Refill, please?

[Note: A short time after I wrote this article, I had the opportunity of dining at a local restaurant with my sister and two of her grandchildren. I noticed that about mid-way through the meal, a waiter approached our table to ask if we needed anything. My 12- year-old great nephew held up his glass and politely asked, "Sir, may I have another Sprite, please?"

I was impressed, first of all with his politeness, and secondly, because of his confident expectant attitude as he held up his glass, and thirdly, because he knew precisely who to ask.... It was an example to me for the way we look to God - with respect and reverence, with expectancy and confidence, knowing He is the only one who can give us what we need and want.]





The Bible talks a lot about cups...the cup of God's wrath mostly, throughout the Old Testament and several times in John's Revelation;  and then in Jeremiah, the cup of consolation which will not be offered to the disobedient.

But in another passage I ran across different cup - in Psalm 116:

How can I repay the LORD

for all His goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of the LORD.

  --Psalm 116:12-13

I can't turn away from this....it is written on my mind like an important sticky note...

Does this mean we repay the LORD for His goodness by lifting our cup and asking for more? Can that be? (That's why we usually lift our cups...for refills....)

We give thanks to Him by asking Him to give us more?

More of his bounty? More of His presence? More of His abundant goodness? More of the water of life? Of His manna from heaven?

I guess it shows our grateful hearts. And it shows our parched throats begging for His water of life.

 It shows we are needy! And desperate!

 And where else can we go? For He has the eternal, never-ending supply of everything!

I think the key to this scripture is just that: we repay God by expressing our gratefulness to Him and by asking Him to give us more!

A man dying of thirst on the desert, when rescued, is told to drink small sips at first, and then he gulps down every drop and drains the cup and holds it up for more.

And who, with water available, would deny him?

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.

Psalm 42:1

This is my plan for today - I will drain that cup of blessing - I will drain it dry - to the dregs -- and then raise it up  again and ask for more!

I think we drain it by thanking Him. We have ears, eyes, fingers. We see His gifts, acknowledge them, and thank Him with a full-to-overflowing heart.....

What a great way to live! It's got to be the best deal in the universe -- He gives me His presence and His presents....I just say thanks and ask for more......how could anyone turn this down?

(I almost feel like I am cheating!)

Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up Lord

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul

Bread of heaven, feed me til I want no more

Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.

The Heidelberg Catechism

Reviewing the old Heidelberg Catechism.  (I know, I'm obsessed with old writing! But this is really special.)

It was written in 1563 - the year before Shakespeare was born.

Catechism means "question and answer teaching." 

The Heidelberg Catechism was used to teach the important beliefs of the church to children and adults. It is still used today, in dozens of languages.

It is divided into 52 lessons - one for each Lord's Day. And each lesson had accompanying Bible verses to be learned.

Here is the first part -

                                 LORD'S DAY #1

Question: What is your only comfort in life and in death?

Answer: That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. 

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Romans 14:7-9

I Peter 1:18-19

1 John 1:7-9, 2:2

John 8:34-36; Hebrews 2:14-15

2 Thessalonians 3:3

1 Peter 1:5

Matthew 10:29-31; Luke 21:16-18

Romans 8:15-17, 28

2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 5:5

Ephesians 1:13-14

So you want to be King?

It surprises me how easily some people are distracted from regularly reading God's Word -- His eternal and up-to-date Message to us, His children.

Instead of reading the Bible as a part of their daily walk with the Lord, they stumble through the day without that divine comfort and source of wisdom.

Not just many of us "regular" people, but also the "shakers and movers" of our world. 

What wise counsel they are missing!

In Deuteronomy 17:18-19 God cautions the future kings of Israel:

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.

Notice the precise nature of these commands:

1. The King was to personally copy the Scriptures by hand. He was to personally copy and study the Word, not depend on advisers, no matter how experienced, to decide issues.

"Your statues are my delight; they are my counselors," we read in Psalm 119:24.

When you copy a text by hand, you are learning it. Making note of every word and the components of every phrase.

He was not to instruct a scribe to make his copy!

2. He was to keep a copy with him. Close at hand. So that he could refer to it throughout the day as he faced important decisions.

3. He was to read it daily. Not often. Not when he remembered to, but "all the days of his life." That means every day. Like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who "examined the Scriptures every day," we need God's Word constantly, just like rest, and food and water. It gives us strength and guidance for victory.

4. Studying his Bible would teach him to revere (honor) the LORD. This is life-changing information -- we learn to revere and honor God through reading His Word - which of us does not yearn to honor Him more? Well, that's how we learn to do it!

James tells us "do not merely listen to the word...do what it says.." and that is "how we achieve the righteous life that God desires" (James 1:22, 19).

So to achieve the righteous life that God desires -- we read (and obey) His Word! So profoundly simple!


"I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word" a famous King once explained (Psalm 119:15-16)

Meditating on God's holy standards - considering (pondering) His ways - not neglecting His Word - that's revering and honoring God!

5. He was to follow carefully the words of the law. That law he copied, and kept close and read daily -- he was also to obey it.

"I have not departed from your laws, for you yourself have taught me." Psalm 119:102

"If you love Me, you will obey Me," Jesus said to His disciples often (cf. John 14:15, etc.)


All these commands to earthly kings also apply to us.

The King was to obey God in every matter. The same applies to us. We are even more special than kings. We are called "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God" (1 Peter 2:9).

Aren't we right now in preparation to be rulers? The Scriptures tell us that someday we will reign with Him in His Kingdom.

Shouldn't we, right now, begin doing what God commands His kings to do?

Feeding The World

                                        How To Feed the World   

          Luke 9  --  Great crowds were following Jesus. Late one afternoon the disciples came to Him and said He should send the crowd away so they could go somewhere and find food.

           He replied, "You give them something to eat."

           What a command! He wanted them to feed the crowd!

            As I look around today I see a hungry crowd everywhere I look. I think He's telling us to feed them!

           Gloria Gaither wrote a beautiful song about that. She titled it "I Then Shall Live" and sings it to Sibelius' composition "Finlandia." These are my favorite passages when I think about that event recorded in Luke 9:

I then shall live as one who's been forgiven

I'll walk with joy to know my debts are paid

I know my name is clear before my Father

I am His child and I am not afraid.

So greatly pardoned, I'll forgive my brother

The law of love I gladly will obey.

Your Kingdom come around and through and in me

Your Power and Glory, let them shine through me.

Your hallowed Name, O may I bear with honor

And may Your living Kingdom come in me.

The bread of life, O may I share with honor, 

And may You feed a hungry world through me."

Let's go out and feed our hungry world today!

    

       

How Does A Miracle Start?

I'm reading again in The Chumash (Stone Edition) -- The Jewish commentary on the Pentateuch of the Old Testament -- and found this great idea:

You shall make a Menorah of pure gold, hammered out shall the Menorah be made, its base, its shafts, its cups, its buds and its blossoms shall be hammered from it. Six branches shall emerge from its sides, three branches of the Menorah from its one side and three branches from its second side, three cups engraved like almonds on the one branch...the buds and branches shall be on one piece...(Exodus 25)
~~~~~~~


I am intrigued with the idea of how a miracle begins, at least as it is explained in The Chumash (Jewish commentary on the Pentateuch). The article begins with the construction of the Menorah for the tabernacle.
The text says that God's instructions for making the Menorah included that all its shapes and forms had to be made from one gold ingot: nothing could be made separately and then attached. It all had to be made of one piece. How could this be done? Hebrew tradition says that Moses could not visualize this and so God showed him a Menorah of fire. But Moses still despaired of being able to make it properly, and so God instructed him to "throw an ingot into a fire -- and then the completed Menorah emerged."

They base this on the idea that the Hebrew wording starts you shall make, and then the wording changes to shall be made.

So, the commentary reasons, Moses, once God showed him how to make the Menorah, actually began the process of crafting it, but then God assisted him. So when the ingot was cast into the fire as part of the normal work of crafting it, the work was completed miraculously by God.

This is so interesting. But the really great part is the rest of the paragraph:

This is how God typically performs miracles. First Man must do what he can, and then God comes to his aid. Similarly, at the time of the Splitting of the Sea, God commanded Moses to split the waters by raising his staff and it was only after Moses had done so that God performed the awesome miracle. In Egypt and throughout the years in the Wilderness, Moses performed acts that resulted in miracles; clearly only God makes miracles, but He wants man to initiate them


I am thinking about this now. It is such a simple idea: God wants us to initiate His miracles.....Jesus told the family and friends of Lazarus, "Take away the stone," and then he told Lazarus to emerge, alive, from his burial tomb.

Some men brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, and Jesus healed him.

The woman touched the hem of His garment.

"We only have five loaves of bread and two fish," the disciples said to Jesus. "Bring them here to Me," He said.

"Strike the rock," God told Moses.

"Choose some men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands" Moses told Joshua. And "Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, on the other--so that his hands remained steady until sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekites with the sword."

It's a simple concept -- God wants us to initiate the action and then He finishes, or completes it, in a way that is miraculous to us.


Of course nothing God does is miraculous to Him.

Another thought -- it must have something to do with obedience, too. We must eagerly obey God's command to get the benefit of the miracle.

Just more amazing thoughts to ponder on our Journey.....from the ancient rabbis! 

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