Most Ancient Song

An Ancient, Almost Lost, Song
                                                   all the way back to Daniel.....


     Legends say that this hymn was sung by the three young Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, while they were in the fiery furnace in Babylon during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
Scholars date it as over 2000 years old for certain. 

The last two lines were added to the Hebrew hymn by early Christians and it became a hymn they used in worship.

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 forever.

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 forever

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 forever.

Remember the story? (Daniel 3)

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 god can save lives in this way."

Then the King wrote a 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 as 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 the mighty

Nebuchadnezzar - and he didn't even know the half of it!

[Wouldn't it be great if we knew the melody the early church

used to sing that wonderful hymn? Maybe it will be one of the praise hymns we sing around His Throne when we get to heaven!]

Who's In Charge? - J M Boice

Sovereignty is the most important attribute of God, and sovereignty bothers the unsaved immensely.

In a certain sense, people recognize that if there is a God, he must be sovereign because a God who does not rule his own universe is no God at all.  If he does not rule, something or someone else rules, and that other thing is the true God.

God must rule.

But the natural man does not like that, so he resists God's sovereignty.

That is one reason it so difficult to preach the gospel. Deep in his heart the unsaved individual knows that if God is God he is at least sovereign, and such a man hates God for his sovereignty.

That is why Adam rebelled against God. God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden and said, "You shall not eat of this tree, because the day in which you eat of it you will die."

Adam was offended by this. He was not fooled by Satan's arguments, as Eve was (1 Timothy 2:14). He disobeyed in full knowledge of what he was doing.

In essence, Adam shook his fist in God's face saying, God I hate the restriction you have placed upon me, because it means you are sovereign and I am not, and I want to be sovereign in my own life. I want to rule things myself. I want to do things my way. So, if you say, "Don't eat of that tree," that is the one thing I want to do. And I am going to eat of it and die -- whatever that may be.

Adam did eat of it, and that same spirit of rebellion (and death) passed onto the human race.

When Jesus Christ came, his contemporaries said the same thing: We will not have this man rule over us.

So they crucified him! 

Crucifixion is the response of the unsaved human heart to God's sovereignty: I want to do things the way I want to do them and I will not acknowledge God's right to interfere.

Yet, sovereignty is one of the first things we are taught in Scripture concerning God's character. He is the sovereign God, and he is sovereign whether we acknowledge it or not.


   -- From Standing on the Rock,
                by James Montgomery Boice, Chapter 6

God has highly exalted him and bestowed

on him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus every knee

should bow, in heaven and on earth and

under the earth, and every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

C S Lewis - We Are Far Too Easily Pleased

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

    -- The Weight of Glory, by C S Lewis

At His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.....for us!

The Real Renewing

 Paul tells the Roman Christians (and us) in his letter to them (Romans 12:2):  'Be transformed by the renewing of your mind...'  Frankly sometimes that seems as difficult as it did to me when I read it as a child.

Another version tell us 'do not let the world squeeze you into its mold.'

Paul insists that our mind is the battlefield in our fight to resist being shaped by society around us and so God demands the renewal of our minds.

Michael Frost of Navigators says this:

    When the Spirit renews our minds, all of life becomes an act of           worship. That's because the Spirit not only opens our eyes to see         who Christ really is, but also breaks our hearts to see who we             really are...and when that happens, we find within ourselves               there's this growing and nurturing sense of the greatness of God         and the beauty of God's love...

     All of life becomes charged with the presence of God, and we             find ourselves wanting to offer more and more of our lives to             God  as an act of worship...as we steadfastly focus on                         Jesus, devoting ourselves as His students and disciples, the Spirit       renews our thinking and our behavior, and we become more like         Him. He actually transforms us into the image of the Son of God.

What great thoughts: all of life becomes charged with the  presence of God!  All of life becomes an act of worship! And as we focus on Jesus the Spirit actually transforms us into His image! What greater thing can happen to us - and is there anything that would please God more?

The LORD said to my Lord....The Sacred Letters

The Sacred Letters

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

Holy, holy holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

Isaiah 6:1-3


Isaiah's King had just died. But now Isaiah sees the real King -- the Ultimate King -- the One who will sits forever on the throne. He is the Lord. And He will never die.

Occasionally I read different items about how God's name is used in Scripture -- you know...like sometimes it is LORD and sometimes Lord ... well, R. C. Sproul explains it so well.

First notice how the "Lord" is written in verse 1. With a capital "L" and lower case "ord." Then in verse 3 it is LORD, with all capital letters.

Sproul, in his book, The Holiness of God, explains it this way:

This is not an error in printing or mere inconsistency....Most English translations of the Bible follow the same device....The reason for this difference is that two different Hebrew words are used in the original text, but both are rendered in English by the word Lord.

When the word Lord occurs in lowercase letters, the translator is indicating that the word adonai is found in the Hebrew Bible. Adonai means sovereign one. It is not the name of God. It is a title for God, indeed the supreme title given for God in the Old Testament.

When LORD appears in all capitals it indicates that Yahweh is used.

Yahweh is the sacred name for God, the name by which he revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush.

This is the unspeakable name, the ineffable [too overwhelming to be expressed in words or to be described in words]name, the holy name that is guarded from profanity in Israel.

Normally it occurs only with the use of its four consonants--yhwh.

It is therefore referred to as the sacred tetragrammaton, the unspeakable four letters.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1)

What the Jew was saying was "O Yahweh, our Adonai, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

LORD is the name of God, Lord is his title.

We speak of President George Washington. President is his title. George Washington is his name.

If the highest office in our land is the office of President, so the highest office and title in Israel was the office of Sovereign. The title adonia was reserved for God. And it was the title given for Jesus in the New Testament.

When Christ is called Lord, He is invested with the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament adonai. Jesus is called the King of kings and Lord of lords, gaining a title that beforehand was reserved only for God the Father, the supreme Sovereign of heaven and earth.

These different uses of LORD and Lord indicate the care with which people communicated God's holy nature.

When the manuscripts were being copied in ancient times, the scribe took special care with God's name. When he came to the unspeakable four consonants, he would replace the stylus or pen he was using with a brand new one -- write the four letters, and then throw away his writing tool, so that it would never be used again.
Then he would pick up the one he had been using and resume his task.

Note: Another example. If George Washington was God, we would write President George Washington as this: Lord LORD.

P.S. Remember this from elementary school? "When George the Third was England's King, our George was first in everyting..

At least not as much - Jerry Bridges pursuit of Holiness

From Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges


Part 1

Solomon tells us that the eyes of man are never satisfied (Proverbs 27:20). One more lustful look or one more piece of pie never satisfies. In fact, quite the opposite takes place. Every time we say yes to temptation, we make it harder to say no the next time.

We must recognize that we have developed habit patterns of sin. We have developed the habit of shading the facts a little bit when it is to our advantage. We have developed the habit of giving in to be inertia that refuses to let us get up in the morning. These habits must be broken, but they never will till we make a basic commitment to a life of holiness without exception.


The apostle John said, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin" (I John 2:1). The whole purpose of John's letter, he says, is that we not sin.

One day as I was studying this chapter I realized that my personal life's objective regarding holiness was less than that of John's.

He was saying, effect, "Make it your aim not to sin." As I thought about this, I realized that deep within my heart my real aim was not to sin very much. I found it difficult to say, "Yes, Lord, from here on I will make it my aim not to sin." I realized God was calling me that day to a deeper level of commitment to holiness than I had previously been willing to make.

Part 2

Can you imagine a soldier going into battle with the aim of "not getting hit very much"? The very suggestion is ridiculous. His aim is not to get hit at all! Yet, if we have not made commitment to holiness without exception, we are like a soldier
going into battle with the aim of not being hit very much. We can be
sure if that is our aim, we will be hit--not with bullets, but with temptation over and over again.

Jonathan Edwards, one of the great preachers of early American history, used to make resolutions. One of these was, "Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life." Dare we modern-day Christians make sure a resolution? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the practice of holiness with exception? There is no point in praying for victory over temptation if we are not willing to make a commitment to say no to it.

It is only by learning to deny temptation that we will ever put to death the misdeeds of the body. Learning this is usually a slow and painful process, fraught with much failure. Our old desires and our sinful habits are not easily dislodged. To break them requires persistence, often in the face of little success.

But this is the path we must tread, painful though it may be.

The Purpose-Driven Porpoise

From Psalm 104 - A Hymn of Creation:

How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.

There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number--living things both large and small.

There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.   Psalm 104:24-26


The leviathan - giant sea creatures, like whales and dolphins and porpoises - which He formed to frolic there!

Frolic - to make merry - to have fun - to be playful!

That's the job -- the purpose -- of the sea creatures -- to play and frolic in the oceans!

The psalmist pictures the great sea creatures as large and sportive animals whose very existence glorifies and delights the Creator!

They gladden the heart of God.


May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in His works...
Psalm 104:31


And then we look at the closing verses of the Psalm:


I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.  Psalm 104:33

That's our job -- to proclaim His praise!

The sea creatures exist to frolic and bring joy to God.
That's their response to His goodness!

We exist to praise and glorify Him.

That's our proper response!

What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.....says the Westminster Catechism.

I want to do as good a job at achieving God's purpose for me as the sea creatures do at theirs!

I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live....

and that's forever!



And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems....and God saw that it was good.
                           -- Genesis 1:20-21 - The 5th day.....

The Main Point -

Peter speaking to the crowd at the temple -

You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this...Now I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. Acts 3:14-15, 17

Acted in ignorance....

In Numbers 15 God gives us His remedy for "unintentional sin."

Now if you unintentionally fail to keep any of these commands the LORD gave Moses--any of the LORD'S commands to you through him from the day the LORD gave them and continuing through the generations to come...he must bring a year-old female goat for a sin offering. The priest is to make atonement before the LORD for the one who erred by sinning unintentionally; and when atonement has been made for him, he will be forgiven. Numbers 15:22-23, 27-28.

The atoning sacrifice forgave the sin. Blotted it out, not hiding it under a rug, hoping no one would see it...
Continuing through the generations to come.

Sin is sin. "Ignorance is no excuse," we say. Whether we act in ignorance or in full knowledge, sin is still sin.

Many in Peter's audience had been witnesses at the cross. Some of them had heard Jesus cry out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Perhaps some of them had screamed out to Pilate to release Barabbas and crucify Jesus. Maybe they had even seen Him, healing the sick, forgiving people of their sins, during His ministry -- but they just didn't get it!

The penalty for sin is stark and clear.

The grace of God prevails. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us less.

This is the essence of grace. They had another chance. After rejecting Jesus and screaming for His death, God still reached out and gave them the message again. Another chance to repent and be converted.

Today was Lord's Supper Sunday. We were not there at that Passover. We did not turn Christ over to be crucified. We did not scream out to release Barabbas.

But we still crave His grace, every hour, every day, as surely as our bodies crave water to drink.

This is not a simple memorial service -- it celebrates God's greatest act in the history of the world. It's giving us another chance to repent and convert. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out. Acts 3:19

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:1

A Tiny Bridal Bouquet for a Mouse Bride

         A Tiny Bridal Bouquet for a Mouse  Wedding

Praise the LORD!
How many are Your works, O LORD! 
In wisdom You made them all.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever, 
May the LORD rejoice in His works...
I will sing to the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my meditation be pleasing to Him
as I rejoice in the LORD.
      -- From Psalm 104

This is my current "favorite psalm." I am reading it every day
this week....and I recommend that practice!
There are so many joyful descriptions of God's glorious acts of creation.

Right now I am looking at verses 25-26: There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number -- living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan [great sea creature, like a whale], which You formed to frolic there.

Just think! Isn't that just what they do? They frolic and play. They are living the life God intended. And as they do it they glorify their Creator, even if they don't know it. They act like they are rejoicing in just being alive!

Then verses 33-34: I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the LORD.

This is why we were created! To glorify and praise Him -
I see that David says "my God" - not some god he read about or someone told him about - - but HIS God!

So today I am thinking that I should do my job as well as the
whales to theirs - living the life God intended! Just as they frolic in
the waves - I should also "rejoice in the LORD."

I used to be bothered by the idea that our mediations, as well as our actions, should be pleasing to God. Sounds so hard. Sounds almost
impossible to make sure our thoughts are God-honoring.

But it doesn't bother me now - the key is right there..."As I rejoice in the LORD"... so easy...keep rejoicing in the lORD and our
thoughts and meditations will follow!

So easy to rejoice in God's creation.

Look closely at a clover flower - I mean really closely. Get a magnifying glass if you need to. See the tiny blossoms packed so tightly together  - really look at them! They are like tiny calla lillies - I promise! Little teeny tiny glimpses of outstanding beauty and detail - each one! Reminds me of a bridal bouquet a friend of mine once selected for her wedding....

It's like this little clover blossom is designed as a miniature bouquet for some tiny creature to enjoy -  like maybe for a bridal bouquet for a mouse wedding!

Now don't make fun - check it out! I dare you! Look at that tiny
cover blossom!

It's so easy to praise Him all day long - we are surrounded with such examples of intricate beauty .

We just must stop and wonder!

A W Tozer - What we think about God (Part 2)

What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.   A W Tozer


Continued from Part 1:

Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question,  "What comes into your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with some certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the church will stand tomorrow.

That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us.

Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence.

Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is.





Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.

A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well.

It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse.





I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.

It is my opinion that the current Christian conception of  God is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.

      --  From A W Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy, Chapter 1,
                                   Why we must think rightly about God.

A W Tozer - What we think about God (Part 1)

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.   A W Tozer


Part 1

The most important thing about us? Did he mean to say "What comes into our minds first when we think about God is the most important thing we think about Him"?

But that's not what he said.

He said what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us!

More from Tozer on this:

The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God.

Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.

For this reason the greatest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that compose the Church.

Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech.

She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.


From A W Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy, Chapter 1,
Why we must think rightly about God.




I find this thoughtful -- thinking about world history
and the civilizations that have come and gone.

The UN posts a list periodically of which countries are the most democratic (where all the citizens have the most freedoms) and the most financially beneficial for its people - all, not just the elite).

When we look at the lists, at the top countries, they are all Christian nations, or historically influenced deeply by Christianity. Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu countries are at the bottom.


Does that relate to how we view God? We picture God as holy and righteous, displaying justice for all, not jut a few. We see Him as concerned about the poor, the children, and the powerless.


We picture Him, through evidences in His Word, as
honoring hard work and ambition.

He wants us to do something about our society!


I think Tozer is right - and we are living proof in our country today - and our society does have a high picture of God and so we are, with other Christian countries,  at the top of those lists!

So, then, as we "grow" our picture of God, we will become more like the kind of people He wants us to be - like Him - and our society will become more like His Kingdom on earth.....

Our God is personally involved in His creation and His creature -- there is no such thing as "fate."

Words to ponder... we can never escape the self-disclosure of what we think about God....


See Part 2

Good To The Last Drop

GOOD TO THE LAST DROP!

I was thinking this morning about a saintly woman I knew when I was a child -- Alvina Burch, our pastor's wife. She was always "old" to me, but I loved her dearly. She was a great Prayer Warrior, and spent many hours on her knees praying...many of those hours for me, as Rev. Burch told me often.

I remember once going with her to a Retirement Home (we called them 'Old Folks' Homes' in those days [weren't we awful?]). We sang songs and conducted a worship service. She was the speaker/preacher. That day her topic was "Good to the Last Drop."

It was a sort of 'current' title, because it was the slogan of one of the coffee companies -- we saw it on TV and read it in the papers often.

It might have been Maxwell House. I don't remember for sure, but their claim to fame was that every swallow, even to the last drop, was the best available. And she urged her audience to be like that -- showing God's goodness and grace everyday, all day, as long as we have life and breath!

I think about that often. When I speak at our DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) I often talk about Alvina. And how all of us should be "good to the last drop."

Paul talks about it, too.

...I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has call me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14.

I imagine a race and all the runners lined up at the starting position. They have been preparing themselves mentally and physically for this race. The bell sounds and they leap ahead. Then they begin to pace themselves, for it is going to be a long, hard race. They maintain their positions. Lap after lap.
They struggle. Their muscles begin to ache. They have trouble breathing.

But there it is -- the finish line is in sight! They are almost there! Each runner searches inside himself for that final burst of energy. He forgets his aches. He runs faster than ever because he can see the finish line and somewhere, somehow he finds a source of strength and he leaps forward.

That's how we should be -- we don't slow down when we see the finish line-- we speed up!

I once heard a story about Isaac Perlman, the renowned violinist. While playing a concert in New York City, just a moment or two after he began, the audience heard a loud "pop." Most of those watching recognized that fearful sound -- one of his violin strings had broken! Those in the closest rows could see the broken string dangling down and they waited for him to stop and change the string and resume his concert.

But he didn't. He continued playing without a moment's hesitation. He finished the entire concerto.

At the end the audience gave him a standing ovation. They marveled at what he had done: he had played an extremely difficult piece in its entirety on only three strings of his violin.

Later, when he was asked about the performance, he replied, "Sometimes it is an artist's task to find out how much music he can make with what he has left."

When I remember that I think of Joni Tada and so many others, who have lost much, but still make glorious music in God's service with what they have left.

Then there are those (of us) who have lost some time -- maybe even years -- and now we want to make all the music we can with the time we have left. Maybe we let ourselves slip away from God's plan for our lives. Maybe we "dropped out" of His picture. Maybe we openly rebelled against Him. And now we want to make it up -- to spend our time left advancing His Kingdom.

Making up for lost time.....

The prophet Joel talks about this. He told his fellow Israelites that because of their apostasy God was going to punish them. But, and the message is clear, if they will repent and return to God with all their heart, then He will hear them, turn away His wrath, heal them and even restore them to their former glory. God actually says that genuine repentance will be followed by restoration of the lost years. (Joel 2:25)

When we disregard God and begin to run our own lives, we start a downhill slide (a very slippery slide) that takes us further and further away from Him - the One who truly loves us. We begin to miss positive opportunities. We begin to fail in small ways. We begin to feel alienated and lonely. We begin more and more to live for ourselves and forget others. We become miserable and desperate and hopeless.

God can change all that. We cannot undo what was done. Some of the results of sin will linger and pester us. But God can restore much of what "the locusts have eaten."


He can give new opportunities, perhaps even greater than the ones we lost earlier. Friends may have been driven away, but He can help us make new friends -- loyal, loving people who love Him and who love us, and maybe even restore the older friendships.

God can break our sinful patterns and restore our joy and peace and passion for holiness to a level that surpasses what we had before.

Does it make sense? Of course not! God's love is unlimited and it pours out into our hearts without any restraints. Ever seen Niagara Falls?
Or what about that oil spill in the Gulf? God's love is even greater than that. His bottomless fountain of love and grace is the real gusher!


There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more -- and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us less.

That's what grace means. Grace is pretty amazing, isn't it?

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!

What is the best kind of worship? - R C Sproul

But the hour is now coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.  John 4:23-24

These were Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar. Instructions on how to worship our Creator God were given to a lowly, sinful woman during a casual conversation at a community well. Not at an international conference. Not at an elite university. Not on tablets brought down from Mt. Sinai.

She is talking about worshiping God. And so is Jesus. He is talking about true worship of His Father.

Comments from R. C. Sproul

Christians in the twenty-first century tend to have a woeful ignorance of the Old Testament. One of the most important problems that follows from an ignorance of the Old Testament is a profound ignorance of the character of God the Father.

We somehow think that Christianity centers exclusively around Jesus. Obviously we are called to honor, exalt, and worship Christ, but we need to remember that Christ came in the first place to reconcile us to the Father.

There is a certain sense in which the supreme focus of our worship on Sunday morning is to be the Father; that is why Jesus said here that "true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth."

Again, we worship the triune God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but we need to have the majesty of the Father, in all of His greatness, in our minds as we worship.

Worshiping God "in spirit"

True worship comes from the depths of our souls, from our inner spirit, from the very core of our being. When Mary sang and praised God she cried out, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." (Luke 1:46-47)

There are many instances in the Old Testament where we are told that God rejected the worship of His people. It was sometimes hypocritical, false, and full of external formalities. Their lives lacked mercy and justice and so God condemned them for their shallow, dead, and cold-hearted worship of Him.

Coming to God with awe, reverence and adoration is the way to approach Him.

And living lives that honor Him causes Him to draw near to us as we draw near to Him.


Worshiping God "in truth."

More words from R. C. Sproul....

I don't think there's ever been a time in Christian history when the church has been exposed to more experimental worship than it is today, and so often the experiments are driven by polls that ask what people want on Sunday mornings. Do they want sermons that will give them popular psychology? Do they want warm, fuzzy feelings as their felt needs are met?

If so, the assumption goes, we need to tailor worship to meet those felt needs, because if we don't do that, our churches will be empty because people will be bored and will see church as irrelevant. But Jesus said that the Father wants people to worship Him according to what He wants.

The one worship service in the history of the world that was completely designed to minister to the felt needs of people was the worship of the golden calf at the base of Mt. Sinai (Exodus 32).

It was not an exercise in true worship, but in idolatry. We have to keep a close watch on what we do in worship, asking ourselves: "Is this according to the truth of God? Is this God's teaching in His Word?"

Our worship must be based on God's self-revelation in Scripture. He is truth and His Word is truth.


Our Father, teach us to worship You as You desire.

Cleaning God's House

Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.

When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.

And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up."      (John 2:13-17)

The key words seem to be in the temple. If all this had been going on outside Jesus would have done nothing.

At most times the merchants were set up across the Kidron Valley. But for Passover they moved their booths right up in the temple area.

I can imagine it happening. Like store hours in a shopping mall today. If one store begins opening a little before the actual opening time, others follow. So I can imagine one merchant deciding to move his booth closer to the temple, to be more convenient for the worshipers, and probably to reap a little more of the business. Then another would move his booth, vying for a better spot, and so finally they were all there!

Competition must have been intense! They probably called out their prices, drowning each other out if possible, to secure better deals. Bargaining was probably loud and boisterous, too! (Remember the old saying? The more things change, the more they remain the same. Entering a market area in the Middle East today is probably an accurate illustration of that day when Christ came to the temple 2000 years ago!)

Appropriate Service -- Inappropriate Place

The Jews who were selling the animals and the money changers were doing good work.

It was Passover. Pilgrims coming in to participate could not, in many cases, bring their sacrifices with them. And so for someone in Jerusalem to provide for them what they needed was a worthwhile, and important, service.

The money changers, too, provided a service. While at the Passover, the pilgrims were to pay a temple tax and it was to be coins of the purist silver. There were a number of coinage systems in the Roman Empire and Jews coming in from other areas often would not have the pure silver coins they needed. They needed to exchange their local currency for the silver coins needed for them to pay their tax.

The animal sellers and the money changers charged a commission. Sometimes it might be higher than really necessary (I suppose greedy people lived in those days, too!)

Nevertheless, these activities were providing valuable services for the people coming to worship God.

Perhaps the main truth we need to glean from this scripture is one that we have (almost?) forgotten today: God is particular about how He is to be approached in the temple (Sanctuary today). He has a certain way He wants to be worshiped.

Remember the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in Sychar?

Yet a time is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. (John 4:23-24)

That should remind us that God is concerned about the way we come to Him, about how we worship Him.

Jesus was saying, "This is holy ground. This is a place for prayer and adoration and worship. Not a market!"


Here's some thoughts from R. C. Sproul:

It wasn't simply zeal for the temple that motivated Jesus. It was zeal for the activity the temple was designed to accommodate--the worship of God. Imagine if you went to church on a Sunday morning and went into the sanctuary to pray, but you couldn't focus your thoughts because of the loud and persistent bleating of sheep and goats. That's what was going on in the temple. The sacred grounds set apart for worship had become chaotic.

Yes, the people's needs were being met. I'm sure the temple leaders were saying, "We're just trying to be relevant; we're being seeker-sensitive for those who can't bring their lambs from home and who need their money exchanged." But in their efforts to make these procedures easy and convenient for the people, they impacted the people's ability to worship.

Are We Also Missing the Point?

I guess we are doing the same thing today. Forgetting that Jesus' zeal for the house of God was actually for the worship of God in His house.

Forgetting that the holy God we come to worship and adore has the right to tell us how to come to Him. And we have the responsibility to obey His rules.

Imagine if we were requesting an audience with the Queen of England. We would find out exactly how to approach her. Should we bow? Should we salute? Should we shake her hand? How should we address her? It's called protocol -- proper etiquette and ceremony used by dignitaries and heads of state. And it is all decided and dictated by the person who is being visited. Not by the ones seeking her attention.

Have we made it all backwards? We worry about music that will attract a larger audience. Shorter sermons to appeal to audiences with limited attention spans.
High-tech aids to show people we are "with it" -- that we are relevant -- that we are sophisticated and "uptown."

Jesus says in John 2 and John 4 something different. He says His Father wants people to worship Him according to what He wants. Now that's a novel idea! Worship God the way He wants?

We are shown throughout Scripture that worship is not something we are to do as we please.


I wonder if perhaps Christ might come some day with a whip of cords to drive us out of His sanctuary.

Am I Praying Wrong?

I'm thinking about a quote from A W Tozer:

'God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible --

what a pity that we pray for things that we can do by ourselves.'

I can't get this off my mind -- it's like a giant yellow sticky note - a reminder to me that I need to change the way I pray.

I need to step it up - claim God's promises and ask Him to use me

in humanly "impossible" ways to extend His Kingdom and glorify His Name.

Am I limiting His  work by self-centered, weak prayers?

The Early Christians - G. K. Chesterton

      God was not exactly dead after all; there trailed through the bewildered imagination some sort of fantastic procession of the funeral of God, at which the sun turned black, but which ended with the dead omnipotence breaking out of the tomb and rising again like the sun.

     But it was not the strange story to which anybody paid particular attention; people in that world had seen queer religions enough to fill a madhouse.

     It was something in the tone of the madmen and their type of formation. They were a scratch company of barbarians and slaves and poor and unimportant people; but their formation was military; they moved together and were very absolute about who and what was really a part of their little system; and about what they said.

     However mildly, there was a ring like iron.  Men used to many mythologies and moralities could make no analysis of the mystery, except the curious conjecture that they meant what they said.

     All attempts to make them see reason in the perfectly simple matter of the Emperor's statue seemed to be spoken to deaf men. It was as if a new meteoric metal had fallen on the earth; it was a difference of substance to the touch. Those who touched their foundation fancied they had struck a rock.

     With a strange rapidity, like the changes of a dream, the proportions of things seemed to change in their presence. Before most men knew what had happened, these few men were palpably present.

     They were important enough to be ignored. People became suddenly silent about them and walked swiftly past them.

     We see a new scene, in which the world has drawn its skirts away from these men and women and they stand in the center of a great space like lepers.  The scene changes again and the great space where they stand is overhung on every side with a cloud of witnesses, interminable terraces full of faces looking down towards them intently; for strange things are happening to them.

     New tortures have been invented for the madmen who have brought the good news. That sad and weary society seems almost to find a new energy in establishing its first religious persecution.

     Nobody yet knows very clearly why that level world has thus lost its balance about the people in its midst; but they stand unnaturally still while the arena and the world seem to revolve round them.

     And there shone on them in that dark hour a light that has never been darkened; a white fire clinging to that group, like an unearthly phosphorescence, blazing its track through the twilights of history and confounding every effort to confound it with the mists of mythology and theory; that shaft of light or lightning by which the world itself has struck and isolated and crowned it; by which its own enemies have made it more illustrious and its own critics have made it more inexplicable; the halo of hatred around the Church of God.

    From The Everlasting Man, by G. K. Chesterton, Chapter 8, "The End of the World."