Sarah, would be the heir.
Of course, bad blood existed between Isaac and Ishmael due to this apparent faux pas in inheritance rules. Ishmael went off and founded the Arab nation, while Isaac became the second father of the Jews. You can probably figure out how that’s turned out.
I think what we learn from Abraham’s experience is that God keeps His promises, and He doesn’t need our help. If God says He will do something, then we can trust Him to do it. All we need to do is to be faithful. By marrying a second woman, Abraham violated the precedent of the Garden (Adam and Eve). This first violation led to the family conflict between his wives, Sarah and Hagar and the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael from his family. This led to Hagar and Ishmael nearly dying in the wilderness (until God intervened). But in some ways, the modern Jewish-Arab conflict finds its roots in Abraham’s sin, because he didn’t wait.
Your choices have far reaching consequences. Many make a decision to have sex before the covenant of marriage. Do I even have to talk about how much of a mistake that is? The question, “Who’s the father?” is often met with blank stares. And now children are running the streets raised with little or no discipline, tearing down statues of history, because they don’t know where they came from. The sexual revolution of the sixties has now come to fruition.
Some decisions are just better waiting for, than trying to violate God’s promises and rules for our conduct. Disaster lies along that path.
Dear Lord, help me to wait upon You. I know there are some things I want so badly that I go around Your rules, bend Your rules, even violate Your rules to get what I want. I know that’s wrong, and I have seen the mistakes of my actions. Lord, help me bear through these lessons, and learn to wait on You. Help me today Lord. I pray these things in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
What would you suppose would be the greatest virtue? We certainly live in an age of “virtue signaling”, something I don’t completely understand. From what I have seen, it seems to apply an “I am better than you” approach. “I am better than you” because I am “woke” about certain topics, or practice certain lifestyle choices (like veganism) or go out and protest that “black lives matter” even if I am white, yellow or red. To signal my virtues, I have to show you that I am virtuous, that I am better in certain areas of social choices, than you are. So it seems to me that “virtue signaling” is all about pride.
I don’t think pride is listed as a virtue. In fact, pride is listed as one of the things that God hates.
There are six things that the LORD hates, even seven things that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift to run to evil, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who spreads discord among family members. (Pro 6:16-19)
Forgive me for saying this, but I think we’ve seen a lot of those six things over the past few days in the streets of American cities, all in the name of virtue signaling. I fear that our nation is destined for judgment, simply because we have replaced virtues with abominations.
How does the Lord define virtues? In the verse above, Paul outlines three primary virtues that every Christian ought to practice, faith, hope and love. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We have faith that Jesus rose from the dead, even though we may not have seen it. We have faith we were saved at our conversion by the blood of Jesus and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. We exercise this hope that God keeps His promises, and His greatest promise, taking us home with Him when we die.
But the greatest of these Paul notes, is love. Why do you suppose that is? I think love, tempers the other two. Faith and the Faith are close cousins, that is to say, the strength and ability we possess to believe the revealed word of God and the content of that word. We can be a bit overzealous when it comes to faith. If faith outshone the other two, we would exercise and practice our faith without or with little compassion. If hope outshone the other two, we would be out sitting on a hill somewhere waiting for the end. But love compels us to exercise out faith in community, to practice out hope lived out in a life with others. Love requires others to be active. Love requires personal connection. Without love, what is the point of the other two?
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes [faith] in Him would not perish, but receive everlasting life [hope]. (Jn 3:16) It starts with love. God was motivated by love, His greatest virtue, to create us, and to save us. I read somewhere this week that we alone as human beings were created by God for His own sake. He didn’t make us out of necessity, or need, but simply because He wanted to. We are and have always been wanted. That speaks to me. I hope it does to you.
Thank you Lord for wanting us, wanting to make us so that You could love on us. Lord help me share that mighty love with others, not just everybody, but with every person I meet. May that love be real in me that I may share with others. Thank You Lord, In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.
Meritt Musings 