PSALM 135 - My Father's Office

O house of Israel, bless the Lord! O house of Aaron, bless the Lord! O house of Levi, bless the Lord! You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord! Blessed be the Lord from Zion, He Who dwells in Jerusalem! Praise the Lord!  (Verses 19-21)

Since then we have a great high priest Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest Who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One Who in every way has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace in time of need.  Hebrews 4:14-16

I'm thinking of the famous picture of JFK in his office with John F. Kennedy, Jr., John-John. Sitting behind his massive desk, the president is shuffling through important papers while his son, who has been crawling between the president's legs, wiggles through them and looks out at the camera from the space between each side of the desk. The boy looks surprised that someone is taking a picture of the moment. To him, it's an ordinary thing, navigating the sacred Oval Office. It's where Dad works. John-John is welcome there. The President's kid has access only he is privileged to.

One priest once a year was allowed to go behind the curtain of the Holy of Holies in order to plead for forgiveness for the Israelites. The priest, a Levite, must also take the blood of the perfect sacrificial animal and sprinkle it before God onto the Mercy Seat for his unintentional sins as well as those of all the people. There was no general approaching of the Mighty God for the population of Jews. Going into the inner sanctuary where God dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem was a very, very exclusive right. It wasn't entered into lightly, either. The Levites had to go through a meticulous period of cleansing. The old covenant, the Law, was all about the rules. And a perfect lamb must shed its blood in a divine picture of what God would finally do in the new covenant with all who believe in Jesus. The writer of Hebrews explains it better than I can: But when Christ came as the high priest of good things we now have, He entered the greater and more perfect tent. It is not made by humans and does not belong to this world. Christ entered the Most Holy Place only once--and for all time. He did not take with Him the blood of goats and calves. His sacrifice was His own blood, and by it He set us free from sin forever.

Uncanny things happened in the universe on the afternoon Jesus died. A blood moon appeared, the earth shook, some dead rose from their graves and were seen walking about...but significant to our access to the throne of God was this: The heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the outer courts of the temple was sixty feet high, twenty feet wide and as thick as 4 inches. It was huge! And virtually indestructible. Yet, on that afternoon, God ripped it in to two pieces, from the top to the bottom, revealing His Holy place to all. Accepting as the once-for-all sacrifice for sin, the blood sprinkled not on the Mercy Seat, but on the dust of Golgotha.

Like John-John, I now have access to the King. Not of some small kingdom situated on planet Earth. I can come boldly, as a beloved daughter, right into the throne room. There my Lamb sits at the right hand of the Father, intimately concerned with every little thing about my life--good and bad. I can go directly to the heart of things in the throne room because nothing is hidden from my God. Grace and Truth at His right hand reminds the Father of His blood that has covered in mercy and grace my sinfulness. I belong to the Father now. That blood has given me the privilege to dance and pray and sing in the Presence without fear because I am precious--as precious as my Savior's sacrifice. I don't need a priest, because Jesus is mine. And once and for all, I am forgiven, cleansed and set free from the horrible chains of my former life.

I will bless the Lord Who lives in Zion! Who sits enthroned in a rainbow of brightest emerald as the energy of heaven produces thunder and flashes of lightning while all heaven sings praises night and day (Revelation 4). I get to go in there. Whenever I want! And join the exaltation or talk about my needs. It's home. Zion. Where my Father lives. I will bless Him there forever!
 

PSALM 135 - Be Still and Shut Up

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see; they have ears but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.
(Verses 15-18)

What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols! Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach: Behold, it's overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.  Habakkuk 2:18-20

For most of us, it's obvious that ancient idol worship was somewhat ridiculous. I mean, we don't have little shrines set up to represent our gods, do we? I go into our local nail salon for pedicures occasionally and see a fat little Buddha surrounded by oranges and smoking with the morning's incense. But we don't do that, do we? While in Mexico City years ago, I watched a woman crawling on her bloody knees toward the steps of the Catedral de Guadelupe Hildalgo. She was weeping as she made her way, holding a crucifix in her hands. Yesterday I saw a homeless woman begging for the money that fuels her addiction to drugs, talking crazy as she stopped each person passing by. Really, to be honest with myself, I've had my own idols. They aren't made of wood or stone, but they've replaced my need for God in a moment or a season. Idols just as impotent and ridiculous as a stone monument to some made up deity. I've been lied to by the things I put in the place of my God.

I'm reasonably intelligent, so I don't go outside to find the nearest chunk of fine teak so that I can bring it home to form a thing I will then worship. I know it's just a carving I made up. It would be intellectual suicide for me to then bend down in homage to the image I'd just created. The thing is, I haven't been so darn smart when it comes to bowing down to things that aren't so obviously a lie. Anything more important to me than God is an idol to which I bow. Think about it. What stands in the way of our doing what God wants for us? What have we really made more important than He? It could be our mate, our kids, our job, our hopes and dreams. It could be drugs, alcohol, food, a lover, a friend, bitterness, depression, unforgiveness or cigarettes. Where do we go when we should be going to our God? What makes it all better for us? That's our idol.

I believe two things cause us to slide away from God into a pit where idols lie to us. Pain and prosperity. One takes us down into a place of hopelessness and cries out, "Fix this now!" The other tells us we are mighty and have no need of God. I'll take pain first. I know this to be a fact and can completely understand why someone deeply hurt will need to medicate--a diversion, even, from the onslaught that has left her beaten and desperate. Especially if she doesn't know God. I did...do...and still fell into the pit this way. Because God sometimes seems far away and impotent. And Satan's job is to take us from pain to more pain. Be assured, child of God, the enemy of our souls is there when we are knocked flat, laughing and rubbing his hands together. It's the perfect opportunity to reach out to us and offer a quick fix. But we know, one high leads to another...and then we are trapped. We become like our idol. Helpless, breathless, speechless...addicted. It was all a lie. Many have lost everything and still hold the hand of a lying, ruthless idol.

Prosperity. Solomon was the wisest man who'd lived up to his time. He was felled into idolatry and adultery because of his riches. They swallowed him up. Sublimated his need for God. Idle and in need of entertainment, he bought wives and concubines. Lust for them came with a price--lust also for their gods. People haven't changed since then. The wealthiest of us can't seem to find God beneath the piles of things that meet every possible need and desire. Maybe that's why Jesus said it's very hard for a rich person to become a Christian. They don't feel the need for God as they bow down to all that money can buy.

What's the answer to our need? I'll go with Habakkuk on this one. Be still and shut up. Still the voices in our heads that condemn God. Yes. Condemn God. The tape recorder we often listen to that says the real and awesome God, isn't looking out for our best interest. Isn't still on His throne actively involved, breathing and real, able to teach and guide. Both pain and prosperity are tools for the enemy to scream at us we need something other than the one true God. And we won't hear God from His throne if we can't quiet the lies that bring us finally to our faces in abject surrender to the fix the enemy has so heinously prepared for us. If you find yourself in the grip of an idol...if you recognize its hold on you...run. Run to the throne room--to the only hope you have--and lie there and wait. In the frenzy of your pain or in the drunken stupor of the wealth that has intoxicated you, you will discover the vacuum that has brought you to another god. The emptiness might be quite painful, it might take your breath away. But look at it. Don't try to fix it; don't pour Satan's elixir on it. Feel it. And give it away. In the silence you will know, beyond any doubt, you have believed a lie. But you will also find a breathing, talking, loving God who wants to move His tabernacle, His holy temple, into the empty places of your pain. This I know.

 

PSALM 135 - This Song In My Head!

Your name, O Lord, endures forever, Your renown O, Lord, throughout all ages. For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants.  (Verses 13-14)

Moses is about to die. God has told him this. And God also knew that "this people will rise and whore after foreign gods among them in the land they are entering, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant (Deuteronomy 31)." The upshot of that will be that God will become extremely angry over their idol worship and debauchery. Ultimately, in their straying from God with bellies full of the fruits and prosperity of the Promised Land, life will fail them. Things will go horribly awry and the people will say, "It's because we forsook our God!"

In order to vindicate Himself, God dictates a song to Moses and commands the prophet to teach it to the nation prior to their entrance into Canaan. "Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers...they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise Me and break My covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness, for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring." Much of the song is a recap of all God has been to them and done for them. Lest their generation and future generations forget God's power, protection and prescience. Midway through the song there are these lyrics: Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes quickly. For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants, when He sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. Then He will say, "Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge?"

When we get to the end of ourselves...when our idols come crashing down around us, showing themselves to be the empty, vacuous treasures they are...there is still our God. Yes, He's been angry. Of course, God's been standing by having to watch our deliberate dancing before our addictions. Crazy in love with what makes the aching need for all that only God can fill medicated for a time. And at the end of the road, with our faces to the ground, we will say, "I'm in this mess because I forsook my God!" He waits for that. God's heart has ached...He made ours like His, so of course, it aches...to see His beloved children run to idols that are erected to their destruction.

"Take to heart," said Moses, "all the words by which I'm warning you today, command them to your children, too, that they may be careful to do them. He's just finished reading the song lyrics. Knows how important its message will be in future gluttonous generations. "For this is no empty word for you, but your very life! Oh, had they listened. Life wasn't in the law but in the heart of God! Listen, people, listen to the words of your God to you. No other gods are alive! No other gods bring life!

God knew they would stray. The lyrics of this song were to be burned into their minds and roll off their tongues for generations. Because when they found themselves entrapped and entangled with the sinful repercussions of idol worship, God wanted them to remember Who He is and what He'd done. Vindicated in comparison to false gods. When all the "Oms" have been chanted, the drugs injected, the lovers departed, the power depleted...when things fall apart, God wants His people to know that if they'd stuck with the One Who calls them "Beloved," they wouldn't be powerless in a place where they've lost it all. Don't blame God. His great love vindicates Him.

Stunningly, though, is for us the more impossible thought. Even though we've deliberately, intentionally walked away from His Great Love, find ourselves like the prodigal son, face down in the excrement of our choices, God allows Himself to be found by us and then goes after the idol that took us down. "Rejoice with Him, O heavens, bow down to Him, all gods, for He avenges the blood of His children and takes vengeance on His adversaries!" Who else loves me like that? Who else could take my willful brokenness upon Himself, make it His case against evil, and avenge the root of my own choices? It brings a sudden gush of tears to my eyes right now, because I have been the wretched, lost recipient of my Father's unrelenting love. I've felt the Hand of comfort on my brow when I deserved the switch of wrath on my backside. And it makes me hate the idols of my adultery toward Him. Makes me cling to the folds in His robe. Makes me cry out every morning and all through the day, "Don't leave me, Lord, not ever. I can't breathe without the One Who is my very life!"      Scriptures from The Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32    Italics, mine

PSALM 135 - He's Got Your Back!

He it was Who struck down the first born of Egypt, both of man and of beast; Who, in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants; Who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to His people Israel.   (Verses 8-12)

Remember how Moses came to be in the house of the king of Egypt? There was an edict that all the male children born to Jewish women should be killed. In order to save her child, his mother set Moses in a basket and let it float in the Nile toward the bathing daughter of Pharaoh. Saved from the slaughter, Moses grew up as the princess's child. The revenge for that slaughter took a generation for God to deal with. He performed mighty miracles through Moses when the man returned at the age of eighty with an imperative from God to get His people out of slavery to the Egyptians. Over and over again there was no relenting from the Egyptian government. No matter which plague, every mighty act of  God was ignored until the night of Passover when the angel of death took the firstborn of any whose home didn't have the blood of a lamb on its doorpost. That seems pretty patient of God...being as gentle as He can with stubborn hearts. Showing His power and glory and hoping for a response to that instead of having to play the brutal hand that avenged the deaths of the Israeli children eight decades previous to that mournful night.

On their journey through the desert, the Israelites needed to pass through the land of the Amorites over which Sihon was king. He'd won the land by killing the former king of Moab and taking all the land out of the man's hands in a bloodbath. Israel sent messengers to Sihon asking for safe passage through the land via the King's Highway, a thoroughfare used for peaceful transport. Israel vowed not to drink from the wells of the Amorites or turn into their vineyards. The mass of people in exodus from Egypt just wanted to walk on through. Sihon's response to their peaceful request was war...a bloody battle in Jahaz. Israel fought against the Amorites and won, taking control of their country.
It was the first victory of their journey to Canaan and showed them their God was still with them. It was a struggle they were surprised by, but God championed them.

In Deuteronomy 3, Moses tells the story of the defeat of Og, who was king of Bashan. This struggle came on the heels of the fight with Sihon. Bashan heard of the coming throng of Israelites and went out to slaughter them and take their spoils. No provocation. "Do not fear him," said the Lord to Moses. "I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand." And so it was.

To anyone simply reading this psalm without thought to the stories behind it, God would seem ruthless and angry, taking lives of entire nations in order to establish His people in Canaan. History, however, records the savage nature of those kingdoms. Imagine the torturous sobbing and heartache the Jewish women experienced at the mass slaughter of their babies. Pharaoh's ears were silent to the anguish he caused by the infanticide. God is slow to anger, but the retribution came at the end of that generation, to a Pharaoh still stubborn and haughty.

God doesn't arbitrarily extinguish nations or command the slaughter of kings, but He does protect His children from the power of the enemy. I'm sure back then those enslaved wondered when on earth God was going to free them. Why day after day they were stuck in the same old bondage to the same old ruler. While Moses was herding his father-in-law's sheep in a desert wilderness, God had a plan. All along. And it was big. And the Jews wouldn't have been able to dream it up in their wildest imaginations. Plagues of frogs, rivers of blood, boils, hail and mass deaths of livestock. Natural disasters that swarmed in at the waving of a dried up stick from the floor of the desert.

Why would God do such a thing? Love. "He who touches you touches the apple of His eye. (Zechariah 2:8)." That's why. Whoever comes against us in our walk with God comes up against Him. To our God it's like someone sticking something in the iris of His eye. It stings. It makes Him mad. He feels what we feel. In every case described in this psalm, man poked at what is precious to God...first! But be careful when our God stands up! His great love covers us, defends and protects us. And though to us it might seem slow in coming, God's great grace is extended to even our enemies so that they might come to repentance. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night...(2 Peter 3). Make no mistake, you are loved by Love Itself. Covered in eternal protection. Equipped to fight your enemy, the evil one. Trust the heart of the General Who leads the surge because He's already won the war!
 

PSALM 135 - What Does God Really Want?

For I know that Yahweh is great. Our Lord is greater than all gods. Yahweh does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths. He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from their storehouses.  (Verses 5-7)

 "The God of the Old Testament is an angry God." Hmm. I guess one could read of the rebellion of men and women and God's judgment on their sin in a way that makes God an irritable old guy in the sky Who carries a large switch that He can't wait to use on errant humans as they dally in their folly. However, that would mean the seeker reading the Bible would have entirely missed the heart of God evident there on every page. So if God does whatever He pleases on the earth and every other imaginable place, should that make us wary of Him? Should we run in fear because He's essentially after us for our infractions? What is it that pleases Him?

Certainly creation. The beauty that makes us wonder at it. Stars, moon, mountains, oceans, valleys, hills, varied creatures too numerous to mention, sand, forests, sunrise, sunset. It is good in His eyes. Made for us to live in and enjoy. Food for our bellies and a feast for our eyes. A world that makes us write poetry and sing love songs. Pristine in its inception. Marred only by our humanity. And it pleases God when we acknowledge that He made it...all of it. He should be able to expect that from us, shouldn't He?

Obedience. I know this a place of conflict in the hearts of some, that God would demand our obedience. Who does He think He is? Um...God. And this desire on His part to see us do what He wants isn't a wielding of power out of His great hubris. He knows how He created things to work. He knows everything; so, of course, He knows things we don't know. To thumb our noses at Him as we do it "our way" is completely idiotic if we understand how little we really understand. It's like a two-year-old striking out on her own to get a job, a husband and a car. Ridiculous. "Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifice as much as obeying the Lord?" The prophet Samuel is speaking with King Saul after the king willingly disobeyed what God told him to do. Look: To obey is better than sacrifice. To pay attention is better than the fat of rams." God's not looking for us to do all the holy things that smack of religion so we feel better about not doing what He asks. The bottom line is, "Do we trust His heart toward us is good?" If we do, we will happily obey, even when we have no clue what's going on...which, by the way, is most of the time, for me.

Giving. To us. It makes God deliriously happy to pour out His blessings on us. Have you ever tried to be sweet to a rebellious kid, neighbor or friend? Giving to someone who always thinks you have ulterior motives? It's beyond frustrating to be completely misunderstood in one's benevolence. How much more God. He knows we are dust (Psalm 103), but we've been made in His image (Genesis 3). We are capable of great wisdom and power when we accept the gift of life given to us by Jesus. Here is the heart of the Old Testament God from Isaiah 41, speaking of the coming Savior: This is what God, Yahweh, says--Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and what comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk on it--"I, Yahweh, have called You (Jesus) for a righteous purpose, and I will hold You by Your hand. I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those sitting in darkness from the prison house."  (Italics, mine) 

His children. Before we knew it, God had a heavenly plan to bring us not only to salvation, but into His family. "Look at how great a love the Father has given to us that we should be called God's children. And we are!" exclaimed the apostle John (I John 3). It pleased God to make us His kids! To lavish His grace on us, cover our rebelliousness with the blood of Christ that paid a heavy, heavy price for our adoption into the family. For you didn't receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by Whom we cry out "Abba, Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children, and if children, then also heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8).  We get it all. Just the same as Jesus does. And that gives God joy to offer us a place at His table.

God could, as the preeminent Creator and Sustainer of Everything, be Whoever He wanted to be. Do to us whatever He wanted to do. His heart is now, and always has been, to be near us and love us. From the garden of Eden forward, it's been His number one priority. We have broken His heart over and over again. His response: Come here to Earth, show us what Christ's love looks like, then die a sacrificial death so that we can be eternally His kids. God knew in the Old Testament He'd have to do that as it shows in the Isaiah 41 verse I quoted. So how in the world do we go the other way? There really is no other way. We are quite lost without His guidance; quite deprived without His parenting; quite desiccated without His love. Let God be God, then. Trust the heart that wants to make us His and His alone.

 

PSALM 135 - The Little Pot That Would...

Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord! Give praise, O servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of the Lord our God! Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to His name, for it is pleasant! For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself; Israel as His own possession.  (Verses 1-4)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 1:3-5

 The little earthen jar sat cooling on the shelf after she was removed from the kiln. Beside her were ornate, larger vases created to grace the homes of millionaires, perhaps. One was clothed in a coating of real silver and its lips were lined with large amethysts that sparkled even in the inglorious lighting produced by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling in the storage room where they waited. On the other side of the little jar was a "special order." A hand-built planter on which intricate scenes had been carved by the master potter, whose wheel fashioned world-renowned creations. So when the potter took the earthen jar from her place and wrapped her carefully in tissue paper, the jar thought only of the ignoble purposes she might be used for. Probably on my way to a souvenir shop in the city. It was all right, though. She knew she hadn't been designed for greatness. A mundane knick-knack at best. A runt of a creation. An afterthought of the potter, maybe just an excuse for him to use left over clay. The detritus from the lovelier vessels.

The smaller jar joined the lovely masterpieces in the back of the potter's station wagon where they traveled down country roads toward the big city shop in which most of them would be displayed. The gorgeous ones, who deserved grand attention and would command exorbitant prices, talked excitedly among themselves. Expressed great hope of being in His great mansion. The One Who came often to shop, wanting to find just the right piece, and Whose great halls were filled with just the kind of light that made clay vessels shine in a way they'd never dreamt of. But the little jar kept silent. She knew she was created for function. Not beauty. Never had any hope, really, of being on display in the grandeur of the Man's place.

The potter pulled up to the rear door of an upscale shop on Main Street. Left all his creations with the shop owner. Hey, you made a mistake! The little jar wanted to jump up and down. I'm not supposed to be with these others! But, of course, the potter couldn't hear her. Hours later, the shop owner lifted the little jar from the box and unwrapped the bubble wrap and the tissue paper that hid her from view. Disappointment registered on the lady's face as she turned the jar over and over in her hands. "Hmmm..," said the woman as she studied the diminutive vessel from every angle. "Hmm..," she said again. Calling a sales representative over, the owner said, "Come look at this one."

I know I'm not like the others. I didn't ask to be here. The potter made a mistake. A shameful thing. Not good enough. I wish they'd stop looking at me that way.

The saleslady took the jar from the hands of the shop owner and wandered around the lovely gallery within the shop deciding where to put such a thing as that. It seemed to the earthen jar to take forever, making her feel even more out of place and ugly. Finally, at the very back of the shop, the woman made room for the jar on a dusty shelf seldom used and almost out of sight. There she was left all by herself.

Days and weeks went by. From her perch on the shelf, the small vessel watched as wealthy and important people wandered the galleries of the shop, sometimes fingering the lovelier creations saying "ooh" and "aah" as they wondered at the craftsmanship and beauty of the many pieces of artwork sprung from the potter's wheel. Sadly, no one noticed her sitting hopeful on her shelf.

The day came at last when the bells hanging from the entry door to the shop jangled in surprise as they announced the coming of the Man. All the magnificent creations sat up a little straighter; put on their best faces; shone bright as possible to display their loveliness and worthiness to Him. They held their collective breath. This was the moment they'd waited for!

Our little pot wriggled down in shame on her shelf, fearful that He would notice how small and worthless she was next to the gleaming and intricate works presenting themselves in all their glory. That's why what happened next so stunned and changed the insignificant jar. The Man said, "I've come for the magnificent creation on that shelf over there," and He pointed toward her. "I want it for My own." And He smiled broadly.

"That one?" The shop owner was incredulous. She actually pointed her long skinny finger toward the dusty shelf at the back of the store.

"Yes. Yes!" He replied. "I absolutely love it!" Then the Man pulled out His money clip. "Here," He offered. "I'll pay three times what you're asking for it! That's how much I want to take it home with Me."

"No. No," replied the shop owner. "That pot's not worth nearly that much!" She pushed the money back toward the Man.

"Maybe not to you," He said, "but I have just the place to display its beauty."

As the Man walked back to the shelf where the little  pot sat shivering in fear, the others gaped. "What?' she heard them whispering to each other. "She's nothing, that silly pot!"

But when He picked her up and held her to the light, gently blowing away the dust that had gathered in her cracks and crevices, He smiled. "I've always wanted a beauty like you," He cooed to the little earthen jar. And the bell jangled cheerily as the Man walked out with His treasure.

Chosen because...because we are chosen. That's it. Not because we are grand and glorious. Not because of our potential and power. Not because we are better than the rest...or worse. We are chosen by God because He decides to make us His. That's all. Often God walks past the most likely candidate for His benevolence, straight to the ones we think deserve it the least. And God gets to choose for Himself His own possessions. Praise God for His eye for beauty. For His prescience in our lack of potential. For knowing just where we fit into His glorious kingdom. Stand in the house of the Lord and sing! For we are all little jars of clay God picked by grace to adorn His courts forever!!!

PSALM 134 - Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!

May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.  (Verse 3)

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens...In Christ we are set free by the blood of His death, and so we have forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  Ephesians 1:3, 7-8

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In God's great mercy He has caused us to be born again into a living hope because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Now we hope for the blessings God has for His children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept for you in heaven. God's power protects you through your faith until salvation is shown to you at the end of time.  1 Peter 1-5    Italics, mine

I've heard people say that heaven can't be a substantial place. Not palpable and real, like Earth. Their thinking is that it's a completely spiritual realm where we are see-through vapors, souls only, moving ghost-like through a place where everything is translucent and, in my opinion, a little weird. That isn't what Jesus promised us. The book of Revelation that was given to John, the apostle, straight from the mouth of the risen Jesus, tells of a city, measured out in exact dimensions, with jewel-encrusted foundations and a mighty river that pounds through it. Huge trees bear fruit that heavenly saints eat. And before He left Earth on the night of His arrest, Jesus told His disciples: "Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you (John 14)." Heaven is as real as Earth and as substantial. If it weren't, Jesus would have told us that.

So, what can we expect from the God Who dwells there as our Father? Do you expect to have blessings lavished upon you today? Lavished. That is the kind of grace we received by the death of Christ. The spiritual blessing of salvation was an extravagant purchase, bought by the blood of God's Beloved Son. A real Son. Real blood. That sets us free! And, boy, do we need to be unchained! We have been rescued from the grasp of Satan and unfettered from our own reckless desires. We are freed to be our true selves, children of the Most High God, filled with the Holy Spirit, made new to walk in joy, no longer having to follow the road to hell. That doesn't mean we don't struggle. We do. But we have One Who protects us through our faith. Jesus is still watching out for us in our warfare with the world. Blessing us with a grace and hope that can't be destroyed or spoiled. My heart is drinking that in this morning. I want to experience every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ and to be drenched in sumptuous grace. To know my Abba is seeing my life today from the throne room and encircling it with blessing. I can't breathe without His blessing. I tell Him this every day.

My grandsons went home last Friday. Back to Virginia with their mom. Waiting for them was a dad who hadn't seen them in over two weeks. "I have surprises for you," Nick told them over the phone on Thursday. "They're waiting for you when you get here." That's exactly what our Father says to us. "I'm keeping a place for you...and I can't wait to give you all the blessings I've stored up to lavish on you when you get home." Unspeakable beauty, unfathomable joy, uninterrupted time with our God. Only the hint of that down here. Earth is only a type of the real realm where everything begins and ends. Where the Maker of heaven and earth chooses to cry out blessing over me right now, reminding me of the blessings yet to come.

May the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you today from Zion!!