looking up

To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!

Psalm 123:1

Sometimes all I can do is look up, because what is going on in my life in the horizontal dimension needs to be understood in the light of God’s rule in the vertical dimension. I am prone to easily confuse the two. That is why I need the Word of God and the Spirit of God to keep me looking up in prayer! I struggle with thinking that the stuff of my life, the people in my life, or the difficulties of my life are all that there is to life. Or I may place the kind of vertical trust that should go only to God on something that is on this earth. And that is why I need to lift my eyes to God in worship, faith, and prayer.

Looking up cures my soul from any improper ruling idolatry. Looking up provides insight. Looking up humbles my “always ready to assert itself” pride. Looking up shows me wisdom that I need. Looking up focuses my soul upon desiring God. Looking up helps me live for the glory of my King enthroned in the heavens, and my Savior at work in my heart.

And so, with proper humility and with repentance, I look to You, my God. You know my need. You know my failures. You know how my foolish soul is prone to wander. And so I trust Your Word as You call me to look to You! Forgive my failings. Forgive my sinful fixations on the temporal and pull me toward a love for Your eternal grace and mercy!

Amen

God will get my attention.

I will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 5:15

God takes it seriously when His people do not take Him seriously. The prophet Hosea has been repeatedly warning Israel and Judah that their idolatry is bringing the judgment of God. And this coming judgment was going to be swift and brutal, bringing desolation and pain to jar the Jews back to a knowledge of God again. In the previous context the LORD describes Himself as a rampaging young lion, attacking and striking fear in the hearts of the disobedient.

And now at the end of the fifth chapter of Hosea, God is still the lion, but now He has returned to His den, awaiting the response of His people to the judgment that has come upon them. There is a four-fold expectation from God for how His people will respond: 1) that they would confess their guilt to Him, knowing their sin. 2) that they would seek the LORD again for forgiveness and in worship. 3) that their souls would be in distress. 4) that their hearts would be genuinely repentant as they return to earnestly seek the LORD.

God will get our attention when we drift from Him. And my soul can be just as idolatrous as those of Israel. I may not pray to a carved image, but I can easily worship the stuff of my culture that is offered to me as a god-substitute. Money, position, privilege, leisure, health, or the admiration of others all clamor for my soul’s affection. And I must diligently guard my heart through soul-audits, confession, seeking forgiveness, and living in grace!

Keeper

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7-8

Eight times in eight verses this psalm emphasizes the Lord’s protection with the word “keep”. God keeps His people. None are lost. None are unsafe. The Lord’s protection of His people is non-stop. God doesn’t sleep on the job, nor does He look away from us (Psalm 121:3-4).

When God keeps us, He provides protective care. He shades us from heat that could wither us (Psalm 121:5-6). He will protect us from the evil that Satan has planned against us (Psalm 121:7). God will spare our lives from what the enemy wants to use to destroy us (Psalm 121:7).

God keeps us safe in our daily business and guards our travels by His grace (Psalm 121:8). At every level: day or night, sun or shade, rain or shine, good or evil, at home or on a journey, the LORD will protect those who are His own. This provides security and hope for us no matter what we may face.

In the gospel we have the deepest protection of all. Jesus saves us from evil and the worst that sin can do to us by delivering us from death’s sting and saving us from eternal punishment. Jesus is our cooling shade. Jesus has beaten hell and all the Devil’s schemes. Jesus is with us every day and His grace fills each hour. Jesus sends us into each day and throughout the world with His saving gospel message. Thank God... Jesus is our keeper!

fruitful Word

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

God’s Word will always accomplish God’s purpose. When God says something, it is guaranteed. He will send out His Word through and to His people to bless their lives like a needed rain. The Word of God will nourish life and cause growth. It will feed hungry souls. It will never be just empty words that never accomplish anything.

It is springtime and I love a rain storm! The rains are life-giving and awe-inspiring all at the same time. The winds and the rains bring life out of the earth, even as they shake everything in the storm. In just a few days everything suddenly greens and blooms. It is marvelous.

And the same process occurs spiritually with scripture. Sometimes it thunders in with straight line winds, shaking my soul to the foundation before the rains pour. Other times the Word of God is a gentle shower bringing the water of life to my parched soul. I need both experiences regularly. It is how God is accomplishing His purposes in me.

Thank You, God, for Your Word! Let it fall on my dryness and bring me back to life. May Your will be done as Your Word speaks. I will listen, follow, and love what You say!

Amen

light for my path

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

God’s Word is truly the lamp of my life. I am not disappointed that from my childhood this has been the case. I may have had individual Christians discourage me. I may have been frustrated by churches and imperfect human-derived theological pronouncements. But God’s Word, living and powerful, with the amazing strength of simple text inspired by the Holy Spirit, as I have read and understood it plainly, has emboldened, empowered, strengthened, rebuked, encouraged, and amazed me! It do not regret making a daily habit of starting my days in its pages. I have lived here and hope to always do so!

That daily saturation illumines my thinking and hopefully changes my actions. The Word of God is my light. God shows me what I should be and do through the Bible’s multi-faceted message. And from the first page revealing God as my Creator, to its last page revealing Jesus as my King Who is coming soon... all the story points to my need of a Savior and a Sovereign in Jesus. Submitting to His rule over me by living in the light of God’s Word is the daily purpose of my life.

Waking up early to light scripture’s lamp and place myself under the Bible’s authority is the best way to start every day. God speaks here... loudly, boldly, encouragingly, and clearly. And as I apply what He says in the Bible, I know Jesus, love Jesus, learn to follow Jesus as the Word lights each step of the way.

Jesus,

Thank You for Your Word and that You are the Word made flesh. In the Bible I see You, behold Your glory, walk with You, and learn to love and follow You.

Amen

Don’t fear people.

“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

the people in whose heart is my law;

fear not the reproach of man,

nor be dismayed at their revilings.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment,

and the worm will eat them like wool;

but my righteousness will be forever,

and my salvation to all generations.”

Isaiah 51:7-8

We tend to put more stock in what we see than in what we know we should believe. That is why the warning and encouragement of this passage exists. It is easy to fear what people can do, because after all, we live in human society every day of our lives. And there are some powerful people in the world. But God is always more powerful since they are placed under His design. And many of those powerful men have crumbled like moth-eaten clothing by the just hand of God.

This is one reason why Christian involvement in culture and politics is quite cautious and not an ultimate aim. Our priority is God’s glory, and to live for that in human culture is why we are here. But to live in some way serving human efforts first and foremost will always fail. We will fear man instead of God and thus waste efforts when human achievement decays and crumbles.

Fearing and serving God builds a life that lasts. God’s righteousness outlasts human culture because God is forever. God’s salvation extends to all people in all generations, far beyond the confining limits of human culture or political accomplishments.

I will not fear the reproach or revilings of people as I choose to invest my life in Your eternal, far-reaching, perfect salvation, O Lord!

Oh My King!

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.

John 19:1-3

Jesus, my King, was mocked and beaten by those He came to save so that salvation might be accomplished once for all. As I read of what was done to Him, my tendency is to think “How could they do this to the God Who made them?” But then I remember that my sins put Jesus through all this. There is a sense then in which my voice mocks and my hands strike Jesus in my sin.

It was the Father’s will for the Son to suffer so much for the sins of the world. This is just the beginning of what it took to put an end to the penalty of our sins and take the sting from death. And looking just at the scourging and mocking, I cringe at the price of my sin. But from this point on in The Passion, each step with the cross, marching toward His death, every second of His suffering at Calvary, was borne for us all so that sin could be done away.

And in this good news that Christ died for our sins, we find new life. From our beaten and mocked King come power over hell and death for He is our Savior! By His shed blood sin is atoned and guilt is taken away. In His resurrection is new life... eternal life... joyful life in Him right now! And all this my King freely gives to everyone who will believe! Oh my King! Oh my Savior! Oh my blessed God!