My best friend

I remember how hard it was when I was a child to find and keep a "best friend."
What a joy to have someone I could tell anything to -- hopes, dreams, hurts.

Remember Anne of Green Gables? When she discovered the friendship of Shirley Barry and they became "kindred spirits" forever? They were both so joyous at that remarkable discovery.

These thoughts came to me this morning when reading Psalm 25:14.

The LORD confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant
known to them. (NIV)

How can this be true? Does it really mean what is says? (I think it always does!) If we fear (worship) Him, He will reveal to us His secrets?

It would have to be a really close friend for us to "confide" in them. Someone trustworthy and dependable to keep our secrets. And those people we have to search out and start sharing our secrets slowly and carefully until we are certain that they are worthy of our trust (trustworthy).

Jesus told His disciples, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know His master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15)

So God Himself is the revealer of His divine secrets, those mysterious thoughts of His own heart, and He will share them with us.

"Privy" (to be secret or privately informed about) is a word hardly used anymore. But when a character in a story boasts he was "privy" to something, then we know he was in the "in crowd." The select group that surrounds a powerful king or businessman.

And who doesn't want to be in the "inner circle"?

So I guess we are in that orb of the LORD's confidence when we connect ourselves to Him through Jesus Christ --

And the LORD of the universe, through our worship of Him, will share His secrets with us!

Here is the verse (Psalm 25:14) from The Message:

God-friendship is for God-worshipers; They are the ones He
confides in.

I need to work on my "God-worship".


P.S. I think we can relate this idea to current news. Sometimes we can be praying for a certain problem or situation we want changed. And it changes! Everyone is quick to applaud the important people involved, but we know that the prayers of His people first moved the hand of God to make the change in response to our heart-felt prayers.

When the Berlin Wall fell, Ronald Reagan received much credit -- and he deserved it, and economical problems contributed. But what the world does not, or chooses not, to recall is the steadfast group of 500,000 Christians who, with lighted candles marching silently night after night, carrying signs that said they were praying for freedom and for the wall to come down. Only CNN showed that group, and only for a short time.

Who Really Knew God Best? (Part 2)

Now here's another one who really knew God well: Jonah!



When the king of Nineveh and his people repented of their sin, God had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened (Jonah 3).

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry at God when their Assyrian enemies were forgiven.

Listen to these words of this runaway, disobedient prophet:

He prayed to the LORD:

"O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." (Jonah 4)


Jonah knew God really well - that he was forgiving and full of mercy.

He knew God so well that God's mercy became his own reason for disobedience! - that's knowing God really well!

But Jonah maybe did not know that God would keep after him - would pursue him relentlessly - that God would not leave him alone, even in that small shelter on the desert.

Jonah pouted and God stayed with him.

Jonah got angry and God stuck by him.

Jonah disobeyed and God came after him.

God never gave up on Jonah.


There is another priceless gem in Jonah, chapter 2, verse 8:  Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

The Ninevites did not cling to their worthless idols. They gave them up and received God's grace.

Am I still clinging to worthless idols of money, prestige, influence, power?

Psalm 145:16 tells us: You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

We can't receive God's gifts if our hands are already full.


But going back to our biblical lessons: Notice what these men knew about God:

Abraham knew that God, the Ruler of the earth, would act righteously - that He was holy. And that He was merciful and compassionate to and forgiving to His children.

David knew that God was forgiving and holy and merciful and compassionate.

Moses knew that God was holy, forgiving, merciful and compassionate.

Jonah knew that God was holy, forgiving, merciful and compassionate.

See a consistent current of truth here?

Pretty important things to know about God!


These men did not go to seminary. They didn't go to
catechism or new member instruction classes.

They learned what they knew about God from listening to Him, by talking with Him, by watching His actions.

They learned about God, because they came to know God.

Who Knew God the Best? (Part 1)

The Old Testament has multiple stories of men and women who knew God really well.


There's David for one. "A man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 3:14).

A man who sinned greatly, but who understood God's mercy and forgiveness.

There was no specific sacrifice designated by God to atone for adultery and murder.

So David knew he had to throw himself on the grace of God to have forgiveness.

We see his heart in Psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions....my sin is always before me...cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow....create in me a pure heart...do not cast me from your presence....

He had a "broken and contrite heart."

So David understood that God was merciful and compassionate. He also understood that we are born in sin (also Psalm 51) and that God has to actually give us a new heart to love Him and be in His presence.

So David knew a lot about God!


And Abraham also knew a lot about God. And he knew God well enough to challenge Him, to argue with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's family.

And God spared Lot and his family because "the LORD was merciful to them" (Genesis 19:16).

Abraham knew God was merciful and compassionate.

Will not the Judge of the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25) He knew God was righteous.

And in Genesis 15 we see that he could even say to God 'how can I be sure You are telling me the truth?'

God showed him the night sky and promised his descendants would be more than the stars in number - but Abraham wanted more - a clearer guarantee.

'But, LORD,' he said, 'how can I know for sure that You are going to do this?'

Abraham could even ask God for more proof!

Someone would have to know God on an intimate level to be able to challenge to Sovereign God of the Universe like that.

And so God treated him to that mysterious covenant agreement, made while Abraham slept, when God appeared as a blazing torch amidst the  animal sacrifice and swore His covenant anew.

A contract, not based on the agreement and faithfulness of both parties, but based on God's unconditional covenant promise only! 



How about Moses? Now there's a man who knew a lot about God, too. He knew God was faithful and holy.  (He had himself received the original holy commandments from God.)

He knew God well enough to  question God's judgment and justice on occasion, to argue with Him, and even to ask for a special revelation of God's glory, and God accommodated him (Genesis 33)

And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your Presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion of whom I will have compassion."

Again, Moses understood that God was merciful and compassionate. He had witnessed many displays of God's mercy in leading the Jews out of Egypt and through the wilderness journey.  He understood why "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin."


(see Who Really Knew God Best? Part 2)

C S Lewis' Faith - What was the starting point?

"Yes," said Queen Lucy, "In our world, too, a Stable  once had something inside that was bigger than our whole world."
   -- From Chronicles of Narnia, by C S Lewis



The  Stable on the inside was bigger than the Stable on the outside

C S Lewis' faith was founded on the reality of the Incarnation: that God Himself took on human form and came to live among us, purposing to die for our sins and pay the penalty for our sins  to God Himself.

Lewis was a renowned student of ancient literature and was familiar with the age-old theme of a dying god who is raised to life again.

What drew him to Christianity was the growing conviction that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the truth behind the myths.

The dreams of ancient pagan religions actually happened when God did in fact, take on human flesh, in the God-man of His Son, and then died for our atonement.

The Incarnation was not just a beautiful dream, a fantasy of human imagination, but was a historical reality.

In Lewis' day, and for years before, and now, the secular worldview of many scholars was to look at Jesus as a great teacher and a wise man, but certainly not the Son of God, God in the flesh.

But Lewis held at the doctrine of the Incarnation was an essential doctrine of he Christian faith.

"The central miracle asserted by Christians," he wrote, "is the Incarnation."

It is "the Grand Miracle," and the purpose of this Grand Miracle is to do for us what we could never do for ourselves."

Terry Glaspey comments on Lewis' view,

     But supposing God became a man -- suppose our human
     nature which can suffer and die, was amalgamated with God's
     nature in one Person -- then that Person could help us.

     He could surrender His will and suffer and die, because He
     was God.....But we cannot share God's dying unless God dies,
     and He cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in
     which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself
     need not suffer at all.

     Some are willing to conceive of Him as a great religious
     genius, applauding His high ethical demands upon humanity
     and cheering His concern for justice and righteousness....
     But if this is all we understand of Jesus, we have failed to
     truly understand Him....

     To put Jesus on the same level with Mohammed, Confucius,
     or Buddha is not one of the options left open to us. By the
     claims He made, He significantly parted company with those
     whom we would consider great moral teachers.

     He claimed to be something more than that.  He claimed to
     be God in the flesh. If He is not who He said He was, then
     He is either an evil liar or a crazy person.

        -- From C S Lewis, His Life and Thought,                    by Terry Glaspey


The claims of Jesus Christ compel us to a make a decision -- was He who He said He was, or was He a great cosmic con-man?

He didn't give us any other option.

He didn't intend to. 

     Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No
     one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew
     me, you would know my Father as well..."
                                   -- John 14:6-7

Do we need to hang our harps?

I am back in Psalms this morning. Thinking how grateful I am there are 150 of them! The first verses of Psalm 137 surprised me today with these words that reflect so accurately our own current situation:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps, for
there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

I find myself, more and more, a stranger in a foreign land.

It isn't that the clash between biblical and anti-biblical worldviews is new to our generation. (Some people talk about our "non-biblical" culture. But I think it is worse than that. "Non-biblical" does not begin to describe it -- our culture is "anti-biblical!")

Christianity values human life -- from womb to tomb, as we used to say.
Modern culture does not.

It is almost like we are back in the Roman empire and struggling to survive.
The Romans, we are taught in school, are credited with strides in education, general prosperity, vigorous trade, the rule of law, and efficient government. But the dark side of their society reveals their rotten core: widespread slavery (30-40% of the population), brutality in controlling the provinces, reckless abortion and infanticide, gluttony, sexual perversions, violent entertainment.....

If a student were writing a paper on the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, he could just say, "The Roman Empire fell because it wasn't worth saving!"

Is that where we are today? In that dark and cruel world controlled by Ancient Rome, a bright light appeared the night Jesus was born in that little manger in the backwater village of Bethlehem. And that light entered hearts and began to change people throughout the Empire. Just as it does today.

This is the challenge -- the mission -- we have. To be "Light" in this dark
culture.

So I find myself not just "listening to a different drummer," but playing in a completely different band. And I notice in the Psalm, as the Jews were taunted (as we are by our own culture) and tormented by their captors, they hung up their harps.

But they didn't throw their harps in the trash, or into the river, or destroy them. They hung them up, saving them for that later day when they would be back home and could sing a new song to their God.

I'm not ready to hang up my harp. Sometimes when I am out on various errands I feel a surge of joy and want to begin singing loudly God's praises. I wait until I am back in the car. As I wander down aisles of the grocery store praying, people
think I am talking to myself. Sometimes I tell them the truth: That it is a cold, lonely world we live in, and I am grateful I have a God who is with me.

On Sundays I can escape--retreat--from the world and rejoice with others
and enjoy His presence. It is safe to do this in the church.

And isn't that our purpose? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Kicking and Screaming - C S Lewis

In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms.

The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet.

.... that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal son also opens to one who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful and darting his eyes every direction for a chance of escape?

The words compelle intrare, (compel them to come in), have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy.

The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

   -- From Surprised by Joy, by C S Lewis

What Do I Need?

I'm reading 2 Peter .....look at these verses:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and goodness...that you may participate  in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love...

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive....

But if anyone does not have them he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins...2 Peter 1:3-9

All the times I have read this passage -- and now this thought jumps out at me: To lead holy lives we must constantly remember that we have been cleansed of all our sin -- I'm doing that this week - reflecting, not on my own failures and weaknesses, but on His perfect atonement -- remembering, not where I am, but where I came from - not wallowing in it - but glorifying in it!

That's how we 'participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world'!

The key to acquiring those godly qualities listed, in increasing measure, is to remember where we came from and the price our Redeemer paid!

So those times I recognize that  I am not growing in those areas of holy living, then I must stop and ponder: He has given us everything we need to live
the life He wants us to live. He brought us from where we were for that purpose.

It's all about the cross. That's where I came from and where He found me.


Participating in the 'divine nature' - just how amazing is that?

Near the cross, O Lamb of God

Bring its scenes before me

Help me walk from day to day

With its shadow o'er me.

The Miracle We Already Got - Frederick Buechner

For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going,

but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about Himself in the stars

but in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.

It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want but the experience of God's Presence.

That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle that we really get.

                          -- From The Magnificent Defeat,
                                              by Frederick Buechner

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  

I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep in the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

                                    Ephesians 3:14-19 

                 

What Happens When He Speaks

"He speaks and the sound of  His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing...."*

Picture it....imagine it.....Back there in Eden....He walked and talked with them. And the birds stopped their own joyous singing to listen to His beautiful voice and to hear His words!

May I be that eager today to listen....

And eager to experience it just like Adam and Eve did when we get to be with Him in heaven!

Doxology and Maranatha!!!!




*From In the Garden by Charles Austin Miles, 1912

How To Celebrate the Sabbath

 

"It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High,

 proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 

to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. 

For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; 

I sing for joy at what your hands have done."

                                                                            -- Psalm 92:1-4

The psalmist  titled this psalm as "A Song for the Sabbath Day."

We think of the Sabbath as a special day of rest. (To be honest, we usually don't practice it that way, though.)

What strikes me is that this Biblical Sabbath day renews strength and joy, not just through idleness and relaxation, but through energetic, joyful worship!

Celebrating His love and His faithfulness! HE makes us glad!

That's what RESTores us! 

Are we missing something?

An ordinary, simple act...? C.S. Lewis

What I mean is this: An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get in touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God---God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God--that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him.

You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying--the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So the three-fold life of the three-personal Being is actually there in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.

C. S. Lewis, The Business of Heaven

Outside of the incarnation itself, this must be the most incredible fact of our Christian life.

I Thoughts and Meditations - It's Not Easy

 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart 

be pleasing in Your sight, 

O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. 

                                                                                                              -- Psalm 19:14

What a challenge!

We want so much to please Him -- the feel the glory of His smile -- to know we have brought Him pleasure -- as surely as a child eagerly rushes to their parents to demonstrate some new accomplishment and see their looks of joy and approval!

We can watch our tongues and begin speaking words that uplift others and please Him -- and refrain from words that displease Him. It is a battle, but we can gain some ground.

But what about our thoughts and meditations? That seems a little too much for me. Do you think He really meant it?

But then there is that verse in Philippians that tells to "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'

So if we have His mind, we will, like Jesus did, always please the Father.

That's a good prayer to start this day: that the mind of Christ will enter our mind and become one with Him.

A song we used to sing: 

May the mind of Christ, my Savior,

Live in me from day to day,

By His love and power controlling

All I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly 

In my heart from hour to hour

So that all may see I triumph

Only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father

Rule  my life in everything

That I may be calm to comfort

Sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me

As the waters fill the sea

Him exalting, self abasing

This is victory.

May I run the race before me

Strong and brave to face the foe

Looking only unto Jesus 

As I onward go.

May His beauty rest upon me

As I seek the lost to win,

And may they forget the channel

Seeing only Him.

Words by Kate B Wilkinson, written about 100 years ago.

Great news!

My sin - oh the bliss of this glorious thought -

My sin - not in part, but the whole -

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O My soul!*

Just think about it - all my sin - not just some of it - all of it -

 taken care of by Jesus at the cross!

God doesn't look at our sins - categorize them - maybe putting some of them in one pile and some in another, and saying, "OK, I'll take care of this stack...but that stack, well, you knew better, Glorya, you'll have to take care of them yourself!"

No, He put them all together in one large (really extra-large cosmic garbage bag) and hurled them into the depths of the deepest sea....out of His memory forever -

"Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives transgression....You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy....You will hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea." Micah 7:18-19

Who can imagine it? He delights to show mercy!

Yes, I believe in God - but not in just any god - I believe in THIS GOD! A God who delights to give me His mercy and forgives me 

all my sins!

"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

*{Great words from It Is Well With My Soul, written by Horatio Spafford around 1875...}

Promoted to Servanthood

And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.

He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.

Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.


Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.

So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD commanded Moses.

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt -- to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.

For no one has ever shown the mighty power and the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
                                                     -- Deuteronomy 34:5-12

This is the only passage where Moses is called "the servant of the LORD."

Just a few verses before, in Chapter 33:1, he is called "the man of God."

Being called a "man of God" is a high calling -- reflecting exacting standards and lofty position.

But is being titled "servant of God" an even greater
distinction?

In the Chumash (a traditional Jewish commentary)
the sages write:

     When he was alive he was called man of God,
     but in death he is called servant for the first time,
     to allude to a new and higher status, for a  
       servant is permitted, as it were, to enter the
     chamber of the king.

     So, too, once the impediment of his body was
     removed from him, Moses' soul was able to
     perceive even more than before.

     A servant, literally a slave, is unique in that
     he is the property of his master and has no
     independent identity or legal status, for he
     lives totally for his owner.

     In receiving this title, Moses was given the
     highest possible compliment: he lived
     completely and solely for the sake of God.

What is He Praising Me For?

If all our "good" responses to God -- our faith, our love, our praises and thanksgiving to Him, even our repentance -- if all these come from Him --
then why does He praise us for doing them? Why does He say, "Your faith has made you well," "Well done, My good and faithful servant"?

Isn't that sort of playing games and "cheating"? Nothing a holy God should do!

No....because we have the option of disobedience at each step.

We can refuse to thank Him. We can look away when He speaks to us. We can ignore His warnings and drift away. We can "quench the spirit."

We can try to hide sin in our hearts and reject repentance. 

But when we choose to shower our thanks and praises on Him for His so-obvious goodness; when we eagerly reach out to read and ponder His Word; when we extend grace and forgiveness (when though we may not feel like it) -- this pleases Him.

So when He praises us for our love and obedience, He is reminding us that He knows we are bent and broken human beings who acknowledge our need for Him and who choose to take the straight path right to His heart even though many around us are encouraging us to take the other path away from Him.

He knows how hard it is!

So His compliments to us are highest blessings!

                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam--he is only nourishing or protecting a life that he could never have acquired by his own efforts.  And that has practical consequences.

As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point, it will heal, as a dead body will not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself.

In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life in inside him, repairing him all the time; enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one--if they think there is not--at least they hope to deserve approval from some good men.

But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

---From Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

Mine Again!

I am remembering a story a youth leader told us when we were teenagers. It is about a young boy, in Scotland, whose grandfather, a master wood carver, was teaching him how to diligently craft from wood a small boat. The boy worked hard, detailing his model with masts and ropes, and his mother handmade perfect sails.

One day the young boy took his finished boat to the creek to proudly sail it. It had been a rainy week and before he knew it, the usual gentle currents of the creek were rushing away downriver to join other creeks on their way to the sea. He lost his boat!

A few years later, while walking through shops in Edinburgh, he spied his little boat -- it was his, no doubt, even the initials he had carved into its deck attested to that!

He cried out, "That's my boat!" And the shop keeper replied, "Well, son, that might have been your boat, but right now it is mine and you'll have to pay for it if you want it back!"

So he did. He purchased back his boat, because in order to possess it again, he had to pay the required price. He wasn't even given a discount! Full price!

The point? Of course, that's what God did. He made us, crafted His image into us, and when we wandered away, He had to pay a great price to get us back.

A simple story with profound meaning.

The story will be retold in eternity.

Picture God sitting on the throne, and Christ, the 'Lamb slain from before the world' standing beside Him.

The elders "fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives for ever and ever. They lay down their crowns before the throne and say:

You are worthy, our Lord and God,
To receive glory and honor and power
For you created all things,
And by your will they were created
and have their being.
Revelation 4:10-11

And then,

I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne...He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb...And they sang a new song (Revelation 5:6-10):

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals
Because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and
language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
And they will reign on the earth.

So they gave their praise and worship to the God who created everything, and then they gave it to the Lamb who purchased His kingdom back!

Back to original ownership - signed sealed and delivered.

Now let's picture ourselves there!

His Banner of Love

He has taken me to the banqueting hall,

and his banner over me is love.

  -- Song of Songs 2:4

So many vibrant images in this single verse - we see  the "not so special" Shulamite girl who gave her heart to the young shepherd. When he returns for her she realizes that he is King Solomon, and he takes her back to the palace, into the banqueting hall, and she sits under his banner.

We also imagine great celebrations throughout history when the conquering armies sat in castles, enjoying feasts of victory, with their colorful banners posted all around them.

And on battles fields, banners flying high over the hastily erected tents and barracks of the invading and defending armies.

Sometimes the banners bore family crests, or special symbols of power and feats of valor - like St. George and the Dragon.

We picture great armies going into battle with their banners waving proudly above them.

(Has an army ever marched without its own banner?)

Maybe we see soldiers hoisting the flag at Iwo Jima,
or the dusty, shell-scorched dawn sky over Ft. McHenry when Francis Scott Key waited anxiously to see if "that star-spangled banner" still waved "o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Ever notice in Texas how often you see the "Lone Star" displayed, not only on flag poles but in frames on walls and on license plates and fences and barns and buildings...even painted by pedicurists on my sister's big toe nail?

Is there anyone in the whole world who does not recognize the symbol of the Lone Star State? (I mean, who even knows what the flags other states look like?)

In earlier times, an army's banner was its symbol of conquest.  In 1865, the Confederate flag was lowered in Richmond, Virginia, and the Union US flag hoisted in its place.

The banner is also a symbol of protection. A tourist or ex-patriot in a foreign land looks to the US Embassy and its American flag for help and protection. The US embassy is supposed to be a refuge for Americans, and often for others who need a place of safety.

And the flag is also the emblem of enlistment, flying proudly over the place where volunteers can join the army. 

That "banner of love" the Shulamite girl sat under at King Solomon's banqueting table is floating over us today.

It is still a symbol of conquest. Christ has won us in a great battle for our souls. We now belong to Him.

     For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this
       is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith. Who is
       he that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus
       is the Son of God.
                      -- 1 John 5:4-5

It is still a symbol of protection. "My sheep listen to My voice," Jesus said.

     I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and   
      they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My
      My Father's hand.
               -- John 10:27-28

And it is still the emblem of enlistment.  God's army
is a volunteer regiment. Banners are not hidden - they are waved proudly!

     I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
       bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God --
       this is your spiritual act of worship.
                    -- Romans 12:1

What's on His banner? A simple cross - the cross of love.

"His banner over me is love."

And the banqueting hall? It's in our future.

     Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage feast of  
       the Lamb....Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
       Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the
       wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made
       herself ready.....
                -- Revelation 19

I opened my invitation and sent in my RSVP -- I will be there at the marriage feast under His banner of love -- will I see you there?
               

    

How to Please God!

'I will praise God's Name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD...' 
Psalm 69:31

'LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.'  
Psalm 147:11.

'If anyone wants to boast, they should boast that they know and understand Me...These are the things that please me."  
Jeremiah 9:24.

'Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please Him.' Hebrews 12:28...'True worshippers must worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.' 
John 4:23

'The LORD detests lying lips, but He delights in those who are trustworthy.'
Proverbs 12:22

'Let Israel rejoice in their Maker...Let them praise His Name with dancing and make music to Him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes delight in His people...Let His faithful people rejoice in this honor'.  Psalm 149:3-5



How do we please God? 

This is what I have learned...

     We please God when we thank Him!

     When we praise Him!

     When we seek to Know Him and understand Him!

     When we worship Him and put our trust in His           unfailing love!

Look how easy and simple He has made it! Like a wonderful, kind Parent. 

How blessed we are.


BUT I usually just want Him to please me..

I need to change that....

Faith not Moods - C S Lewis

Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes.

I know that by experience.

Now that I am a Christian,  I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway.

That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where they get off', you will never be a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but a creature of dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.

Consequently one must train their habit of Faith.

The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change.

The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day.

That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church-going are necessary parts of the Christian life.

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.

Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind.

It must be fed.

And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?

--From Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 11,
                  by C S Lewis

In ALL Things?

 

                                                 In ALL Things? Really?

Good to remember today -- that in ALL things God works for our good - Romans 8:28.

So the God of the universe, the sovereign Creator of everything, plans every circumstance to bring us good.

Even when we mess up, He rearranges things to work out for our good.

There are devastating wildfires ravaging vast areas of our country today. We will see ashes and cinders, destruction and heartbreak everywhere.

Even the harsh acrid smell permeates everything for miles!

But in due time the ground will bring forth new, fresh, vibrant vegetation and new life!

God wastes nothing and redeems everything!

We can sing joyfully with Sarah Groves, "I can't remember a trial or a pain He did not recycle to bring me gain...He's always been faithful to me."

No Better News!

                                                                

                                                         There is no better news!

Perfect day to read these words:

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesús Christ.

This is what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure.

So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong  to His dear Son."

                                --- Ephesians 1:3-6

(I told you - perfect message for this day and every day!)