confidently crying

I cry out to God Most High,

to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

He will send from heaven and save me;

he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah

God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

Psalm 57:2-3

I love both the emotional vulnerability and the confidence seen in Psalm 57. It was written by David and the inscription at the preface of the psalm lets us know the circumstances of its writing: “To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.” This psalm was first sung from David’s own heart as he ran for his life, a hunted fugitive, from Saul’s insane, jealous rage. It is filled both with images of pain and fear, but also with an overwhelming confidence in the Lord’s promise to keep him safe through the danger.

When we are afraid, like David, we shouldn’t deny the circumstances of our fear, but acknowledge them by crying out to God. And as we do so, we should also trust in God’s work to keep us. David cried out to God “Who fulfills his purpose for me.” Faith kept David worshiping, trusting, and confident in God’s purpose, even as he hid in a dark, cool cave from an army of attackers.

What David knew was the very character of God. He trusted that it was God’s steadfast love (grace) and faithfulness that would keep him safe despite very real and very present threats. David did not take matters in his own hands, although as a military general he could have employed strategy to do so. Instead, he gave the fear and the future over to God. He knew God had a purpose even in this unbelievably difficult season. He refused to circumvent that purpose by asserting his own control. He simply trusted. He confidently prayed. And God would answer and protect and vindicate that faith as David simply cried out and then believed.

O God,

You know what pains me. You know the circumstances where I feel ashamed, hunted, inadequate, in fear of failure, scared to lose my life. You know this all. And so I too will cry out that I am a man prone to fear. But You are faithful. And I will trust you to always show Your steadfast love and faithfulness. It is now forever displayed by You, Lord Jesus on the cross. There you cried out in Your Godforsaken moments so that You could fulfill Your purpose for all who would believe. So I will believe. I will trust. I will cry out. And I will be confident in You.

Amen

liberating slavery

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Romans 6:22

Everyone is a slave to something. That’s part of Paul’s argument in the last half of Romans six. We are born, every one of us, a slave to sin. We are naturally going to do the things that are not in keeping with the nature of a holy God. And this leads us to judgment and ultimately that sin mastery leads us to death. But Jesus came to free us from sin’s slavery and its awful outcome!

Praise the Lord, we are given freedom from sin when we repent, believe, and trust the gospel! Turning to Jesus, we are no longer the property of sin. But we are still slaves. We do have a new Master. And we must then live as slaves to God, living to see His will done, serving our new Master, and producing new actions in keeping with this holy life now given to us through Jesus. We change households, no longer slaves to sin that produces only death in us, but now slaves of God who can now please Him by doing what is right, enjoying eternal life!

Jesus,

You are my Master. I am under new ownership. With You as my Lord, I can faithfully serve You, in obedience repent of sin, obey my Savior, be sanctified and find eternal life! Thank You for being my Lord! And may I have no other obligation vying for my attention except the joy of Your service as I am bound to obey You. I am “doulos”. I am Your slave. 

Amen

inside & out

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Matthew 23:25-26

Legalistic self-righteousness with its emphasis on rule-keeping and appearances cannot ultimately succeed in making a person better. It can only add to the dirt on the inside even as it obsesses over outer appearances. Yet it is so deceptive. Legalism can FEEL right. Self-righteous legalism can be so impressive to others. It can get attention and deceive us. It can just look SO RIGHT. But that attention only feeds the worst elements of it, making the problems within the person grow even worse.

The people who fought Jesus the hardest, who led the conspiracy to murder Him were the most sincerely religious people of His culture. But their religious motives were wrong. They were outwardly zealous in religion while inwardly their selfishness and power-lusting hearts drove them to reject God. Legalism rejects God in favor of self. And that is why Jesus has harsh words for it, condemning those who practice it to hell (Matthew 23:33).

Lord Jesus,

Save my soul from my own rule-keeping tendencies! Christianity is about life lived by Your inner transformation. From a new heart made good only by You, Jesus, can flow kindness, gentleness, peace, and all the fruit of Your Spirit’s good work in me. I can’t reform myself. I need regeneration... rebirth... renewal... not just a better version of the same old broken me! My sole hope is the gospel at work transforming me through the Spirit’s work. Wash this cup, inside and out, so that I might be fit for Your use!

Amen

crying out

O God, save me by your name,

and vindicate me by your might.

O God, hear my prayer;

give ear to the words of my mouth.

Psalm 54:1-2

I need saving

to You I cry

I am falling

I may die

here without hope

I need help

from Your hand

troubles surround

where I stand

here all alone

Crying out

my voice is heard

help is coming

from Your Word

You are my Savior

Who rescued me

from condemnation

now set free

grateful, I praise!

You are my Helper

always here

with Your Spirit’s

presence near

faithful all my days

Crying out

my voice is heard

strength as promised

is in Your Word

I’m not good enough.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:10

I’m not good enough. I’ll never be, by virtue of my own merits, no matter how sincere I may be. I’m not good enough to make up for my own sin. Any sin puts me at an unfathomable distance from God. And I am more than just a one-sin sinner! Any sin handicaps me from making up the gap that separates me from a holy God. It is impossible for sinners to atone for themselves.

I’m not good enough. I needed a Savior. God sent His Son into the world while sinners were all still sinners. Jesus died for the enemies of God and now, through faith in His atonement offered for us, we can be brought to God, no longer enemies but friends... and more now than friends, but also His adopted children.

I’m not good enough. And I never will be by my own efforts. But Jesus is more than good enough. He is my righteousness. He is my hope. He is my Savior. He is my Reconcilation to God. He death is my gateway to life. And by His death I was reconciled to God so that now in His resurrection life I can truly live! I am not good enough... but praise be to God, Jesus is!

Jesus will answer your questions.

And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22:46

The Jewish religious leaders had been on a mission to stir controversy and try to trip Jesus up with some sort of misstatement that would hinder his popularity with the people and give the leaders an advantage to turn Jesus into a failed teacher. But they failed miserably in their attempts. And in their final defeat they gave up on this strategy to silence Jesus. You can’t turn the Word of God against its own Author!

First they tried to get Jesus to enter into a political trap with a question about the lawfulness of paying taxes to Rome, the hated occupier. Jesus simply tells them that Caesar should get his own coins back. Rome gets what belongs to Rome, but God must get what belongs to God. You cannot mix the two (Matthew 22:19-22). The critics went away silenced. Strikeout number one.

Then the Sadducees stepped up to the plate trying to embroil Jesus in a doctrinal controversy about the resurrection of the dead with a weird hypothetical construct about a woman who had been widowed seven times over. Again, Jesus calmly defuses the ludicrous elements of their doctrinal mess of a question, and affirms how God is more important than their hangup about resurrection, since He is the God of living saints. They too, clearly shown the scriptures, left Him silenced as the crowd marveled (Matthew 22:33). Strikeout number two.

Finally, the Pharisees gather once again. They go to Him but Jesus takes the offensive and asked them a question that got to His direct Messianic mission. He points them again clearly to scripture when they talk about the Messiah being exclusively the descendent of David. Jesus proves the Messiah to be not just the son of David, but the Son of God in the flesh... quoting none other than David himself. The Pharisees have no answer back to Jesus once this is shown to them. Strikeout number three.

The strategy to get Jesus to misspeak had failed abysmally. The Word of God speaks and overrules human attempts at manipulation. We can only listen, agree, and follow! Jesus will answer your questions... they usually are not the answers you expect. But they will be definitive, correct, and leave you with a sense of the wonder of God.

saints alive

And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

Matthew 22:31-32

In one of the most ironic of encounters in all of the gospel narrative, the theologically liberal Sadducees try to trip Jesus up with a question they intended to “prove” the implausibility of the afterlife. The Sadducees were primarily scribes, busy in the copying of documents important to Judaism and in reproducing by hand copies of the Old Testament scriptures. They prided themselves on knowing what the Bible said. So Jesus simply points them to some of the simplest words of the Old Testament to set them straight.

Repeatedly, when God reiterates His covenant either with the patriarchs, or to the nation of Israel through the prophets, He refers to His own covenant-keeping power in reference to the history of redemption. And God does so in the present tense — “I am”. When He also reminds them of the relationships that began Israel’s history, He stays in the present tense: “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. He never says “I was the God...” but rather “I am the God.” Jesus makes it clear that God is explaining that literally those patriarchs are alive in relationship with Him as He speaks... kept by the power of God’s promise to them. God is the God of the living.

God keeps His saints. He is faithful to do what He has promised. The Lord is with those who trusted Him. He brings them beyond death to be their God in life, after life. God is the God of the living. And as surely as He cares for His people in life, He shall be their God in the resurrection.

O Lord of life!

Be my life today! Help me to proclaim Your life in me to those around me dead in their sin and in need of saving grace. I want to do so for Your glory. And may You be glorified in life, beyond life, as God of saints who are alive in You, Lord Jesus!

Amen

privileged

“Gather to me my faithful ones,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

The heavens declare his righteousness,

for God himself is judge! Selah

Psalm 50:5-6

Israel is a privileged people as evidenced by two things in this passage. First, they are privileged to be God’s covenant people. This unique relationship is sealed in the blood of sacrifices. They had a priesthood that offered sacrifices so that sin could be atoned and the nation could enter into relationship with God through the Law and sacrifices. As they obeyed in these matters, God blessed and kept them.

The second evidence of privilege is in God’s commitment to judge them, not necessarily in a punitive way, but in an evaluative way. The judge does not just condemn sin, but also rewards faithfulness to the covenant. By being a covenant people bought by the blood of sacrifice, the Israelites could confidently stand before the judge forgiven and upheld by His mercy. Grace could accompany judgment. Reward could attend their review.

O God Who is Judge of all,

I come to You only by the merits of Your Son. His sacrifice has forever atoned my sin, and You have called me to Yourself by faith in Jesus to now live privileged as Your child. This holy adoption into the family of God lets me know that I am free to follow Jesus in love. And He is the Judge of the living and the dead. He wishes to reward faithful servants who will follow Him. May I steward the grace of the gospel today, my Lord, for Your glory! May I live to one day hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

Amen

God known in nature

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

I roam this earth and I see the power of God in His creation. I hear it in the ocean waves rolling into the shore. I see it in majestic mountains that climb ever higher in their power, seemingly into heaven’s heights. I smell it in the piney forest after a rain shower. I feel it in the soil’s warmth planting in the spring time. I sense it in the tug of a brook trout on a flyrod leaping through a gin clear mountain stream. I am in awe of the rings of Saturn seen through a telescope on a dark summer night. Creation sings the majesty of the Creator in a never ceasing symphony of praise, from birdsong, through thunderstorms, wave swells, and the sound of gentle snowfall!

Isaac Watts captured it with hymnody so breathtaking:

1. I sing the mighty pow’r of God, that made the mountains rise,
   That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
   I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
   The moon shines full at His command, and all the stars obey.
2. I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
   Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
   Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye,
   If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.
3. There’s not a plant or flow’r below, but makes Thy glories known,
   And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
   While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;
   And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God, art present there.

a living Zion

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised

in the city of our God!

His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,

is the joy of all the earth,

Mount Zion, in the far north,

the city of the great King.

Psalm 48:1-2

Zion, the city of God, is how the Jews began to see the Temple Mount with all its central worship focus. It became the center of worship, the focus of Jewish thought and practice, the symbol of what the nation represented as God’s covenant people.

And even though the throne of God did not physically exist in the temple on Mount Zion, in terms of worshipful language, the mount was envisioned as the fortress where God’s presence dwelt, where His power ruled, and where His people came to worship Him. Zion was hope, and protection. Zion was joy and beauty for Jews as they came to God’s temple to sacrifice, pray, and praise the Lord.

Yet they knew well that Zion’s temple was representative of a bigger reality. The poetic clue for this is in the phrase, “Mount Zion, in the far north”. Jerusalem is south in biblical geography. During the time this psalm was written, Zion itself was located on the highest hill in the city, in what was likely the southeast corner of the city. The “far north” spoken of here was a phrase sometimes used to describe the heavenly throne room of God (see Isaiah 14:13). The temple was a place of worship that God blessed with His presence as His covenant people walked with Him. But God does not dwell in a temple built with human hands (Acts 17:24).

Like Zion of old, the Holy Spirit now has a temple where His presence is known. And it is the unique experience of every Christian to be a living Zion where God’s presence now dwells (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And in the Zion of my body, I may worship God freely, fully, and joyfully today in service to my Great King Jesus!

overturning tables

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

Matthew 21:12-13

Twice in the gospels, once in the beginning of His ministry (John 2:13-17) and again during His Passion Week as told here, Jesus in holy anger drove the profit-makers out of the temple. These are the only episodes of angry action in Jesus, and show us His authority as Judge over the worst that false religion will do. The moneychangers took advantage of the poor and the needy. Many Jewish pilgrims traveled from all over the world to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. The moneychangers were known to charge exorbitant rates for currency exchanges so those devout travelers could pay their temple tax in Jewish shekels. It was a racket.

The same goes for the animals on sale in the courtyards. Sacrifices were being sold at wild profits, particularly to the poorest of the poor who could only afford to sacrifice a pigeon. These ethically deprived creepy purveyors of religious price gouging were preying on the poor. This outraged Jesus. He did something about it. He made the comfortable, uncomfortable by turning tables, tossing chairs, and driving them out of the temple like the robbers they were!

Religion that preys on the poor falls under God’s sternest condemnation, and I can’t help but see Jesus ready to turn tables in evangelical churches today where ego-driven leaders, prosperity teachers, feel good comfortable preachers prey on the poor. These creeps are promising them health, wealth, and prosperity by buying books, sending big gifts to ministry, and helping this robbers buy private jets. The One Who was born in a peasant family and Who came to preach good news to the poor and needy, Who fed them, Who healed them, Who died for the sinful poverty of us all, calls us to care for the poor. Remembering our impoverished sinful souls and the mercy we have in Christ humbly helps us also overturn tables of injustice, proclaim the good news of salvation, and make God’s house a holy house of dependent prayer. We celebrate a gospel community where all are welcome and cared for through belief in the good news of Jesus — Who overturns tables to set everything right again!

tottering kingdoms

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Psalm 46:6-7

Let the world do its worst. Go ahead, ungodly system, and rage against God. Skeptics can scoff. Smug science can think that human ingenuity has all the answers. Aloof academics continue to whistle in the dark calling evil good and indoctrinating the educated against any sense of divinely created order and morality. Your kingdoms are tottering and you are so full of yourselves in your leaning castles that you don’t even know it!

God utters one word, and it all will fall. No system can stand against the one Who by His simple words and will framed the universe that holds us all! God can turn all that you see and know and trust upon against your rebel will whenever He so chooses. You only get to hold on in your lean to of philosophical straw because He graciously allows it to continue. God grunts though... and the earth melts! Nothing in a tottering human hovel will stand when God rules!

This God is for the people that He has called to Himself. He is the God of vast unseen angel armies, just one of whom could bring a nation to its knees. He is with us as surely as He was with Israel in the wilderness. He is our strength, our fortress, our Deliverer, so we need not fear when the doomed princes of tottering kingdoms mock His Son and issue vain threats. They’re on their way down. Jesus Himself shall show them He reigns! And God’s power shall stand. All of this happens by the power of His voice!

I, blind man

And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.

Matthew 20:34

Two blind men sat begging by the road from Jericho. They heard from the crowd along the roadside that Jesus was headed their way. They passionately cried out to Jesus to hear them, even as the crowd cruelly tried to hush their loud cries for mercy. But they would not give up nor be kept from seeking their only hope.

And Jesus heard their cries. Jesus stopped, called out to them, and coming to Jesus they asked for God to give them what they always needed most: their sight. They trusted Jesus as Lord. They believed as Son of David that He was their Deliverer. They asked the one person Who could change their lives to do so. And Jesus did.

Their eyes were touched by their Maker, Master, and Lord. Their sight was given to them. They rejoiced and then followed Jesus. No more blind beggars, they became Jesus followers on that day when He gave them sight.

I too was once lost in blindness, not of physical sight, but of any hope in life. And Jesus, Who died to give me life, touched the eyes of my heart when I trusted Him and gave me sight and life. His vision came to my soul. Forever grateful for that gift of life, I will follow Jesus.

Because of You

...for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

and the light of your face,

for you delighted in them.

Psalm 44:3

Because Your power

     came to bear

          against the enemy

               the battle was won

Because Your arm

     was lifted high

          the attacks on me

               were driven back

You are my God

You are my salvation

I will praise You

Because Your right hand

     was raised up

          in my defense

               I was saved

Because Your face

     shone the light

          of redeeming grace

               I am Yours

You are my God

You are my salvation

Jesus, I praise You

                

     

     

vindication and deliverance

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause

against an ungodly people,

from the deceitful and unjust man

deliver me!

Psalm 43:1

There are times when we pray like this since we live in a world of human interaction tainted by the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of selfish sinners. We pray this when ungodly people despise the righteousness God brings. We pray this when evil attempts to squelch the light of the gospel. We pray this when we send new missionaries to a difficult place. We pray this when our lives feel threatened in some way.

But sadly, this is sometimes what Christians must pray in dealings with one another within the church. Because even in the church we can have less than holy moments. Actually, we can have a lot of them. I know. Sin creeps in because we are all fighting it still. Selfish motivations can mark interactions among believers (mine are the first to suspect), and ugly, ungodly attitudes and actions become publically visible at times. The result, a church fight, is one of the worst things the world can witness. O God, keep Your church holy, men and women guided by the gospel, sensitive to the Spirit, caring for each other, in order to spare us from the pain brought by deceitful and unjust men!

Jesus anticipated that this could occur. That is why He taught His disciples to guard against the self-righteous “leaven” of the Pharisees who used religion for personal gain. He taught His disciples to reconcile quickly over issues and not to be afraid to render judgment in His name when unrepentant hearts make reconciliation impossible. He prayed for the unity of His followers to prevail. And if we obey our Lord, we can see His church delivered from the deceitful, the unjust, or the selfish desires of those out for themselves.

five gospel changes

‘...delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Acts 26:17-18

Paul’s own recounting before Agrippa of the words Jesus spoke to him during his Damascus road conversion are full of rich depth. They help us understand the power and the glory of our own salvation. We can appreciate what we are given in Jesus. There are five changes described in these two verses.

The gospel message is first ENLIGHTENING. It opens our eyes. The truth that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and Jesus is the Lord and Savior we need, sheds light on everything around us. We then turn from darkness to light once the gospel shows us the way and we believe it. But it must always be remembered that the gospel is as different from our life outside of Christ as darkness is from light.

The gospel is also spiritually EMPOWERING, allowing us to be empowered by God as we turn from the control of Satan and the world system. We now live in a new realm, with Jesus as King over us, never to be dominated by Satan’s control over us again. We are delivered from the control of the enemy of all righteousness!

The gospel allows us to receive FORGIVENESS. Our problem is sin. Sin had us in darkness. Sin placed us in Satan’s dominion. Sin had complete power over us as its slaves. But once we trust Christ and receive His mercy, grace is applied to us and we are seen as forgiven by the Father through the sacrifice of His Son. This forgiveness is the most powerful change God works in us. 

This allows us to be received into a new place of FAMILY. We are heirs together with Jesus. We have gone from being Satan’s slaves to God’s sons. This is a glorious adoption that we did not deserve, but can fully enjoy.

Counted now as holy so that we are able to pursue a HOLY LIFE in obedience to Jesus, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of the Father, by the direction of God’s Word, we can live by the glorious light of the gospel!

caring for the poor

Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;

Psalm 41:1

Caring for the needy among us in the love of Christ, out of grateful respect for the mercy that God gives to us, is blessed by God. God sees the poor and needy. He cares for them. He wants whose who can share with them to do so in order for their needs to be met. When I have knowledge of a person in need, and I refuse to help as I am able, I am sinning against God in my selfishness!

If we are not careful, Christians can insulate themselves from helping the poor. Consider this: Psalm 41 was originally meant to a song of worship. Can you imagine going to church and the first verse of the hymn you sing instructs you to care for the poor? I doubt such a song would play well on Christian top 40. That’s sad. We can cloister ourselves away in our churches, giving money towards “projects” more than people. We can choose political expediency as “solutions” to poverty, or we can by cynical... “Jesus said that you will always have the poor with you, so I guess there isn’t much to do to fix the problem.” And all these result in a tragic loss of gospel ministry.

Jesus became poor for our sakes so that through His poverty we could be made eternally rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). This is grace, poured out for us in our spiritual poverty. Caring for the poor is a wonderful door to gospel ministry. Jesus gave Himself to help the helpless. And we can share that good news as we help with the needs of the poorest among us.

They are here. Even in our wealthiest communities there are poor and marginalized people. They may be homeless. They may need food. They may need counseling. They may need financial assistance. They may need medical care. They may need jobs. They ALL need the love of Christ, known through His disciples, and explained and believed in the gospel. God can deliver them... if only we would care!

Kingdom Focus: love for “little ones”

So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:14

This is the tender love God has for those who in childlike faith trust in Jesus for salvation. To understand this we must see this verse in its context. Matthew 18 begins with the disciples arguing their own righteousness over which of them is the “greatest” in the kingdom. It’s ludicrous! Jesus is grieved by this, and gently bringing in a small child as a visible example of His sermon, He corrects them. He reminds them that the simple faith of a small child is necessary to even enter the kingdom. It isn’t about “great works”. Children aren’t capable of that. It is about humility, trust, repentance, and faith (Matthew 18:1-4).

Then Jesus warns them of the dangers of harming that faith. If someone else tempts one of His believers into sin, that person falls under God’s judgment (Matthew 18:5-6). And when a follower of Jesus fights sinful temptations, it is best for them to take radical measures because nothing less than the kingdom of heaven is at stake (Matthew 18:7-9).

And finally, Jesus reminds His disciples to never despise the “little ones” with childlike faith, for like a Good Shepherd, God would leave 99 safe in the fold in order to find one that strays away. It is His will to keep all that come to Him. And His followers should be as diligent to care for one another (Matthew 18:10-14). Kingdom focus is all about living for what God is doing, caring for the Church that He is saving, and loving others more than self.