Look At The Birds...!

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"   (Jesus, in Matthew 6:26)

From "Overheard in an Orchard" -- 

"Said the robin to the sparrow, 

'I would really like to know why those anxious human beings 

rush around and worry so.'

Said the sparrow to the robin, 

'Friend, I think it must be that they have no heavenly Father 

such as cares for you and me.'"

He Wanted To Go With Jesus!

 "The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return home and tell how much God has done for you.' So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him." (Luke 8:38).

Think about it -- ! Simple, immediate, joyful obedience from an overflowing grateful heart!

Isn't that what Jesus wants from us?

                                        .... Go and do likewise... !

Jesus' Best Day - Philip Yancey

      Ascension Day - May 29

                           

                                           Jesus' Best Day

     When Jesus returned after death to vaporize all doubts among the remnant of believers, he tarried a mere forty days before vanishing for good. The time between Resurrection and Ascension was an interlude, nothing more.

     If Easter Sunday was the most exciting day of the disciples' lives, for Jesus it was probably the day of Ascension.  He, the Creator, who had descended so far and given up so much, was now heading home.

    Like a soldier returning across the ocean from a long and bloody war. Like an astronaut shedding his spacesuit to gulp the familiar atmosphere of earth. Home at last.

     Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper with his disciples reveals something of this point of view. "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do," Jesus prayed. "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began."

     Before the world began! Like an old man reminiscing--no, like the ageless God reminiscing--Jesus, who sat in a stuffy room in Jerusalem, was letting his mind wonder back to a time before the Milky Way and Andromeda.

     On an earthly night dark with fear and menace, Jesus was making preparation to return home, to assume again the glory he had set aside.

     ---From The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey

The Jesus I Never Knew - Philip Yancy

I am reading The Jesus I Never Knew -- I think Yancy's best yet. It is really beautifully written.

He writes frequently, in this book, about the sudden deaths of 3 very close friends and how these deaths challenged his faith.

In Chapter 11, Resurrection: A Morning Beyond Belief, he mentions the various visible historical evidences of Christ's resurrection.  We are all familiar with them. And about some of the non-believers, scientists and scholars, who set out to disprove the resurrection and then instead found themselves becoming convinced of the truth of Christ and His resurrection, and outspoken believers. 

But I was also touched by these words from Chapter 11, beginning on page 218.



     I believe in the resurrection primarily because I have gotten to know God. I know that God is love, and I also know we human beings want to keep alive those we love. I do not let my friends die; they live on in my memory and my heart long after I have stopped seeing them.

 For whatever reason-- human reason lies at the core, I imagine--God allows a planet where a man dies scuba diving in the prime of life and a woman dies in a fiery crash on her way to a church missions conference.

But I also believe this -- and if I did not believe this I would not believe in a loving God-- that God is not satisfied with such a blighted planet.

Divine love will find a way to overcome: "Death be not proud," wrote John Dunne: God will not let death win.

One detail in the Easter story has always intrigued me: why did Jesus keep the scars of His crucifixion? Presumably He could have had any resurrected body He wanted, and yet He chose one identifiable by its scars; scars that could be seen and touched.

I believe the story of Easter would be incomplete without those scars on the hands, the feet, and the side of Jesus.  When human beings fantasize, we dream of pearly straight teeth and wrinkle-free skin and sexy ideal shapes. We dream of an unnatural state: the perfect body.

But for Jesus, being confined in a skeleton and human skin was the unnatural state. The scars are, to Him, an emblem of life on our planet, a permanent reminder of those days of confinement and suffering.

I take hope in Jesus' scars. From the perspective of heaven, they represent the most horrible event that has ever happened in the history of the universe.

Even that event, though--the crucifixion--Easter turned into a memory.  Because of Easter, I can hope that the tears we shed, the blows we receive, the emotional pain, the heart ache over our lost friends and loved ones, all these become memories, like Jesus' scars.Scars never completely go away, but neither do they hurt any longer. We will have re-created bodies, a re-created heaven and earth.

We will have a new start, an Easter start.

Wisdom From the Birds

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"  Matthew 6:26

Said the robin to the sparrow,"I would really like to know

Why those anxious human beings

rush around and worry so."

Said the sparrow to the robin,

"Friend, I think it must be

that they have no Heavenly Father

such as cares for you and me."

(Overheard in an Orchard, by Elizabeth Cheney)

What God Wants Us To Do - C S Lewis

                                      

                                     What Does God Want Us To Do? By C S Lewis

"You must always believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will. 

Confronted with a cancer or a slum, the Pantheist can say, 'If you could only see it from the divine  point of view, you would realize that this is also God.'

The Christian replies, 'Don't talk damned nonsense.'

For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world -- that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colors and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God 'made up out of His own head' as a man makes up a story.

But it also thinks that a great many things are gone wrong with the world, and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again."

What John Calvin and Tennyson Said About Prayer

 

                    What John Calvin and Tennyson Said About Prayer

John Calvin....

"Our prayers must not be self-centered. They must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden which we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellowmen that we feel their need as acutely as we feel our own.

To make intercession is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson...King Arthur's Last Words to His Knights (From Idylls of the King)

"More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

Wherefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not up hands of prayer, both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole round earth is every way bound by gold chains about the feet of God."

What Gave Paul Great Joy

                                                  

                                                       What Gave Paul Great Joy?

"Your love has given me great joy and encouragement." (Philemon 7)

So what is great joy? Paul demonstrates great joy in his life. And so can we.

Great joy is the difference between knowing that things are going to be okay, as we do know because of Christ, and knowing that they are going to be marvelous!

Our tears are not just dried, we have reason to smile and laugh!

Hard times will still come, as they did for Jesus and His disciples, but great joy means that not only will He see us through those times, but it will turn out that all things have purpose and meaning and what we are going through will enhance our lives and bring us more joy!

Everything will end very well.

Enduring life's challenges will make us strong. But more than that, they will make us more like Jesus! 

We may want to be made better for this life, but He wants to make us completely new, perfect and ready for His eternal kingdom.

That really give us great joy.

Let's not be satisfied with joy today -- let's reach for that great joy!

But what exactly does Paul say gave him great joy in this passage? The love of his friends!

So we can spread great joy through our love for each other. We can participate in giving it to others. Great joy is best shared.

So that's our goal for today - showing great love for each other which will result in their having great joy!

Using the Wrong Gas - Thoughts from C S Lewis

 

                                   

                                        Using the Wrong Gas - Thoughts from C S Lewis

"God made us: invented us as a man invents a machine.

A car is made to run on petrol, and will not run properly on anything else.

God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel  our spirits were designed to burn.

There is no other.

That is the key to  history.

Terrific energy is expended - civilizations are built up - excellent institutions are devised; but each time something goes wrong.

Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and run.

In fact, the engine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards and the it breaks down.

They are trying to run on the wrong juice.

That is what Satan has done to us humans."

                                                                                     -- From Mere Christianity

Following the Ark - Psalm 132 - C S Lewis

            Following the Ark - Psalm 132 - C S Lewis


I'm back at Psalm 132. Thinking about those pilgrims, joyfully climbing that winding, upward trail to Jerusalem. Calling back and forth to each other with praises and thanksgiving to God. Focusing on how God answered their prayers abundantly, by promising them even more than they requested.

They would have been following the journey of the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought up to Jerusalem at the time of King David.

Verses 6-9 talk about that journey. It is of great historical significance. Remember when David originally tried to bring up the Ark?

He took 30,000 men to retrieve it. (It had been captured by the Philistines during the time of Eli and apparently no one searched for it, or maybe even thought about it, until David became King. Israel had lost 30,000 men in the battle with the Philistines when the Ark was taken [1 Samuel 4 gives us the story].The Ark didn't turn out to be valuable booty for the Philistines. In fact, it caused all kinds of trouble. So they brought it to a village in Israel and asked the Jews to come take it back! And then for 20 years it remained in one of their fields.)

When David arranged to have the Ark transported he gathered a corp of 30,000 soldiers to make the trip. They placed the Ark on a "new cart" (2 Sam. 6). We can't help but wonder why it was placed on a cart. Were the poles missing? God's instructions were clear -- place the poles through the rings on the Ark and carry it that way.

The Israelites were celebrating -- singing and playing harps and lyres and tambourines and cymbals. They began their journey. Then the predictable thing happened: the oxen stumbled, and the Ark tottered on the cart. Uzzah reached out to steady it. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah and God struck him down.

Why did God do that? Well, why did the Iaraelites trivialize the transportation of the Ark? God had told them how He wanted it carried. They ignored His commands.


It was not dirt that would contaminate the Ark. It could have fallen in a great trash heap and not be defiled. It was human touch that contaminated the Ark.

David became angry at God and left it in the field of Obed-Edom. "How can the Ark of God ever come to me?" he asked. It stayed there for 3 months with Obed-Edom and "the LORD blessed him and his entire household."

Then in I Chronicles 15 we read how David figured it all out. He prepared a place for God's Ark in Jerusalem and arranged for the Levites to carry it up from Obed-Edom's land, "with poles on their shoulders as Moses had commanded with the word of the LORD." And "David told the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals."

Kenaniah, the head of the Levites, was in charge of the singing, "because he was skillful at it." And there were trumpets and ram's horns blowing and everyone shouting and cheering!

Wow...what a festival! What a parade!

And David, dressed in fine linen, as were the Levites and the choirs, danced and shouted with joy as he, too, joined in the procession.

C. S. Lewis talks about this wonderful scene:

David danced before the Ark. He danced with such abandon that one of his wives thought he was making a fool of himself. He didn't care whether he as making a fool of himself or not. He was rejoicing in the Lord! The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.

In the Psalms I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest degree.

The exuberant pilgrims in Psalm 132 remind us that we have even more reason to rejoice than they did! They anticipated what Christ would accomplish. But we are the recipients!

Quoteworthy...Amnesia, by Chesterton

We have all read in romances, the story of the man who has forgotten his name. This man walks about the streets and can see and appreciate everything; only he cannot remember who he is. Well, every man is that man in the story. Every man has forgotten who he is.
         -- G. K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy





Comments from Kevin Belmonte....

Chesterton had been given the grace to remember who he was--a beloved child of the Creator--someone precious and unique--an integral part (as indeed we all are) of the great cosmic story that God has been writing across time. Thus each of our lives is imbued with profound meaning and significance. We are not solitary travelers left to our own devices--at the mercy of mere impersonal chance. God has written us into His story.

Bride Waiting at the Altar - John Stott

He who testified to these things says, "Yes, I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. -- Revelation 22:21     

   

John picks up the vivid imagery of betrothal and marriage at the end of Revelation. Already he has made allusion to the coming wedding. He tells us he has heard the redeemed multitude singing their hallelujahs because "The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). Indeed, "fine linen, bright and clean" has been given her to wear (19:8).
Already, too, the interpreting angel has said to John, "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb" (19:9). And John has also described the New Jerusalem as "coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband" (21:2, 9).

But where is He? He is nowhere to be seen! It is not for the bride to fetch her bridegroom; it is for the bridegroom to go and fetch his bride. She has made herself ready. She is dressed and bejeweled. Now she can do no more than wait for him to appear--except she takes the liberty of expressing her longing for him: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'" (22:17)

For the supreme ministry of the Holy spirit is to bear witness to Christ, and the supreme desire of the bride is to welcome her bridegroom.

It is thus that the Book of Revelation ends. It leaves the church waiting, hoping, expecting, longing--the bride eagerly looking for her bridegroom, crying out for him, clinging to his threefold promise that he is coming soon, and encouraged by others who echo her call: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."

Meanwhile, she is confident that his grace will be sufficient for her (v. 21) until the eternal wedding feast begins and she is united to her bridegroom forever.

   --- From John Stott

The Enemy's Army

The Kingdom of Judah was surrounded by enemy armies. King Jehoshaphat prayed:

O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you....

...we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.


God's answer:

Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.

(Read the entire remarkable story in 2 Chronicles 20).


Anything that makes us call on God is a good thing!

Anything!

God can arrange our circumstances so that we are desperate for His intervention.

It is sometimes said that "God helps those who help themselves."

No, God helps those who are helpless to help themselves.

That's us.

Surrounded by enemies, emissaries of the Enemy,
we are helpless to help ourselves, and as soon as we realize that, we can call to God for His help.

Anything that makes us realize our helplessness is a good thing!

Any circumstance that makes us feel needy and
desperate -- it is a good thing!

The Jews were not strangers to helpless situations. Back in Exodus, chapter 2, we about their desperate situation hundreds of years earlier in Egypt:

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help went up to God. God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob...
Exodus, Chapter 2



Why does God hear us in our pain? Why does He rescue us (over and over again)?

King David tells us in 2 Samuel 22:20:

He rescued me because He delighted in me!


Wow! He delights in us!

So much more...Psalm 132

This week I am using Madame Guyon's first prayer method, Praying the Scripture. I haven't been able to get a handle on her second method, Waiting in His Presence. It is really hard to just sit still for a period of time! And I know I need to work on it.

Psalm 132 is my starting place for most of this week. It is a Psalm of Ascents, one of those sang, most scholars believe, by the Jews as they walked up to Jerusalem to celebrate their pilgrim feasts (Passover, Pentecost and Day of Atonement.) When reading these Psalms it is easy to imagine them, in small groups, happily walking up the winding road to the Holy City. They would be able to see other clusters of faithful and excited pilgrims scattered along the road, some up ahead of them and some coming up behind them.

It might be sort of like when we drive in the mountains, and it appears that automobiles sort of cluster together. There will be a group of 3 or 4 up ahead around a couple more curves, and another band following behind us. Very rarely do we see a car alone. That was probably true for those Hebrew pilgrims.

As they journeyed up they would sing and chant Psalms of joy and praise. Likely they shouted some of the verses back and forth to each other, praising their great and merciful God for His faithful love and goodness. Maybe the joyful sounds echoed around the hills that lined the road. Maybe those at the very bottom, just beginning their walk, could hear those "echoes of mercy, whispers of love" as they moved along. (I wonder if they called it surround sound?)

Anyway, this is what I am experiencing reading Psalm 132: It reveals an aspect of God's character that we often ignore. His eagerness to shower on us more than we even ask for or can imagine.

The first 9 verses recall David's desire to build the LORD a temple. It reminds us of David's oath to God about the new temple. And then in verses 11-18 we read God's oath to David.

Verse 10 is a sort of hinge verse, revealing to us that the Psalm was written, not by David, but by his successor. It seems the Psalm was originally written by one of the musicians serving at the time of Solomon, probably for the dedication service of the great Temple.

But what brings me joy is to compare the words of each section. In verse 8 the poet is asking God to "Arise, O LORD, and come to your resting place." And then in God's response, in verses 13 and 14, God says "This is my resting place for ever and ever."

In verse 9 the poet asked God to clothe His priests with righteousness. God's response in verse 16 is that He will clothe them even more regally, with salvation.

In verse 9 the poet asks God to allow His saints to sing for joy. God says in verse 16 that the saints will sing with joy forever.

In verse 10 God is asked to accept, for the sake of David, the new king. God promises even more than that -- He will place David's descendants on the throne for as long as they keep their covenant with God.

And then in verses 17 and 18 we have the best-of-all promise that God will rise up a "horn", the symbol of a powerful ruler, who will achieve all that God has promised to His people. This is a whisper, a preview, of the long-awaited Messiah.

The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of Our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Eph. 3:20-21

.

Genesis - Beer Lahai Roi - A God Who Sees

Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert....and he said, "Hagar, where have you come from and where are you going?"

"I am running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her."

The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me."

For she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."                   

That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi -- well of the Living One who sees me.   (Genesis 16:6-14)




"I believe," says J. Vernon McGee, and many others, "that the angel of the LORD here is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ gone out to seek the lost again. He's that kind of Shepherd..."

He is our God of grace, the One who sees us and the One who comes after us. The Hound of Heaven He is called by Francis Thompson.

Adam and Eve tried to hide from God, but He sought them, asking "Where are you?"

God is always the One to pull us back to Him.

Hagar had another encounter with God.

When Ishmael was a child and they were wandering in the desert, near death, she placed her child under a bush and removed herself so she would not have to watch him die.

As she sat there, she began to sob, along with her child.

God heard their cry, and the angel of God called from heaven, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid.... Lift the boy up and take him by the hand..."

"Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink." (See the whole story in  Genesis, chapter 21).

So the God who sees is also the God who hears.

Our union with God is invisible, and so sometimes we might feel alone, ignored or even abandoned by
Him. The cords that connect us to Him may sometimes seem broken -- no, they are just invisible!

Ask Him to open your eyes, as He opened Hagar's eyes to see the well and receive the life-giving water.

It was there, but He had to open her eyes so she could see it!

And ask Him to open your ears to hear His Words of comfort.

"He heard their cry" contains our hope.

He is the God who sees and the God who hears.

He is everywhere. We need to have our eyes and ears opened by His Spirit.

And, look, He knew her name. "He calls his sheep by name," we read in John 10.

When we are aware of His Presence we will feel more loved and more secure -- safer -- than we ever felt at any other time.

Open our eyes, LORD.

Open my eyes, that I may see

Glimpses of Truth Thou hast for me.

Place in my hands the wonderful key

That shall unclasp and set me free.

Open my ears, that I may hear

Voices of Truth Thou sendest clear

And while the wave notes fall on my ear

Everything false will disappear.

We can't open our own eyes or ears any more than the blind and deaf men could open theirs when Jesus came to them.

It took the look and the voice of Jesus to reveal Him to their physical senses.

If they could have opened their own eyes and ears, they wouldn't have needed Jesus!

It's the same for us today.

Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus

To reach out and touch Him, and say that we love Him

Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen...

And everything false will disappear......

 

Restore My Joy....

I'm reading Psalm 51 this morning. David wrote it after Nathan confronted him about his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.

It's, I think,  the clearest expression of confession and repentance and total forgiveness in Scripture.

It's  so universal, and yet so personal that this psalm has touched the hearts of God's people for centuries.  I have read that in the early church it was recited, as a group, at every Lord's Day service.

Look at verse 12. After his sincere confession, David is confident of God's faithful forgiveness, and now prays: "Restore to me the joy of  Your salvation."

When I first read this verse some years ago, I was startled by David's nerve! He is saying that even after the horrible sins he committed, 'Please, God, bring me back to that joyous relationship with You again!' 

How could he have the nerve to ask that? After all he'd done! And notice the expression, "Your salvation."....not "my salvation."

This wording appears throughout Scripture. Why? Because everything about salvation is from God. We don't initiate anything.

Beginning with our search for God, because He first loved and called us, our seeing ourselves as the sinners we are, even our very repentance  is a gift of God. 

We do nothing, absolutely nothing, to achieve His salvation, except accept the gift. It's all about God.

"Amazing grace...grace that taught our hearts to fear and grace our fears relieved."

So why do we love this psalm so much? Because it is our experience, too. We are just as hardened and sinful as David. And we also stand in desperate of God's mercy and grace.

And we have it: Remember Hebrews 4:16? "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may find mercy and receive grace to help us in our hour of need."

Abba, Father - Jerry Bridges

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, Abba, Father (Romans 8:15).

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full right of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Galatians' 4:4-6)


What does it mean to be adopted as sons of God? For one thing, it means that we have been brought into a close personal relationship with Him.

Remember, we were rebels on death row, awaiting our execution date. But when  God pardoned us, He adopted us and brought us into His royal family.

What's more, we have confident and ready access to Him.

He gives us the privilege of addressing Him as "Abba, Father."

Abba was the word for father in the Aramaic language of Jews in Paul's day.

It was a term of intimate endearment toward and confidence in the one so addressed.

It was the term used by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He prayed to his Father that the cup of wrath might be taken from Him (Mark 14:36).

And Paul tells us that because of our adoption of as sons we can address the eternal God of the universe -- the One whom we have rebelled against - as "Abba, Father."

--From The Gospel for Real Life, Chapter 12, by
Jerry Bridges

The Hooker With Hope - From Brennan Manning

Mary Magdalene stands as a witness par excellence to the ragamuffin gospel.

On Good Friday she watched as the man she loved got blown away in the most brutal and dehumanizing fashion. The focus of her attention, however, was not on suffering, but the suffering Christ "who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

Never allow these words to be interpreted as allegory in the life of Magdalene.




The love of Jesus was a burning and divine reality to her: she would have been buried in history as some unknown hooker save for the Christ encounter.

She had no understanding of God, church, religion prayer, or ministry, except in terms of the Sacred Man who loved her and delivered Himself up for her.

The unique place that Magdalene occupies in the history  of discipleship owes not to her mysterious love for Jesus but to the miraculous transformation that His love wrought in her life.

She simply let herself be loved. The central truth for which Mary's life has come to stand is that is possible to be delivered through love from the lowest depths to the shining heights where God dwells.

   -- From The Ragamuffin Gospel, 
             by Brennan Manning, Chapter 11.

Bara - Psalm 51

Reflections on Psalm 51:10 ~~ 

Create in me a clean heart, O God

Asking for forgiveness wasn't enough for David. He wanted more.

This verse inspires me because it shows that David was aware of his true problem: his sinful acts came from his sinful heart. And he knew that he would sin again. For out of the heart comes evil...Jesus said (Matthew 15:19).

For David to ask God to create a new heart in him is a provocative request.

The Hebrew word for "create" is bara.

It is rarely used in Scripture. It describes what only God can do: to create from out of nothing (ex nihilo). Only God can do this.

In Genesis 1 the word bara is used three times: (1) the creation of matter, the heavens, and the earth - verse 1; (2) the creation of self-conscious life, the animals - verse 21; and (3) the creation of God-conscious life, human beings - verse 27. At all other times a less powerful verb is used.

So when David asked God to Create in me a clean heart, he was asking for a miracle! He was asking for something only God could provide.
And David knew that his new, clean heart, provided only by God, was really "out of nothing." I know that nothing good lives in me, wrote Paul (Romans 7:18).
David knew that God could not just patch up his heart, maybe apply some cleanser or new paint, or mend some broken spots.


It had to be re-made - created - out of nothing David had.

Ezekiel talked about a new heart also:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

A prayer we can voice every day: Create in me a clean heart, O G

I know not how the Spirit moves

Convincing me of sin

Revealing Jesus through the Word

Creating faith in Him.

--Daniel Webster Whittle

Giving us....from out of nothing...everything we need to bring us into God's family and everything we need to pursue holiness.

New Wardrobe

 

Getting your summer wardrobe arranged in your closet? Remember God  has chosen a wardrobe for us that needs to be considered.

Here's what we read in Colossians, Chapter 3: "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

I look at the items needed - having trouble finding humility in my wardrobe. I guess I need to acquire that!

What is humility?

Rick Warren describes it: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others. Humble people are so focused on serving others that they don't think of themselves."

Humility is always appropriate attire. It goes with everything else! I guess I need to add it to my wardrobe. Do you?

That way people will admire us for our acute fashion sense...oh, I guess that's missing the whole point! Delete that!

Enemy-occupied Territory C S Lewis

 

                                                    Enemy-occupied Territory

                                                           --  C S Lewis 

"One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talked so much about a Dark Power in the universe -- a mighty evil spirit who was held to be the Power behind death and disease and sin.

The difference [between Dualism and Christianity] is that Christianity thinks the Dark Power was created by God, and was good when he was created, and then he went wrong.

Christianity agrees with Dualism that this universe is at war. But it does not think it is a war between independent powers.

It thinks it is a civil war, a rebellion, and that we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel.

Enemy-occupied territory -- that is what this world is.

Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say, landed in  disguise, and is calling us to  take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

When you go to church, you are really listening-in on the secret wireless communications from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going."

So our job is to thwart and sabotage all the devil's (the one who is rebelling against God)  plans and activities. When we go to church we are "plotting"  to overthrow him. We  are dangerous to him! Yay rebels! But we are on the winning side!

Where is God When We Pray? C S Lewis

An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers.

He is trying to get into 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 through the Holy Spirit.

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 road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually involved in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.

The man is being caught up into the high kinds of life--what I call Zoe or spiritual life: he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.

---C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Outside and Hungry - St. Augustine

Too late have I loved You, O Beauty, ancient yet ever new.

Too late have I loved You!

And behold, You were within, but I was outside, searching for You there -- plunging, deformed amid those fair forms which You had made.

You were with me, but I was not with You.

You called and shouted, and burst my deafness.

You gleamed and shone upon me, and chased away my blindness.

You breathed fragrant odors on me, and I held back my breath, but now I pant for You.

I tasted and now I hunger and thirst for You.

You touched me, and now I yearn for Your peace.

  -- From The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book X,
     Chapter 27

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness,

for they shall be filled.

(Matthew 5:6)

Goodness and Mercy

Re-reading Psalm 23 again today.

As always, finding something new to bring  me joy and inspiration..... and of course, gratitude.

 I wonder, what would David think if he could see how many people today ponder his words, relishing every phrase. Finding comfort and encouragement.

I wonder how many people have quoted these words at funerals. 
How many caskets have been placed in the ground as a minister
and loved ones prayed, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For Thou art with me..."  Has to be millions - after all, it's been three thousand years!

I think about Mary and Martha when they placed the body of their
brother, Lazarus, in the tomb - were they mouthing these words?
Did Jesus' mother, Mary, recite them, too, as she saw the life ebb out of her Son's body on the cross?

And I so love these words: "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."  "Surely" and "shall", not "maybe," or "I hope",  and "all", not "sometimes."

What a Good Shepherd we have! And David seemed to know Him very well.

"Goodness" and "mercy" - daily gifts to us from Our Father. He's leading us and they are following, like other sheep following their Shepherd.

What a parade, what a convoy, we make!

We don't have to worry about them keeping up with us - they never let  us out of their sight!

A friend once had two golden labs - she named them, yes, "Goodness" and "Mercy" - what a joy to see her walking them in our neighborhood!

Reminds me of an old gospel song:

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me!
His faithful follower I will be, 
For by His hand He leadeth me!

By His own hand - not an angel or someone to substitute - His own hand!

The words of this song were written by Joseph Gilmore about
150 years ago....here are some more of his thoughts...

He leadeth me, O blessed thought,
O words with heavenly comfort fraught.
Whate'er I do, where'er I go
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me!

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden's flowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still 'tis His hand that leadeth me!

Lord, I would clasp Thine hand in mine
Nor never murmur nor repine
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since 'tis Thy hand that leadeth me!

And when my task on earth is done
When by Thy grace the victory's won,
Even death's cold wave I will not fear
Since God through Jordan leadeth me!

What a Word of Encouragement Meant to Churchill

 What a Word of Encouragement Meant to Churchill

Winston Churchill led the British people through the desperate challenges of World war II. He constantly told them that they must "never, never, never give up." In one speech he used the word "never" seven times! as he pounded his fist to reinforce his message.

But their chances of holding out against the German onslaught began to shrink.

FDR's right-hand man, Harry Hopkins, joined him one night. Churchill pleaded for news from Roosevelt.

"Here's what Roosevelt says," Hopkins began. "Whither you go, I will go; whither you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you will die, I will die and there will I be buried.....with you even to the end."  (From the Book of Ruth)

And Winston Churchill began to weep, sobbing, "There is hope."

[VE Day is tomorrow]

An Almost Lost (and Last) Song - From Daniel

                                                

                         Almost Lost Song - From Daniel

I ran across this beautiful hymn recently. Legends say that this was the hymn sung by the three young Hebrew boys -- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego -- while they were in the firey furnace in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Scholars date it as over 2000 years for certain (except for the last two lines which were added by early Christians).

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers;

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name;

We will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple,

On the throne of your majesty, glory to you.

Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim.

We will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you, beholding the depths;

In the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

We will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Remember the story (Daniel 3)?
So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own god....no other god can save in this way...".

The King's letter "To the peoples, nations and men of every language, who live in all the world: It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

How great are his signs,
How mighty his wonders!
His kingdom is an eternal kingdom;
His dominion endures from generation to generation

No other God can save this way.......words from Nebuchadnezzar....and he didn't even know the half of it!

Nothing Denied

                                            Nothing Denied

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not  also freely give us all things..." 
Romans 8:32

I have been thinking about this verse, and found this from J. I Packer, in his book The Holiness of God:

"The meaning of 'He will give us all things' can be put this: one day we shall see that nothing - literally nothing - which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us..."

                                              ******

Absolutely NOTHING that would bring us eternal happiness has been or will be denied.....

I remember singing a song when I was a child at Children's Church:

It went something like this:

Every promise in the Book is mine
Every chapter, every verse, every line
All are gifts of His love divine
Every promise in the Book is mine!












Every

In His Time

Struggling with something right now? To consider: are you praying with faith or doubt? Or maybe even fear?

Are you trusting in God's timing, or are you trying to control the outcome yourself?

Maybe, like I do sometimes, you are, even as you are praying, working on Plan B in your mind, just in case He isn't ready to act yet or is tied up and can't respond right now.

Here's what to do:

1. Take a real step of faith. Choose to seek Him often throughout the day, not just for answers, but to establish a closer relationship with Him. And wait. 

2. Write down some of His promises -- start with 8 or 10 -- declare your confidence in His faithfulness, that you know He is working even if you don't see it.

3. Wait while He works. The waiting season is not wasted -- it is critical preparation as He is getting you ready for what's coming next!

4. Repeat out loud several times today: Courage is not the absence of fear -- it is the presence of faith!

So, today, whatever your are facing, seek the Lord and His presence. He hears you. He loves you, In His perfect time He will answer. Remember all His promises!

Grand Illuminations - Past and Future

Celebrating great events with nighttime displays of sparkling bursts of light have been around for hundreds of years.

"Fireworks" have been around well over a thousand years, with special colors and effects that brightened the skies over China as early as 700 AD.

Neon was discovered in 1898 and now there are about 100 different colors that can be produced in that distinctive tube lighting.

Some resorts and vacation spots are always associated with alluring lighting -- the Las Vegas Strip, the Lights of Broadway, the City that Never Sleeps, the City of Lights.

Jesus  reminds us that "men loved darkness because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19).

That's true. But isn't it amazing how much sin we can accomplish in brightly lighted streets and buildings? And homes? We have become very proficient in our pursuit of evil --day and night!

Great public displays of fire works and creative lighting have been popular in the United States since our first 4th of July celebration.

Sometimes these events were called Grand Illuminations, and perhaps the most famous was in Washington, D.C.,  April 13, 1865. It was Thursday.

Lee had surrendered to Grant on the 9th of April. The war was over. (Abraham Lincoln's fateful visit to Ford's Theater would not come until the next night, on Good Friday, April 14.)

It was the best time to celebrate the best news people had heard for many years!

The War was over. The Union was saved. The American dream was still going to come true!

Bring out the LIGHTS!

The biggest Grand Illumination ever -- a mass lighting of every candle, gas lamp, and firework in the city!

Thousands of people streamed into the nation's capital to witness the attempt to turn night into day.
To officially declare that the long dark gloom of the war was over. A bright new day was dawning.

On the roof of the Willard Hotel workers installed gas jets  to spell out the word "Union." Bon fires would be lit all over the city.

Government buildings had competitions to see which one could be the most brilliantly lighted and decorated.

The war department building featured 5000 (yes, five thousand) candles glowing from its windows.

Bursts and bangs  of fireworks sounded all over the city -- (I wonder, did the returning soldiers, and especially General Grant really appreciate that noise and flashing lights? Hadn't they had enough of that on the battle fields for the past four years?)

 The celebration continued all Thursday night and resumed the next evening, Friday, until the word began to reach the revelers that the President had been shot while out celebrating with his wife and friends at Ford's Theater.

Then turn out the lights. The party's over.

Selah.

There was another grand illumination recorded in Exodus 13.

After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and a pillar of fire by night so they could travel day or night. Neither the pillar by day or the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

That pillar of fire was bright enough to enable the Israelites, with their carts and oxen and families of elderly and small children to safely travel the rough wilderness pathway.

It had to be as light as noontime.

There was no night there.


But the greatest and grandest illumination is still to come. It, too, is revealed to us in sacred text.
And it will be in a capital city. But not Washington, D.C.

We call that city the New Jerusalem, a city that...

 does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.On no day will its gates be shut, for there will be no night there. Revelation 21.

There will be no night there.

And the party will never be over.

Praise God for His unspeakable gift.

Selah.