Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Psalm 5 - On The Other Hand

And here I am, your invited guest - it's incredible!  I enter Your House, here I am, prostrate in Your inner sanctum, waiting for directions to get me safely through enemy lines.  Psalm 5 (Message Bible)

On the other hand, different from the man or woman of yesterday's blog who scoffs at Him, if you know Him you have absolute access to Him, and He sees you.....looks at you, understands your need and reaches with His strong right hand to deliver you.  I would much rather believe that.  Since we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has gone into heaven, let us hold on to the faith we have.  For our high priest is able to understand our weaknesses.  When He lived on earth, he was tempted in every way that we were, but did not sin.  Let us, then, come boldly before the throne of grace.  There we can find grace and mercy when we need it.  (Hebrews 4).

The children of the  President of the United States can come into the Oval Office without fear....Their daddy works there.  We can come before the throne of God because our Abba rules from there.....rules everything from there.  Why can I approach the throne of God?  Because of the abundance of love there.  Love bids me come and talk.  I must remember, though, that I speak to the sovereign God, so I come with reverence for that holiness.  Around the throne of the One who shines like jasper and carnelian, according to Revelation 4, is an emerald rainbow, from the throne come peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, and before the throne is a sea that looks like transparent gold. Not like walking into the ordinary living room to talk to Pop.  This throne room is so power-packed it crackles and rumbles and shines.  Yet, walk on in if you know Him.  Tell Him what is going on.  He has the power to change things.  Honor that power.  If you know Him you are His child, and He will move heaven and earth to fulfill your calling and disperse your enemies.

My kids know they can walk into the house and get anything they want out of the refrigerator.  Without asking.  However, if they need money or guidance, that is not as easy.  That we must have a conversation about.  As the Lord's children, some things are already given to us without our asking.  Sometimes, though, we must approach in reverence and ask for His wisdom...for something we need above and beyond the going to the fridge for milk.  We can ask!  He is not too busy.  I hear this all the time.  Oh, Kay, don't bother God with that.  He has more important things to worry about.  Really?  That is not what He told me

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Psalm 5 - Laughing at God

Laughing at God is NOT a good idea.  Choose to ignore Him.  Choose to doubt His existence.  But please don't laugh.  That is offensive to Him.  You are telling Him and the world that He is not as bright as you are.  He does not know as much as you do.  With your head held high, you mock your Creator, telling Him He did not create you.  What if He did?  Oh, mocker, make sure you KNOW He did not before you laugh.

Those who make fun of You (the boastful) cannot stand before Your eyes. Psalm 5:4.  The Hebrew word used for boast/make fun is halal  and literally means to make a show, to rave, to be clamourously foolish. Have you ever made a fool of yourself in front of others?  (I have.....)  You say or do something and then it dawns on you that everyone was laughing at you instead of with you.  Looking for the nearest hole to crawl into until the cloud of shame passes over?  I do not want God to look at me that way! 

Be careful about making a show of your agnostism.  I say agnoticism because there is really no such thing as atheism.  You CANNOT know that there is no God.  That would make you God, as you would have to know everything to rule out His existence.  Just say you do not believe in Him, if He does exist. It is dangerous to dance around, put up billboards, and make fun of the mean old man upstairs.  If He does exist, and He does, that might make Him quite angry.  If you have become clamourously foolish in your heady ridicule of the death of Christ and the sovereignty of God, you will never stand before Him.  He will turn His eyes away from you. Not in the end of days when judgment comes, nor now when there comes the time when you need to call out to Him...and there will.  There will always be the time when you need Him, even if you don't want Him in this moment.

You know deep down, everyone does, that there is a God to Whom we are accountable.  It is written in your DNA.  It is inherent with each heartbeat. "I will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God and they will be my people.  People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because ALL people will know Me, from the least to the greatest" says the Lord. (Jeremiah 31)  So, something makes people turn from what they know in their hearts to laugh at the holy.  Sunday School?  Parents who did not live up to what they believed?  Heartache?  Brokenness?  Religious righteousness that turns the stomach even of our God?  I get that.  That is why I must look at God and to God.  Not anywhere else.  Be clamourous about the right hypocrisy....but do not laugh at God.  He has been misrepresented perhaps.  But that does not change Him.  Don't make fun of Someone you don't even know.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Psalm 5 - Get Up And Pray

This psalm of David was written to be accompanied by flutes.  I tried to hear them as I read it.  Doesn't really sound like a "flute" song to me.  The prayer vascillates between adoration for God and hatred for the enemy.  But the flute sound makes sense when you think about getting up early in the morning to pray. Hear the birds.  See the sunrise.  Talk to your God.
Give ear to my words, Oh Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to You do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice (or prayer) for you and watch.  Psalm 5:1-3

Ever just groaned before the Lord.  Don't really know how to pray because things have gotten beyond what you can even ask God for?  Sometimes prayer is groaning, aching, desperate, vulnerable.  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not really know what we should pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Romans 8: 26)  I am comforted by the knowledge of the Holy Spirit's crying out for me.  How can the Spirit do this?  Jesus tells Him what to pray.

"The Spirit of truth will bring glory to Me because He will take what I have to say and tell it to you."  Jesus said this to his disciples (John 16) right before He died on the cross.  As words of comfort.  The promise was/is that the Holy Spirit will live in us and hear from Jesus on our behalf.  Jesus tells the Holy Spirit what to tell us.  Jesus speaks directly to us as He did with His disciples.  Think about that.  Really.  Stop reading and think about that.  You are groaning before the Lord.  You have no words, just a heart that is so overwhelmed you don't know what to do.  You are up early, with the birds, on your face before God with a writhing spirit and a broken heart.  Jesus sees you there.  He knows your circumstances and your deepest yearnings.  He knows how to verbalize them because He IS the Word.  He says:  "Spirit, pray this way for Kay today.  Say these exact words over her."  And the Father hears.  Did you know you were that connected to the holy?  Your very soul is open to the Godhead - the only real power from all eternity.

David (hear the flutes in the background) then determines to "watch" what will happen.  See what His God will do.  His burden is lightened because David now expects God to answer him.  Don't get up from prayer before you have understood this.  Until the blanket of misery has been lifted from your shoulders and you can say:  "Now I just have to wait and see what He has in mind."  That is faith.  Move forward with flutes in the background on the wave of the day and trust that Your God knows how to answer your groanings.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Psalm 4 - Be Angry!

Be angry!  Go ahead!  Apparently anger is not the sin.  It is what we do with it that is so dreadful.  We try to get revenge.  We want those sinners to pay, by golly!  Psalm 37:8 says it perfectly:  Keep yourself from anger, and leave wrath alone!  Don't worry.  It can lead only to evil. 

Think of all the things that anger works in people.  Gossip, murder, abuse and many addictions.  So what are we supposed to do with what we feel when we are betrayed or used? When we are angry, rightfully so? Let God take care of it.  Let Him take revenge.  If you can trust Him to take care of all your needs, can't you trust Him to be watching what is happening in your life and take care of the revenge that you expect?  He says:  Vengeance is Mine and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly. (Deuteronomy 32:35) Ouch!  I would hate to be at the other end of the plans of the mighty God taking revenge for something I did to one of His kids.  Because He is sovereign and knows everything, He knows when the foot of your enemy is just about to slip.  Oops.  My enemy thought she was getting away with it.  But my God is watching. So, I can let it go and sleep at night without the wrenching night sweats of anger.

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27)  There is this other thing.  The devil.  He loves it when I am angry.  He can get me to do the most outrageous things when I am out of control.  I can definitely look pretty stupid and say or do things that hurt other people.  Not much doing good to my enemy to "heap coals of fire upon their heads" when I cannot control burning anger enough to think! 

In His last words to His disciples before enduring the cross, Jesus commanded them to love the Lord, their God, and to love each other.  Anger kinda stops that flow in its tracks because inherent in it is judgment. I had to take a long walk on the beach yesterday to get hold of my own hurt feelings.  Those feelings were drawing me into anger.  As I tried to explain it to my God, it all became confusing.  Why was I taking on this offense?  What do I do with the way I feel?  The pounding of my feet on the pathway and the swinging of the weights in my hands were a welcome physical relief and helped me blow off steam.  The workout also gave me much needed clarity.  I have an enemy who needed to be addressed.  In the name of Jesus, I took care of that!  I had forgotten, in my own irritable introspection, that the enemy of my soul was most certainly dancing about in glee that I was fuming, focusing on my hurt instead of my blessings.  Sword out, shield up! Scram, you!  And, ah, the relief of being able to think of something else besides myself.  God is my defense.  This warrior is trying to trust daily that He takes care of even my defense.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Psalm 4 - Guard Your Heart

Watch over your heart diligently because from it flow the streams of life. (Proverbs 4:23).  Asking myself what things I let into my heart.  What makes it glad?  What things am I holding there that are more important than they should be?....that perhaps block the stream of life flowing to me and from me?

Psalm 4: 6-7:  Many are saying, "Who will show  us any good?"   Lift up the light of Your countenance upon us, O Lord!  You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound.

"My life sucks right now.  Nothing good ever happens to me."  In other words.  Ever thought that?  (I have...)  When I say that, I am saying that God is not good and not involved in my life.  I am looking at my circumstances instead of at my God.  That affects my heart.  It makes it mad at, or at least distrustful of, the Lord and His sovereignty over me.  Then I start looking around for another place to moor my heart.  Start trusting my feelings about how things are going and lose trust.  Downward spiral.  Don't let your heart look for another lover. 

Instead, rely upon your relationship with the Lord.  Seek His face and let it shine upon you.  I love the picture here of God on His throne, maybe looking down at something, and I come into the room and say: "Father, look at me."  Slowly He raises His head and with it comes the light that is inherent in His being, like the sun coming up in the morning, and it warms me as I am covered by the brightness of His countenance when He looks at me.  God.  Seeing me.  Hearing and acknowledging me.  Swimming in His light, I should be glad...Really glad!!  More so than the richest of women or the most powerful of persons whose wine cabinets are as full as their coffers.  They are the ones wondering who will keep their lives from sucking.  Because true joy comes from an encounter with the face of God turned my way.  What can top that?  What can ever be truly overwhelming when I know that He is looking at Me?  and loves me?

So, heart, listen up.  Don't go looking for things in this world to compare with knowing God!  Don't set your eyes on another lover to fill your aching need for affection!  Don't go getting drunk on some new wine and forget that He has made you glad.  Rejoice that He has wooed you to Himself and you don't need another love.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Psalm 4 - Right Sacrifices

Gone for now are the days of animal sacrifices.  So, what does David mean in this song about offering "right sacrifices"?  This psalm was possibly written in response to some disaster and people were turning from God to lesser gods to help them.  They seemed to be thinking that their God was not doing a very good job. Ever felt that way?  (....I have....)  Didn't want to say that too loudly.  Hoping I'm not the only one.

Psalm 4: 2-5:  O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach?  How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?  But know that the Lord has set apart the godly ones for Himself.  The Lord hears when I call to Him.  Tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed, and be still.  Offer the right sacrifices and trust in the Lord.

Other gods demand sacrifices, too, you know.  They demand no less that the Lord God does.  People give up their own wills, their homes, their money, their destinies, their families to "other gods."  For the thrills of the lesser gods, men and women will sacrifice all.  Out of anger against the Lord God for His inadequacy to do their will,  people have embraced all manner of addictions and attachments with a vengeance that is driven by a rebellious heart that says: "I will just have to look elsewhere for a god that does what I want it to."  A dangerous decision since there ARE no other gods.  They are lies as surely as a wooden idol carved with the hands of man and then worshipped are a sham.  Creator worshipping his own creation.  Drugs, alcohol, sex, power, money - How long will we love worthless things?  These things fill up the place that is left when we leave God.  The vacuum is made for Him, so how can it be satisfied with anything else?

Circumstances can be so dire that we lose heart.  I admit that I have asked where God was in the midst of some of my  life's more distressing times.  I have "trembled" at what might happen.  I have been afraid that my God might not show up.....and what if He didn't?  I have created a million horrendous scenarios that make me even more afraid.  Time to run....but where?  David says, meditate on your bed, at night when you are so overwhelmed that you cannot sleep. But don't meditate on all that can go wrong!  Meditate on Him and then be still.  Don't run.  Don't panic.  Offer right sacrifices.  "I urge you, brother, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...." (Romans 12)  Your right sacrifice is YOU.....your will.  Your ideas of what is needful for the hour.  Your mind must be surrendered as well as your heart.  You don't have a real choice because there is ONLY ONE GOD.  And he is sovereign.  But, here is the best part.....He loves you.  Knows you better than you do.  You can rely on Him.

Look at God's heart in Psalm 18:  He sent from on high, He took me;  He drew me out of many waters.  He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.  They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay.  He set me in a broad space.  He rescued me because He delights in me.

My God knows my hard place, my calamity, and has already planned a way out.  He has gone before me as He did before the children of Israel as they came upon the Jordan River with no way across, and He will make a way where there is no way.  BUT, I must trust and wait.  Offer up as a sacrifice all my fixes...all my ideas of HOW He is going to make this better.  Meditate on His great power instead of worrying at night in my wakefulness, and then just be still.   Be still.  He sees me there and delights in me.  That is why He will rescue me.  He sees His child offering up her life into His hands, trusting that He will do what He will do and it will be the right thing.  Surrender to His love and goodness makes Him smile.  May I delight Him today.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Psalm 4 Trouble

Psalm 4: 1 "When I call, give me answers.  God, take my side!  Once in a tight space, you gave me room.  Now I'm in trouble again.  Grace me!  Hear me!"  (Message Bible)

Ever been in trouble and God saved you when you did not even deserve to be saved?  I have. More than once.  Made the trouble myself.  Locked into a very tight space with no way out.  Finally, I cried out to God.  Not just a little..."oh, please help, if you can" kind of crying out, but a full-blown: "If it is even possible, get me out of this mess I made, Abba!!!!"  David had been in trouble once, now in trouble again.  How many times do we have the right to call out to our God? 
My mind turns to Micah 7: 8-9:  Don't, enemy, crow over me.  I am down but I'm not out.  I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light.  I can take God's punishing rage.  I deserve it - I sinned.  But it's not forever.  He's on my side and is going to get me out of this.  He'll turn on the lights and show me His ways.  I'll see the whole picture and know how right He is.  And my enemy will see, too, and be discredited - yes disgraced!  The enemy who kept taunting, "So where is this God of yours?"  I'm going to see it with these, my own two eyes - my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter." (Message Bible)

Why does God do that?  Get us out of trouble?  He amazes me.  Even when He is upset with our actions, our disobedience, He loves to hear His children call His name.  He loves that we finally look up.  "All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."  That we finally get it stirs the heart of our Father into action.  Have you ever seen a father stoop down to look into the face of his two-year-old as the child asks a question?  The father gets eye-level with the child so that he can peer in to his or her face.  Can you see the child touch the father's cheek in love and reverence.  In 2 Samuel 22, David sings a song of praise to His God, our God, and includes this thought.  "You protect me with your saving shield. You have stooped to make me great.  You give me a better way to live, so I live as you want me to."

As He stoops down to listen to your confession of guilt, your desperate need of His rescue, or your heartfelt desire to change your ways, remember He is willing to make room for you to move in your tight space.  Only He can change the unchangeable, make right all that you have screwed up, and deliver you from your enemy.  How can you resist a Father who will stoop down in front of you to listen to your heart? 

In trouble?  Have a talk with your Father.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Psalm 4 - Righteousness

What is righteousness?  It sounds so ostentatious and hard.  Like I must be a Hercules and surmount impossible odds to achieve what others cannot. Righteousness.  Sounds churchy.  I would never think to call myself a "righteous" woman. I am simply not good enough.

So, what is it?  Where am I going to get it?  Because it seems necessary for the Christian to have it.  David, in Psalm 4, says God is his righteousness.  How can that be?  I thought what I did made me righteous.  And that is where I would have made the mistake.  The Old Testament law established the sacrifices.  There were a whole slew of them, but the most important was the one for atonement, once a year in the temple.  God made Himself visible in a glorious ball of light and hovered over the Mercy Seat.  Beneath the Mercy Seat was the Ark of the Covenant which held Aaron' rod that budded in the wilderness, some manna, and the Ten Commandments.  All of these were symbols of the law and the inability of the people to actually keep it.  When the blood of a perfect lamb was sprinkled between the light of God and the Mercy Seat, God would see the blood sacrifice and deem Israel clean again.  Seems harsh, but so is sin.  Read the Old Testament again and see what kinds of things these people were doing all year.  Someone/something had to  pay for that.  A perfect lamb.

In Bethlehem, in Judea, a Child was born in a manger one night.  Born to a virgin as the Old Testament had promised.  He lay with the lambs.  He was perfect and remained so until His sacrificial death on a cross thirty-three years later.  Someone had to pay.  This Lamb paid once and for all for my sinful choices.  He made me right with God.  He is my righteousness.  I have none on my own.  I know me.  I need Him.

So then why is it that I even try to be a good Christian?  Couldn't I just go do anything I want if it is Jesus who makes me right with God?  I could, actually.  I have.  But not for long.  Because I really love the One Who gave Himself for me.  I wear His righteousness and want to make Him proud that He robed me so.  Righteousness is still about motive, then.  Why am I serving God?  For man to see?  Or for His eyes only.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Psalm 4 - Praying to the God Who Knows Everything

This is a psalm of David again.  He is praying to God as well as speaking in his heart to those who shame him. Who listen to lies about him and repeat them as if they are truth.  His trust is in his God who "does what is right." 

It made me think of I John 3:19-23:  This is the way we know that we belong to the way of truth.  When our hearts make us feel guilty we can still have peace with God. God is greater than our hearts and He knows everything. My dear friends, if our hearts do not make us feel guilty, we can come into God's presence without fear.  And God gives us what we ask for because we obey God's commands and do what pleases Him.  This is what God commands: That we believe in His Son, Jesus the Christ, and that we love each other.

My heart is sometimes untrustworthy.  It feels what it feels.  I have prayed for things that I should not have - that actually would have destroyed me.  I have wanted things I should not touch.  When I pray, I am learning to say, "However, Lord, You know everything.  You are greater than my heart."  I need what I know to speak to what I feel.  I serve a God who does what is right. 

Here is the beautiful thing about I John 3.  I can still come before my God when my heart is guilty of wanting the wrong thing.  Maybe I should come to Him most of all then, because He can  parse for me what is good from what is not. You may think you are always right in your opinions and thoughts, but your God IS always right.  When things I pray for don't manifest, should I then grumble at God?  I have, for sure!  The imperative David states in Psalm 4 is for God to answer his prayer because God is right, not because David is. 

 So how do I know when my prayer is in line with His will?  I John 3 says it does not matter when you come to God that you always know what to pray because God will answer the prayer of the ones who obey His commands and love His Son.  Why is that?  Because we are His children, too.  And because He knows your way and your heart, you can trust Him to answer you with what is best for you.  Ouch!  You mean He won't answer it the way I want.  Often, yes!  Sometimes, no.  But "no" is an answer, too.

And the two commands?  That you love Jesus and that you love one another.  You thought I was going for the commands on the tablets, huh?  I love the quote from St. Augustine:  "Love God and do whatever you want."  Love constrains us.  Lover pleases lover.  The heart of the Father is soft toward His children who come into His presence loving Him with all their hearts.  He takes us into His heart and listens, encourages, directs even if we come with a heart that is guilty.  He can fix that because He knows why our hearts feel as they do.  He can change hearts as He can change events.  The important thing is that we come to Him without fear knowing that He is fair and just and knows more than we do.  He has the bird's eye view of all of history from beginning to end, and He has His eye on me.


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Psalm 3 - Glory, Glory

Kabod (kaw bode, Heb).  Glory.  Weightiness.  Eminence.

 Psalm 3: "But Thou, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory..."  This might sound strange to you, but I have been thinking about this word for days.  What does it mean that He is my glory.  I didn't really know I had any glory, to be honest.  Not naturally.  Not that I can see.  I think I always thought of glory as something that sparkles and shines.  A glorious sunset.  That aria was "glorious"!  But the Hebrew word for glory used here means weightiness.  God is my weightiness.  He is the reason my life carries weight.  I am His, so I have His name.  I am a co-heir with Christ - all that is His is mine.  I am a warrior princess, a beloved child of the Most High God. He has written my name in His Book and counted the hairs on my head.  He has set His angels to be in charge of me as He peers into my life, covering me with protection and powering me with purpose.  I have authority over the enemy of my soul because Christ lives in me, my hope of glory. I am my Father's, and I bear His glorious name.  That is my glory.

So when I think of the glory of the cross, it is what happened there that makes it glorious...weighty...powerful because of how it changed everything for eternity.  It was not glorious for the blood, the beating, the derision, and the death.  It was glorious because of the import of it....the result of it.  His ignominy gave me my dignity. He paid a heavy price for my glory.

"What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and majesty. You have made him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put everything under his feet." Psalm 8.  Feeling glorious today?  When you walk into a room will it light up with your brilliance?  Maybe not, but you are a glorious and majestic creation.  God's highest creation.  You have eminence on this earth.  Your name means something because His does.  Like the bigwigs who get a table in the swankiest restaurants because their names are so well known.  That's the kind of eminence we have as His children, only it's not just at the local upscale steakhouse.  It is over creation! 

And we can speak in the name of Jesus.  Remember that in the end "at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things on and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Ephesians.  His name is our glory, too.  It is what gives dignity and weight to what we pray.  And if we get "glory" from what the Holy Spirit might do through us, that is His glory on us.  That must be what David meant. "You are my glory..."  the only reason I have any.  You share Your's with me.  When my God wins, I win, and that makes me look glorious.


Friday, August 19, 2011

Psalm 3 - Faith

The shield that extinguishes the flaming missiles of the evil one is faith.  Hmm.  Our faith is tested by fire, purified.  Faith is a defensive weapon.  The sword of the Spirit is offensive.  It cuts. Double-edged. Just need to make sure I am using it against the enemy and not the wounded.  You know what I mean.  It can be an "offensive" weapon when we use it thinking we are all that.  So it looks like we joust with these weapons.  At first we have an epee, a practice sword, because the warrior must train. We start this battle not knowing much.  To fight, of course, we must understand the strategies of the enemy, but we must also know our Commander in Chief - His ways, His heart, His rules. We need to fight His way.  Trust that He knows best. Because faith in Him is our shield, protecting our hearts along with the breastplate of righteousness. 

How do I get faith?  From God, of course.  Even the faith that I have to believe in Him came from Him (Ephesians 2:10).  But people with great faith.  Where did they get it?  I have been told that I should never pray for great faith because then God will give me all this stuff that is hard and I will rue the day I wanted to be a great warrior with way too many flaming missiles hitting my shield to live comfortably in this world.  If faith is the outcome...God-pleasing, mountain-moving, earth confounding faith, I want to train for it.  Faith is a gift from God and is measured out.  So what do I do with this gift?  If it is my shield, it needs to be a BIG one because this world is hostile to the things of God and I have been defeated in it more times than I want to admit.  So I pray for great faith.  I am not afraid, if my shield becomes bigger and the enemy is defeated.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ.  He has given that authority to me, as a believer.  Colossians 2 reminds us that our enemy was stripped of his authority over us at the cross of Christ. Therefore, I can say to that Goliath daily: "No weapon formed against me will prosper!"(Isaiah 54:17).  I speak that with faith to the enemy. You know the enemy lies, don't you?  You have made agreements with him about yourself and about God that are not true.  He accuses, he strips, he gives you potions that lead you to your death.  Quite the enemy.  But he is powerless.  The Bible says he prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.  He is toothless, though, when your shield is up and your sword is sharpened.  Then no weapon he has is going to ruin you.  The missiles are flaming, for Pete's sake!  You can see them coming, so raise the shield, speak your faith, stand your ground!  Read the Word for it is your sword.  Know what ground is yours and what belongs to the enemy.  Know your God.  He is mighty.  He is Jahweh, the Creator God.  He is sovereign, meaning He alone is all-powerful!  He does what He wills and He wills that you have a mighty shield, not one made of papier mache.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Psalm 3 - I Need a Shield

A shield is a defensive weapon.  You hold it up in front of you as you careen, sword drawn into battle.  In Psalm 3, David calls the Lord the One who is "the shield about him."  I tried to picture this.  A shield that surrounds your whole body.  God has his back.  He knew this, of course, from his many years of battle.  Think Goliath.  King Saul's armor did not fit David. He was a small boy, and King Saul was head and shoulders taller than his men.  So, the shepherd kid went out with only the shield that his Lord provided and sliced off the head of the giant with the giant's mighty sword.

I have not mounted my steed and, fully armed in clanky maille, faced gritty, sweating, feral warriors racing toward me on their mounts, ready to decimate me and leave me bleeding on the battlefield.  But, trust me, I have been left bloodied on a battlefield just the same.  "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day.....take up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish the flaming missiles of the evil one." (Ephesians)   Flaming missiles!!!?  There are flaming missiles coming at me daily and I don't know it?  What happened.  No wonder some days I feel laid low.  Watch out!  You are in a war.  Why are you not winning?

Number One:  You don't know you are at war.  You just think the kick in the stomach stuff that happens throughout your week, your day, your year is "just life."  Watch out!!!

Number Two:  You forgot your armor.  So much the warrior who leaves the tent in his pajamas in the morning.  Easy prey for a missile, I would think.

Number Three:  You have your own outfit to wear.  Why should you have to put on that old stuff?  So, you have come into the battle ill fitted with a custom made panacea to war.  It won't be long until you discover that it melts in the fire.  Then what?

Number Four:  This is the saddest of all.  You do not have any armor at all.  You do not even know where to get it.  You see the war, so maybe you join the other side because fighting wears you out.  It is only for the brave of heart.

Armor, you say?  What armor?  The helmet of salvation - it covers your head, silly.  You can't think correctly - you can't fight well.  The breastplate of righteousness - covers your heart with His righteousness so you don't have to worry about being a worthy soldier.  He shares His.  The belt of Truth - might want to know you are on the side of truth.  He is the way, the TRUTH and the life.  You have to read about and wear the truth in  order to stand up to the enemy. The shoes of the gospel of peace - for running into battle with a message:  He loves your enemy, too.  And last of all the sword of the Spirit - which is the Word of God.  Oops.....do you know what it says?  How can you bellow truth into the grimey ears of your enemy if you do not even KNOW it?  The Spirit makes the Word come alive and cut because it is "living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing so it divides the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)  Mmmm...sharper than a two-edged sword.  Use it with the enemy.  Jesus did. (Luke 4)  Finally, use your shield.  Let Him protect you.  Look to Him.  He is a "safe tower and the righteous (us...by way of Christ) run into it and are saved"!(Proverbs 18:10)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Psalm 3: The Lifter of My Head

Can you see the soldier lying there facedown, covered in the dirt and sweat of battle, bleeding and unable to stand?  He has been left for dead.  His enemies have nearly destroyed him, but there is still in him the faint will to live - a heart yet beating.  He has given up on looking for rescue, he has lain there so many days without help.  In one of the long nights since his defeat, he hears footsteps , but, of course, thinks he is merely dreaming.  First far away, then nearer, they crunch the dewy grass and kick up small rocks scattered on the path.  Fearing he will awaken before there is a touch of water to his lips and clean bandages to wrap his wounds, the man's heart beats faster.  Then the thought: What if the enemy has come to finish me off!  So the soldier closes his eyes, lying still, waiting for the dream to play itself out. 

The footsteps stop.  There is someone beside this wounded warrior, bending down at  his head, reaching out to touch him.  Gently, the stranger lifts the soldier's face from the dirt of his affliction and wipes it clean with a cloth.  With hesitation, the soldier opens his eyes slightly to peek at the One who has come to rescue him.  To lift his head and bring him back to life.  It is the One who binds up the brokenhearted, sets the captive free, comforts those who mourn - who gives beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61).  As the soldier swallows the last drop of the cup of kindness pressed to his lips by this One, he is strengthened to fight another day, head held high, for he has been renewed.

Remember the woman the Pharisees set in the center of the temple court in front of Jesus.  She had been caught in bed with a man to whom she was not married.  Shame bowed her head. 

 "Stone her for this sin!" cried the religious leaders.  A horrible death associated with the rebellious.  Rock upon rock would pound her head and body until there was no life left in her.  She trembled, guilty in their presence. 

 Jesus stooped down on the ground in front of her, writing something there with his finger.  "What do you say, Jesus?  You sit here teaching the Law to us!  What does it say we should do to her?" The Pharisees were demanding an answer from Jesus so they could trick him.

 Standing up, Jesus said: "The one of you who is without sin, you throw the first stone."  Then Jesus stooped again, doodling with his finger once more.  Waiting.  Waiting for it to sink in.  Was her sin worse than theirs?  If you break the law in one point you break it in all (James 2:10).  A sinless man would have to throw the stone, thus proving his sinful pride at being perfect.  A catch-22 and Jesus knew it.

One by one the religious men, so proud of their spotless lives, walked away, leaving the woman in her ignominy standing before Jesus, head down, guilty and she knew it.  Jesus stood to look at her. "Woman," he began.  She dared to glance at Him.  "Where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?"

"No one, sir," she all but whispered.  Then she lifted her head and looked into His eyes.

"Then neither do I condemn you," said her savior.  "You can go free now, but don't live this way any more."

Aren't these our stories?  Weren't we defeated, wounded, near dead, at least spiritually, ashamed and guilty, head down with no help in sight?  Our God does not kick us when we are down, contrary to popular belief.  Jesus came to show us what David meant in Psalm 3....."He is the lifter of my head."  He is the One who heals me and restores my dignity - "I do not condemn you, either, but don't live this way any more."

Psalm 27: 4-6, if I may get ahead of myself, is the reaction we should have to such amazing grace:

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.  For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent He will hide me.  He will lift me up on a rock.  And NOW MY HEAD WILL BE LIFTED UP above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Battle is the Lord's

David was just a kid when he felled Goliath, a giant of a man, with one smooth stone to the head.  He had gathered three stones just in case.  Every one of the soldiers, including King Saul, was afraid of this monster Philistine warrior.  The entire Israeli army stood on one mount while Goliath stood blathering his hatred for them on the other mount. "I dare you to send one man from your army to fight against me!" he bellowed. "If I win you serve us.  If  you win we serve you."  Simple.  Man to man.  Only this man was HUGE!  A very big problem with no apparent solution.  Little Jewish men going against an enormous enemy.  But they forgot one thing.  Their God loved them.

Enter David.  Young, tanned and handsome.  Bringing some food to his cowardly brothers when he hears the disgusting challenges of the foul mouthed, foul breathed Philistine.  What the...?  Why are they just standing around letting Goliath spout this blasphemy against their God?  Made the kid mad!  Really mad!  Angry enough to pick up some rocks for his sling. Afterall, God had already helped David kill a lion and a bear while he was protecting his father's sheep.  What was one Philistine frothing at the mouth to God?  Without the oversized armor offered to him by King Saul, David faced the giant with these words: "Today the Lord will hand you over to me and I will kill you and cut off your head.....the battle belongs TO THE LORD, and HE will hand  you over to us." 

"Ha, ha, ha....lol!!!"  spewed Goliath right before the little stone hit him between the eyes, stunning him as his giant body thudded to the ground, David atop him immediately, cutting off the head of his enemy with the giant's own sword.

David might have remembered this as he left Jerusalem in disgrace so many years later.  This time the enemy was his own son Absalom.  You can read the story in 2 Samuel 13-18.  As Absalom takes over the palace, David's household, save the 10 concubines that he left to watch over the palace, flees in order to save their lives.  On the road, a man from Saul's family, Shimei, throws rocks and dust at David, cursing him as a man of bloodshed for the death of Saul.  David did not kill Saul.  Actually, Saul killed himself. Fell on his own sword.  Abishai, David's servant, wanted to cut off Shimei's head right there, but David thought better of it. This time it wasn't Goliath and the taunts were not against the Lord, it was a wiry little peasant cursing David himself.  Perhaps what Shimei was saying was from God.  Perhaps God was cursing the king through Shimei.  "What if he is cursing me because the Lord told Him to do so?  He has more right to kill me than Absalom does. Maybe the Lord will see my misery and repay me with something good for Shimei's cursing today." Is this the same David who picked up the smooth stone?  What happened here?

By the end of the day, weary and tired, covered in imprecation and dirt, David and his household had made it to the Jordan River.  The Bible says they were exhausted and David rested there.  Perhaps it was that evening that Psalm 3 began forming in his mind.  Only God truly knows our motives, our hearts - our victories and defeats.  David knew of his own sins.  Bathsheba and Uriah. Adultery and murder.  He could never trust in God to deliver him because he was a great moral man.  Even though he had many sterling moments in the past,  there was some pretty significant baggage.  Stuff we think will not pass muster if we think we can get into heaven by just being good...or having all the good stuff we have done outweigh the bad crap.   Yet in Psalm 3, David says: "I can lie down and go to sleep, and I will wake up again because the Lord gives me strength.  Thousands of troops may surround me, but I am not afraid."  Why?  Because the "battle is the Lord's" to decide.  It was the Lord's with Goliath - it is the Lord's with Absalom.  It is the Lord's when we stand in the power of the truth or when we fight against a mess of our own making.  Strange how He loves us.  He is accused of being such a mean old god....but I would suggest that He is more loving than is justifiable.  I would be on the side of the kid with the rock, but the guy who committed adultery and killed the woman's husband to cover it up?  David knew his God.  Trusted God's heart. 
And, it was David's heart that God loved.  It was a clearly imperfect heart, but it was one that ultimately believed in God to be the divider of truth - to be just and merciful at once.  I can lie down and sleep, wake up with renewed strength, because my battles, big or small, depend on the grace and mercy extended to me by my Father, not on my performance...good or bad.  If I know God will do the right thing, the best thing....I can sleep.  I can trust.  I can say to my enemy, powerful as he tells me he is, that my battle belongs to my Lord.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Lifter of My Head

Psalm 3.  The enemy surrounds us.  What do we do?  I think there are five things a person does when faced with battle.  Lie down and play dead.  I've heard this works.  You don't look as if there is a bit of life left in you, so the enemy goes after someone alive.... Run!!  This is effective if you are fast!  Hightail it if you can outrun your foe.  I actually did this once.  I was jogging early in the morning. In the fog before daylight.  A man got out of his car and chased me, trying to attack me.  He was fat.  I have never been so fast.  He was waiting for me at the corner, though.  "In the name of Jesus you will not hurt me!"  I screamed.  "In the name of Jesus, you leave me alone!!"  The man stood there exposed, and did not move as I ran past him.  Give up. Looks at the outset like the easiest way out, but then you are a captive at the mercy of the enemy.  Hide.  Ah, this is such a great strategy, but then neither side wants you.  One can't find you and the troops you left can't stand to look at your cowardice any more than you can. Stand and fight.  Only the bravest, best trained warriors can do this.  Only those confident in the commander who gives the orders.  Downside, you could die.  Upside, you just might win.

David wrote this psalm when he was running away from his own son, Absalom.  Absalom had taken the kingdom from his father, slept with David's concubine's on the king's roof for all to see, and shamed the king before all Israel.  It is one thing for your enemy to be from another country, but when it is your own family, there is no bottom to the heartache.  Do you stand and fight your son?  Do you allow him to kill you?  David fled while scoffers said, "God won't rescue you."  He might have wondered about that himself.  Absalom had hated his father since Amnon had raped their sister Tamar then thrown her away.  David did nothing about this, and Absalom lost respect.  Surely David carried the guilt of his own passivity.  And he loved his son, Absalom.  How do you pray to God to rescue you from this situation?  Would that mean David's death or his son's?  Neither option was viable, so David fled, leaving Absalom to flaunt his power throughout the king's mansion.

"God won't rescue you!"  I have thought this because I have made a mess of things and should not even expect Him to hear me when I want Him to fix it for me.  Jesus heard those words from the Romans and the Jews when He was hanging from the cross.  "Where is your God now?  Call Him to rescue you from this cross."  David left Jerusalem in ignominy.  But he said of his God in 2 Samuel 15: 26:  "I will see what my Lord will do." He ran away from the enemy into God.  That kind of fleeing is not cowardice, but real bravery, because we do not know what our God will do.  All we know is that He WILL rescue us.  Not because we deserve it but because He loves us and is committed to us as His children.  David was "a man after God's own heart."  We are His beloved children.  Don't tell me, enemy, that my God won't rescue me!  Play dead, hide, run, fight or even try to join the opposition, my God is faithful to bring me back.

When was your last big battle?  They come daily, I know.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Today is Your Birthday

Reading Psalm 2 from The Message Bible.  I love this paraphrased version because it is so down to earth.  The first six verses describe the rebellion of the nations and their people.  God laughs at their bravado, at first amused at their insolence. Then he gets "good and angry."  I take up the text there:

"Let me tell you what God said next.  He said, 'You're My Son, and today is Your birthday.  What do you want?  Name it.  Nations as a present?  continents as a prize?  You can command them all to dance for You, or throw them out with tomorrow's trash.' "

It made me think of another time someone offered to give the Son the nations.  It wasn't His Father that time, but Satan, the ruler of this world.  Funny thing is, the Son clearly already HAD all the nations of the world to do with as He wished.  It was a birthday gift...from way back when.  Jesus had been baptized 40 days before and had not eaten or drunk anything since.  Forty days of fasting!  He had to be beyond hungry and thirsty...at an end physically, almost.  Then this:

"..when the time was up, he was hungry.  The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first test. 'Since you're God's Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of bread.'
        Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: 'It takes more than bread to really live.'
        For the second test, he led him up and spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once.  The the Devil said, 'They're yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure.  I'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they're yours, the whole works.'
        Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with Deuteronomy.  'Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God.  Serve Him with absolute single-heartedness.'
        For the third time the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple.  He said, 'If you are God's Son, jump! It's written, isn't it, that he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone?'
        'Yes,' said Jesus, ' and it's also written, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'
       That completed the testing.  The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity."

What was it that the Son actually wanted for His Birthday.  The day He was begotten on earth as in heaven?  Did He want to splay open the hearts of those opposing Him, killing them by the millions so that His holy blood-thirst could be satisfied?  Did He smash them like pottery?  What did He come to do?

Die.  As a sacrifice.  He came (John 1) to those whom He had created, and they did not receive Him.  Because they did not understand Him.  He was the Lamb...the One they sacrificed every year in the temple to cleanse their sins on the Day of Atonement.  That picture was always a picture of what He would do when He came to earth.  That is why there are no more sacrifices in the Temple.  They are unnecessary since the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world (Revelation 13:8) was sacrificed for all. Jesus came already owning His creation.  He did not need to receive it from the Devil.  It would have been a quick fix, though, not to have to die and instead just take what was already His and go on back to glory.  He could have.

But, He came to show us what God is really like.  Instead of a great bloodbath to cleanse the rebellion out of us, He healed those who were sick, raised a dead child and a grown man from the dead, forgave prostitution, faithlessness, and pride.  He could have used nature to destroy us, but instead He calmed the storms, only needing to speak to the weather for it to change. He could have broken us as the potter breaks the clay pots marked "irregular," but instead He recreated us and put us back together.  Hmmm.  Look what He did with His birthday gift.

Colossians 2 (The Message again)  "When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive - right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's Cross.  He stripped all the spiritual tyrants (think Satan and his cronies) in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets."

For His birthday, He asked for the power to defeat our enemies, not us.  He wanted to heal our brokenness, not break us further.  For His birthday, He asked to be the sacrifice we could not buy for ourselves - did not even know we needed.  For His birthday, He asked that His blood at the Cross would defeat the very enemy of our souls who encourages us to scoff at a Holy God.  Jesus, the Son, already owned the universe He spoke into being (John 1).  He bought back from Eden what the serpent stole.  Quite a birthday gift....He gave to us on the day He was begotten.  Thank you, Jesus.





Friday, August 12, 2011

He Longs to Comfort

I talked with several people yesterday about life and creation being random.  How that does not make any sense. Darwinism is passe.  We are light years away from the science of 100 years ago.  Scientists now pretty much agree that there was at least a big bang. Something caused it.  There was something out there capable of "banging" big-time.  Why can't we call it God?  It would beg many other questions, of course. Not the least of which is:  How do we relate to a God who is in control of such unimaginable vastness?  What if we don't want to be controlled by such a God?

Back to Isaiah for me today. Chapter 30:
Now write this on a sign for the people, write this on a scroll, so that for the days to come this will be a witness forever.  These people are like children who lie and refuse to obey; they refuse to listen to the Lord's teachings.  They tell the seers, "Don't see any more visions!"  They say to the prophets, "Don't tell us the truth! Say things that will make us feel good; see only good things for us. Stop blocking our path. Get out of our way. Stop telling us about God."
So this is what God says: "You  people have refused to accept the message and have depended upon cruelty and lies to help you. So you will be like a high wall with cracks in it that falls suddenly and breaks into pieces. You will be like a clay jar that breaks, smashed into many pieces......(but) If you come back to Me, you will be saved.  If you will be calm and trust me, you will be strong."  But you don't want to do that. You say, "No, we  need horses to run away on."  So you will run away on horses. You say, "We will ride away on fast horses."  So those who chase you will be fast.....You will be left alone like a flagpole on a hilltop, like a banner on a hill. 
The Lord wants to show His mercy to you. He longs to be gracious to you, therefore He waits from on high to have compassion on you.  For God is a God of justice.  How blessed are those who long for Him.

The Hebrew word for compassion used here is racham.  It pictures a deep, kindly sympathy and sorrow felt for another who has been struck with affliction or misfortune with a deep desire to relieve the suffering.  Even if I brought this suffering upon myself because I would not listen.  It is a freely given, undeserved compassion, and my God longs and waits for the ability to show me this compassion even while I am running away from Him on the fastest horse I can find!  Even when He knows that my final end will be loneliness and desolation that can be viewed for miles as I stand atop a hill, a flagpole with no flag.

Why do we run away from such a God?  Because we do not understand Him.  Maybe because some of us have been very poor representations of Him.  We have listened to the prophets who tickle our ears and seers who tell us what we want to hear.  What is it we want to hear?  Really?  What do we want to hear that makes us NOT want to hear from Him?  "Say things that make us feel good!  Stop blocking our path!"  We want to hear that we can do whatever we want and still be okay.  That we control our own destinies, by God, and even He cannot tell us what to do, how to govern our lives, right and wrong....besides He is an angry Old Testament fiend who only wants to slay the enemy, and that is sometimes us! 

So this angry God....what is His heart?  He LONGS to comfort us...to show us compassion.  One version of Isaiah 30:18 says "He wants to rise and comfort you."  Can you imagine God watching you running away from Him on your fast horse, shaking your fist at Him and His Word, knowing that you are running into enemy camp?  Can you imagine Him as He watches this spectacle, wanting so much for you to slow down, be calm and trust...can you see Him rise from His throne and peer into this scene, longing for you to listen so that He can show you compassion?

Psalm 2: 12  Happy are those who trust Him for protection.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Happy Are Those Who Take Refuge In Him

I turned to Isaiah 29 this morning. The Son has been given the power to break the nations like a potter's vessel.  I could hear it clanking on the tile floor, smattering into a hundred shards across the floor.  Some pieces big enough to pick up, others hidden only where a broom could find them, crushed into a powder. The people described in Isaiah 29 are similar to those mentioned in Psalm 2.  They think they are smarter than God and can come up with plans that separate them from God's designs for the nations. 

Listen to Isaiah: 
 "The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.  Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the Lord, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, 'Who sees us?  Who knows us?'  You turn things upside down!  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?  Should the thing made say of its maker, 'He did not make me'; or the thing formed say of the one who formed it  'He has no understanding?"

This is, of course, speaking very literally of an inanimate object having a voice.  So, it is only a picture of creator and created.  But the idea that we are in HIS hands, created for HIS purposes, and designed with dignity is apparent here.  That He is more powerful than the created person is clear.  Unlike the pot, I CAN jump out of His hands and pretend I know what I am doing without Him.  I think I can go my own way as if I were not created with purpose and do what I want with my life.  But what if I were created to hold fine wine and chose instead to be in some back alley filled with garbage.  Then I shake my fist at God and curse Him for my circumstances.  I can choose.  But He does see and know what I am about.  And He is at best unhappy that I think I am out of His earshot. 

I woke up with the thought this morning that it is curious how people think that our lives are random.  Three ladies were killed yesterday in a bad accident in Orange County.  Snuffed out on their way home from church. Just like that. Where did they go?  To think they went to dust in a random act of fate is strange to me.  Because the universe is not random.  It is not a place of chaos, but order.  It has design and function.  Did we all really just crop up from primodial sludge to exist then die without purpose.  I cannot even fathom that.  Order does not come from chaos...As Isaiah says,  that "turns thing upside down."  That is what science says, until they speak of creation.  Maybe it's because we don't want the kind of god who knows and sees.  That is very uncomfortable.  Maybe it's because we don't understand the God of all.  He can sound pretty terrifying...in fact, His power IS terrifying.  But He is the potter.  I am the clay.  I am safe in the hands of the One who forms me because He has a purpose for the creation He is making of me.  Happy are those who take refuge in Him.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Kiss the King

When my mother would get upset with my father she would always say, "Well, just kiss my foot!"  In private, she may have said something else, but she was conscious that we were around and impressionable...and we must have been, because I remember this.  What does it mean in verse 11...this kissing of the King?  It was a sign of submission to the ancients.  One approached the King and at once bent the knee and kissed either his hand or foot.  It was a way of being heard by the ultimate ruler of the society - of being given access.  If you did not reverence the king, forget being heard by him, because first you had to submit yourself to him and kiss him with your trembling lips.

God is holy.  He "sits above the circle of the earth" He created and rules it with benevolence and justice.  We are to serve Him with the reverence due One with all-power, all-knowledge, and Who is always present. To come into His  presence flippantly, without understand that He is so BIG and we are so small is to insult Him.  He is able to calm the seas and stir up the storms.  Bow before Him and kiss His hand.  Acknowledge that His power is awesome and His great mercy and grace undeserved and precious.  Tremble for He is mighty.  Tremble for He is sovereign.  Tremble that He has chosen you to come into His presence at all.  Tremble because He loves you. Kiss Him because you love Him.

Don't kiss Him because you have to.  No one wants that kind of affection.  Jesus was kissed perhaps in mockery of this very psalm.  The Jewish men who followed Jesus would have known this psalm well.  It is quoted several times in the New Testament and they would have understood that "kissing the Son" was meant to show homage to Messiah.  He was supposed to be an earthly king.  He was supposed to be political and set up a kingdom on earth and rule over the Jews.  He came in a way they did not understand.  He said He was the King of the Jews, but He didn't ACT like one.  Jesus was humble..a healer and teacher..not the firebrand they wanted.  He came to save them...eternally...but they wanted salvation in the moment, on earth, politically.  Judas seemed to despise the weakness of the Man and His plan.  He stole money from the ministry till and mocked Jesus for giving money to the poor.  With the Sanhedrin, Judas conspired to kill Jesus.  For what?  For claiming to be Messiah.  A blasphemy worthy of death.  Jesus wanted to know...for which of my sins will you kill me?  For healing the sick?  For raising the dead?  For opening up scripture to you as no one else ever has?  For none of these.  They killed Him because He did not fit the paradigm.  He did not look like Messiah was supposed to.  They killed Him because they could not "kiss the Son."  Judas did.  He kissed Him. It was a mockery.  Don't kiss Him that way.  His death and resurrection were the ultimate sacrifice of a God Who wants us to know how much He loves us.  He bought us with His blood.  Come before Him with trembling or do not come before Him at all, for to mock the crucifixion is to mock the God of ALL and that is a dangerous thing to do.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

You Gotta Serve Somebody

The kings in Psalm 2 gather together and take a stand against the Lord.  Why?  They don't want to be chained down anymore to the king.  They want to do things their own way.  Kinda tired of this king and all his parameters.  Sounds like they have gotten together and stirred the pot of their discontent.  The king cramps their style.  They would do things differently if they were made king. Actually, they don't like the king OR His annointed one.  God or His son.  So these subordinate kings stomp about, puffed up and above it all, crying to be let go from the prison of rules and regulations that are a part of the kingdom of this King and His Son.

I remember when each of my children learned what "hot" meant.  "Don't touch that!" I would demand.  "It is hot!"  They didn't know hot.  They did not trust that I did.  So, eventually, they had to feel "hot" to know that I was, by golly, right!  I did not laugh at them, but shook my head and wished they had listened.  The lessons get more important as time goes on.  Just think how much more wise the God of the universe is than we are...He knows EVERYTHING and has given us some information that might just keep us from destruction. I can listen to Him....or I can listen to someone else, but I will serve somebody.  People think that getting away from God and all His rules will make them free.  Our  hearts are made for worship, so we will adore something or someone else if not Him.  If He is not in the place He created in our hearts, we will pour alcohol into it or fill it with cocaine or heroin.  We will eat til we waddle through life or find a partner who we try to make into a god to meet our needs. We might work, work out or eat rocks like the lady on Strange Addictions I saw last week.  The point is, of course, we will serve something.  Something will drive our lives. Either to purpose or perdition. 

It's counter-intuitive, but our serving God is what makes us free.  If I am "chained" to the God of creation Who still involves Himself in my life minute-by-minute, I am yoked together with a pretty dynamic force.  My King LOVES me.  I am free within the boundaries He has set for me because He alone knows what is on the other side of that fence.  He has not fenced me in in order to keep me from pleasure, but that I don't go wandering off to unsafe places that will destroy me.  He wants me close. 

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Nations in an Uproar

Psalm 2 this week. How relevant!  Verse one:  "Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising vain things?"   Good question.  I just finished reading the morning paper.  I just looked at the photos of a few of the brave young men shot down over Afghanistan.  Libya, Egypt, Somalia...on and on.  "The kings of the earth take their stand and take counsel against God..." 

My God is laughing, but not derisively, it seems.  Laughing at the futility of thinking that we humans can actually plan against HIS great will.  This psalm is Messianic, meaning it talks about not only King David but also looks forward to the Messiah, Christ.  In the ancient Near East, the relationship between a great king and his subject kings, who ruled by his authority and owed him allegiance, was expressed by the words lord and servant or father and son.  So, David would be called God's servant and His son. The Greek word for annointed one is Christ. Psalm 2 is quoted in Act 13:33 as a reference to Christ Himself.  So, it makes sense that God, the Father, would be incensed by those who think themselves powerful though they do not acknowledge the "real" King. 

Our Messiah is not an earthly king.  That is why He was derided and finally killed by the religious leaders who thought He was going to come save them "politically."  They read the Bible and thought it said He was going to establish an earthly kingdom. When He did not fit into their paradigm, they killed Him as a blasphemer and a hypocrite.  Never mind He healed the sick, fed multitudes, and stood between the sinner and her accusers.  He did not fit the mold.  He was too radical. 

I know we are all looking for an earthly ruler who will change everything for us now.  It seems like the earth is doing some shaking.  Rulers are toppling, economies are faltering, people are angry and scared.  What will happen to us?  God has established a rule far above this chaos.  He is in control there and here and we are silly to think that we can march to our own drum without a care for what He has planned.  If He is David's Lord and Father, then He is mine, too.  I am under His government and submitted to Him as His cherished daughter.  He is my King.  He is the King of the world whether they like it or not.  I would not like to find myself in direct opposition to His ultimate plans.  I would rather be a part of them.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

My Father Watches Over Me

What are you worried about?  Really.  I want to know.  Many things tempt me to worry.  Finances.  That is no doubt #1.  Nearing retirement age without the plan in place that we had hoped for.  This has caused me to thank God daily for shelter, food and jobs.  Focused me in.  And you?

I just reread Psalm 1:6.  "For the Lord watches over the righteous."  I am one of those.  Not because of my sterling adherence to the ten commandments but because of my faith in Christ and His sacrifice on my behalf.  That makes me "righteous" - a child of God.  The Father of Jesus is my Father, too, and He watches over me!  That is an astonishing reality.  The God who flung the stars, patterning them into galaxies far beyond what we can hope to imagine, looks at my life....peers into it....watches over it....takes care of me.  I am a dot in this universe too small to be perceived.  I am one of millions...billions of people on this planet....only one of countless people who have existed before me.  How is it that God watches over me?  Isn't He just too busy?  Think of all the prayers that go up to Him every second of every day!  There are those in dire circumstances right now whose lives and prayers should trump mine. 

Psalm 121.  Read it.  "I will lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip - He who watches over you will not slumber.  The Lord will keep you from all harm - He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."  

Did I say I was worried?  I am embarrassed that I should worry.  Doesn't that put my Father in a bad light?  If HE cannot take care of me, I am hopeless.  HE IS GOD.  If HE watches over my life for now and forevermore, I can relax, go forward, do what is next and trust that I am shepherded, loved, led, groomed, and loved by a Father who never sleeps.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Happy Are Those

Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, who do not take the path that sinners take, and who do not put themselves in the place of scoffers.  Thinking about who I should surround myself with.  Of course, I do not want to take myself out of this world where many are not Christians and do not agree with me.  I don't want to separate myself from the world, but neither do I want to be like the world.  I don't want to think and act like those who do not know my God.  There are things I know to be true because of my faith in Christ.  There are ways I know to behave because living in those actions will not only please God, but make my life make sense.  I believe in the blood-purchase of my eternal life. I trust the Bible is true and have studied it for years.  So what is there that I have in common with those who despise all I believe in?  That God loves us all is clear, as is our choice to accept or reject that love.

It seems clear that if we spend all of our time with those who do not believe, we run the risk of thinking like they think, doing what they do, and having our faith swallowed up in disbelief.  I NEED my Christian brothers and sisters to keep reminding me of the faithfulness of God in a really CRAZY world!!  There is advice out there everywhere right now.  LIFE FOR DUMMIES.....I could write it.  But this psalm says that there is a way to live in wisdom and it is to delight in the Word of God.  To listen to it.  To live it. To KNOW it.  That is our biggest hurdle, I think.  Learning the wisdom of God from His written word.  Taking real time to study it. Thus my endeavor here to chew on Psalms.  I don't want to take the wrong advice, but how will I know whether it is wrong or right?  I don't want to go down the wrong path, but how do I decide when there is a fork in the road?  And I don't want to laugh with those who laugh at my perceived ignorance for trusting in the unseen God of my faith.   How do I avoid all these pitfalls?  I delight in the law of the Lord and chew on it day and night, surrounding myself with those who love Him, too.  I cannot forget those who don't know Him, but I must guard my own heart because from it flow the streams of life.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The two trees

Today I chose to read from the New Oxford Annotated Bible....Two trees.  Happy are we when we don't follow the advice of the "scoffer."  That seems strange to me as I read it because right now I cannot imagine taking the advice of someone who scoffs at my faith. However, they are all around me daily and some of them I really love.  I even understand their scoffing sometimes given what they might have seen from some Christians, including me at times.  Happy are those who don't go down that scoffing path. Because if you don't, if you delight in the Word of God (Jesus is the Word of God...John 1) and meditate on God's teachings day and night, you are like a well watered tree planted by a river.  Your ROOTS are connected to their nourishment in such a way that you are continually fed.  This tree has very green, luscious leaves that do not tend to fall off the vine and it yields fruit just when it is suppose to.  So knowing and loving God's Word is like being nourished from a flowing river.  It keeps me spiritually plump, green, ready to yield fruit at any given time.  In all this tree does it prospers. Oh, I want that.

Tree two.  The scoffers and the wicked.  Wicked is a pretty hard-core word. I would save it for Hitler or Idi Amin.  And maybe this IS about those who would use their power to destroy others.  That does go on on a smaller scale daily.  Scoffers I know about, though.  I am accustomed to hearing that I am stupid to believe the stuff about Christianity.  I must have to bypass my brains to believe in Jesus. However untrue this is, I have met some who do not even want an explanation for my faith because believing in Jesus would change forever the way they do things.  What keeps me by the river of life is that I know I cannot live again in a parched land without the continual life of the waters that flow from the stream into my existence.  I was meant for the river.  It is my life.  I would wither and die without the stream.  I would be like the scoffer.  They are chaff instead of a tree.  The wind blows them here and there.  They are simply nourished by the dry hot Saharan heat of their unbelief and blown God knows where (and He does) to finally perish from lack of a life source. 

The tree on the river bank is tall and green, leaves rustlling in the breeze, shining in the sun, reflecting the benevolent source of its life.  The desert tree is small, shriveled - a chaff-maker.  Unconnected to anything but dry sand, it has no hope for any length of life.  It is not cared for or tended to, but has chosen to go its own way determined to care for itself.  Its end is death.  Its road is destruction.  I want to give this tree some water.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Chewing on Scripture day and night

I listened to a John Piper sermon the other day. He is teaching on the psalms.  They are there for us to receive instruction from and to sing!  They are supposed to be on our minds day and night.  The purposes of the law of the Lord are made evident in them.  The heart of a man after God's heart is laid bare through many of them.  I wanted to memorize every psalm by the time the sermon was done because I NEED that wisdom to navigate this crazy, godless world.  So, I am going through one psalm a week and blogging every day (hopefully) what I receive.  By the time I have read the psalm daily for a week out of different versions of the Bible, including the Greek/Hebrew translation, I hope I am equipped....chewing on His word all the time.  Please join me in this process and leave your comments on what God is teaching you through His psalms.

Today I am in the Message Bible....I am a tree planted in EDEN.  A good friend of mine tells me that is where I live...in 70 degree year round temperatures by the beach in California.  She is correct, although we do have Jerry Brown for a governor....again...lol.  I am a tree planted in Eden, bearing fruit every month. EVERY month?  I am challenged by the thought.  I am looking back over the last month and seeing what fruit I have produced.  And if it is of the type that makes me look better to the world or fruit that makes God thrill that He chose me.  "I never drop a leaf, always blossom."  Well, I know this about myself...there are quite a few dropped leaves around me and it isn't even fall, yet.  So, okay, I am not perfect.

But it goes on to say what I am NOT like.  The wicked.  They are mere windblown dust.  Without defense in court.  Ah...this is where I am different.  I DO have defense in the court of God's justice.  It isn't my own good works, though.  I know who my "lawyer" is pleading my case before the Father, holding in His hands the chalice of His own blood. 

God charts the road I take........I just sighed...really.  I did.  Like when I go out for a walk and look at the ocean and breathe it in.  I can relax.  God has my course, my itinerary, and has had since before the foundations of the world.  I want to run after the wicked, windblown dusty people and throw them in my ocean.  "Don't run that way!"  I want to scream.  It leads to Skid Row instead of a mansion.