Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Psalm 26 - He's Sweet, I Know

O Lord, I love the Temple where You live, where Your glory is.  (vs.8)

Yesterday I was with my dear friend, Paula.  She lost her thirty-one-year-old son last April in a car accident.  There are days when she is swept away with grief, longing to hear him say: "Hi, Mom.  I love you."  On this side of heaven, those are words that she will hear from him only in her heart, the ears of her memory recalling them, the tone of the words, the lilt in the voice - her baby calling home.  It has been a rough year.  We were reminding each other of how our God sustains us, though.  How often He will just do something so sweet for us that we cannot but lift our heads and look at His lovingkindness.

For Christmas, Paula's daughter-in-law, Sabrina, wanted to buy a Cabbage Patch doll for her daughter, Paula's grandchild.  Sabrina wanted an original because they came with a birth certificate and were named.  After wandering through many stores, she eventually found two and chose one to take home for Christmas.  Paula received a call from Sabrina Christmas Day.  The Cabbage Patch doll had a name: Paula.  Its birthday: Sabrina's birthday.  Sweet.  From His tabernacle in heaven God sees the distress of  a young mother and the depth of Paula's heartache.  Sends a tender reminder that He knows.  He sees.  He cares.

From the place where His glory dwells, our Abba watches over us.  He feels with us, and this particular pain is all too familiar to Him.  The loss of a child.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."  I do not know why He takes.  I do not know why He gives in the first place.  But from His place of glory He sees what we cannot.  In the moment of grief so palpable that it seems our whole life is filled with it - birds croaking instead of singing, sun too hot, wind too cold, our bodies unresponsive, aching to be where our loved one just went - all there is is this overwhelming flood of heartbreak.  Though we know that the moment we come into this world we are destined to leave it,  the parting is wrenching and surprising. 

But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.  For in leaving here, those who belong to Him go there...to where His glory dwells.  To run through His garden, swim in His river, eat from the fruit of His hands and bask in the wonders of a perfect habitation.  Our God, of course, sees both our grief and their joy.  Prayer becomes even sweeter for us who have lost one we love, for He is looking at us both, binding us together when we approach Him in His heavenly abode. 

In His sweetness, God allows us a taste of His glory.  A foretaste.  But He is never so disconnected from us that He sits upon His throne and forgets our lives here.  He cares about the name of a Cabbage Patch doll.  Knows the significance of the day it was made.  Just so He can show us that He is only a breath away.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Psalm 26 - Get Off the Slip 'n' Slide!!

Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in integrity,  and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.  Examine me and try me.  Test my mind and my heart.  For Thy lovingkindness is before my eyes. And I have walked in Thy truth.  (vs. 1-3)

What does it mean to walk in integrity before the Lord?  To trust Him with an unwavering heart?  Because that is when we know He will take up our cause when we have been wronged.  Scary sometimes to think that He might examine and try my heart.  Literally to test my kidneys and my heart.  My innards, so to speak.  My God is looking at what I am made of.  Have I trusted Him without sliding?  Hmmm.  Back-sliding, I assume.  How I accomplish the feat of unwavering faith?  I look at Him.  Aware that His love and kindness keeps me walking with Him in truth.  A matter again of His grace and my living in the light of it.

Remember when He gave the old covenant to the people of Israel?  He called Moses alone to the top of the mountain where the Lord descended in the holy cloud of His presence and proclaimed His name"The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."  That is His name!  This is what He calls Himself.  A word is not enough.  He is defined by His great love and mercy.

David cannot count on his own integrity to save him any more than I can.  BUT, God's great love and mercy covers those of us who look to Him and trust in His provision for our following His truths from our heart and kidneys.  There is not just a little bit of love coming our way from this Great God....it abounds!  It overflows!  Like the banks of a mighty river trying to carry too much water overflows its banks and spills onto dry land...that is the way our Abba loves.  That is the way He forgives

So here is the secret to our vindication by this faithful judge.  We belong to Him.  We understand that we are His because of His great love.  When the searchlight of His testing glows deep into our inward woman, if He can find that we are looking at His name (see above...) and trying to walk in His truth, He will do whatever it takes to be our vindication.  That should humble us to our knees and make our enemies run like mad.  I would not want to fall into the hands of my God when He is upset about someone mistreating me.  Nor would I ever want to take matters into my own hands.  That ties His.  I need to let it go.  Because?  For one thing, I do not understand justice the way He does.  Nor do I understand my innards as He does.  Best to leave judgment to the Judge.  And just keep looking at His loving kindness to me, for I know I do not deserve the mercy and grace overflowing my way.  Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13)

My job:  Walk in His Truth.  Keep my eyes on Him.  Do not take for granted His great love.  Respond to it with all my heart, humbly acknowledging I am His by His design.  Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast our confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful!!!!! Hebrews 10:22-23.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Psalm 25 - Bull's Eye!!

From now on every road you travel will take you to God.  Follow the Covenant signs.  Read the charted directions.  ...My question:  What are God-worshipers like?  Your answer:  Arrows aimed at God's bull's-eye.  (vs. 10, 12 from The Message Bible)

All the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.  Who is the man who fears the Lord?  He will instruct him in the way he should choose.  (vs. 10, 12 from Key Word Study Bible)

What does God's covenant mean?  The Hebrew word is briyth.  It denotes an agreement made by passing between pieces of flesh.  Looks like something had to die in order to bring this kind of covenant about.  In ancient times, in order to seal a promise, those making the covenant would kill an animal then cut it in half.  Then they would lay the pieces out and walk between them.  The promise then is:  "Do this to me if I do not keep this covenant with you." 

God made such a covenant with Abram when promising Abram that he would have a great nation and that all the nations of the world would be blessed by his descendants.  The covenant was costly.  God ordered Abram to bring a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon.  Abram cut them in halves, except the birds, and laid each half opposite the other.  When the sun went down, Abram fell into a deep and terrifying sleep.  Then God spoke to Abram, committing Himself to keep the promises he made concerning Abram's descendants.  When the sun had fully set, God Himself walked between the pieces of animal flesh.  Abram did not walk between them.  The covenant was one God promised to keep.  God Himself walked through the bloody river made between the animals and cut covenant with Abram.  He did not demand the agreement be cut both ways.  That early covenant that produced the law was only changed when God made a New Covenant with us.

The New Covenant?  It was signed with the blood of Jesus.  God cut covenant with us by the death not of animals and birds, but of His dear Son.  How much more sincere can we expect God to be?  I can imagine the river of blood made by the goats and rams, the smell of it - its sticky residue on the feet and hands and even under the fingernails of the priests who sprinkled it for centuries on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.  Costly.  Sin so repugnant to God that He had to be reminded of His covenant day after day, year after year.  How much more the blood of the perfect Lamb sprinkled on our hearts.

Can you see why, then, David would say that all God's paths are lovingkindness and truth?  And how much more for we who know Him through the covenant death of Jesus?  How could His intentions toward us be anything but good when our eternal and earthly well-being has cost Him His blood?  All paths lead back to Him.  All paths began in Him.  We receive instructions for living.  We can be assured our journey is leading somewhere.  We have a choice, but I don't think the choice has to do with outcomes as much as it has to do with origins.  My choice is to let Him choose.  I already know where my choices lead me.  I have no prescience.  Can only see my own circumstances in light of my own circumstances.  Not so with my covenant-keeping God.  He died so He could hold my hand and guide my way.  He is the way.....through.

Here is something I found from the Hebrew that I just cannot get over.  You know the word instruct from verse 12 means to shoot like an arrow?  It is linked to archery.  Yarah.  Can you see God with His mighty bow and you the arrow?  He aims it here and there, one eyed closed the other peering intently at the bull's eye.  Then, He shoots!  You are hurled through time and space in just the right direction.  Then POW!  You land exactly where He wants you to be!  Bull's eye!!!  Right on the mark!  You cannot do that for yourself.  You are just an arrow.  So relax.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Psalm 25 - Secrets.....

The secret of the Lord is for those who fear (revere) Him.  (vs.14)

He is intimate with the upright.  Proverbs 3:32

I  had to sit and think about this for a minute or two.  If I am a friend of God, an intimate of His, He shares His heart with me.  Secret and intimate are the same word in Hebrew in these verses.  Sowd.  This is one of the reasons David keeps asking, Is there a God like our God? Created in His image, we desire the deep intimacies of friendship.  A safe place to share our hearts.  I, like you, have been burned this way, I know.  Shared my heart over a period of years with a friend I thought would love me forever.  She stopped speaking to me suddenly.  When I pressed her, she said I was prying into her life.  I cannot tell  you the depths of that pain.  She has locked within her all my deepest longings, heartaches and hopes.  I have hers as well.  Lost intimacy.  Misplaced.

It made me think about my relationship with God.  He longs to take a walk with me and hear my ideas, plans, hopes and dreams.  He wants to share with me, too.  When things go well, He wants to be the first to hear.  On the other hand, He wants to hold me when I cry because I have been wronged and even when I have wronged.  My Father wants to know it all!  But even more astounding - God wants to share His most intimate thoughts with me.  How does that look?

I remember a night when my daughter was so distressed.  Life not going as she had hoped.  A puddle of tears on the floor before her God.  I came upon her crying out.  Asked if I might join her.  The two of us, face down on the carpet, were anxious to hear from the heart of our Father.  Over and over in my mind came a phrase.  Unmistakably His voice.  "Let me lead your steps.  I know the way."  Chills now in the remembering of it.  When I spoke them to my child, she calmed.  Resonating in her was His intimate answer to her most heartfelt cry.  She wrote the message down and taped it to her mirrored closet door.  It remains there.  A word just to her from her loving Dad. 

Over the years I have had several experiences of God telling me things about people that I am only to pray about.  Not the sort of thing one shares.  A secret between Him and me.  Uncanny in the way they turn out to be reality.  I have been blessed to have prayed in secret for the success of those I have known.  Bill lost his wallet the other day.  There was a time not too long ago that I would have lost sleep over that.  (Bill loses sleep over absolutely nothing.  It is a gift!)  However, I heard His voice say:  "I have this covered.  I see it."  Bill found it the next day.  Glad I listened and did not stress all night about a thing my Father had in His sights.

It should make us desire to spend more time with our God.  That He desires to not only hear us but to speak with us also is the most amazing reality possible.  The God Who, with His fingers flung the world into space, wants to sit down and talk with me.  Tell me His deepest thoughts.  Whew!  Am shouting Hallelujah! about now. 

Draw near to our God and He will draw near to you.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Psalm 25 - Cleaned Your Room Lately?

Remember NOT the sins of my youth or my transgressions.  According to Your steadfast love, remember ME....Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.  The troubles of my heart are enlarged.  Bring me out of distresses.  Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive my sins.  (vs. 6-7; 16-18)

Wow!  Interesting how we want the Lord to do for us what we are seldom able to do with each other.  Don't remember my sins against you!  Remember me.  Remember the good things that I have done for you.  Remember that I have loved you, my sister, through many years and many troubles.  How can you forget that it is I who you now despise because you feel I have sinned against you?  Anyone?

But my Father knows me.  Psalm 78 is David's recap of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt.  They sinned against the Lord on a pretty continual basis.  Grumbling about being taken into the desert to die.  Hating the provision of manna as their daily bread.  Wanting meat, leeks, garlic, onions and melons.  No water. No new shoes. No new clothes.  A vanishing Moses.  A golden calf that simply sprung up from the fire.  Complaining, worshipping a cow, carousing in His presence.  The Father had a long list of reasons to just annihilate the whole crowd.  But listen to this:

They remembered that God was their Rock, the Most High God their Redeemer.  But they flattered Him with their mouths.  They lied to Him with their tongues.  Their heart was not steadfast to Him.  They were not faithful to His covenant.  YET HE, being compassionate ATONED for their iniquity and did not destroy them....He remembered that they were BUT DUST - a wind that passes and does not come again.  (Psalm 78)

 I love that my God looks at me.  At my heart.  Even when it has been far from Him.  He knows why.  He knows my pain.  He knows how to correct me instead of leave me.  In His pursuit of me, He has quite literally gone to hell to get me.  There is nothing in me that is worthy of such love.  I do not deserve it.  For some reason, He decided to cover my dusty self in the blood of His Son, draw me to Himself, and call me precious.  He did not overlook my sinfulness.  He atoned for it.  Paid the price in God-blood so I would not have to with worthless human effort.  I love this God.  Why wouldn't I?

On some level we need to be like Him in this.  I have a friendship that was broken several years ago because of a perceived injustice toward my friend.  I was never allowed the opportunity to explain what happened.  I was, instead, castigated and denied a voice.  Should I have demanded a hearing, I would have shattered some of my friend's ideas about others whom she loves, so I have never said anything to her about it.  What is most distressing about this for me is that I spent many, many years being this woman's friend, mentor, even guardian.  I loved her when she was at her lowest.  Flew to her in her need.  And all that is forgotten and dismissed.  She cannot see me for seeing herself.

How do we become like Him in this?  We are but dust.  I have been guilty of looking at the sin against me without seeing who may have hurt me and why he or she might feel the way they do.  One may say that we are incapable of doing what only God can do, but I would have to disagree.  We who are Christians have Christ in us....His very mind.  We can choose thinking that is covered in the cob webs of a dusty old mind or we can be renewed and see what He sees.  And He sees our hearts.  And commands us to forgive sins against us. 

When the troubles of our hearts are so big, crushing us with the distressing circumstances of life, we need to know that it is not because we are unforgiven.  Life is just hard.  But the psalmist cries out to be clean before His God.  Just in case.  If I have sinned against God or my brother, I need to make that right.  Not just so God will deliver me from my current trouble, but also so I can see clearly my way through.  Ever tried to pray through with a guilty conscience?  Ever wonder why God says to leave the prayer altar and make it right with someone who has something against you, then come back and continue praying?  Because enmity with another gets in the way of fellowship with God. 

Here is what I want and pray for often.  A dwelling place for the Lord (my heart) that is cobweb clean, swept free of the dirt that has accumulated there.  No darkness in this room.  Just light - bright and brilliant.  A home for the Holy Spirit that is fit for His abiding there in joy.  So that when my Father sees me, He sees but a reflection of Himself.  I know He has some cleaning yet to do, but I pray the space in which He dwells is getting more and more comfortable for Him.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Psalm 25 - Goaded to the Goal

Make me know Your ways, O Lord.  Teach me Your paths.  Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation.  For You I wait all the day long.....Good and upright is the Lord.  Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.  He leads the humble in what is right.  He teaches the humble His way. (vs 4-5; 8-9)

The word for "know Your ways" is yada.  To know by seeing.  To know relationally and experientially.  In my words..."I want to know who You are by being with You and watching what You do.  I want You to be my Father.  I want to be Your humble child."

 His ways.  Derek.  The path that is traveled.  Oh, I really want to know this.  How He rolls....Not just the why of what is going on, but the deep peace that what is happening is in keeping with the way He does things - His character.  That my life is ruled by a God Who is good and upright.  Not out to hurt me.  He doesn't want to do me in.  My Father absolutely knows what is best for me.

Interestingly, when David asks the Lord to "teach" him His paths, the word is goad.  Prod me along, Lord.  Don't just tell me why or how, make me learn to "do" the thing.  Ever had a thought just keep going over and over in your head so often that you must finally do it?  Bill's favorite goading story is hilarious.  We were newly involved in a charismatic Baptist church in the mid-70's and all the hoop-la was a bit more unsettling to Bill than it was to me.  His introverted personality was assaulted with raised hands, loud trumpets, a blues piano and some speaking in other tongues.  Add to this his wife sitting next to him getting a word from God for him, not her.  All through praise and worship I kept hearing a voice prodding me to tell Bill that he needed to go hug a young man who was sitting nearby.  The young man and his wife were people we knew, not random strangers, to be fair to my heavenly request of Bill.  We did not know the extent of their needs, but the voice of the Lord kept piercing my heart. 

"Bill, I think the Lord wants you to go hug Warren."

"Uh....no."  Bill's reply above the din.

We sing another stanza before I again touch my sweet husband's arm to ask again.  "Are you sure you won't?  God keeps telling me you should."

"He didn't tell me that." 

Okay.  Singing still, my heart pounding with the realization that this is not just something I am thinking.

Tapping Bill on the shoulder once more.  "I really think you are supposed to go hug Warren."

Like a kid jumping into a cold swimming pool just to get the thing over with, Bill stepped out of the aisle and hesitantly tapped the young man on the shoulder.  He literally fell into Bill's arms.  They became the arms of Jesus to this man we knew and loved.  Whew!  Prodded to perform what God wanted.

I was sitting in my front yard digging in a flower bed when God prodded me to a task I absolutely did not want to do.  A young man was sitting in his truck parked across the street from my house.  The reason he was in the truck was because his mother-in-law had kicked him out of her home.  Covered in tattoos, long dark hair sticking in every direction out of his baseball cap, and listening to some loud heavy metal music on the radio, the neighbor's anathema became my heavenly appointment.

"Go over to him and tell him that I love him."  Wha...?   No!

Dig some more.  Humming a hymn so as to drown out the prodding voice of my God.

"Go over to him and tell him that I love him."   I can't do that.  He looks scary.  He's from California, for Pete's sake.

The Texas sun was beating down on my head, making me sweat.  Or not.  Maybe the tension of hearing the goading of the Lord to step out of paradigm and do something daring was my issue. 

"Go over to him and tell him that I love him."  The third time was not the charm.  It took me probably thirty minutes to just give up and go right over to that truck, tap the young man on the arm and scare him to death!  He jumped and so did I. 

"Um..God told me..um.. to come over here and tell you that...um.... He loves you."

"Really, man?  Wow!  I was just thinking about Him!  Wondering about the end of the world and all..."

We talked about Him for several minutes.  Then I went into our home to get him a Bible.  Bill  had just purchased a new one.  (Bill is always purchasing new Bibles....)  Wanted to give it to the guy.

"God didn't tell me to give him my new Bible."  He was right.  But he relented.

The young man came to dinner the next night at our home where we shared the love of Christ and had an extended conversation with him about the end times.  He did not leave having asked Christ into his life, but he did know how.  Several weeks later he moved back to California and was killed in a gang related shooting.

You just never know.

David asked God to lead him in the truth...God's holy standards.  We cannot be perfect.  But we can be perfected.  The Holy Spirit within us lets us know when He is grieved.  Pricks out hearts and bends our conscience.  When I read the Bible it often slices right through to my marrow, convicting me that what I am doing or thinking is not what God is doing and thinking.  We are all different and God nuances His rearing of us into His precious children according to our way. (Raise up a child in her way and when she is old she will not veer from it.)  So I am not your judge concerning what God is telling you, but I am responsible for what this daughter of His is all about doing.

God is faithful to complete what He has begun in us.  Plan A.  He is not interested in any other scenario.  He is looking for a humble child willing to listen and learn, even if He has to prod us into righteousness!  I want to be like Him when I grow up.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Psalm 25 - Hurry Up and Wait!

Lord, I turn to You.  My God, I trust in You.  Do not let me be disgraced.  Do not let my enemies gloat over me.  No one who waits for You will be disgraced.  (vs 1-3)

Turning and waiting.  Doesn't God know how hard it is to do these two things?  If something in my life needs to be fixed, I want it fixed now!  Usually the mess is of my own making, but sometimes it just blows into my life like a treacherous tornado and I am sucked up into it.  In the swirling and pounding, I have two choices to make.  You guessed it!  Will I turn to my God instead of my own limited resources, and will I wait for Him to work it out? 

I take turning first.  Sometimes that means repenting.  Turning away from something and to Him because I have trusted in a false god for my redemption.  The foolhardiness of trusting in anything else but God has been apparent in the often humiliating consequences of my own fixes.  In my defense, I have on occasion felt in my spirit that the house in on fire and I must extinguish it or it will burn me up.  So I douse a house fire with a glass of drinking water.  Instead of calling the fire department, so to speak.  We can all guess the results...disgrace.  For being so short-sighted and, frankly, stupid.  So, my 911 is to my God.  Or it should be.  Don't be afraid to call, even it you started the fire because you were smoking in bed.  He loves you enough to be your rescue if you haven't fallen asleep on Him. 

I know a man who struggles with an internet addiction.  He does not, in his Christian heart, want to do this thing he does, but he has tried unsuccessfully to stop.  He has not been able to turn sufficiently to the Lord for help.  Consequently, he is always looking over his shoulder for the boulder to fall upon his head from a heavenly Judge who would accuse him daily of other things not quite so heinous.  You see, his addiction has left him vulnerable to his own guilt.  He knows this one over-arching god of his trumps his faith in the one God he loves......and Who loves him.  See how it works?  The thing we refuse to completely turn over to God keeps us from turning our lives over to God.  Catch 22?  Yes.  Until we get sick of our sin and cry: "Lord, I turn to You.  My God, I trust in You."   I am not judging my friend.  I am remembering how it feels.

Waiting.  Once you turn, you must wait.  Seem unfair to ask of us?  Maybe.  But in all my scenarios, it is the rushing to fix it that has made an even bigger mess.  If the mess is big enough, it will take a while to get everything straightened out.  And then there is God's timing.  Remember, He sees history as beginning and completed and in process all at once.  He sees what you cannot.  Tomorrow and today and yesterday.  Keep moving forward but don't mess with what you have handed over to Him.  We live our lives forward and understand them backward.  Don't go for the answer to, "What is He doing?".  Trust me.  He is trying to NOT disgrace you.  To keep you from as much dishonor as possible given the situation.  On the other hand, He is trying to vindicate you from wrong done to you, not by you.  That also takes time.  Sometimes years.  Sometimes you won't even know it.  But He does.  Vengeance is His, not yours.  Taking my hands off gives Him permission to act on my behalf.  Too many cooks...etc.

Here is the promise and it is all-inclusive:  No one who waits on the Lord will be disgraced.  If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.  Wait for His direction.  Don't put on your fireman's outfit and blast into the holocaust if He is not leading the way.  You will be destroyed in the fire, consumed by your own hubris in thinking you are the savior.  How many times have I thought, If I'd only waited. 

Your word from Him today?  "I am Yahweh.  Those who put their trust in Me shall not be put to shame."  Isaiah 49:23.  Believe it!!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Psalm 24 - Where's He Taking Us?

Who is the King of Glory?  The Lord strong and mighty.  The Lord mighty in battle!  (vs.8)

The Lord of hosts is a master strategist on behalf of those he loves.  However, His battle plans can be counterintuitive.  Remember the battle He fought for the children of Israel as they trudged away from Egypt into the desert?  I wanted to take their first battle apart for a look at the way our God of hosts put His war plans together.

First, He took His army out by a strange route.  The hosts of Israelites streaming out of Egypt, fists raised in defiance and sacks filled full of contraband, were led out by an indirect route.  God reasoned:  "If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."  Ah...He know us, huh?  If it gets too hard to follow Him at first, we might run back to the easy fix.

The Lord went ahead of them.  No scouts.  The general, Himself, preparing the way.  As a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, the God of this host led his troops in their exodus. 

This general always anticipates the plans of the enemies, second-guessing their actions.  He ordered Moses to have all the Israelites double back on their steps.  "Then Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are confused.  They are trapped in the wilderness!' " said the Lord of glory.  "He will chase after you.  I have planned this in order to display my glory."

Sure enough, this completely counter intuitive plan worked.  Pharaoh sent his entire army after the stupid slaves.  But let's pause to hear what His chosen people feel about His ability as their commander.  "Why did you bring us out here to die in the desert?  Weren't there enough graves for us in Egypt?  It's better to be slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!"  Whew!  God knew His people, clearly.  Things did not get just a little hard - they became impossible!  And their General led them right into the fray with no way out!  Backed up against a sea of problems.  Wha...?  What kind of leader is this Who takes us to the edge of disaster?  What kind indeed! 

"Don't be afraid!" cried the second in command.  "Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today!  The Egyptians you see today will never, ever, ever be seen again.  The Lord Himself will fight for you.  Just stay calm!"

The Master Strategist's reply?  "Why are you crying out to Me?  Get moving!  My great glory will be displayed!"   So Moses raised his staff, the people huddled near the banks of the water, and God?.....He moved to the rear of the battalion.   While the waters of the Red Sea built up, driven by an east wind, the General stood guard between the approaching doom and His people.  Egypt was stalemated.  Couldn't get past the Presence.

Meantime - one foot in front of the other, the panicked Israelites walked on newly dried ground, walls of water frothing and wiggling like Jello on either side of them.  I am sure they were anxious, fearing at any moment the walls would collapse upon them, dooming them to death in the desert.  The last Israelite's toe had no sooner touched the opposite bank than the Commander-In-Chief told Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea again.  As the sea collapsed upon the Egyptians, who were already confused by their chariot wheels falling apart in the sea bed, the host of Israel watched the entire army of Pharaoh drown in the waters.

The outcome?  The Israelites saw the bodies of Pharaoh's soldiers washed up on the shore.  They were awed.  Heads spinning.  Hearts thumping.  What just happened?  Twenty-four hours of walking in the wrong direction, terrifying pursuit by a mighty army, cornered at the edge of disaster, a windy crossing through a treacherous corridor and now dead Egyptians swallowed up by the very walls of water that had held fast until the very last moment.  And the Israelites?  They had not picked up a single sword,  shot a lone arrow or boarded a mighty horse-driven chariot.  Their only participation was obedience.  Even when it made absolutely no sense.

What do you suppose they did next?  They sang, of course, silly.
"I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously...The Lord is a warrior!  Yahweh is His name!..Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?  Glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders!"

Still our God goes before us!  Still He leads the way.  So, if you can't figure out why you've doubled back, why it looks like you are left for dead in some desert or why He would lead you right up to the edge of disaster and leave you there, hear your General say, "Don't be afraid! I will fight for you.  Just stay calm.  I know what I am doing!  If you don't see Me out in front leading, I am behind protecting!"

Soon you will join in the chorus of the song of deliverance (Exodus 15).  I will sing to my Lord, He has triumphed gloriously!"

Friday, January 20, 2012

Psalm 24 - I'm Pumped!

Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors that the King of glory may come in!
Who is the King of glory?  The Lord strong and mighty.   The Lord, mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates, and lift them up O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in!
Who is the King of glory?  The Lord of hosts.  He is the King of glory.

Can you hear the creaking of the enormous gates made of weathered logs and roped together with rotting cords of jute?  Beyond the gates are myriad people - warriors and common folk alike - breathless in anticipation of the monarch on His white horse come in victory back home to sit upon His throne.  The King of glory.  Mighty in battle. 

Who is this King?  The Lord strong and mighty.  Mighty in battle.  Got any?  Battles, I mean.  If you shook your head no....you are in denial.  Of course, we all have battles.  Are your enemies flesh and blood?  They certainly wear that facade sometimes.  Mine was a flat tire on Wednesday.  Really flat.  And the tire was one week old!  That topped my day of frustration.  Phone calls that were disturbing.  Clients that were difficult.  Darts shot my way.  Not earth-shattering, but enough to grind at my joy.  I have met more ominous goliaths.  But the point is that the battle is not mine to win.  If I belong to the King of glory, the battle belongs to Him. "Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit," says the Lord of hosts.  Remember Psalm 18?  For by You I can crush a troop or leap over a wall! 

Who is this King of glory?  The Lord of hosts.  Tsaba.  Hosts.  Mass of persons especially organized for war.  Angelic armies.  Our God is the Lord of the battle and its armies.  He knows the war plans.  Understands them inside and out.  Prescient, He also knows the outcome.  All-powerful, He wields the weapons.  Because He is Lord of all, He dupes the enemies with things like hail, deep sleep, confusion and weapons we would not even think of.  Forever our Source, He equips us with weapons of warfare that are so counterintuitive our enemies are routed.  The helmet of our salvation, the breastplate of Christ's righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the sword of the Spirit and shield of faith.  You armored up today?  The Lord of hosts might take you into battle.  Be ready.

Most importantly.  Open up, you ancient gates.  Rickety and rotting, open up.  The King of Glory will come in.  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," He says.  The victor wants to abide in me.  To pump up my pitiful soul with His might.  To muscle up my drooping arms.  To embolden my cowardly heart.  To change the way I think about this war.  The Lord of hosts knocks on the other side of that gate and beckons to me.  "Let me be glorious in you!"

For our battle 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 full armor of GOD. Ephesians 6.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Psalm 24 - The Face of God

He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.  This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Thy face...(vs. 5-6)

Want blessings?  Want God to look at you and smile?  Want all the things you have done wrong in the past to disappear into oblivion so that you can have a blank slate and a new start?  Think these things to be impossible?

Then seek His face.  I know some will say they don't even know what this means.  How does one seek the face of a being she cannot see in the first place?  But we have been given a look at not only His face, but also His heart.  Jesus is the exact representation of Yahweh.  We know what God is like because Christ showed us.  We can know the heart of God.  And we can seek it. 

The story of Jacob in Genesis could be the story of many of us.  Jacob had a twin.  Esau.  The father's favorite and the firstborn.  Isaac, the father, was prepared in his old age to bless his elder son when Jacob and his mother, Rebecca, conspired to lie to the old man and steal the birthright from the brother.  Jacob, a less manly man than Esau, who loved to hunt and apparently eat greasy meat just off the grill, had to run for his life afterward because he had pretended to be his brother, lying to Isaac.

Here is the irony of our God.  Years later, Jacob, who is now a wealthy man, seeks reconciliation with Esau.  The lies of his youth still a yoke about his neck, Jacob sends men to Esau to test the waters.  They return with the message that Esau is coming after him with four hundred men.  Of course, this puts Jacob on his face before God in fear and trembling. His prayer goes something like this:  "Dear God, I am an unworthy scoundrel.  I have not deserved all the wonderful blessings you have given me.  But deliver me, I pray, from my brother Esau because I fear he is coming to attack me and my family.  Please keep Your promise to me that you will bless my family and make their offspring as many as the sands on the seashore."

He then sent his family ahead of him and was left alone in the darkness of night.  The angel of the Lord then came and wrestled with Jacob all that night.  Jacob was wiry and persistent, so much so that the angel touched his thigh, throwing his hip out of joint.  Jacob was desperate for blessing.  Hanging onto the words of God to him, fighting for his life. 

"Let me go!"  demanded the angel.

"Not until you bless me!" cried Jacob.

"What is your name?" inquired the angel.

An odd question.  Fighting man to man all night.  Wouldn't you think the angel would already know his name was Jacob?  But wasn't this what the struggle was about all along?  Pretending to be someone he was not.  The last time of any consequence that someone had asked his name, Jacob had lied.  Called himself Esau.  So why wouldn't God, in this theophany, call this prevarication into question to be dealt with once and for all before Jacob was to see his brother again.  What is your name?  Who are you?  I know your heart.

Lord All-Powerful, you test good people.  You look deeply into the heart and mind of a person. Jeremiah 20.

You know what happened to Jacob?  He got a new name!!!  One that was untarnished because he wanted to be blessed and  made right.  A brand new start.  He had a limp for the rest of his life from the battle....just to make sure he never forgot the goodness of the Lord or where he came from to this newness of life.  Esau greeted Jacob the next day with miraculous love and forgiveness.  Only God could have done that.  Jacob looked into His face and lived to tell about it.  To create an altar to the experience.  God cared enough about this wayward son to duke it out with the boy and let him win.

Want a new start?  Be a part of the generation who seeks His face.  Press through if it takes all night.  Trust me, there is joy in the morning.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Psalm 24 - Come Now.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?   And who shall stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. (vs. 3-4)

Good question.  What is it that God wants?  Seems He is looking at our heart, our soul and our words.

First, the heart.  It is, you know, deceitfully wicked and we don't even know the depths of its ability to turn us away from God.  "Follow your heart"  may not be the best adage for our age.  I have followed mine pretty much into hell.  As a matter of fact, our hearts are capable of the most heinous evil given the right amount of pressure on our feelings.  Murder.  Suicide.  Corruption.  You name it.  The heart says it is okay because of how I feel.  No wonder the Lord wants our hearts!  Only He can manage their volatility.  Because given over to Him they are capable of unfathomable good!  The pursuit of justice.  Care for the poor.  Sacrifice.  Joy.  Obedience.  Love.

Then there is the soul.  Nephesh.  The inner being with its thoughts and emotions.  He wants truth here.  Not our giving over our thoughts and emotions to some false god.  I might be egged for this statement, but I think many in the Christian church are given over to a false god.  A god who thinks for all their religious doings they are justified by Him.  A god who looks at their "self" righteousness as a wondrous offering to him, when their true nephesh is a royal mess of judgment and hatred of all who transgress what they deem unholy.  Then there are those of us who have created deadly soul ties with another human being, a drug, a fetish, a computer, a habit, or even a little statue to which we donate fruit and incense each morning.  False gods that take up the room in our souls that should be housing the Holy Spirit.  God wants a place to dwell among us.  Always has.  He wants to "tabernacle" in us.  But He will not live in the same house as idols.

What are we doing with our mouths?  By what do we swear?  Mirmah. The word for swear.  Intentional misleading of someone else through distorting or withholding the truth.  Proverbs 6 has a list of the things God hates.  Yea, even seven!  Two of those have to do with lying.  Imagine coming into the Lord's presence with your lying tongue.  Especially telling Him you love Him when you have been living like the devil.  Imagine your husband doing that to you.  Kinda turns the stomach, huh?  If you lie to someone even once, that person then has reason to believe you would lie about anything.  How much more the One who knows our hearts and our actions.  So, "I swear to God I'm telling the truth!" coming from the mouth of a liar is fodder for lightning bolts.  Remember Ananias and Sapphira?  God was not about to begin His Church with lying.  He hates it!  And when you lie to Him, watch out!  He would much rather we come before Him with the truth about ourselves.  He can take that because He is already aware of it!  Just don't try to perform for Him because He knows when you are full of bull!

What we need are clean hands and a pure heart.  I cannot do that for myself.  I know me.  My own righteousness is not enough.  I need a heart change in order to have hands cleaned.  That is why my God sent my Jesus.  If ever I am going to come before Him in a way that honors His holiness, I must be covered in scarlet.  Washed white by holy blood.  I must accept the irony of red washing me white. For the sacrifice of the Lamb is the only one God recognizes.  Here is what God says:

"What to Me is the multitude of your sacrifices?  I have had enough of burnt offerings...I do not delight in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.  When you come to appear before me, who has required this trampling of My courts?  Bring no more vain offerings! ..I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.  Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates.  They have become a burden to Me.  I am weary of bearing them.  When you spread your hands, I will hide My eyes from you.  Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.  Your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves clean.  Remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes.  Cease to do evil.  Learn to do good.  Seek justice.  Correct oppression.  Bring justice to the fatherless.  Plead the widow's cause.

Come now!!  Let us reason together.  Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.  Though they are red like crimson, they shall become as wool.  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land."

What He wants is you.  Me.  The whole shebang.  Nothing less.  Nothing else.  Our hearts, our souls, our wills.  Sacrifice for sacrifice.  The trade is flabbergastingly uneven.  Miraculously, our selves upon the altar of His grace and mercy reap for us a life far more abundant than we could ever deserve.  All our manmade sacraments and righteous activities are hateful to Him if it is not He whom we love above all else.  You cannot clean up for Him.  You must be washed first in the blood of His Christ.  The only sacrifice He recognizes. 

Come now.  Reason with Him.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Psalm 24 - The Whole Wide World

The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord; for, He laid the foundation on the seas and established it on the rivers. (vs. 1-2)

In other words, God has a trademark for earth.  It is completely original.  His very own concept realized then placed exactly where it must be in the vast universe around it so as to sustain life.  Even the atmosphere of the earth is created so that we can see much of the rest of the universe from here.  God knew we would be curious about the stars - gave us technology so we could marvel at all we cannot know as much as all we can. 

I just saw an excellent documentary on the butterfly.  Darwinian evolution cannot explain metamorphosis.  It is like putting a Chevy into a cocoon and creating from it an airplane.  A completely different organism created from the dissolution of the previous organism, then reformed into something else. 

I heard a young mother recently marveling at the fact that the daughter within her womb carries the DNA for her grandchildren, so in fact she is pregnant with daughter and granddaughter at once.

I took a walk on the beach yesterday.  The ocean takes my breath away.  Not only the vastness of its reaches, but also its power to surge - to destroy, even.  The world beneath it filled with the world's largest creatures who swim over and around volcanic mountains and treacherous depths.

Our God is brilliant!  And only by our own thin measure.  For us to tell Him that He is brilliant is ridiculous, really, for we do not even know how to scratch the surface of the heights of His thinking, the reaches of His creativity, or the power of His hand to form all that is in His mind.  Yet He loves our acknowledgment....because He chooses to. 

"Mommy, you are so smart," says the two-year-old to the one tying his shoes.  "I wish I could do that."

Beaming at his compliment, the mother replies, "You will someday, honey."

Same with our Father.  It is not a condescending delight in our praises.  But the response of a Father joyous over the recognition from His child.  What little we know of His great glory deserves all we have in rightful acknowledgment of His great mind and heart.  His eyes shine to see that we are getting it.  And that we are loving Him for Him.  For how amazing He is.  For the fact that in all of His preeminence He is holding our little hand.

Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not considered the foundations of the earth? 

God is enthroned above the circle of the earth.  Its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.  He stretches out the heavens as a thin cloth and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

"Who will you compare Me to?  Who is My equal?" asks the Holy One.  "Look up and see!"
Isaiah 40.

Some things are just obvious.  They demand a response.  This morning's paper had pictures of the women in their Golden Globe outfits.  Much ooh-ing and ah-ing over the designer creations.  How lovely and imaginative.  But the earth just evolved?  Really?  We cannot but help honor design.  So where is the scientific gasping over the great designer of DNA?  Why is it we want to downplay such brilliance in creative initiative?  How can a rational mind chalk it up to random chance?  Did Vera Wang throw some organza up into the air and wait to see what came down?  "Look up and see!"

What does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and soul?..The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. ..For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and awesome God!  Deuteronomy 10

Friday, January 13, 2012

Psalm 23 - When All Is Said And Done

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  (vs. 6)

Every day - all the days of my life - His goodness is available to me.  It covers me, guides me, corrects me.  Remember when Moses asks God to show him His glory?  Yahweh's answer was:  "I will show you my goodness."  That sums up the great I AM.  Goodness.  As His precious child, I am smothered in that goodness and can count on the fact that whatever is happening, God's goodness is not in question.  That was the trick the serpent played on Eve that caused her to sin.  The serpent questioned God's character.  Just why would God not let her and Adam eat from the tree?  Answer:  God did not want them to become like Him.  He had an unfair agenda.

Accusing God of being unloving - unkind and unfair - is at the root of sin.  Something perplexing or even catastrophic happens and we point the finger at God.  "How could He let this happen?"  Indeed.  It seems a fair question if you don't turn your back and flip Him off before you have lived awhile down the road and are possibly offered an explanation.  However, you are not entitled to such an explanation given the nature of God is that He is God.  Since all things work together for the ultimate good for those who love the Lord and all the called according to His purposes, we can trust that our good is at the center of His agenda.  But so is His glory, which is His goodness.  If His goodness is how He receives glory, then we can be certain that we will be partakers of it.  All the time. 

"If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him."  Jesus in Matthew 7.

What joy to know you are loved!!  There is nothing the human heart yearns for more than significance.  And nothing more significant than being loved by the Creator God.  Christ showed His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.  You were STILL SINNING ALL THE TIME when Christ found you in some pit and went to hell to bring you out of it!!  He did not love you in some perfected state.  His love looks past all the crud in your life and sees your heart - your need!  He loved you at your worst!  Terrifyingly, He SAW what you were doing at your worst!  And He loved you!  That is the kind of love that is available to me now daily!  It follows me around, overtakes my path, rocks my world.

The steadfast love of the Lord NEVER CEASES!  His compassions NEVER FAIL!  They are new EVERY morning!  GREAT is Thy faithfulness!!  Lamentations 3  

On top of all this love and compassion in my life right now, I have a heavenly dwelling to abide in forever.  The word for house here means family dwelling place.  Interestingly, but not surprising, the word for house in John 14 means the same thing.  "In my Father's house there are many dwellings." Heaven is an actuality, and I am going there when my days are over with here.  I know we think that sounds corny.  Like we are just trying to make heaven look like earth.  But what if God made earth to look like heaven?  Just to give us a taste of what it will be like?  After all, He walked for a short while with Adam and Eve in the garden.  It is very similar to the garden and river described in the Revelation.  God will one day bring the entire "family" home to live in His house.  To swim in His river and eat from His garden.  To paint on heavenly canvases what no man could imagine.  To sing to the accompaniment of angelic instruments songs unimaginably beautiful.  To reign with Him.  To worship Him.  To join in with myriad angels and saints in chorus after chorus of praise!  To put to my new lips a cup of new wine, handed to me by my Shepherd Savior and celebrate the joys of the New Jerusalem into which He purchased my passage! 

And so shall I dwell in the house of the Lord....forever!!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Psalm 23 - God's Boo-ya

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil. (vs.5)

David wrote Psalm 23 when he was fleeing King Saul, which he was constantly doing for fear the king would kill him.  Daily he faced the possibility of capture or death.  Vigilance concerning where he traveled and on which particular rock in some cave he rested his head at night was paramount.  No still waters.  No green pastures.  Those were a thing of David's youth.  When he was the shepherd who watched his father's flocks.  Even then he knew the protection and power of his God, for David had killed a bear and a lion in defense of the lambs in his care.  If he, as a young man, had such a heart for his little group of ewes and rams, David knew God cared much, much more.  Only his God could tell him where it was safe to hide and when it was safe for him to move around.

In verse five the scene changes.  The Lord is now the host of dinner in His abode and David an honored guest.  As such, the Lord has prepared a dinner of honor for David to eat and enjoy while his enemies, probably captured and in chains, watch him sup with the Lord.  Finally David has received the honor due him for his trust in God.  Also looks forward, I suspect, to the marriage supper of the Lamb, when Christ Himself finally receives the honor due Him.  David is confident that Yahweh will come through for Him in victory as surely as He did when Goliath was felled with one smooth stone.

In the East at the time, one's head was anointed with oil for several reasons.  For toilette...the Brill Creme of the ancients.  For the coronation of kings.  For the consecration of someone to a sacred duty.  David had already been anointed with the oil of holy duty.  Samuel had poured fragrant olive oil all over him to signify God's decision that David would be the next king of Israel, thus Saul's hatred of him.  But in this psalm, David speaks of being anointed at a dinner in his honor.  The Host pours sweet perfumed oil upon his head as a gesture of esteem.  In other words, God sets a table for David in front of those who hate him, then anoints him as an honored guest, a dear friend, ...even a son.

Can you trust that because Christ esteems you, your present troubles will be resolved and you will be vindicated?  Your enemies will be scattered?  Your honor restored?  The pieces of your heart glued back together?  Remember that one day in his not too distant future,  King Saul was dead and King David crowned the king of Israel.  Yes, David walked through some rough times....even the valley of the shadow of death...but God was with him even in that, leading his steps right up to the prepared table of blessing and honor.  Will He do less for you?  We have been consecrated with the "oil" of the Holy Spirit.  Set aside for sacred purpose.

 Jesus said in Revelation 3:20:  Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and dine with him and him with Me.  Dine with Him even now, for He lives in you.  That is the secret of the ages:  Christ in us the hope of glory.  God dwelling among man as He did in the garden at the beginning.  Partake of the bread of life.  Drink deeply of the endless joys of new wine.  Abide in green pastures.  Be still by the quiet waters.  Bend to the knee as you are anointed with the fragrant oil of your salvation that calls you to a sacred, safe and serene life in Him.  Your Shepherd and your Host is in charge of keeping that which He has committed to you.  Fear not!  You shall not want.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Psalm 23 - Don't Be a Mutton Chop

Your rod and Your staff - they comfort me.  (vs.4)

Shevet is the word for rod.  The shepherd used it for protection and for counting his sheep.   Proverbs 13:24 talks of using the rod for disciplining, also.  For correction.  In Genesis, the same word is used for scepter. 

Asking myself, how does a rod comfort me?  I am happy about the fact that He counts His sheep daily to see who is still in the flock - that His watchare over me, this little sheep He loves enough to name, is constant.  Remember, He says that when He brings us before the Father and all the angels (Rev. 3), His brag will be, "These belong to Me!'  In John 17 Jesus prays several times for the Father to keep us safe as He kept the disciples safe when they followed.  Our safety is of paramount importance to Him.

Safe from what?  We are not actual sheep who will be chased down and ravaged by wolves.  We are people living in a civilized society, most of us.  Jesus spoke of false prophets as wolves who divide the body of Christ.  Divisive people who act sweet as lambs at first then devour the well-meaning sheep.  The rod used for counting, it seems, must work in tandem with obedience to the voice of the shepherd.  To stay in His flock, we have to listen only to His voice.

The rod for correction or corralling is more evident to me.  Whack me on my ample fur-fluffed fanny if I get too far from the flock.  If I am so far off that I need a lesson that physically challenges my rebellion, then do it!  The alternative to this is the brambles I am caught in by my own wanderings.  Our Shepherd will use the crook of His staff to try and reach my baa-ing pitiful self, but why go there in the first place?  Well, because this relationship with Jesus is just too confining.  Too many things to obey.  I get to go only where He tells me I can, and I really want to see what is over that far ridge.  Never mind that the last sheep who went that direction never came back.  Maybe that ewe is having the time of her life.  We just cannot see her.  Or maybe she was just the meal the wolf was looking for.  Only a good shepherd knows for sure.

Jesus has to keep us all together.  He was before all things and in Him all things hold together! (Colossians 1:17).  He is our glue.  If we focus on the Shepherd, the entire flock, we move as a unit across whatever wilderness or meadow we find ourselves traversing.  A bunch of errant baa-ing was just what kept the first generation of Israelites from entering the Promised Land that was probably only a few weeks outside of their Egyptian experience.  "Baa-baa this!"  "Baa-baa that!" and pretty soon we are picking stickers out of our rumps and looking into the leering eyes of another master.  Too late for "Ooops" then.  Shoulda stayed in the safe place with the others.  Now I am just loin chops on somebody's greasy plate.

Lest you think this business of always having to follow a shepherd keeps you from your own free will, let me just remind you that it is just that free will that gives you the choice to walk in His footsteps.  If you have been in other pastures with other shepherds, you will so enjoy the serenity and purpose of "lying down in green pastures, drinking from calm waters, and walking on roads that lead somewhere."



Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Psalm 23 - The Long Walk Home

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. (vs 4)

Remembering conversations with my mother before she died.  We would talk on her porch for hours on my weekly visits to her as she was wasting away from the colon cancer that finally took her from us.  Knowing her death was imminent, she wanted to talk about her anxiety.  Not about "being dead" so much as the process.  The "walking through the valley of the shadow of death."  The journey to heaven is long for most cancer victims.  It is a treacherous and unforgiving disease that eats one up a little at a time.  So the "shadow" is cast long before the ailing soul flies free.

"When I get to heaven, I know I will miss you more than you miss me," she often said.

Really?  Could she honestly be thinking that she would miss anything when she is in the presence of Christ?

But what she really felt was this.  I am going out alone, into the unknown, without benefit of your company.

That was true.  I could not go with her or for her, though I think I would have on both counts.  Death is a solitary process.  Except.  We have this promise.  Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because You are with me.  He holds our hand in life.  He holds our life in death.  Those of us who know Him leave this realm to be greeted by His glowing brilliance in the next.  To be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord.(2 Corinthians 5:8)

The shadows of death could also refer to the dangers present in the wadis in Judah where darkness casts deep shadows across the desert so that it is easy to fear their realities to be bandits or wild cats.  I think of some of the shadows we might worry about.  Devastating illness can foreshadow death.  Bankruptcy, abandonment, divorce or separation throw darkness over our lives and create fear.  Is He our shepherd then, too. 

The thing is to stick close to Him.  In everything.  If He is our shepherd, He is aware of all that is happening to us and we should fear no evil.  He is establishing the parameters of our joy and our suffering.  He is keeping us in and evil out.  The dogs that would tear us to pieces have to come through Him first.  And at the very last breath we take, He is with us - here and there.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Psalm 23 - From a Sheep's Point of View

The Lord is my Shepherd.  There is nothing I lack.  He lets me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside quiet waters.  He renews my life.  He leads me along the right paths for His name's sake.  (vs. 1-3)

Do I need a shepherd?  Do you?

Let us look at sheep.  They are very food oriented, so they follow a leader to what they think is better pasture.  As they tend to flock together for support, they have a herd mentality.  Sheep are gregarious in nature, so they tend to wander off in curiosity to ponder something new.  It only takes one sheep to make the others follow.  They stay in herds unless one of them gets the itch to move.  Leadership is based on the sheep with the biggest horns or the guy who decides he wants to "see what's over there."  The sheep will follow either one of these guys anywhere.  But if they get into trouble, sheep flee in panic.  That is their only real defense against natural enemies.

Now let us look at me.  And you.  We are fattened America people looking for the next fast-food burger to stuff into our portly selves so we don't have to go home and cook.  I sell real estate, and most people don't really care about a big kitchen anymore because they don't use it.  Just need the microwave.  We are hefty American people who want to let the government pay our way.  Increasingly we are giving over our lives to Big Daddy so that our needs will be met while we eat our burger and watch HD-TV.  And on that TV we see commercial after commercial telling us sheep what to buy, where to live, how to act, how to look.  Because we have forgotten how to think for ourselves, we have been fattened for the kill, I fear. Sheared by anyone who can fool us into giving up our woolen coats for free.  Following the guy with the biggest "horns" over the proverbial cliff has become a way of life.  Let him think for us.  Until we discover the imminence of our fall and panic when it is too late.

And my heart?  I will give it away to whatever makes me feel significant.  And so will you.  That is the way we sheep are made.  Loyal to whatever makes us feel better.  Better known as addiction.  I am as capable of going down that road as anybody if nobody leads my heart to quieter pastures.  If there is nothing that can "renew my life."  Gregarious in nature, looking for a thrill, curious about what is around the next corner, devoid of the wisdom of checking out the consequences first, this sheep has wandered into enemy territory unaware and been sheared by a dangerous shepherd.

So, my answer?   YES.  I need a shepherd.  Even if I am the horned sheep that people follow, I need a leader so I won't take an entire flock out with the hubris of leadership without guidance.  Baaing in the meadow, caught in the brambles, prey for every wolf in the wilderness, who will come and set me free?  For that is the end for the sheep who strikes out on her own, defying the parameters of her pasture and the prescience of her shepherd. 

But I do not have just any shepherd.  My shepherd calls me by name.  It takes a while for a sheep to respond to a name the shepherd gives it.  But they can eventually understand it when he calls.  So it is with me.  That my shepherd finds me significant enough to brand with a name amazes me.  Listen to what else He does:
He protects His flock like a shepherd.  He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment.  He gently leads those who are nursing.  Isaiah 40.

He picks me up and cuddles me.  Gives me significance and warmth, protection and attention.  He sees me.  He sees ME! 

The Lord says, "See, I Myself, will search for my flock and look for them.  As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for My flock.  I will rescue them from all the places they have been scattered on a cloudy and dark day.  ...I will shepherd them on the mountains and in the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the land.  I will tend them with good pasture, and their grazing place will be on Israel's lofty mountains.  They will lie down in a good grazing place.  They will feed in rich pasture...I will tend My flock and let them lie down...I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bandage the injured, strengthen the weak....I will shepherd them with justice."

Isn't this what we really want?  To be taken care of?  To lie down with no worries?  To eat and be satisfied?  To be so loved that we are pursued?  To be rescued when we are dumb and have wandered off?  To be shepherded by One who understands that our day was dark and cloudy and we panicked and ran?  And now we are trapped, alone and vulnerable, in need of rescue but incapable of escape?   To be up against the very drumming of His heartbeat, protected by our ascent into the folds of His garments?  Don't we really want to follow Someone Who knows the way?   Who is acquainted with life beyond our little pasture?

"I assure you:  Anyone who doesn't enter the sheep pen by the door but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.  The doorkeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought all of his own outside, he goes ahead of them.  The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice.  They will never follow a stranger.  Instead they will run away from him (flee in panic) because they don't recognize the voice of strangers.  I am the door.  If anyone enters by Me, they will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture....I am the good Shepherd.  The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep....I know My own sheep, and they know Me....I lay down my life for the sheep...they will be one flock with one Shepherd."  Jesus.   (John 10)

I  need this Shepherd.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Psalm 22 - All Hail!!!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.  All the families of the nations will  bow down before You.  For kingship belongs to the Lord.  He rules over all the nations.  All who prosper on earth will eat and bow down.  All those who go down to the dust will kneel before Him - even the one who cannot preserve his life.  Their descendants will serve Him.  The next generation will be told about the Lord.  They will come and tell a people yet to be born about His righteousness - what He has done.  (vs. 27-31)

Psalm 22 promises a Messiah who suffers.  Surrounded my men like mauling lions; poured out like water; bones out of joint; heart like wax, melting within Him.  Strength dried up like baked clay, His tongue sticks to the roof of His mouth.  His hands and feet are pierced and while hanging naked on the cross,  His ribcage is prominent and His bones can be counted.  People stare and jeer as the clothing of the bleeding Messiah is divided among the crowd.  And, most utterly devastating, His God has forsaken Him.

Why would He have to go through this?  Why did God, the Father, plan this from before the before?  I do not know the answers to these whys, but it is clear from the beginning that this was Yahweh's plan of salvation.  Sin is so heinous to the holy sensibilities and nature of the Godhead that it must be atoned for with blood.  The crimson history of slaughtered animals sacrificed for the atonement of the sins of Israel is well chronicled in history and the scriptures.  Something must be our scapegoat if we are allowed to enter into the presence of God.  So, a better question might be, "Why did God Himself decide to come to be our sacrificial Lamb?"

This I can answer.  The blood of God is holy.  The sacrifice, the ultimate payment that reconciles man to Yahweh.  There is nothing higher.  No Lamb so perfect.  No death so shamefully executed, for He was sinless.  Naked, bleeding and deserted, our Lamb was taken outside of the city and hung, for all to see, upon a cross made of the wood He had created by people He had known since before they were conceived.  Ironic.  It is the story of the entire Bible.  For, enter the Lamb in the last book of Scripture, Revelation.

Then I saw in the right hand of the One seated upon the throne a scroll with writing on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.  I also saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even look at it.  And I cried and cried because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or even look at it. 

Then one of the elders said to me,  "Stop crying!  Look!  The Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has been victorious so that He may open the scroll and its seven seals.

Then I saw One like a slaughtered Lamb standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the elders.....He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of the One seated on the throne.  When He took the scroll, the four living beings and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb.  Each one had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  And they sang a new song:
"You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slaughtered and You redeemed Your people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth."

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne and also the living creatures and the elders.  Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands.  They said with a loud voice: 
"The Lamb Who was slaughtered is worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!"

Then I heard every creature in heaven, in earth, under the earth and in the sea, and everything in them say:
"Blessing and honor and glory and dominion to the One seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever!"  Revelation 5

For the joy set before my Christ, He endured the shame of the cross.  He knew on the other side of His bloody slaughter was the scroll.  The power to see this earth through to an end in which everyone and every thing everywhere will see Him in a different light.  Clothed in majesty, directing all the events of earth until its demise, our Lamb was worthy.   How He must thrill for the moment when all is made right.  When ALL people everywhere will know Who He is and bow down.  Not to a Lamb languishing in the blood of its execution, but as the only worthy sacrifice in heaven or on earth.  As the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  That day will come when atheists, agnostics, tyrants and monarchs, women, men, children and animals, stars, planets, whales and starfish will acknowledge, prostrate before Him, that the shame of the cross bought all of creation redemption and restoration.  Cheering Him on will be the kingdom of priests we have become because we have adored Him even now.  No longer pinned to a cross crying out for His Father, this Lamb wields a scepter in His name and judges the whole earth and those who have slept in the dust.

At that time Michael, the great prince who stands watch over your people, will rise up.   There will be a time of great distress such as has never occurred since nations came into being until that time.  But at that time all your people who are found written in the book will escape.  Many of those who sleep in dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life and some to shame and eternal contempt.   Those who are wise will shine like the bright expanse of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and forever.  Daniel 12

All Hail King Jesus!!!  All Hail Lamb that was slain!!  Your ignominy forgotten save for the scars in Your hands and feet that bought forever my salvation!  All Hail!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Psalm 22- Troubles

You had my mother give birth to me. You made me trust you while I was just a baby. I have leaned on you since the day I was born. You have been my God since my mother gave me birth. So don't be far away from. Now trouble is near, and there is no one to help. (vs. 9-11)

Life can just be so tiring sometimes. Struggling with daily trials or deep hurts, our lives are not usually carefree and easy. Money, success or a big 401K are not the answers to all that ails us. Relationships falter, children stumble, health fails or we just don't seem to be able to call forth the energy to cope with all the minutiae of life that once was a piece of cake. In it all, perhaps we need to remember what David recalls here: We have always belonged to the Lord. My life is not my own.

Many years ago, when I was twenty-one, I began my teaching career in a small Texas town outside of Dallas. On the first day of school, I spied another young teacher across the room at the faculty meeting. She was beautiful. Long, thick dark hair, huge green eyes, ridiculously darling dimples and she was as tall as I am! We became fast friends. I was privileged to walk with her into a deeper commitment to the God she had loved since she could remember. A Catholic, she had even considered becoming a nun at one point. She did not know her God as deeply as she wanted, so our friendship was an encouragement to both of us to love Him more.

My friend married later in life. On her honeymoon, she fell ill with mumps. A few months later, she found a lump in her breast. She was scheduled for surgery. I found out I was pregnant for the third time on the same morning that she was told she had cancer and they had removed her breast. I did not know her diagnosis when I walked into her room post-op. Her new husband was standing beside her at the head of her hospital bed, teary-eyed and anxious. No one had to say a word. I knew.

"Oh, friend!" was all I could muster.

I took her hand. "I am the Lord's.". Her reply.

Never have I forgotten the serenity in her face nor the fervor with which she averred the wonder of grace that brought her to that pronouncement. She had always been His and no less then when trouble overwhelmed her, changing the landscape of her life forever.

"I am the Lord's."

No matter what. No matter where. In the best of times and the worst of them, I have learned to lean on Him. Like my friend, who is looking at the face of Jesus now, I know trouble is a part of life. When there is no one else who can help us, it is He who knows our way. And though we don't always understand what He allows, we know that He is good. Troubles come to everyone....Christian or not. We are not exempt, but we are certain of what those without our God cannot avow - we are His. He has written our names on the palm of His hand. Troubles are not without purpose and we are not without recourse because we love the One Who first loved us.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Psalm 22 - Bullying

But I am like a worm instead of a man.  People make fun of me and hate me.  Those who look at me laugh.  They stick out their tongues and shake their heads.  They say, "Turn to the Lord for help.  Maybe he will save you.  If he likes you, maybe he will rescue you."  ....People have surrounded me like angry bulls.  Like the strong bulls of Bashan, they are on every side.  Like hungry, roaring lions they open their mouths at me....Evil people have surrounded me;  like dogs they have trapped me.  They have bitten my arms and legs.  (vs. 6-8;12-13;16)

This is a Messianic psalm.  Meaning, of course, that it heralds the coming Messiah.  I find that intensely interesting considering He was to come as the savior of not only the Jews, but all mankind.  How then could this psalm be prophetic?  Or, better yet, how could the Jewish people to whom Jesus finally did show Himself in power have missed these verses if they knew they were Messianic?  Wouldn't that have changed their expectations?  To know He would fulfill all of this psalm?

Jesus seemed born to quote verse one from the cross:  "My God!  My God!  Why have You forsaken Me?"  Even then, those mocking Jesus at the foot of the cross thought He was calling on Elijah to save Him.  Clueless.

 Bleeding from the shredded skin hanging from His freshly beaten body and jeered at as He wore a crown of thorns upon His bruised and sweating face, the crowd spat on Him, ridiculing His claim to be the Messiah, the King of Kings.  "He saved others, but he cannot save himself!  He says He is the king of Israel!  If he is the king, let him come down from the cross now.  Then we will believe him!  He trusts in God so let God save him now, if God really wants him.  He himself said, 'I am the Son of God.' "

He did come down from the cross.  Taken by Joseph of Arimathea and buried in a fresh tomb while the sun has gone running in shame in the middle of the day and the earth is rattling God's fury, the Son is locked hermetically tight in a tomb with a giant stone.  Soldiers stand guard outside because on some level they know this is not just another man.  Turns out He wasn't.  Jesus blew out of the cave-tomb three days later while angels put the soldiers into a coma they could not explain to their officials later that day.  Our sins buried with Him and our lives new with His, He became our King.

But that cost Him.  Even now there are the scars in His hands.  He entered heaven as a slain Lamb, not a regal monarch.  He is forever our redemption.  Why?  Because he became like us.  He understands what flesh feels like - how it struggles.  His ears have burned and his heart quaked at the jeers and mockings of those who should have known His worth.  The heart of Jesus has been broken by the words and actions of bullies who pinned Him to a tree and left Him there to rot.  The deepest kind of betrayal done with the most profound display of hubris.  How could He then not understand my pain?

Since we have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has gone into heaven, let us hold fast 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 are, but He did not sin.  Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God's throne where there is grace.  There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it.  Hebrews 4:14-16

While Jesus lived on the earth, he prayed to God and asked God for help.  He prayed with loud cries and tears to the One Who could save Him from death, and His prayer was heard because He trusted in God.  Even though Jesus was the Son of God,  He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.   Hebrews 5: 7-6

Even in the process of securing our salvation,  the heart of God was to fully experience the plight of man so that man could fully experience the power of God.  Jesus knows my heart.  He knows my struggles to please other people  - to be really understood by those who do not get me.  The heart of Jesus has plumbed the depths of misery that is created by those who hate Him for no reason.  My Jesus is safe.  I can run to Him and He will not turn me away, but hold me in His arms and say:  "I know, child.  I know."



Monday, January 2, 2012

Psalm 22 - Hands Up, Feet Dancing!

Thou art holy, O Thou Who art enthroned upon the praises of Your people. (vs.3)

I have been thinking about this all night, waking up with praise on my mind. What does it look like for our God to inhabit, live in, dwell among our praise? The resounding noise in heaven is a constant acknowledgement of the God Who is, Who was, and Who is to come! The God of all, Who sits enthroned with the Lamb by His side and His Spirit permeating everything! I think heaven is loud with the symphony of praise! When God speaks, it is thunderous! When he is praised, it must be electrifying! So when I praise Him, I want to be heard above the din! I want my whole being involved so He can dwell comfortably in my worship! Hands up, feet dancing, heart engaged and voice lifted to the God I adore! I want Him to fall into my praise and live there with me! To dance and sing with me, me in Him and Him in me, inhabiting the throne I create with my song.

My mighty King, Who rules my life with purpose and power! Savior, Who gave Your life willingly so that I might never die! Ruler of the universe and all that exists everywhere, rule me! Powerful God Who makes something out of nothing, I am amazed by You! Giver of life and breath, joy and peace, I thank you! Designer, Creator and Architect, Your mind is beyond comprehending, for You alone are original, and we but copiers of your images. With a heart so large that it includes Your watch-care over everything You have made, I wonder that it also includes me. Beyond all that we can see with our technology lies a vastness yet to be defined and explored, yet it is known to You.  You have allowed us to understand a bit of Your greatness so we can be in awe of all we do not know. Pervading Spirit Who knows my thoughts and understands my way, I am brought facedown by the wonder of your grace. Oh, holy Father, my praises will never end that You would choose to love this child of Yours! That You would cover my sinful heart in streams of cleansing grace and mercy sets my heart pounding and my feet to dancing! You are incomparably beautiful. Though I have never seen Your face, I have experienced Your heart and known its fervor. My praises are inadequate, for words are not enough to offer the full expression of my soul to You! I must also speak with my spirit as it is warmed and energized in Your Presence, melted by the searing holiness of Your purity. I am unworthy in this place where You dwell! I cannot enter in except for the blood in which I am covered! Thank You, Lamb Who died. Beautiful Savior! Oh, may the whole earth sing over the redemption bought by Your holy blood! May we dance forever over the victory and sonship You purchased for us!! Holy God become defiled so we could come before our Father and Yours as beloved children instead of the wretches we once were! With never-ending kindness You lead our paths because You alone know the way. Before You stretches the beginning and the end, for You are above time and space, mighty in Your plans to take us to the new Jerusalem where we will revel in the Eden You desired from the beginning of our time! Light too bright to look on and live! Thundering power that flashes in Your Presence! Enthrone Yourself today in my praise of You, inadequate but wholehearted! My strength, my song, my deliverer, my provider, my shepherd, my savior, my banner, my beloved, my very breath, I praise You forever. Amen.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Psalm 22 - 2012

"My God, my God! Why have You forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46

Felt forsaken?   Ever felt like God actually rejected you?   Turned His back?

Honestly, I have never felt that.  I have turned my back and done my own thing before, but even in that I felt His presence.  How dark would it be if He really forsook me?   I cannot imagine being left in this world without Him.

Today I look into a new year - 2012.  What will it hold?  Next January first, what will I have experienced?  If what I believe is correct, my Father has already walked the path before me and laid out my way.  I am to find it, holding His hand in the day-to-day journey that is my life.  My Creator has promised that He will never leave me or forsake me.  When Joshua took over for Moses in the wilderness, Moses spoke to all the Israelites to prepare them for the new season without his guidance:

"Today I offer you life and success or death and destruction.  I command you today to love the Lord your God, to do what He wants you to do, and to keep His commands, His rules, His laws....Today I ask heaven and earth to be witnesses.  I am offering you life or death, blessings or cursings.  Now! Choose life!  To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey Him and stay close to Him.  He is your life....Be strong and brave.  Don't be afraid because the Lord, your God, is with you.  He will not leave you or forget you.
(Deuteronomy 30-31)

In this new year, I want to choose life.  I want to love God with my whole being.  I have many scattered allegiances that are not necessarily bad, but they keep my heart divided to a certain degree.  They cut into my time with the God in Whose bosom I want to rest. I want to honor the Savior who actually experienced the rejection of God for my sake.  I will never know the darkness of a world without my God.  The blackness of a moment that sent the Creator into such heartbreak that He shook the earth and blinded the sun, plunging the sphere into ebony confusion.  For when the Son ordered life back into His body, blew the rock out of the entrance to His tomb and walked into a new season, He took me with Him. Bought my freedom.  Paid my price.  Secured my future.

So, today. I choose life.  Again.  Anew.  Teach me, Christ, how to love You with my whole being. That nothing else really matters but knowing You.  Help me clean out the trash from my heart to make room for You in a new dwelling place, sparkling clean and bright for You to rejoice in inhabiting.  Because You have chosen to never leave me....never fail me....I choose to open up myself to Your perfect will on this first day of a new year.  I was born to be your dwelling place.  Make Yourself comfortable in me.