We become like what we love.

Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and became detestable like the thing they loved.

Hosea 9:10

God’s rebuke of Israel for repeated idolatrous faith-breaking with Him reminds the people that they have always struggled to worship only Him. Although God had tenderly cared for His people, like a wild grape vine that He would transform into His vineyard, the fruit of all His care eventually yielded nothing but their neglect and unfaithfulness. God did not get His desired fruit. So He would prune and uproot the vine that He loved.

At a placed called Peor the people chose to go after the gods of the Gentiles with a driving, awful passion. They grossly disobeyed, mixed Baal worship with sexual perversion in a defection from the covenant that they once said they would always keep (read about it in Numbers 25). This was detailed in gross idolatry, and God would bring judgment upon the people for it. They ceased to be the people of His vine. They became detestable and vile, like Baal itself, the evil idol they worshiped. Baal worship included fertility rites and prostitution. It was destructive to families and lives, but obviously hugely attractive. And when Israel chased the idol of Baal they became just like the thing they loved: twisted, unfaithful, lustful, evil, detestable, and broken. Chasing false gods led them to quickly spiral down.

When my heart worships God, I pray that the goal I know by experience is closer fellowship to Him. But when I worship anything else, the sad truth will quickly show itself in the fruit of my life. We become like what we worship. This is why I must worship, adore, follow, trust, and lean completely on Jesus.

I can’t fix the worst thing about me.

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;

I am clean from my sin”?

Proverbs 20:9

This is a deeply troubling and profound rhetorical question. It is not within the power of sinners to save themselves. We cannot purify our own hearts, no matter how diligent our good deeds or how noble our intentions. In the end, the best we do is still overshadowed by the worst that we are. Our sin natures still taint our self-righteous actions. It’s a losing effort because sin is entrenched in us from birth. Only God can declare sinners righteous because only He is 100% pure and holy.

The only hope of the aspirations of Proverbs 20:9 is found in the work of Christ as detailed in Romans 5:19 — “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Even then, those who trust Jesus cannot claim to have cleaned up their own act. Jesus’ righteousness is given to them to cancel out the debt of sin and free them from its bondage. Thank God that He loves us enough to to provide the way for our forgiveness. We are only holy because Jesus Christ is holy.

There is a fountain

filled with blood

drawn from Immanuel’s veins

and sinners plunged

beneath that flood

lose all their guilty stains!

a universe of praise

I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

Psalm 104:33

Every morning that I awaken to a new day, with breath in my lungs, and gratitude in my heart, I want to worship my God. Psalm 104 is a wonderful celebration of God as Creator, Sustainer, and Keeper of this universe and the world He has put mankind upon. The song it sings is a poem of celestial praise showing how God is at work in the world, focusing on creation and the wonderful wildness of what we see around us.

In this psalm, the camera of praise pans from mountain to valley, from alpine brook to vast oceans, from birds and beasts of the forest to seas teeming with countless creatures. It’s like watching a National Geographic documentary, but with repeated shouts of praise for the glory of the God Who made it all.

All the glory of what God has done points to the majesty of His Person (see Psalm 104:31). And living in this world should lead us to praise the God Who made it and made us. It is what all creation should just naturally do. We were made to declare God’s greatness and sing His praise!

Oh my great God,

I will declare Your greatness as I know it in Your world. I feel it in the mountains, in the swift current of a trout stream, in the rush of a prairie breeze, or in the crash of the surf on the ocean shore. You are great and mighty and I am just a man whose days are like grass. My life will flower and then fade. But You are eternally, gloriously God!

I will declare Your great grace. In Jesus, You re-create me. You give me forgiveness of sin and eternal life so that even though I fade, I am promised to be forever with my Lord one day, and I will inherit a resurrection body to roam and explore a new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness. And there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death... just the glorious song of praise that all creation was meant to always sing to You! I want to daily praise the God Who made this universe!

Amen

the Ruler

For your servant's sake, O LORD, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things.

1 Chronicles 17:19

This was part of David’s response to God’s outpouring of grace in the establishment of a covenant that would forever make David’s family line the ruling kingly dynasty in Israel. And that promise points all the way to Jesus, Son of David, Son of Man, Who is the final promise of the Davidic covenant. I look back on my own salvation in praise that God has “done all this greatness, in making known these great things.”

God’s desire to heal the world, destroy sin and death, and rule us in grace, justice, and love are fully known in Jesus. He is the past, present, and future King. He is the One Whom God has confirmed in His house and in His kingdom forever (1 Chronicles 17:14). And as the Son of David, Jesus Who now rules at the Father’s right hand, shall return again to rule not only Israel, but the world in a beautiful kingdom that will restore all that God has wanted this world to be from its very creation.

O Lord Jesus,

Rule now as King of Kings, Lord of lords! As the Son of Man You came to change all the world in the inverse method of Your death and resurrection. You rule souls in grace, power, and love. As the Son of David, You will return in fulfillment of God’s certain and sure promise to David of a forever King on Israel’s throne. As the Son of God You rule my heart. I worship You now, my King and my God!

Amen

the cost of craving

Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Numbers 11:4-6

This story illustrates how misplaced desires are at the root of our deepest sins (see James 1:14-16). The story begins with a craving. Some of the rascals in Israel were wanting something more than the manna that God provided for His people. They expressed this desire. This led to crybaby behavior from the nation, a tantrum of wants spilled out as they remembered the slave food they ate in Egypt. Somehow the sustenance of slavery because a wistful longing as they let desire lead them to unthankfulness.

The people let cravings lead them to comparison which then led to rejection of what God provided. This eventually led to Moses’ own dissatisfaction with leading Israel, but Moses does something different with his conflicting desires: He takes them to God in prayer. Israel let their wants lead them away from God. Moses let His situation lead him to God.

God heard both the complaining and the prayer. God answered Moses by instituting a shared leadership structure for Moses to better manage the 600,000 complainers. Seventy elders are appointed to help bear the burden as God promises to empower these elders by His Spirit so that Moses isn’t bearing all the weight of leadership alone (Numbers 11:18-17).

God answered Israel by letting them have what they wanted... at the expense of His judgment. For a month God brought a wind that blew down quail. The people feasted on the abundant meat, but even as they started to do so, a plague of judgment broke out among them. The meat satisfied a craving at a steep cost. They ate the quail and buried the sinful cravers in the desert sand. The nation learned firsthand the cost of sinful desire, and journeyed on with God.

not ashamed

But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

2 Timothy 1:12

Four times in the first chapter of 2 Timothy Paul reminds Timothy not to fear or to be ashamed:

• God did not give us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:2).
• ...do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner (2 Timothy1:8).
• I am not ashamed (2 Timothy 1:12).
• Onesiphorus...was not ashamed (2 Timothy 1:16).

Why this call to reject fear and stand unashamed? Because persecution was strong (Paul was, after all, in prison as he penned this letter) but the gospel was stronger!

We reject fear because God has given us power, love, and self-control through the transformative gospel (2 Timothy 1:7). We are not ashamed of the fact that Jesus and His people have suffered, but instead share in that suffering for the advance of the gospel (2 Timothy 1:8). This is done by the power of Christ’s grace, not by our own toughness (2 Timothy 1:9-12a). We are convinced of this truth and power and then trust Jesus to guard us because He has entrusted us with the gospel message and the work of the kingdom (2 Timothy 1:12). We refresh other believers when we earnestly minister to each other as we suffer by being unashamed of our Savior and our suffering (2 Timothy 1:16-18).

O God Who gives power, love, and self-control, I pray that I too can have a life lived unashamed of the gospel! May I guard this trust that You will keep in me. And no matter what, I reject a spirit of fear so that unashamed, You may be known.

Amen

What You Have Done

Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

John 7:31

You pierced the darkness

when You arrived

unknown, but worshiped

by angels and shepherds

born to peasants

You spoke the truth

when You taught

unknown, but controversial

to crowds and disciples

followed and hated

You healed the broken

when You touched

unknown, but astounding

to beggars and blind men

changed to believers

You challenged the lies

when You were confronted

unknown, but refreshing

to hearers and haters

believed and despised

You died for sins

when You were crucified

unloved, but loving

to thieves and mockers

broken and bleeding

You rose from the grave

our complete Savior

undaunted and victorious

over sin and Satan

for believers and brothers