Next, God calls up the wicked:
"What are you up to, quoting My laws, talking like we are good friends? You never answer the door when I call; you treat My words like garbage. If you find a thief, you make him your buddy; adulterers are your friends of choice. Your mouth drools filth; lying is a serious art form with you. You stab your own brother in the back, rip off your little sister.
I kept a quiet patience while you did these things. You thought I went along with your game.
I'm calling you on the carpet, now, laying your wickedness out in plain sight." The Message Bible, Vs. 16-21
"Those things you have done, and I have been silent. You thought the I AM was just like yourself." ESV, Vs. 21
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55
Over the years I've had many conversations with those who feel they know God without Christ. Many of them are really good people, maybe better than some of us Christians. They say things like, "How could a loving God condemn me? I feed the poor every Saturday." "That is a pretty narrow view of religion, don't you think? I know God sees what I do. I don't need Jesus to be a good person." Or worse: "God helps those who help themselves." "God is too busy to hear my puny prayer." "God loves everyone and would never send a person to hell." "I always follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. God would not condemn me since I am such a caring person."
But here is the thing. Jesus says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with Me." Rev. 3:20
If you never answer the door, you remain locked inside of your own spiritual paradigm, thinking you know something about God because you have heard about Him from friends or listened to TBN once in your life. That is not enough for God. Don't quote the Ten Commandments as if you live them out, while your mouth is drooling the F-word every time you speak. When lying is as easy as breathing, or you have been living with your boyfriend for the past few years because society winks at it. God must, too, huh? Pornography is not even under the mattress anymore. Survival of the fittest is the rationale for screwing your friends and even relatives out of time and money. But, hey, God is a God of grace, isn't He? I haven't killed anyone. I'm no pedophile. Hell is for the really bad! Church is passe. The modern lapsed Christian doesn't need it any more. Out on the lake with the boat. Had too much alcohol on Saturday night with the peeps. But, God in His heaven is winking at all of this, because, well, it's you. He is a loving God. And, well, your life's still going great, so He must not be wielding that old bat of His at you for the peccadilloes of your life.
The big mistake here: We have thought that the great I AM is just like us. Ew, boy. And by His great grace we are not consumed. He waits for us to answer the door. To read His Word in an effort to understand Him instead of in an effort to get a pass on our bad behavior. Knocking. Knocking. Hear Him? Opening the door to Christ in order to gain a relationship with the Father is what God demands. By the Holy Spirit He actually comes into us. Lives in us. This was the big secret of redemption into which the angels longed to look. We now know that God wants to dwell with us so much that He sent His only Son to make that happen. To diminish that grace by waving off the One Who knocks at the door is to laugh off the blood of Christ as unimportant and useless. The highest offense to the great I AM.
By the grace of God, we can know how God thinks. And, trust me, it is not like we do! He understands the universe He created, down to the DNA "cities" that form everything in the world. He is brilliant! Creative! Omnipotent! Relational! Intentional! Our sin is an abomination to Him. He cannot look at it, much less wink at its hold on us.
I remember the very instant I asked Christ into my life. A miraculous shifting that was palpable in my spirit and heart. The Bible I had struggled to understand suddenly made sense. I began to love people I had trouble even liking before. Prayers were answered. The light came on in me. It seemed like opening the door to Jesus chased the darkness away. Shined the spotlight on the dirty crevices hidden in my interior. But I didn't hear Him say, "Now you clean up this mess and I'll come back in a few days (months, years, etc.) to see how you are coming along." No! He lives there now. The Holy God of All lives in me. Daily.
One day a couple of years ago I was praying in the morning as the sun began to cast its first light through my bedroom window. The streams of sunlight warmed my face as I felt His closeness to me. I had just remodeled the condo I was kneeling and praying in, so the thought was on my mind about redoing a home. My home. His home. Wanting this light shining on my face to be shining in on the place He dwells in me. Clean and sparkling. New paint. New flooring. Fresh and bright. A place where the Almighty enjoys reclining with me for conversation and a good meal. "Help me clean it up, Lord. Every cobweb, every dirty corner, every place You don't feel comfortable in me." I still picture Him there when we speak together daily. Take a broom each morning to the floor and Windex to the windows of my home. I don't want Him to wink at the dirt, but to help me, by His power, to vacuum any residue of sin so that I sparkle.
Now, if you don't see me "sparkle" today, I admit to my imperfections. What I don't admit to is any lack of desire to have a clean dwelling place. To understand and know my God. To read His Word so that I know His heart. To endeavor daily to think more like He thinks so I won't expect Him to wink at my sin....so I will know what He thinks is sin! All this not because I want brownie points. That was the whole point of His speaking of the sacrifices earlier in this psalm. I want to please the One I love. To think like He thinks. Love what He loves. Hate what He hates. Do what I see Him do. I take Him with me into whatever I am about. He reads what I read. Watches what I watch. Hears what I say and knows my thoughts. Daily I pray to think more like Him. Make His thoughts my thoughts. His ways my ways. I don't want Him to be like me.
"For who has understood the mind of the Lord that we might instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16
"What are you up to, quoting My laws, talking like we are good friends? You never answer the door when I call; you treat My words like garbage. If you find a thief, you make him your buddy; adulterers are your friends of choice. Your mouth drools filth; lying is a serious art form with you. You stab your own brother in the back, rip off your little sister.
I kept a quiet patience while you did these things. You thought I went along with your game.
I'm calling you on the carpet, now, laying your wickedness out in plain sight." The Message Bible, Vs. 16-21
"Those things you have done, and I have been silent. You thought the I AM was just like yourself." ESV, Vs. 21
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55
Over the years I've had many conversations with those who feel they know God without Christ. Many of them are really good people, maybe better than some of us Christians. They say things like, "How could a loving God condemn me? I feed the poor every Saturday." "That is a pretty narrow view of religion, don't you think? I know God sees what I do. I don't need Jesus to be a good person." Or worse: "God helps those who help themselves." "God is too busy to hear my puny prayer." "God loves everyone and would never send a person to hell." "I always follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. God would not condemn me since I am such a caring person."
But here is the thing. Jesus says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with Me." Rev. 3:20
If you never answer the door, you remain locked inside of your own spiritual paradigm, thinking you know something about God because you have heard about Him from friends or listened to TBN once in your life. That is not enough for God. Don't quote the Ten Commandments as if you live them out, while your mouth is drooling the F-word every time you speak. When lying is as easy as breathing, or you have been living with your boyfriend for the past few years because society winks at it. God must, too, huh? Pornography is not even under the mattress anymore. Survival of the fittest is the rationale for screwing your friends and even relatives out of time and money. But, hey, God is a God of grace, isn't He? I haven't killed anyone. I'm no pedophile. Hell is for the really bad! Church is passe. The modern lapsed Christian doesn't need it any more. Out on the lake with the boat. Had too much alcohol on Saturday night with the peeps. But, God in His heaven is winking at all of this, because, well, it's you. He is a loving God. And, well, your life's still going great, so He must not be wielding that old bat of His at you for the peccadilloes of your life.
The big mistake here: We have thought that the great I AM is just like us. Ew, boy. And by His great grace we are not consumed. He waits for us to answer the door. To read His Word in an effort to understand Him instead of in an effort to get a pass on our bad behavior. Knocking. Knocking. Hear Him? Opening the door to Christ in order to gain a relationship with the Father is what God demands. By the Holy Spirit He actually comes into us. Lives in us. This was the big secret of redemption into which the angels longed to look. We now know that God wants to dwell with us so much that He sent His only Son to make that happen. To diminish that grace by waving off the One Who knocks at the door is to laugh off the blood of Christ as unimportant and useless. The highest offense to the great I AM.
By the grace of God, we can know how God thinks. And, trust me, it is not like we do! He understands the universe He created, down to the DNA "cities" that form everything in the world. He is brilliant! Creative! Omnipotent! Relational! Intentional! Our sin is an abomination to Him. He cannot look at it, much less wink at its hold on us.
I remember the very instant I asked Christ into my life. A miraculous shifting that was palpable in my spirit and heart. The Bible I had struggled to understand suddenly made sense. I began to love people I had trouble even liking before. Prayers were answered. The light came on in me. It seemed like opening the door to Jesus chased the darkness away. Shined the spotlight on the dirty crevices hidden in my interior. But I didn't hear Him say, "Now you clean up this mess and I'll come back in a few days (months, years, etc.) to see how you are coming along." No! He lives there now. The Holy God of All lives in me. Daily.
One day a couple of years ago I was praying in the morning as the sun began to cast its first light through my bedroom window. The streams of sunlight warmed my face as I felt His closeness to me. I had just remodeled the condo I was kneeling and praying in, so the thought was on my mind about redoing a home. My home. His home. Wanting this light shining on my face to be shining in on the place He dwells in me. Clean and sparkling. New paint. New flooring. Fresh and bright. A place where the Almighty enjoys reclining with me for conversation and a good meal. "Help me clean it up, Lord. Every cobweb, every dirty corner, every place You don't feel comfortable in me." I still picture Him there when we speak together daily. Take a broom each morning to the floor and Windex to the windows of my home. I don't want Him to wink at the dirt, but to help me, by His power, to vacuum any residue of sin so that I sparkle.
Now, if you don't see me "sparkle" today, I admit to my imperfections. What I don't admit to is any lack of desire to have a clean dwelling place. To understand and know my God. To read His Word so that I know His heart. To endeavor daily to think more like He thinks so I won't expect Him to wink at my sin....so I will know what He thinks is sin! All this not because I want brownie points. That was the whole point of His speaking of the sacrifices earlier in this psalm. I want to please the One I love. To think like He thinks. Love what He loves. Hate what He hates. Do what I see Him do. I take Him with me into whatever I am about. He reads what I read. Watches what I watch. Hears what I say and knows my thoughts. Daily I pray to think more like Him. Make His thoughts my thoughts. His ways my ways. I don't want Him to be like me.
"For who has understood the mind of the Lord that we might instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16
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