Opposed… like our Master

A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Matthew 10:24-25

It is a good thing when Christians get a bad rap in the world. Indeed, we are probably NOT following Jesus well if a sinful world speaks well of us. The world hates Jesus. Those who opposed Jesus in the gospels went so far as to attribute His undeniable spiritual power to Satan himself. So it would seem that the more Christians look and act like Jesus, the more persecution we should expect.

Jesus has already spoken of this in Matthew at the Sermon on the Mount, pronouncing blessing upon all those who are persecuted for the sake of His name (Matthew 5:10-12). On another occasion (Luke 6:26), Jesus warned His followers to see warm acceptance by the world as a danger sign… when people are well spoken of by sinners, they are more than likely false prophets. Followers of Jesus should never expect the acclaim of the world. You stand with Jesus, you stand with truth, life, and righteousness. A sin-filled world will always hate that.

I think we should get nervous when we hear Christians opine that the values of scripture are hated by the world. Jesus told us to expect to be hated. I wonder about kingdom confusion and misplaced priorities when a stated Christian objective among many is to make civil and political change (not kingdom change, not personal repentance, not gospel proclamation) a high vision of the church’s role in the world. It seems completely backwards to scripture for Christians to complain about being marginalized and then try to use the world’s own methods to be “liked”. 

Jesus made it clear: The world will seek to cancel His followers when they are following Him correctly! God help us to be living in such a way that this sinful, evil world, under the control of the evil one, wants to wipe us out! We live this way not because we are spoiling for a fight (we aren’t), but because we want to be like our Master! They tried (unsuccessfully) to cancel Jesus on a cross, but instead an empty tomb now resounds loudly with the echoes of a glorious transforming gospel. And even when we are opposed, and we should be opposed, God will make His truth victoriously known.

the gospel and the heart

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Acts 15:8-9

Peter’s observation about the undeniable salvation of the Gentiles WHILE they were clearly still Gentiles shows that salvation is a matter of a transformed heart. The legalistic requirement being proposed by some to demand circumcision of Gentile converts was too much, and was NOT in keeping with the change that the gospel brings. Peter’s point is clear: salvation is a matter of the heart.

Peter clarifies this in three ways. First, God knows the heart. And in Peter’s story of witnessing the very first Gentile conversion, when God sent Peter to the household of Cornelius, God already knew that Cornelius was a man who feared God and had a heart ready to receive the gospel. God had prepared for the Gentiles to enter the church. How dare anyone add to what God already had known and done! God never instructed any apostle to demand circumcision of any gentile. It is because God already knows the hearts of those who are His own. 

Secondly, the Holy Spirit comes into the heart. God chose to pour down His Spirit on gentile converts without them being circumcised, indeed, without any commitment from them to any part of the covenant with Israel. It was enough for the Holy Spirit that the gentiles believed the gospel. And nothing should add to that.

And finally, Jesus cleanses hearts by faith. God cannot make holy what should never be holy. So the fact that their hearts were sanctified by Christ means that nothing else need be added. Belief in the gospel made them new creations! To add anything is to say that Jesus’ blood was not good enough. It makes the Law a co-redeemer. And it is a hellish demand to add to the finished work of Jesus.

Lord,

Thank You that You know, change, and reside in hearts that will repent, believe, and trust in Your great salvation! Keep me from every adding my own works to that pure, beautiful, saving, gospel truth!

Amen

generations

Posterity shall serve him;

it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,

that he has done it.

Psalm 22:30-31

The confidence of David that the works of the Lord in saving the troubled are so great that they will be told to future generations is an encouraging motivation. It is so easy today to focus only on the bad news. but David wrote Psalm 22 out of a bad situation. Here’s how he described his experience:

• He feels forsaken by God. (22:1)
• His prayers feel unanswered. (22:2)
• He is scorned and mocked by his society. (22:6-7)
• Trouble is always near. (22:11)
• People act like vicious animals. (22:20-21)

Yet is all this pain, this persecution, this perplexing spiritual struggle, David remains somehow confident that just as God had helped him in the past, God would also save him again. He trusts God. He praises God. He worships God even in the most painful of problems. And that worship carries him confidently past all of the pain.

David’s faith envisions a bold future that God has revealed. It is captivated by these two visions:

• The world is the Lord’s and He will see it turn to Him as He rules the nations. (22:27-28).
• Future generations will worship and serve the Lord, even if the present generation is challenging to faith. (22:30-31)

O Lord,

I need the faith that is so clearly calling me to trust in You today. Although my world is increasingly hostile to You and to the gospel, You are moving history toward that moment when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father! And though it is not always visible to me, You call me to faithfully worship, obey, and proclaim Jesus in the gospel. And a people yet unborn will know You. And so I believe! 

Amen

Truth in a time of trouble

Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help.

Psalm 22:11

The prayer request that is this verse is a vital request even today. We live in a world that has countless challenges to faith. Our own sin natures make it all too easy for us to drift unsafe distances from trusting God and His truth. And if God left us alone, we’d quickly be ruined by a world system that hates the truth and considers itself the real ruler of this planet.

But God has created both His people, and His universe. God is in control. God has His clear purposes. God will receive the glory and the worship of His people. And He will save all those who truly call upon Him. Three truths from this verse give us confidence to pray this same request to God when we are in deep and sometimes overwhelming need.

First, God is near. We know God is not far from us. And we can appeal to His intimate closeness in our troubles. He is right there with us. We must know and believe and embrace His always present love for us. We may drift in distance, but God is unchanging. He is near. We can pray to God Who is as close as a Father’s embrace.

Second, trouble is also near. Jesus said it clearly in comfort to His disciples: “…in the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world!” (John 16:33) We need not fear the trouble that will always be near us in this life. God will deliver us. He will help us avoid the pitfalls of temptation and the perils of the plans of those who hate God.

Finally, there is no other help. The only hope we have is through Christ. Other people will eventually disappoint us. Our own strength will fail. And the world does not care for the people of God. Yet we will find that God is more than enough when we trust our Lord, our Creator, the Keeper of His promises, the Ruler of the universe, and the One Who loves His people forever!

God always wins.

Though they plan evil against you,

though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.

For you will put them to flight;

you will aim at their faces with your bows.

Psalm 21:11-12

God has no defeats against Him on His record. To be an enemy of God is always a losing proposition. Lots of people plan against God’s work. Lots of efforts throughout cosmic history have tried to work contrary to the King. All of them have failed and all of them will end in ruin. It is impossible to succeed in rebellion against God.

The devil is the first to try it, and from what I can tell in scripture, will also be the last to try it. But in the end, even Satan’s vast rebellion that spans millennia and spiritual realms is an abysmal failure. Satan fails even now! The victorious King of Kings is building His church even as Satan wants to tear it down. The gospel advances even as the devil leads the worldwide effort to tell his lies against it.

And human efforts also fail. Communism as a political system seeks to eradicate all religion? It withers in failure before Christ. Atheism seeks academic prominence? It is shown to be the self-deceived babbling of moronic fools. Tyrants seek to be worshiped in their authoritarian ego trips? God turns them into irrational madmen whose dreams of dominance turn to rubble. Armies march against the church? God keeps her safe as she grows underground, nurturing and strengthening hearts with freedom in Christ even when human dictators want to take it all away.

Enemies of God’s work face two possible ends if they refuse to repent of their sinful defiance: 1) They flee before the wrath of God as He judges sins and delivers His saints, showing themselves to be cowards before the true King, or 2) they look down the arrow shafts of His destruction as He aims His bows at their faces. God’s justice pierces true to aim… He gets them right between the eyes. And this assurance should help us to endure times when God is mocked. God will be defied by many. He will never be defeated. Our Lord always wins.

accepting mercy and grace

Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, “Do not quarrel on the way.”

Genesis 45:24

Joseph knew his brothers well. And even though his reunion and restoration to them was tearful and joyous, he knew they still had one more difficult, confessional conversation to have with their dad. It could make their journey back to Jacob a tense one. And that tension could lead to another fight among them if they failed to concentrate instead upon the good news.

They would need to come clean with their father about a lifetime lie and group deception. Joseph had not been killed as a boy by a wild beast. They instead had sold him to slavery into Egypt. But now in Egypt he had reunited with the family as Pharaoh’s prime minister in charge of famine relief.

True to the tension, Jacob was numbed by the truth when they first told him and would not believe the story. He was only convinced by the Egyptian wagons filled with the finest goods of an empire to back up the claim that Joseph was indeed alive. God had moved despite the deceit done to Jacob, and despite the hateful spite they had done to Joseph. God moved beyond a severe famine to bring Jacob and his sons all back together, and to keep the family alive in Egypt to honor His covenant.

When God does good despite the bad we have done, we should joyfully accept His mercy and grace. Our sinful flesh may not feel worthy of it, or may want to shrink back from full responsibility and repentance. But that tension must be crossed to know real restoration, peace, and God’s gracious forgiving love. In Jesus, whom our sins cast out as He suffered for the penalty of all the wrong we have done, we are given a Savior Who gives us all the treasures that the Father has given to Him. Humble repentance and confession bring the blessing of His grace to our shattered lives. Do not quarrel on the way! Embrace the outlandish grace of the story that God has turned our lives around in order to save us forever in His beautiful presence!

how to pray about sin

Who can discern his errors?

Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;

let them not have dominion over me!

Then I shall be blameless,

and innocent of great transgression.

Psalm 19:12-13

These two verses show us how to pray to God about our battle with sin. We often think of the only prayer for sin as being a prayer of confession and repentance AFTER we sin. But these two verses take a much more proactive stance. They want God’s help BEFORE repentance needs to be our prayer.

First, pray for God to discern your hidden faults. Ask God to work His Spirit’s conviction and Word’s direction to show you where you are prone to be wrong. Everybody has fatal flaws. Confronting and turning from these is growth. Sanctification is about God-directed change to see the influence and pain of those hidden errors exposed and they diminish and die! Such growth is a truly wonderful experience for the Christian.

Secondly, pray that God will help you fight willful sins. Every choice to give in to selfish sin is a presumption upon the grace of a good and loving God. It is damaging. We don’t want to do that. God will help us by His wisdom, through mutual accountability, by our confession, through our putting off sin and putting on right living to grow beyond our sinful, willful wrongs. And His Word will renew our thinking as His Spirit leads us in Christlikeness to forsake our lives of sin and live for joyful, rewarding, holy obedience.

Finally, pray to believe and receive a new driving vision of holy living. Sin needs not have dominion over the follower of Jesus! We long to be blameless. We are thrilled to be free from transgression by the One Who bore our sorrows and carried our transgressions to the cross. We want to be blameless and holy. We want to be like Jesus! We should keep praying for God to do all it takes to align our thoughts, our character, our hopes, and our actions with those of Jesus.

Wide Space to Walk

You gave a wide place for my steps under me,

and my feet did not slip.

Psalm 18:36

You called me

to walk this narrow way

on that bright day

You commanded, “Follow Me”

and I did

I saw You, Lord

I walked behind

although the path would wind

confident in Your Word

I obeyed

Ever upward

we climbed on

You, my Saving One

You… I looked toward

I saw my way

My feet secure

I did not slip

I trusted in it

wide way was sure

because I was with You

My steps under me

on solid ground

what You had found

was the path before me

so I trusted

Not disappointed

I travel on

all that I have relied upon

Jesus has provided

and I still follow

Journey’s end

is one day near

I will never fear

I trust my Friend

We’ve travelled well

This God

This God—his way is perfect;

the word of the LORD proves true;

he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

Psalm 18:30

This verse celebrates three truths we can experience about God. They were true for David when God delivered him from his enemies. They are still experienced by Christians through the victory that Jesus gives us today.

PERFECT GOD. God is perfect. He is the definition of perfection. All He is and everything God does for us is without fault. He is perfect in His holiness while saving sinners through the perfect sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus. He is perfect in His love, never failing to care for His own. He is perfect in His ways, always providing, never failing, always taking care of His children. And the perfect God loves us, hears and answers our prayers, and makes our way in this world and for eternity!

TRUE WORD. God’s Word is true and trustworthy. We have an infinite resource of His wisdom in our hands when we open our Bibles and dig into God’s Word, rooting our beliefs and our actions in what God says. And in the Living Word, Jesus Christ, are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of equally priceless worth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And every word of God put into belief and practice proves without fail to be perfectly and practically true.

SHIELDING REFUGE. We all need shelter… shelter from life’s storms, shelter from the heat of the day’s battle, shelter to rest, recover, and restore. God provides that security and safety. We are never alone because His Spirit is always with us, and through Christ, dwells within us. So no matter how hard the wind blows, the sun bakes, or the battle rages, we are protected in Christ by the God in Whom we find sweet rest. He restores our souls. He brings relief just being our place and our person of rest. And resting in Him brings eternal perspective and inexplicable peace.

intimacy & security

Keep me as the apple of your eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings,

from the wicked who do me violence,

my deadly enemies who surround me.

Psalm 17:8-9

When you are really close to someone, looking face to face, you see your reflection in the pupils of their eyes. This is an experience of personal closeness. This is an intimate kind of moment. And it is that sort of closeness that David asks God to show to him in his difficulties. That is the meaning behind the request for God to keep David as the “apple of your eye”.

But not only does David ask for intimacy with the Almighty, he also longs for fierce, protective love. Just as a bird of prey will shelter her young under her wings, so David asks God to fiercely guard him. The Lord protects those he cares for. There is both intimacy and security in the love of God for us.

My prayer right now is to want these same experiences. My soul wants to be loved by God, and to love Him as my heart’s most central desire. To know God and to live with His intimate care over me is the story of my life. It is my reason for being. God must be the One my heart desires first, and his love for me is what I always want to know. And in Jesus Who died and rose again to love all who will believe in Him as an intimate Savior, I find that love. He calls me friend. And that is a dearness I did not deserve or earn. It all came through grace by the love of God.

Jesus is my security no matter what life brings to shake me. I will trust Him even when I seem surrounded by what I am tempted to fear. Almighty wings cover me and I am the apple of His eye! Every Christian who truly trusts Jesus has this intimate security to experience with joy, peace, and freedom!

when I confuse kingdoms

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Matthew 6:25

Anxiety is often a sign that I am spiritually focused on an earthly thing. It is too easy to get anxious over the stuff of this life. Jesus uses two very common examples, food and clothes, to remind us to NOT get confused about which kingdom we are living in. His principle is this: We are created for a life that consists of more than this world. Getting anxious over what goes on with earthly concerns just gives us a narrow, selfish perspective. We need instead to back off and see God’s eternal viewpoint.

Personally, I see the principle Jesus is teaching applying to a lot of issues right now. And they are a struggle for me. Although temporal concerns are important to Christians, they are not to take the highest priority for us. Jesus’ kingdom leads and informs everything else. God will provide for us (Matthew 6:25-29). Jesus illustrates with birds and flowers to show how nothing in creation is beyond God’s care (Matthew 6:30-32). God has a solid history of providing for His people that I can trust (Matthew 6:33-34).

Let’s think about this in the light of current cultural challenges. I’m seeing Christians argue over issues of virtually zero eternal, soul-changing impact. It would seem if the kingdom of God is our passion, we’d realize things we are currently dividing over are ALL bound to fade away to nothingness in the reality of Christ’s eternal rule. Yep, Jesus is bigger than our opinions about masks, vaccinations, and political solutions. 

We are in trouble (and I have been guilty here the last 18 months), when social issues get more attention than the gospel in our hearts. That’s a confusion of kingdoms. If judgmentalism or dislike for others settles in on an earthly matters, we have gotten anxious rather than trusted the God Who overrules it all. It we let an earthly issue impede gospel community and proclamation of Jesus, we have our eyes set too low. When our hope in in a human solution we have left faith in God aside for a kind of idolatry. When we are OK with damaged relationships in the church over trivial earthly issues, we are sinfully confused. When it is hard to love our neighbors and show them Jesus, we are totally focused on the wrong kingdom. Oh that my heart would always seek first His kingdom, trusting Him to settle my soul because my life is more than this world!

Bethel / house of God

Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.

Genesis 35:3

There was a place

where the crafty deceiver

the patriarch who learned every lesson

the hard way

changed one day

realized God would always listen

became a true believer

in the Lord of lives and space

Gathering loved ones

encouraging them to turn

Jacob literally cleaned his home

to quickly obey

what God would say

to build an altar, no longer just roam

a place for sacrifice to burn

trusting in the Eternal One

Bethel - house of God

was a journey and destination

place of worship and of prayer

sacred space

face to face

with God in sacrificial obedience there

God would make of Jacob a nation

and Jacob knew the God of “house of God”

A new Bethel

a new age

where in each Jesus-believing person

God now lives

His Spirit He gives

dwelling in and with us in person

illuminating truth on scripture’s page

my temple/body now His Bethel

God with

There they are in great terror,

for God is with the generation of the righteous.

Psalm 14:5

The “they” of this statement are those who insist there is no God to Whom they are accountable. God calls those who declare such things “fools”. They are shown in Psalm 14 to be:

• Corrupt
• Doing what God hates
• Incapable of doing good (Psalm 14:1)
• Turned aside (Psalm 14:3)
• Ignorant
• People consumers
• Prayerless (Psalm 14:4)

But God ultimately wins out over their sinful hatred of Him and His people. They can deny God all they want. They won’t be able to do so in the end. They will find too late that the deception of their refusal to believe will find them in final terror. And the righteous that they hope to consume will be kept by God, Who is always with His people. Denying God is a losing lifestyle.

We live in a time where the deception of godlessness is a growing spiritual cancer. People are being lied to by a popular humanism that denies God. Even the Christian church is seeing this thinking infiltrate her. In the past five years I have seen popular evangelical figures go completely apostate, abandoning all faith in God, and then repackage themselves with nearly evangelical fervor as humanists. And that is so sad. It puts them in the category of the worst of false teachers who deny the God Who saves and makes them godless fools described in Psalm 14. And it compels me to proclaim the living truth found in Jesus even more. False teaching abounds. But Jesus is the Way… the Truth… the Life!

I KNOW the God Who looks down from heaven on us (Psalm 14:2). And I know how He rewards those who will only look back up to Him and seek Him. I have seen God work through the steady, daily impact of reading His Word, praying, repenting of my sin, and seeking to follow Jesus. And in that following I am absolutely convinced I have experienced God at work in my lifetime. Yes, it requires faith in the unseen. But God being unseen is NOT the same as God being unknown! By trusting Christ and believing the gospel I know God! It is powerful. It is joyful. It is rewarding. It is real!

counter-intuitive relationships

But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matthew 5:39

Jesus would never survive on social media. I mean look at how he expects people to treat one another:

• Reject “an eye for an eye” retaliation. (Matthew 5:38)
• Turn the other cheek. (Matthew 5:39)
• Give up your cloak. (Matthew 5:40)
• Go an extra mile. (Matthew 5:41)
• Give to whoever asks. (Matthew 5:42)
• Love your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
• Pray for your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
• Be perfect like God. (Matthew 5:48)

Ouch! How’s that ever going to be shareable on Facebook? None of those posts are going viral. No way. These actions are too soft… too weak… too wimpy. They are in no way self-promoting, which is sort of drag on your brand! They just aren’t going to be meme-worthy.

So Jesus expects those who live under His rule to act completely different in social interaction. They don’t assert opinions, demand rights, seek retaliation, come back with the perfect zinger, wrangle and fight, or poke fun at the viewpoints of others. And the standard is ultimately very high: Our actions with other people should treat them with the perfect love of God Who makes the sun He created shine on both evil men and righteous men, and sends rain to water the crops of both the just and the unjust.

So how would this look in my actions toward others? I want it said of me by both Christians and non-church attending friends: “He is a kind, caring, and generous friend to me. I don’t think he had any real enemies.” That sort of reputation is a goal in my heart and for my life.

But I struggle with being judgmental, being easily offended, highly opinionated, and very self-protective. Jesus, please remind me that in Your kingdom those sins are turned from and replaced with kindness, deference, generosity, understanding, and forgiveness. All those I learn from You while I trust in You.

horizontal AND vertical

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23-24

Jesus taught that our relationship with God the Father is affected by our relationships with one another. Using the example of Old Testament temple sacrifice, Jesus teaches that atonement will not take place when deliberate disobedience ignores reconciliation with another person. The order Jesus insists is this: First reconcile with a another human person before you seek to reconcile with God and worship Him. Otherwise the horizontal dissonance will disrupt the vertical fellowship.

Why do we not take Jesus seriously in this clear teaching that unity in His Church matters? Why are we so quick to judge other believers unfairly? Why would we rather leave a church then do the work of reconciling with a brother or sister? In my 33 years of local church ministry I’ve seen it countless times: Unhappy at a church or with another Christian? Just ignore it, or slip away, maybe attend another church, but NEVER deal with the division. And the cycle repeats. Don’t get me wrong. There are times we may need to change churches for good reasons. But ignoring an issue by slipping out the back IS NOT the way to do that! Really it is unchristian to live in this kind of divisiveness. Our hearts can be false to the One Who died to bring us all to Himself, Whose prayer in John 17 for all who would ever believe in Him was that His church would be one just as He and the Father are one.

It is so discouraging to see petty cultural and political divisiveness raise such loud disruption in the Body of Christ. How we need to hear and obey Jesus in these matters. We worship God best when we also love our brothers the most and refuse to let divisions separate us from each other. Ultimately these unresolved conflicts severely hinder our ability to worship God as we should.

Lord Jesus,

Give me the heart for reconciling and peacemaking that is Yours! Help me to repent of my own petty judgmentalism and seek to be united with brothers and sisters in You! Draw me to my brothers and sisters so we may love one another well and find the gospel community that You made for us that is above and beyond the petty divisiveness of sin, worldly concerns, and the things we do not control.

Amen

confidence despite fear

For the LORD is righteous;

he loves righteous deeds;

the upright shall behold his face.

Psalm 11:7

This confident declaration of faith in a good and righteous God is informed by all that is said in the eleventh psalm. It is a psalm of David and enfolds like this:

David is confident to find refuge in God (11:1a). He knows God will keep him safe. This trust exists despite circumstances that seem out of control as wicked people appear to have the upper hand.

• People are advising fearful withdrawal (11:1b)
• Strong and wicked people are taking aim at the righteous with weapons of war (11:2).
• Once strong foundations have crumbled and people complain that good people will be able to do nothing to change this (11:3).

Still David is confident in God (11:4-7). And God reverses the three fearful observations of the first three verses. They are recounted in reverse order.

• God’s throne is secure even if earthly foundations appear to have been destroyed (11:4).
• God tests and judges the evil men whose eyes aim their weapons. God sees this and rains down His own fiery weapons of judgment on the wicked (11:4b-6).
• The upright need not fear, but instead stand gazing into the face of a God Who loves them and loves their righteous deeds (11:7).

O God Who is always my security,

Thank You that You do indeed see and know this world. You know what may bring me fear as wicked people with evil schemes want to topple strong foundations. And it seems like they have so much success. But they cannot really even put a crack in what You have built! You are on Your holy throne. You see, You test both the righteous and the unrighteous, and You judge the wicked while also bringing Your peaceful presence to all who will trust in You!

Amen

a better hunger and thirst

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Matthew 5:6

Jesus set the standards for His kingdom to be totally contrary to those of this world. It begins with the very concept of blessing. The Jews that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount to were driven by a notion of gaining from a spiritual leader’s blessing. Rabbis were sought out to grant blessings. The crowd expected Jesus to bless them somehow. The Abrahamic Covenant promised blessing to all who blessed Israel. But Jesus adds a new twist. His blessings are not tied to the Old Covenant, but instead are antithetical to what blessings were traditionally viewed to be. Case in point: hunger and thirst are a blessing.

For those who truly hunger and thirst after righteousness, a blessing is promised by Jesus. The followers of Jesus are fueled by an intensely different drive. We are called to turn from our selfish motives in order to truly understand what it is to be good, and to learn to adopt a spiritual hunger and thirst for God’s own righteousness. That means that personally, morally, and societally we long for God’s holy ways, and His righteous justice to always prevail. Sin and injustice drive us to hunger only for the holy. Evil and abuse make us thirsty for God to set things right.

And there is a treasure as we live in this holy tension. The promised blessing as it comes now and will be fully realized in Christ’s Kingdom gives rewards for our hunger and thirst… rich rewards of true blessing. When we long for righteousness and are driven by that soul-thirst to live and do righteously, Jesus promises that He will be our satisfaction. And in many ways that change in longing in and of itself, as the Holy Spirit of God works within us, can be the satisfaction itself. We learn never again to be truly satisfied with the false blessings of this world’s kingdoms. We can see through religiosity, politics, materialism, trendiness, and pride and look deeper to the truth in Jesus. We know He satisfies our holy hunger and quenches our thirst for a true, righteous blessing found only in Him!

Engagement… not avoidance

For the needy shall not always be forgotten,

and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Psalm 9:18

God sees injustice and will not let it stand. Humans might inflict horrible lack of concern on each other. Deliberate acts of hatred, retribution, and economic abuse plague human history. But God has not forgotten this. God knows the evil we do to one another. And He will not let it go unpunished.

God has a way of sovereignty responding to this through history itself. Peasant uprisings, strikes, wars, revolutions, civil disobedience, and legislative corrections are all tools in the hands of a sovereign God to correct all sorts of ways in which the needy were forgotten and the poor left without care. And I am confident when there is attention brought to these issues today that a sovereign God sees it and will similarly work by His providential hand to end an action that offends His mercy and grace.

Christians should care that the needy are forgotten. We should WANT to see God put an end to the suffering of homelessness, poverty, hunger, racism, education disadvantages, and lack of economic opportunity. We should get involved in ways to deal with these. We know it isn’t solved by giveaways, but instead by the sharing of our lives, our resources, God’s wisdom, practical knowledge, skills sets and in the recognizing of the image of God in every hurting human being by giving them the gospel both in word and in our loving help to them.

We remember that Jesus told us that all those in His kingdom who will impoverish themselves spiritually will be blessed. We recognize that sin makes us all needy, unable to pay the price for our lives before a holy God, and completely spiritually bankrupt. But Christ gave Himself to give to us all the riches of life in Him! And though Jesus knows we will always have the poor with us, He doesn’t call us to ignore their need, but instead to help whenever and wherever possible. The gospel saves our souls. The love of Christ that rejects injustice helps better our world for God’s glory!

Why this, Lord?

He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

Genesis 22:2

Why this, Lord?

Why what I love

must be called for from above?

What I hold dear

must be surrendered clear.

Why lose what I love, Lord?

When You know I love You

and want to obey You too…

You look hard at my heart

call me to follow and depart.

Why so final, Lord?

Why call me to sacrifice

what is already Yours in this life?

Yet because You first gave it

I can sacrifice it.

Why this, Lord?

Why must it die

so obedience is my reply?

Yet if you want what I give again to live

resurrection power You will always give.

Why this, Lord?

Why do You ask me to give away

what You give to me every day?

Because in giving up to You

I treasure that which is true.

Why this, Lord?

Why call me to sacrifice and pain?

Exactly what will I gain?

I know what You call me now to do

You will give me the power to go through.

Sin backfires.

He makes a pit, digging it out,

and falls into the hole that he has made.

His mischief returns upon his own head,

and on his own skull his violence descends.

Psalm 7:15-16

Sinful choices have a way of returning to us their own baked-in, ironic consequences. We may think we’re getting away with an innocent, personal thing that hurts nobody, only to realize too late that it hurts ourselves. Addictive sins have a way of turning on us and all the while it is as if we can’t even see it coming. We are like the cartoon character gleefully on the end of the tree limb, sawing away, only to fall to our doom.

These words in Psalm seven portray that kind of tragic comedy. A man wildly digs a pit to trip his neighbor and stumbles in himself. His harebrained scheme of evil rolls backward and bowls him over. And these words were sung in a worship song! Imagine singing this on a Sunday morning: “Lord, evil people fall into the pits they dug for us!” Doesn’t sound very pious. Well… until you realize yourself that it could very well be said of you!

Lord,

I’m aware that my sin will lie to me, deceive me, entrap me, and turn on me. And so I pray: May I be moved by Your Spirit over my sin, repentant at that convicting work, and may I claim the forgiveness of Jesus so that His holiness can enshroud my life, inform my choices, and free me from the consequences of the traps I’ve built in sin.

Amen

can’t stop it

And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Acts 4:1-4

So in this little episode we have a pattern that is frequently seen in the church growth history of the book of Acts. Faithful gospel preaching, even in hardship, leads to acceptance of Jesus and the growth of the church. These four verses are a great snapshot of how God chooses to bring the gospel into the world.

It begins with THE GOSPEL ANNOUNCED. In this episode which is recounted at the start of chapter three, Peter and John are in the temple when God uses them to heal a lame man that nearly everyone had passed by for years. That miracle drew a crowd of amazed worshippers to see what had happened. Peter and John respond by preaching the gospel, calling on the crowd to repent and believe in Jesus.

This offends the religious leaders, most notably the Sadducees who deny the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead. Stage two then in this pattern is ENEMIES ANNOYED. The gospel will draw hearts that truly listen. It will also disturb the minds of those predisposed to doubt or deny God. The leaders converged on Peter and John.

From there the story moves to MESSENGERS ARRESTED. Some form of persecution always follows successful gospel proclamation. That happens everywhere the gospel takes root in the book of Acts. We see it here as the apostles are seized and jailed overnight.

Yet despite the crackdown, there is a massive faith response from those in the temple courts that day. The final stage of victory: THE MESSAGE ACCEPTED. You can’t stop God’s Spirit from moving or stop Jesus from saving! That day five thousand believed, even during the attempt to silence the truth! The gospel will not be silenced as it is pushed forward by the power of God’s Spirit and the obedience of his saints! May we believe that, and live that way today.

intense prayer

Give ear to my words, O LORD;

consider my groaning.

Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,

for to you do I pray.

Psalm 5:1-2

Prayer can be difficult conversation. Never let some smug, hyper-spiritual hypocrite tell you that prayer is easy. The concept is simple… yes… talking with God. It is natural and important. The practice, however, is powerfully personal and often draws un into intimate, emotional, and spiritual intensity when we are honestly engaged in talking with God. It gets to the heart.

Look at how David describes prayer in just the opening to the fifth psalm. We gain insight into prayer’s complexity that is well worth applying to our own prayer life. First, PRAYER IS COMMUNICATION. That sounds simplistic, but all relationships thrive in a climate of good communication. That takes work. This is true of homes, livelihoods, ministries, even friendships. All the words we use, and how we use them, are meant to get messages understood. Because we are fallen sinners, it can be complicated. Every marriage has its challenges there, and that is with two people committed to love one another! It stands to reason that communication with God is going to take some work too. In prayer, we start with words to God… about our relationship with God, about our worship of God, about our needs from God, and about our hope in God. He listens to our words, even when we struggle to properly get them out.

Yet PRAYER CAN BE A FEELING THAT IS EXPRESSED. David asks God to consider his groaning. God would know how to interpret not only the words David prayed, but the tone, the moans, and the feeling behind those words. Our prayers are earnest and probably at their best when we let loose with feeling behind them. God can handle that!

Finally, PRAYER IS URGENT. David calls God to hear his cry. We cry out in sudden need. We cry out when overwhelmed with emotion. We cry out when we are overcome by something. We cry out in fear and uncertainty. We cry out in outrage at injustice. We cry out when evil seems to have won the day. God is right there ready, listening, and completely in control… able to save in those most overwhelming times. In our intensity, God alone is our stability. So we cry out!

Don’t be afraid to talk with your God, expressing strong feeling, with urgency, for His glory because scripture shows us we can KNOW God hears us.