Meritt Musings

www.bible.com/1713/psa.23.1-2.csb

You can find no better rest than rest in God’s presence. If our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and principalities of this present darkness, then the reason we are tired every day isn’t because of our physical work. It’s the strain our spirits are put under day upon day to resist the Devil so that he will flee from us. What assault do you face every day that threatens your purity and hopefulness?

But God does not let us fight alone. He protects us with His holy armor, as described in Ephesians 5. He offers us the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the belt of truth, the sword of the Spirit, and call us pray, our most effective weapon against the evil one. When does God let us rest?

I feel the greatest rest we can enjoy is the one in our heart. I have lived with guilt, and guilt is a deadly mistress. She never lets go, and always reminds you of what you have done wrong, that everyone will find out your secret sins if you don’t feed her. She is harsh. She sweet-talks you when you are alone, and threatens to “out” you when you are with others. She is a constant burden, but not a permanent one.

If you want rest, let God’s grace and forgiveness oust the harpee of guilt. If you want rest, let’s God peace fill you, resist temptation, and nullify her power over you by the truth of God’s word. The greatest rest you can find is the one in your soul, where the peaceful waters of God’s presence flow. People take notice of someone who is peaceful in times of crisis. They cling to one who isn’t flustered, because they figure this is someone who has life figured out. In truth, we don’t, but we know who does, and we trust Him.

I don’t know what you are up against this week, but I know Who will get you through it. Trust Him.

Dear Lord, help me to understand this rest, that runs deep in my soul. Help me to weather life’s toughest trials, so that I can minister to other who don’t know this rest. Help me trust You when life is in chaos. Bring the order to my soul that speak to rest. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.

www.bible.com/1713/1pe.4.8.csb

I have been thinking about how best to describe this. In my experience as a Chaplain, I have learned a few things about human nature. I find that people exist on three levels, or depths. Since I work in a healthcare setting, I find these three depths more pronounced that they might be under normal circumstances, so the seams are more obvious.

First, each person has a level of physicality, a dimension of their being that relies solely on what they can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. It is a reality that exists within the scope of their flesh, and the needs of their body. Basic needs like hunger and thirst, pain and pleasure, all manifest themselves in the body, and affect the mood in different ways. A person who arrives in physical pain can be very irritable, even angry. But when the physical pain is answered with chemicals, like pain-killers, their mood lightens. When hunger is met with food, the outlook brightens. Dealing with the physical self is actually the easiest of the three. And once you understand that it is only the physical self that is manifesting these bad behaviors, then you have an easier time of dealing with such a person. It’s not personal. They are just hungry. They’re just experiencing pain.

The second level is a bit more profound. This is the level of their mental being. It is much harder to find the causes and problems associated with this level, because it can only be discovered through language. You must talk and listen to the person to discover their mental state, to discover what pain and suffering they are enduring by what they say, and even how they say it. The most basic of these is body language, that use of the body to express mental condition. A body in a defensive posture (arms folded, legs crossed) points to a need to defend oneself from something, or someone who feels uncomfortable, or doesn’t agree with you. A body in an open posture (arms wife, legs splayed) is a mind that is open and receptive. But there are subtleties even here that only experience will tease out. But the mind is host to all sorts of needs, wants, desires that are always working, always flowing just underneath the surface of the body.

But the third, the spirit, is the most difficult to understand and reach. For below the flow of body and mind is the spirit, a moral compass (or lack thereof), a conscience that is either affirming or accusing. Here there is either peace (that comes from God) or an incessant stream of guilt. The level of the spirit can either be a place filled with light and grace, or a dark hollow place in the pit of the stomach. However, those whose spirits are filled with grace from peace with God tend to allow their spirits freer flow in their lives, while those whose spirits are guilt-ridden tend to bottle it up out of sight.

This is where today’s text comes into play. To reach that level of spirit, love must extend not just to the flesh (Hey, nice body!), or even into the mind (I love the way you think!) but into the soul, the innermost part of a person (I don’t care what you’ve done, I still love you.) To love deeply is to love as God loves us, that even when we were His enemies, He sent His Son to die on the cross for us, so that we would be reconciled to Him.

I would challenge you today to do the same. Consider every person you have contact with today a person who needs love, not just for how they look or the way they think, but for the soul that exists deep inside them. That’s where the image of God rests upon them. For God is spirit. And each of us are made in His image. If you love God, then you will love seeing His face in every person you meet, even if those images are marred by sin and suffering. There is still a glimmer of God’s handiwork in each person, and it is up to us to offer grace to each one in Jesus’ Name.

Lord, help me to see You in every person I meet today. You have made each person, each of us in Your image. It’s just hard for me to imagine this, because I’ve met alot of people who do not act like you. Please help me extend Your grace to everyone I meet. Because You are full of grace for each person. I just need to see it. Thank You for all You have done for me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

www.bible.com/1713/col.3.23-24.csb

You’ve probably heard the tired phrase, “working hard or hardly working?” or its close associate, “work smarter not harder.” But what about “work heartily as unto the Lord”? All three phrase embody a a different aspect of our being. To work hard is to employ your physical strength to your work, because the work requires you to apply your strength and stamina to a project. It doesn’t take intelligence so much as a willingness to work out the plan and a desire to complete it. All the intelligence is done up front. To work smarter is to work with devices or mechanisms that will make the same output, but with less physical effort, like using a lever instead of simple brute force. Or to make the plan in such a way that minimal physical effort is required.

But what about working heartily? Or working with all your heart? What does the heart have to do with work? Some jobs require so greater heart than you already provide, especially if you are passionate about what you do. My wife is the most passionate person I know when it comes to her work. She will spend long hours at the hospital to make sure her mommas and babies are the happiest and healthiest they can be as they in the process of being born. As a midwife, she found her passion early and has never let it go. I have always admired that about her.

In the same way, when I am preaching or teaching, I have a fire in me that won’t easily let go. I too have a passion for what I do. For these its easy to work heartily. If you have a passion for your work, this one is a no-brainer for you. If you have a passion for it.

And that’s where the problem comes in. If you don’t have a passion for your work, that makes it hard work. If it’s hard physical work to being with, well, “your heart just isn’t in it.” But according to today’s text, that’s not an option for a Christian. For the believer, in everything we do, we heartily, as unto the Lord. It’s not just a job. It’s a witness. It’s not just a task, it’s an opportunity. Only rarely do we work alone. There are always people around to see how we do the things we do. When they see us working cheerily at a task others consider depressing, they will wonder, and they will be curious about the joy we have within us.

It is hard to “keep up appearances” when there’s no joy within. So how do we keep that up? Pray while you work. Praise while you work. Make God a part of your daily grind, and it won’t be so much of a grind. At the risk of sounding “racist”, I might remind you of the teams of planters and harvesters in the Old South, that company of slaves who went to work the fields. If you were to visit the team on that back-breaking effort, you might find them singing, employing the rhythm of their music to assist them in keeping the work. And what would they sing? We call them “spirituals” but you might just as well call them praise. Even in the midst of their slavery, and that is the worst form of work, they praised the Lord. We might learn something from this.

I don’t know what you do to earn bread for your table, but may I encourage you, instead of simply working harder, or smarter, work with all your heart. When your heart is full, the work is not do hard, but it is a blessing to you and others. Remember even in this, God has called you to be His witness to the world.

Dear Father, thank You for the blessing of work. Without it, I can’t imagine what my life would be. Lord help me use my work today to bless others, to be a witness to Your peace in me, Your grace in me, that I may glorify Your holy Name wherever I am. Thank You Jesus for this marvelous salvation. In Your Name I pray, Amen.

www.bible.com/1713/isa.6.8.csb

Are you ready for some real responsibility today? If you went to Church yesterday, or were imparted some nugget of spiritual truth, you are now responsible for it. You can no longer plead ignorance. In your hands is the key that will unlock someone’s life today. Will you jealously hold onto it as if it is your own? Did you invent this truth? Did it come to you by inspiration? Is it truly yours? No, you were taught it yesterday by someone else who received it from God’s Word. Now you are responsible for sharing it with someone else.

As Isaiah stood in his vision of the Lord’s Temple, he heard the Lord reasoning within Himself, asking who will go to the people of Israel and tell them of His great plans for them. Seeing no one else around, Isaiah volunteered. “Here am I. Send me.” I fear we are far more likely to see others, point to them, and say, “There’s somebody. Tell them to go. I’m too busy.” That may have been true surrounded by Christians, fellow believers and worshippers, but what about today? Who will convey God’s message to the people in your workplace? Who will tell others at the store or the shop? Look around you. Is there anyone else? God today is saying, “I have great plans for the people of the world. Who will go and tell them?” What will you say?

“Here am I. Send me. I will tell them.”

You are sent. Go and tell.

Lord Jesus help me today to remember my commission as a child of God. I have been sent to tell the world of Your majesty, Your holiness, Your judgment, and Your mercy and grace through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help me remember what I need to say to those that need to hear it, because I bear the greatest message in the world. Help me tell them about Jesus. In His Name I pray, Amen.

www.bible.com/1713/1jn.1.9.csb

While God is faithful is forgive us our sins (if we ask, since He has already paid for them by the blood of Jesus), it seems hardly “just”. It is probably the most unjust thing for God to do. Because our sins are the very epitome of injustice. Every sin we commit is an act of rebellion against a holy God. Every sin, blatantly committed to His face, even though we know better, is an affront to His Being and Love. Would you spit in the face of one you love? And yet this we do time and again when we sin.

No, to me it hardly seems just that such a God would both forgive and be just in His forgiveness, but He is. For He has already paid the price for such an affront by expressing His love for us in this: He sent His Son, Jesus, to live among, to teach us a new Way, and to give His life for us, not just because He willingly laid it down, but that we willingly took it from Him.

Our sin had so separated us from the Lord Jesus, the One, perfect human being, that we would have hated Him. He is so righteous and so pure, that none of us would be able to stand Him. None of us would be able to look Him in the eye. And His very existence would be testimony against us. We would have gladly participated in His murder, because our sinful selves cannot abide holiness. Don’t imagine yourself to be any different. Sin and Holiness are mutually exclusive. You cannot have both. And every Christian alive today knows the careful line we straddle between the two, and the struggle to stay on the right side of it. Temptation reaches across often, and often snags and tears us from that pedestal of holiness. Again and again, Jesus reaches back across to rescue the lost sheep, the believer who has lost his way, telling him how much He loves him, and wants him back.

My friends if you have never experienced this kind of love, then you don’t know Jesus’ love. If you’ve never felt the overwhelming love that comes from Jesus who again and again loves us despite our sin, because He loves us so much that He gave His life for us, shed His blood for our souls. He will not lightly let us go. For Him, justice is to pay for our nonredeemable sins. We cannot pay for them. We can’t. No amount of good deeds will ever justify us. We cannot level the balance. No matter how hard we try or how good we are, we will always fall short of perfection. Nobody’s perfect? No, no one but Jesus. And because He was, no one else is good enough. God does not grade on a curve, but He gives grace through faith and trust in His Son.

And this is the promise He extends to you. He wants you to experience His love, peace (from not being in conflict with Him), and righteousness (something we can never achieve on our own, but He freely offers by His grace). He offers all of this to you if want it. He is faithful to keep His promises, and He us just, because has already paid the price for your admission.

Dear Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters who may not have felt this kind of love before, freely offered, at such great and terrible cost, just so that they come to belief and faith in Christ, and live eternally with You. There has never been anything so costly, and yet so personal. Please Lord, let all who read this take comfort in Your presence and grace today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

www.bible.com/1713/2co.5.17.csb

Have you ever been the new guy? When I transferred to Harney Elementary between semesters in my first grade year, I had to say goodbye to all my old friends and try to fit in to a new group. It was challenging, especially for someone like me who doesn’t make friends easily. I was “assigned” a friend by the teacher to help me out and show me the ropes at the new place, but it wasn’t the same. I did feel very much alone. Along the way, I did make some new friends, at least people I could sit with at lunch, but have always felt like the outsider.

And then about six years later, I converted to Christianity. Not that my parents weren’t Christians, but I took more time just because I was terrified of being drowned in baptism. Luckily, I made it. But something else was “wrong”. I wasn’t the same person. Oh I had the same body, the same eyes, still wore glasses and my clothes still fit, but my person was changed. it took time for that change to take effect, as I was only 12 and I wasn’t finished growing up yet, but began to see the world differently. Church started to make more sense. I became acutely aware of my sins and sinful desires.

You see, being a new person had nothing to do with the color of my skin, but the change in my heart. I intentionally chose the image above to make this point. We have brothers and sisters in Christ whose skin color doesn’t match our own. But it isn’t about the skin. It’s about the heart. When the heart has been changed, when we become that new person, we are brothers all the same.

I guess that’s all the point I have today. Just wanted to share that with you.

Lord, help me see past the skin, past the eyes and the cloak of racism that many are trying to cover us all with. Help me as a Christian to see others as You see them, for you do not look upon the outer man, but upon the heart. Help me hear the heart of my brothers and sisters. In Your Name I pray, Amen.