mercy and gratitude

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Luke 24:34

To pray for your own executioners as you hang in the humiliating agony of crucifixion seems the greatest mercy. It is superhuman, beyond the capacity of a person to give that kind of grace. But God does it. And Jesus prayed for forgiving mercy to fall on those who callously led Him up Golgotha, who nailed Him to a cross, and who cruelly gambled dismissively for his only earthly possessions, the clothes He wore, as Jesus was dying right in front of them. Even the cruelest human actions can be redeemed in the mercy of Jesus.

As onlookers scoffed and joked as His execution, the sign above Jesus silently spoke the truth: This is the King of the Jews. And as many mocked Him for claiming to be the Messiah, He slowly accomplished the work of redemption that only He, as the true and holy King could do. Nobody there understood what was happening. But mercy fell on humanity with each drop of Jesus’ blood.

As I contemplate the things for which I am truly thankful, this is at the top, the center, and the circle of them all! The grace of my Savior, His love at the cross, His mercy to all sinners, is the greatest gift in my life. It is at the core of my life. It takes rule over the kingdom of my heart. The cross of Jesus Christ is the source of all my gratitude, and the life of my resurrected Savior is my life and joy!

once for all forever

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 9:26b

Jesus has done what no one else can do. He has given Himself for the sins of all the world, dying on the cross to pay sin’s price for all humanity. He gave Himself as the final sacrifice. He ended the need for an altar at the temple upon which the countless animal sacrifices had to be made to temporarily forgive sin. Through Christ I am made new. In Christ I am forgiven. And that happened once for all... forever.

This is the point of the gospel story. In Jesus we have our only Savior. Through His sacrifice we are forgiven forever. In His resurrection is our confidence in eternal life. And in Jesus there is a full life to be lived in this world. The gospel gives us so much!

Lord Jesus.

Thank You for coming into this world to die once for all to put away sin by Your holy sacrifice. I worship You this morning. I believe in Your great power to save, trusting only You to have dealt forever with my sin. And I will enjoy forever life with You.

Amen

Shepherd of the stars

Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

He who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might

and because he is strong in power,

not one is missing.

Isaiah 40:26

The poetry from Isaiah the prophet calls us to witness the creative and sustaining power of God by observing the night sky. It is a glorious call to worship. As I write this reflection in the pre-dawn, the last of the brightest stars are winking out with the coming of the sunrise. A crescent moon is veiled in the wisp of a cloud. And I stand, feet on this earth, eyes gazing past an atmosphere God made to sustain His world, and pondering the glory of what God created above me... a glory so much lesser than God’s own glory, but so enthralling!

The poetry Isaiah proclaims pictures God bringing out the starry hosts of the night like a shepherd leading His flock. Indeed, the universe is God’s flock. Each galaxy, composed of billions of suns, with perhaps as many planets and moons and other wonders human eyes have never seen, each of these is herded into place by God’s hand... submissive to His will... displaying His power... multiplied exponentially across the heavens wherever our telescopes can point.

Lord,

If You shepherd the stars, You can shepherd my heart. I wish to shine out Your praise and glory where You have placed me. Lead me as You will.

Amen

my thankful prayer

The living, the living, he thanks you,

as I do this day;

the father makes known to the children

your faithfulness.

Isaiah 38:19

I strangely identify with Hezekiah’s grateful prayer as I reflect on this last year. It sort of sets the stage a week early for what Thanksgiving ought to be next week... and I pray...

You are good, Lord, and You are faithful. I’ve come through a time of confusion... a time of loss... a time of frustration... a time of coming to the end of my self... a time of feeling like all the things that I love most are falling apart. And You, O God, are faithful to me!

Thank You for the clarity that Your Word, Your people, and Your presence have brought to me. I praise You that in understanding the gift of change You have given me, You have also helped me know You more, dear Lord! And my frustrations have led to repentance as Your wisdom has given direction. And now I am again assured that my affections cannot be on the blessings You give, but rather must be upon You, O my Lord, as the great BLESSER of my life.

I pray You will help me make this known among the people that I love the most. I pray that the hearts of my family can rejoice someday as I now do.

Amen

Jesus is better.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Hebrews 8:6

Jesus brings what is better. His promises are better because He has provided once-for-all forgiveness, sent directly from the Father, and He perfectly fulfilled all that the Father had for Him. We can trust what Jesus said and did.

The sacrifice of Jesus is better. Before Jesus came, the levítical system under Moses with the Aaronic priesthood constantly offered incomplete atonement for sin at an altar made as a copy of what was to come. Jesus’ death on the cross perfectly satisfied the wrath of God against all our sin and never needs repeating.

The covenant Jesus made is better. The Law was given by God to Moses and it constantly reminded those under it of their incapacity for righteousness. But the new covenant made by the blood of Jesus was given so that we are seen in Christ as clothed in the righteousness of our great Savior. No more are we constantly reminded of our inability. We live in the enabling righteousness of Christ.

Christians rejoice! Jesus is better! He is your Savior! He is Your hope. He is your eternal promise. He is your righteousness.

Don’t gloat.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,

and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

lest the Lord see it and be displeased,

and turn away his anger from him.

Proverbs 24:17-18

Wisdom calls for mourning over the devastation done by sin, even if the painful discipline falls on a perceived enemy. We should not rejoice in the fall of those who may have opposed us. Why? We are sinners deserving swift justice as well. It is an affront to the mercy of God to gloat and rejoice at another person’s humiliating stumble. Gracious people grieve over the consequences of sin and realize that God’s grace alone is the only thing that saves them from being in the same place.

I admit that my darker self wants to gloat when someone who has hurt me in life is then hurt in their life. I have to fight the secret desire to high-five myself and then find someone, anyone, to share my joy with... ecstatic that the tide has turned against an enemy. I need to see this twisted thinking for what it is: self-promoting self-righteousness. My sin looks like this: I think I am the better person. I see my actions vindicated, not because Christ saved me from sin, but because I want to stand tall and look good, like I am the victor in the boxing ring and my enemy is a foe I somehow vanquished with a knockout punch. And I believe this attitude totally displeases God.

Lord,

You do not delight in punishing sinners. And there is nothing good in me worth my self-vindicating pride. Forgive my willingness to readily gloat over an enemy’s downfall. Keep me grieving over the results of all sin, and always aware of my own heart.

Amen

great grace and mercy

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isaiah 30:18

This little bit of poetic encouragement introduces a section of Isaiah’s prophecies where hope and restoration are the theme. This comes as God decrees fierce judgment against the citizens of Jerusalem in particular as they have disobeyed and broken their covenant with Him. This would occur because the nation was unwilling to return to God at His tender call to repentance (see Isaiah 30:15). But even with a certain and unstoppable judgment, God promises renewal because His judgment would lead them to sincere revival of obedience and confession of sin.

God doesn’t long to judge, He longs to be gracious. He doesn’t exalt himself in bringing ruin, but in showing mercy. He wants His justice to prevail, and ultimately, even after times where His judgment must fall (because He is perfectly just), mercy and grace still beautifully result (because He is perfectly loving and gracious). This was true of Israel’s captivity and their ultimate freedom and restoration back to their homeland.

This is also true when captive sinners are freed and restored by Christ to be fit for an eternal home with Him! Jesus takes our judgment and in the ultimate display of God’s mercy and grace, we are forgiven as we believe and confess, are made righteous in Christ, and then blessed by Him to enter into new life as God’s sons and daughters! God exalts Himself to show us mercy. We are unworthy of it, but God is great and to be praised!

level and plumb

And I will make justice the line,

and righteousness the plumb line;

Isaiah 28:17a

Building willy nilly

with no purpose or plan

makes no sense

and would not stand

We clear the site

we level the ground

we square it up

so structure is sound

God does the same

to rebuild a life

with level line and plumb

He starts out right

The level line as a guide

is the justice decreed in God’s Word

the plumb to keep it straight

is  righteousness given by the Lord

And with level and line

God remodels lives for His glory

the gospel of Jesus Christ

is His foundational story

The Lord holds the level

the Lord holds the plumb

my life’s measured by justice

and in righteousness it is done

God sees... and that is reward enough.

For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

Hebrews 6:10

Salvation in Jesus’ transforming work in those who believe the gospel is shown by their actions which show love for God and His people. The author of Hebrews encourages his original readers that the “things that belong to salvation” are evidenced in them by this: They labor in their faith. They love God. They serve the saints in the Body of Christ. And God never misses this truth about them. It might go unseen by some, ignored, or despised by the world around them, but God saw it.

This is why, as Paul reminds us elsewhere, our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Men may not see it. Men may gauge our actions or motives wrongly. Even other Christians may not recognize it in each other. But we aren’t serving for human applause or the recognition of our peers. We answer to God, Who knows our hearts.

Today, Lord, I pray that I will be looking only for Your eyes to see what I do. I wish to work, in the gospel, for the glory of Your name, out of love for You. I wish to serve Your saints with the hands You have set apart to minister my Savior’s touch. And help me to reject men-pleasing... to let Your Spirit and Word permeate my heart to purge out selfish motives, so that which goes with salvation, goes with me.

Amen

Put achievement in perspective at the cross.

A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest.

Luke 22:24

We see the disciples launch into selfish, childish arguments over their “greatness” and we shake our heads. How could they do this? This is the night of the last supper. Literally in a few hours Jesus would be hanging on a cross to die to prove them all wrong. Yet we can easily do the same things when we look at our own hearts and away from our Lord. As context for this argument, Jesus had just dropped a truth bomb on His disciples: one of them would betray Him to death. This led to them immediately going “shields up” and boasting of their greatness to one another, proving that each of them did not get what Jesus was really saying. He was focused on His coming sacrifice. They were focused on their own reputations and achievements.

Christianity is organized around following a Savior Who humbled Himself in obedience to the Father. He came to serve. Jesus rebukes His disciples with this reminder: “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27). Arguments of greatness do not honor our Servant Savior...

...Neither do achievement based corporate structures that honor and applaud human effort. Jesus did not hand out “Disciple of the Month” awards. I cringe because at one point in ministry I actually did that very thing! No, Jesus kept serving and carefully calling His boastful pride-driven disciples to do the same thing He did... serve. Pride in ourselves is divisive. Humbly submitting to our Great Servant Savior together is what unifies. He is among us as the One Who serves. And we should be one in Him by doing the same thing.

two reasons to trust Jesus

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Hebrews 4:14

This verse encourages us to hold strongly to our faith in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. And the reasons why we should do this? There are two: First, Jesus is our great high priest. Second, Jesus is the Son of God. Knowing Who Jesus is helps us stay strong in our commitment to believe and follow Him.

Jesus is our great high priest. This takes some placement in biblical history for us to truly appreciate. In the Old Testament sacrificial system, only the high priest could offer the sacrifice for the yearly Day of Atonement sacrifice, and even then, he was a sinner himself. That sacrifice was only temporary... pointing to a need for a perfect high priest to eventually offer a perfect, once-fo-all sacrifice. Jesus is that perfect priest. And in a magnificent surprise, Jesus is also the perfect sacrifice, which makes Him now the great high priest. I believe only Jesus could perfectly offer His life to die for my sins.

Jesus is the Son of God. He is God in the flesh, sent from the Father. He is the One that the Father has pronounced well-pleasing. His life pleased God the Father. His death appeased the Father. His resurrection proves that He fulfilled our salvation and He is now ascended to the the throne of God where He sits at the Father’s right hand. And it is Jesus, the Son of God, my great high priest, Whom I worship this day!

the better outcome

To do righteousness and justice

is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

Proverbs 21:3

God was more concerned that Israel live in the outcomes of the Law that He gave them then that they ritually go through religious motions. The goal of being His people under the Law was for them to do righteous actions and show forth justice in their dealings with people. In the end, those who truly love God will live out His righteousness and love justice. The right will prevail and the wrong shall fail.

How much more is this true for Christians alive today who do not need to ever offer sacrifice since it has “once-for-all” been given by Jesus at the cross? God is most concerned that those forgiven by Jesus not live like they must prove themselves or self-atone. Rather, we have in Jesus, His righteousness appeasing our judgment. We can then live rightly in the world, displaying God’s mercy and working for His justice in an unjust and sin-warped society. The solutions are found in Jesus and His people ought to be leading the way against true social injustices that are an affront to the design of God!

I am moved, because the church should be the last place any injustice should be ever be found. But sadly, we are not like that at all. Sundays find Christians disfigured and fragmented... preferentially segregated by race, social status, age, and gender. We have missed the wisdom of justice and must remind ourselves not to give in to our sinful, selfish view of what we find comfortable. Unity and justice are more acceptable than any of our paltry religious traditions and preferences!

waiting isn’t fun

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;

wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

Proverbs 20:22

It is so easy to rush to my own defense... to be easily hurt in an offense and seek to justify myself. It is simple to dismiss criticism as unfounded and to seek to get back at perceived attackers. It is hard to contemplate that I too have a sin-warped perspective on my own life and actions and that God might be using a tough situation to help me grow more like Jesus in my suffering for His glory. Jesus was misunderstood. Jesus was accused falsely. Jesus was criticized. Jesus was treated wrongly. He simply spoke and lived the truth anyway and entrusted Himself to the will of God the Father.

Trusting God is the way to counteract my rash tendency toward quick self-defense. And I know Tom Petty wasn’t thinking of Christ’s delivering power when he wrote it... but the poetry rings true: “the waiting is the hardest part... you take it on faith... you take it to the heart...” The promise in this proverb is that if I move beyond my selfish perspective and trust in God Who truly knows my heart, God will bring deliverance in His way, in His time, for His glory. My soul should rest not in my self justification, but in the grace of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

So bad times do come. Sinners misunderstand one another. People do each other wrong. And in that experience, I will be called to first remind myself to wait on God’s promise to deliver.

Perfect.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 2:10

Jesus, the perfect God, the perfect man, the perfect sacrifice was shown to be perfect in suffering for our sins. For the glory of God for whom and by whom this universe in which we live exists, Jesus was made the perfect sacrifice for sins so that we might now be brought, by faith, into God’s family as His children. Those who have trusted in Jesus, the perfect founder of salvation, will be received into this family by His perfect work.

I am not perfect. Jesus is perfect. I could not completely make amends for my sin before a holy God. Jesus did so perfectly. I am not worthy to be called a child of God. But I can be adopted into God’s household by the perfect merits of the Son of God. I would never by made perfect by even an eternity of my own suffering. But Jesus perfectly suffered the wrath of God so that I might know the daily beauty of the grace of God.

Lord,

You saw fit to send Your Son in perfection to heal my imperfections. You founded my salvation in His perfect sacrifice. I will praise You today that I cannot be good enough but instead trust in the complete, perfect forgiveness given by Jesus.

Amen

wisdom in community

Listen to advice and accept instruction,

that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Proverbs 19:20

Every Christian must grow and live in community. We need each other. By God’s design we interact in a way where we can give and receive advice, care, and even correcting insights from one another. We just need to empower each other to do this as we trust that God knows what He is doing in placing people in our lives.

Just yesterday I enjoyed the value of this truth. People turn to me, as their pastor, for advice. It is one of the great joys of ministry to care for people by counseling them from scripture, in prayer, by mutual conversation. And God even brings people into my day with a word of instruction, caution, and encouragement that I know is meant for me. It is a joy to talk things out, with ears to hear words that might be hard for the person to say, and hearts that mutually care for each other. And if the words have a tinge of rebuke, that is coming from God, I will listen and accept that God in His mercy is helping me to find a place to grow in the community of the church. 

To find peace, resolution, and comfort in Christ as Christians settle any misunderstandings and disagreements is wonderful. Lord knows, it is absolutely horrible when we DON’T talk about these things! But the gospel lives when we will give and receive advice and instruction from God’s Word, with God’s people, for God’s glory.

Lord,

I will listen to the people that You bring into my days. Where I can offer Your Word’s wisdom I will. Where I need to hear from them in order to grow in wisdom, I will. Thank You for gospel community!

Amen

the greatest wealth

Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity

than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

Proverbs 19:1

Character is the greatest wealth in the world. It cannot be bought or sold at any price in any market of exchange. Integrity and a solid reputation will take a person farther in life toward true respect, contentment, and eternal peace than all the riches one could dream of possessing. Give me character over career success. Give me character over the chattel of this world. Give me character over class status.

And the beauty of the new birth that accompanies salvation by belief in the gospel is that all things are made new. We are given a new nature, the power to understand the Word of God, the companion of the Holy Spirit to guide us and the company of other Christians so that the best possible character can be made anew in us. In Jesus I can walk in integrity and avoid all the foolishness and crooked outcomes that sin does in this world.

Lord,

Please keep doing Your saving and redeeming work in me. I want to be a man who walks in the integrity You give to me. If it is all that I leave this world with, it will be more than enough. Purge me from my crooked speech and foolish ways by the work of Your Spirit and the power of the wisdom of Your Word! 

Amen

a glorious, visible Savior

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high...

Hebrews 1:3

Three truths about Who Jesus is come powerfully from this verse. First, Jesus is the glorious God. The radiance of the glory of God is seen in Him. Do I want to know God in His glory? All I need to do is to read the gospels, see what Jesus said and did, and bear witness to the glory of God on earth.

Second, Jesus is the visible God. The hardest part of faith is believing the unseen. Yet in history, in the real person of Jesus, God lived and walked among us. Want it see God? Just read the gospels and follow along as Jesus walks, talks, eats, drinks, and lives and loves sinners. His life is the life of God made visible.

Not only is Jesus the glorious God and the visible God, but He is also the salvation of God. In Jesus, a holy sinless sacrifice was made that purified all sin for all time. His sacrifice is complete. His holy work is done. He redeems us completely and so satisfied the demand for justice upon sin that He now sits at the exalted right hand of the Father. Jesus is our Savior and Lord.

Brother in Hard Times

A friend loves at all times,

and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 17:17

I was there with you when you found the truth that saved you. We rejoiced.

I am here with you as you grow in the truth that challenges you. We grow together.

I am right beside you walking in the light... turning from wrong with you... obeying our Lord.

I am your brother, committed to Christ Who is our Savior... in the strongest family.

I will be there with you when hard times come and you feel overwhelmed. I am adversity’s brother.

I will be right beside you, born of the battle, facing the fire fight... caring for you.

I will trust God with you when life gets unbearable and we will be strong. We will rejoice.