Wednesday, January 31, 2018

atoning blood


If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any one of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, and realizes his guilt, or the sin which he has committed is made known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed.
Leviticus 4:27-28

A sacrifice for sins was needed for everyone and anyone of the people of Israel in order to be in right standing before a holy God. It did not matter whether the sin was flagrant or unintentional. In fact great detail is given in Leviticus 4 regarding unintended sins, showing us that our brokenness is so endemic that many of our problems are due to sins we are oblivious to until they are brought to our attention.

But there is no such thing as a guiltless sin. We answer to God for every wrong. He is that holy and we are that sinful. All sin must be atoned. And so an altar in a tabernacle was the scene of countless sacrifices because sin is so daily embedded in our existence. Only at the cost of a life could sin be atoned by the priest. And only at the cost of our Great High Priest Jesus’ life can our sins be atoned. Blood has to be shed.

Just as the regular sacrifice was needed in Israel to atone even unintended sins, so daily we must seek to know, acknowledge, and claim the complete forgiveness found in Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice. We confess our sin. We plead His blood as the sacrifice. We need His grace. I am a humbled sinner every morning when I roll out of bed. I claim my Savior’s atoning love each day!

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

all of us... sinners


For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
John 21:32

Self-righteous religion leads to hell, because it misses humble and real repentance. By failing to truly acknowledge sin, it misses entering the kingdom. Jesus told the leaders of the Jews, the chief priests and elders, that they have missed this truth, while ironically the “sinners” they judged and prided themselves on being far above, were repenting and finding the kingdom. But religious pride and judgmental legalism were keeping the self-righteous from eternal salvation.

So if I take Jesus’ own words to heart, I must recoil from any self-righteous turning my nose up on others whom I may think are beneath me. Jesus knew that swindlers and whores who truly repented would find eternal life before any self-righteous person ever will... all because sin is acknowledged and repented. He saw it happen, first with the ministry for John the Baptist, then in His own preaching of the good news.

Two things strike me as very important from what Jesus says here: First, I must believe I am a sinner, an admittedly sick soul in need of healing grace that only Christ can give, in order to repent and be saved. Second, I should rejoice when other sinners repent and turn to Jesus. There is no room for judgment or comparison. I am a sinner, turning to a Savior, compelling others to humbly enter this same kingdom by first humbly confessing sin! Only then can I take my place in a kingdom where the King insists that the doors are open to swindlers and whores.

Monday, January 29, 2018

my refuge. my shepherd.


The Lord is the strength of his people;
he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
Be their shepherd and carry them forever.
Psalm 28:8-9

The LORD is a saving refuge. He is my safety and my song of deliverance. I will find my refuge and strength in Him all my days, forever kept secure and led by His grace. Jesus made this happen for all those who have trusted in His saving work for them on the cross. Those who have turned from sin to their Savior know the power of sins forgiven, a life changed, and the shepherding love of our strong Savior!

It is Monday morning as I write these reflections. I am fighting gettting drawn away into the wildness of a week that I know I have ahead of me. I have a full week of shepherding others ahead of me and it is so very hard not to jump into that schedule challenge ahead of reflecting on what I need to right now in the Word. But I really need the saving refuge from this intimidating week ahead of me. I already feel the anxiety of ministering to hurting people tug me from my Savior with thoughts like: “What if I say the wrong thing?” “How can I possibly help these people?” “My own personal failures disqualify me from having anything helpful to say.” “I don’t WANT to hear more pain and cry with these people!” “Caring for these needs will draw me again from time with my family.” And those are all thoughts that must be confessed to my Savior now. Jesus must be my refuge now so I can let Him use me to help others who hurt.

Shepherd of my soul,
Every day this week I will need You to shepherd me so that I can shepherd others to You, Lord Jesus. I feel unworthy and unready for this task without You. Be my saving refuge from this storm. You save Your people, and not me, so help me to just be faithful to show them You, Lord Jesus... to point to You, and the gospel, and Your Word. I repent of my insecurities and sinful cowardice. Then, You will carry me through!
Amen 

Friday, January 26, 2018

For the people


So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord.
Exodus 28:29

And in this way God was honored as Aaron, and every high priest after him, bore on his chest the names of the tribes for whom he interceded. This kept the task of ministry visibly ever before the priests. He ministered on behalf of these people before the LORD. Each incense wave, each sacrifice offered, each prayer for the nation had this personal reminder that the nation was judged and atoned before the LORD.

Ministry for the priests was not about the projects, the tasks, or the necessary furniture of the Holy Place. But you might get lost in all the details of the earthly tabernacle as God blueprinted it to Moses. No, the priests were people, seriously approaching a holy God, for the sake of other people. Wearing the names of the twelve tribes above their hearts as they did so kept them cognizant of the truth that ministry is all about bringing people to the mercies of a forgiving and loving God.

I’m so glad vestments are not now required (honestly I have trouble donning a tailored suit as a pastoral uniform), and that there is only one Great High Priest... Jesus. But as a pastor, I still often intercede before my God for His people in prayer and the giving of the Word, calling us to mutual obedience and submission to God’s Spirit. And no vision for ministry, no building program, no ministry project exists that is remotely more important than the people Jesus loves and calls me to love!

Thursday, January 25, 2018

what God has joined together


He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Matthew 19:4-6

Jesus taught that every marriage of a man and a woman was a sacred work of God. It was as holy as the very first marriage, and just as original a work of God. God joins together a husband and a wife. They are no longer just two separate human lives, but are now one marriage, made by God, for His glory. This is seriously beautiful as each marriage is a unique creation of God.

Jesus makes no exceptions to this divine work in every marriage. God does the work of bringing two people together and making them one. This truth, that two become one by God’s direct creative hand, is the very decree of God according to Jesus. This is sacred and holy. No marriage can then be trivial.

Christians must keep this solemn and holy view of marriage before us. We must not shrink away from it, although the culture around us may trivialize marriage, making it more and more about feelings and less about spiritual commitment. Christian marriages are failing because we don’t take Jesus seriously when He tells us God does the joining, and dissolving one marriage to enter another is an act of hardness of our sinful hearts (Matthew 19:8-9). My marriage is a holy, sacred, beautiful creation of God. It is also hard work to live in this union because my wife and I must always apply the gospel to our lives, since we are two sinners, saved by grace, but still being conformed to Christ so that we can model the beauty of Christ and His Church. By grace, I must treasure these things about marriage.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

clean hands and pure heart



Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
Psalm 24:3-4

Jesus in the only One Who can make of my soul what this psalm requires. I can only stand before the Father because of the righteousness of His Son. Jesus has cleansed these hands and has purified this heart. Jesus is the way, truth, and life who keep me from lifting up my idolatrous heart to the worship of another. Jesus made the way for me to be able to know the peace of God as I worship God.

I cannot stand before God on my own merit. Even one sin is me makes me deserving of judgment before a holy God. I need the righteousness of Christ to be applied to me as I go to God each day. And God, in His merciful grace, sent His Son to pay my sin debt, to take my judgment upon Himself, so that I may be declared righteous by faith and have access to all my Father wants for me. I can be holy because of the holiness of Jesus, my Lord and my Savior. 

I should never take for granted just how precious is this grace. I open God’s Word daily, I bring my worship and my requests to God. And I can do so because the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all unrighteousness. Thank You, Lord! Give us clean hands, and give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another!

Monday, January 22, 2018

flakes for complainers


“I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
Exodus 16:12

God was wonderfully gracious by miraculously feeding a nation of complainers in the wilderness. The Israelites grumbled in the harsh desert environment. They began to miss what they saw as easier lives in Egypt where even though they were slaves, they still had safe homes and food to eat. They griped to Moses, but it was really God that they were not trusting.

God knew their complaints and He was providing food for them that would feed them well and quiet their whining, though they would only stop briefly. 

In the evening vast swarms of quail flew into the camp and the people ate the small birds to their fill. The next morning manna lay on the ground and was gathered and made into bread. And in this way Israel was fed by God. They still had to catch and dress quail. They still had to gather manna flakes and grind it into flour to bake bread. But God gave them abundant resources by which they would live under His care. Grace came in little birds, and little frosty flakes upon the ground.

Just like Israel in the wilderness, I do not deserve daily grace. I grumble at life. I can complain. But Jesus died for my idolatrous, unbelieving, selfish heart. He rose to provide everything for me. And in Him I am given a morning feast of grace every day. I gather His provision and am satisfied.

Thursday, January 18, 2018

get away / can’t get away


Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Matthew 14:13-14

After hearing about the execution of John the Baptist reported by John’s own disciples, Jesus wanted some time away from the crowds. He boarded a fishing boat for a destination away from the towns and villages of Galilee. He wanted to simply strategically retreat, to have a sabbath of sorts from the demands of the crowd, no doubt to personally process what had occurred with his cousin, John. He got to take the boat ride, but that was all.

The press of ministry was always around Jesus. The crowds managed to be right there on shore waiting for Jesus in the remote part of the lake. He was met by more ministry. His get away turned into a long commute to even more ministry. The need for His teaching, compassion, and healing was such that it was always there.

How did Jesus respond when He wanted to get away but could not get away? His heart had compassion. He went from the brief respite of a boat ride right back into the demanding care of countless crowds of people who needed His love and He responded to them with His love. He spent the day caring for them and even miraculously feeding those that He could not escape, who in their haste to see Him did not even think to pack a lunch. And then after sending them back home healed and filled, Jesus ascended a mountain to pray alone (Matthew 14:23). He served in love when He could not get away. But then Jesus found a way to still spend time, solitary and reflective, in prayer.

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

wondrous love


Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O Savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
Psalm 17:7

There is an old folk hymn dating from the early 19th century that captures the longing of Psalm 17:7. I love playing it on the dulcimer as it has a haunting minor scale tune perfect for the acoustic drone of an Appalachian acoustical instrument. Nobody really knows who wrote the lyrics so there are a few variations in the various published versions, making it all the more enigmatic. The words fill me with worship right now...

1.
What wondrous love is this,
O my soul! O my soul!
What wondrous love is this!
O my soul!
What wondrous love is this!
That caused the Lord of bliss!
To send this precious peace,
To my soul, to my soul!
To send this precious peace
To my soul!

2.
When I was sinking down,
Sinking down, sinking down;
When I was sinking down
Sinking down
When I was sinking down,
Beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown
For my soul, for my soul!
Christ laid aside his crown
For my soul!

3.
Ye winged seraphs fly,
Bear the news, bear the news!
Ye winged seraphs fly
Bear the news!--
Ye winged seraphs fly,
like comets through the sky,
fill vast eternity!
With the news, with the news!
Fill vast eternity
With the news!

4.
Ye friends of Zion's king,
join his praise, join his praise;
Ye friends of Zion's king,
join his praise;
Ye friends of Zion's king,
with hearts and voices sing,
and strike each tuneful string
in his praise, in his praise!
and strike each tuneful string
in his praise!

5.
To God and to the Lamb,
I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb,
I will sing--
To God and to the Lamb,
who is the great I AM,
while millions join the theme,
I will sing, I will sing!
while millions join the theme,
I will sing!

6.
And while from death I'm free,
I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
And while from death I'm free,
I'll sing on.
and while from death I'm free,
I'll sing and joyful be,
and through eternity
I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
and through eternity
I'll sing on.

Lord Jesus, Your wondrous love fills my heart with longing for You this morning. Amen.

Fernando Ortega’s recording (slightly different lyrics) of What Wondrous Love is This
Click Here.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

sojourners and promises


Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
Genesis 50:12-13

For every one of the lifetimes of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), the Promised Land was a cemetary... it was their final bodily destination, but never a permanent home. They were all sojourners, nomads of faith, trusting in promises much bigger than their own lives. And the firmest part of those promises that God made, ended for them in a tomb.

As Jacob’s sons faithfully obeyed their father’s wishes to be buried in the field cave east of Mamre, a sort of mini-preview of the Exodus for Egypt was played out in the funeral procession. They carried the embalmed body of their father up from Egypt. The Canaanites know that something is going on of significance. They once again lay claim to their ancestral burial plot before returning back to Egypt, but certainly not home to Egypt.

Thus, all the twelve tribes of Israel knew that Egypt was not the home that God had promised them. They knew that Canaan was their true home. And later, as Joseph lay on his death bed, he instructed his family to carry his bones from Egypt when the day came for them to go back home to Canaan. All of them were sojourners, waiting still for God’s promise, and looking to Him for a better country.

Monday, January 15, 2018

Jesus can be known.


And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Matthew 11:4-6

If you want to figure out what Jesus is all about, just look at what He said and did. That was the advice Jesus gave the disciples of John the Baptist when they came to Him sent by John with a question about the identity of Jesus. He instructed them to just listen and watch and report back to John. They would bear witness that Jesus did what only God could do. He healed by His own authority, He raised the dead back to life, and He preached a gospel of repentance to the people.

Jesus lived a life that invited questions and investigation. He provided ample evidence of His mission to save the world from sin. He invited those wanting to know Him to listen to His words, see His works, and believe His good news. He still invites people to do the same, and thanks to the clarity and reliability of the New Testament documents, we can indeed see Him as He is. We get an accurate picture of Jesus, rooted in human history, challenging us to believe Him today so our lives can be in wonder of His works and transformed by His power.

Lord Jesus,
Your words and actions show me a complete Savior today. Thank You for making Yourself known, for living a life filled with miracles of Your love, for preaching good news, calling disciples to Yourself, and saving Your people from their sins by Your death and resurrection! 
Amen

Friday, January 12, 2018

beyond oppression and lies


“Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord;
“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
Psalm 12:5

God will keep His true word to His faithful people. Psalm 12 is a lament, where David decries the way in which flattery and lies have advanced the wicked, oppressing the neediest people in the process. David had plenty of occasions in his life to know this firsthand. While on the run from Saul, he managed to gather broken and displaced warriors in the cave of Abdullam (see 1 Samuel 22, 2 Samuel 23). He knew by experience just how the poor were plundered and he heard the groans of the needy.

During several episodes of his life, David longed for safety. So these words coming back to David from the Lord are a personal comfort, answering David’s lament with the sure Word of God. The psalm ends in confident assurance in God’s words gaining victory over the flattering lies of sinful oppressors.

God’s Word is pure (Psalm 12:6). God keeps His promises as He protects His people (Psalm 12:7). This helps us live in a world surrounded by a society that rejects God and exalts what is wrong (Psalm 12:8). Our hope in God’s faithfulness in His Word will help us to survive the lies and oppression around us. God rises against it. God protects His people even as they are misused and exploited. God will bring justice with truth to prevail. This has already happened because Jesus endured the worst lies, died at the hands of flatterers, groaned in His suffering need, and rose again to bring us to the safety for which we long!

Thursday, January 11, 2018

beyond the evil in us


And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Genesis 37:11

Jealousy led Joseph’s brothers to a conspiracy that would last a generation. They wanted to murder their brother whom they hated due to their jealousy, but instead they betrayed their own family at multiple levels. Jealousy led them to mock their own brother and father when they stripped Joseph of the robe their own father had given to him. Jealousy led them to calloused hearts. They casually sat down to eat right after consigning their brother to died in the wilderness of neglect and starvation. Jealousy led them to lie to their own father after they had pocketed money for selling Joseph as a slave. Jealousy led them to accept that their own father would believe Joseph dead as they watched their father mourn, having no pity on his pain. And jealousy hid all this for decades as a dark family secret.

But God worked despite all this sinful family dysfunction. God used the results of Jacob’s favoritism born out of polygamy to eventually place Joseph in the position to redeem the family from death. God showed Joseph as much in his youthful dreams. God used the jealous actions of Israel’s sons for the good of Joseph, to place him in the right place at the right time to save not only Jacob’s family, but to feed the entire Middle East during a very severe famine.

God is sovereign over human action. The scale of the Joseph story is breathtaking. His holy purposes succeed even as our sinful hearts work against what is right. He will use attempted murder to save countless lives. He will use our lives to reveal His providences. He will turn slaves into bosses and prisoners into prime ministers so that His will is done. God is greater than our evil, and that is true hope for a broken world.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

You Can Make Me Clean


And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 8:2-3

I am broken
diseased by sin
an outcast
unable to enter in
But You, Lord, if You will it, can make me clean.

Falling before You
aware of my failure
kneeling sinner
before my Savior
I ask You, Lord, to make me clean.

You are holy
yet in compassion
You reach out
with gracious action
You are willing, Lord, to make me clean.

I the leper
spots unseen
am now healed
by Jesus made clean
As you willed it, Lord, You made me clean!

Now I’m grateful
made whole again
I rise in worship
praising You among men
Only Jesus can make us clean!

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

4 facets of worship


I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2

David opens this psalm with four aspects of worship that can be understood for us so that we may utilize them as we express our worship to God today. First, there is a WHOLEHEARTED THANKFULNESS. David is truly grateful to God for His saving and sustaining work. This thankfulness comes not from a quiet nod or a begrudging allowance. David is motivated by overwhelming appreciation. He offers thanksgiving from every part of his soul in worship of God.

Secondly, there is a FULL REMEMBRANCE of all that God has done. In his worship, David recounts all the stories of God’s work among His people and in David’s own life. He bases his worship on what He knows God has done. And it is a long list of major powerful displays of God’s love, mercy and actions. This helps us understand how to be thankful... we need to purposefully record and remember God’s blessings to us.

Thirdly, David worships WITH EMOTION. He is glad. He exults in God. This is not a disconnected activity. It is no boring litany done out of rote duty. The gladness and joy of honest worship seized David’s heart and led him in joyous praise. Worship should lead us to gladness in God!

Finally, David WORSHIPED WITH EXPRESSION. He sang praise to God. David was always in his heart that musical shepherd boy before he was ever king, and when worship was engaged, so was that singing boy! He had to express his love, adoration, and wonder at God and God’s works in song. And we should be glad he did so because most of the book of Psalms is his personal portfolio of praise production. The heart that worships God will sing its own new song. That is real praise.

Monday, January 8, 2018

all nations blessed


I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Genesis 26:4-5

This covenant re-affirmed with Isaac on behalf of his father, Abraham, kept the promises of God’s work alive in another patriarchal generation. Isaac was given the same rewarding vision that Abraham carried all his life. But Isaac would also see just one son of promise out of two sons he fathered. Just like Ishmael was NOT the son from whom God’s promises would come, so Isaac’s own son, Esau, would not carry forward the promise. 

But God would make of Isaac’s offspring a nation that would bless all the nations of the earth. Jacob would father the twelve tribes of Israel. And generations measured by millennia in countless procession would eventually bring from the tribe of Judah the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ our Lord! So Jesus is promised, right here in Genesis, as the blessing to the nations, coming from Isaac’s own offspring.

One man, Abraham, would have two sons. And one son would be the son inheriting the promise to carry it forward. That son, Isaac, would have two sons. And only Jacob would pass on the promise. Through Jacob’s twelve sons would arise a nation, a people of filled with God’s promises still alive among the nations of the world today as the Hebrew nation. And from them, Christ the Savior was born, Who as one man loved the world, sent by the Father, dying for our sin, cheating death by rising from the dead, the full expression of blessing to all nations!

Friday, January 5, 2018

light of the world


You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Matthew 5:14

The One Who is the light of the world (John 8:12) emphatically declares His followers to be the light of the world. Why? For others to know Jesus, they must see Him in us. He must shine in, through, and among His church. Jesus has placed Christians, His Church, in the world to shine through them. We are the city set high on the hill for all around to see. We are open. We are vulnerable. We are the light of the world. We must not hide our love for Christ. We must not cover up the gospel.

Following Jesus and making Jesus known is the task of every Christian. And as our culture insists that faith is to be privatized exclusively in the realm of personal choice and not public discourse, we must shine all the brighter. People need the light of the gospel. People need Jesus. Christians need Him known in the church so they may always repent and believe, modeling the response to the gospel to the world at all times. And those who do not know Jesus must hear of His love, mercy, and forgiveness offered to atone for sin and remove the sentence of death from a rebel planet. Sinners under the wrath of God must find the shining gospel news from Jesus’ own people... and it has to be clear.

And so I am called to shine today. I am called to be a bright light to my world. I am called to make Jesus known, to proclaim my faith naturally, winsomely, and visibly so that Jesus will clearly be the Light of the world.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

in peace


In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:8

The LORD provides peaceful rest for all who will come to Him by faith. He is our peace. And through Jesus every barrier to peace with God has been removed. Our sins are atoned by His sacrifice. Our eternity is secured by His resurrection. Our acceptance in Christ by coming to God through Jesus is assured. We know peace when we know Jesus.

I find no peace outside of Jesus. There are pleasures in this world that may temporarily suspend life’s pains, but only Jesus is my lasting peace. There are activities I enjoy that can occupy my mind and keep me busy, but they are only fulfilling when my faith in Christ is a part of them. There are cycles of life and death, of joy and of sorrow, of contentment and of need, but only Jesus can bring sense to the cycle. All of my life in some way points to Him.

I am blessed in the peace of Christ. I know this. And now in late middle age I sense the permanence of that peace looming for eternity and I embrace that thought with joy, not fear. The God Who gives relief in distress, Who is gracious and hears me (Psalm 4:1), Who has set me apart for Himself (Psalm 4:3), and Who has put more joy in my heart than any earthly abundance ever could do (Psalm 4:7)... that God is my peace! I am safely in God’s peace, and with that confidence I will always rest my heart in Jesus.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

our deliverance


So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
Genesis 8:18-19

The story of Noah’s deliverance from the flood is a story of God’s mercy and salvation. An entire wicked society perished, but Noah and his family, and the animals of the earth, were saved by God’s provision and Noah’s righteous obedience. Noah built the ark, but God brought the animals, and God brought about their deliverance. As the storms raged and the flood waters rose, Noah and all aboard the ark were kept safe.

And as the storms ended and the flood waters began to subside, God brought the ark to rest, and Noah and his family, and all the families of animals left the ark of safety to return to the earth and live their lives again. The world was delivered. God spared a remnant so that His plan could advance. Grace, mercy, judgment, and providence all met in the ark where God delivered His loved and obedient people.

And at the cross those same attributes met in an even deeper way for our benefit. Grace, mercy, judgment, and providence all provided a way, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, for all who believe to be delivered from the judgment of God’s wrath and to go out free to live a new life in Christ. Jesus is our deliverer. Jesus weathered the fiercest storm of God’s justice poured upon Him for our sins. Jesus is our salvation who conquered death and rose to new life. We trust in Him and are delivered from the storm. We follow Jesus and go out into a new world in His deliverance to a new life blessed by God.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Jesus in Egypt


Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
Matthew 2:13

Jesus, the deliverer, was first delivered from a plat to kill Him. As a baby, He is already hated by Herod, who was informed by the Magi that a new king had been born in Bethlehem of Judea. Herod sent his forces into the Judean countryside where they mercilessly killed all baby boys under the age of two. This was a madman tyrant’s attempt at maintaining power.
 
But before this evil deed could reach Jesus, an angel warned Joseph to flee to Egypt with his new small family. And in that way Jesus had has own private Exodus event, where just like His forefathers, He was led to Egypt to safety. Just like Moses He was hidden from a baby-killing tyrant. And just like the children of Israel, He would be brought out of Egypt to the land of His forefathers, safe and delivered from all harm. The deliverer was delivered. The Savior was first saved.

It was the obedience of Joseph, the earthly stepfather to the Son of God, that led to this salvation. It was a righteous Joseph so many generations earlier, a dreamer himself, who saved his family from famine in Egypt. Do not underestimate the New Testament Joseph’s sensitive, righteous obedience. He uprooted his family because an angel spoke to him in a dream at night. Think about that. We would call that sort of thing crazy today. His righteous actions saved his family, protected our salvation in Jesus, and led to our own deliverance. The text seems to indicate that he rose to obey these instructions in the middle of the night... probably right after awaking from the warning dream. His swift obedience is an example of how seriously we should heed the Word of God.

Monday, January 1, 2018

A Psalm One Man


...for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1:6

By God’s mercies, I long to be a Psalm One man. I don’t want my life marked by wicked counsel, living in a sin-filled way or comfortably seated with scoffers. I want to always delight in the Word of God, thinking on it consistently to inform my life, my relationships, my choices, and what my heart loves. 

I want to thrive by God’s waters, planted by the gracefully flowing clear, steady stream of His Word, nourished in the gospel, tended by His grace, fruitful in every good work. I want to thrive by staying close to Jesus, feasting on His grace. I want to study, know, and delight in the truth so that all that I do may be prospered by God’s good hand in obedience to His good word!

The Lord knows my way, and He knows this is my lead desire. And He also knows what He needs to cleanse still in me so that I can be this Psalm One man. And as I begin 2018, I am ready for Him to do this as I seek to know Him in this way.