day no. 16,794: too confident to stray; too humble to strut

Nehemiah 6:10-14

Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

Nehemiah acknowledged that he was too important to run away from this important work. Too many people depended on him being dependable. He could not withdraw or turn tail. He was the head and if the head becomes a tail, the whole project is elbows and asses. But Nehemiah also acknowledged he was too unimportant to strut around. Too many men, being the head of a project, assume their gravitas carries over into other arenas. Nehemiah was too humble to enter where only God's anointed were permitted. He did not presume to be an authority there simply because he was an authority somewhere else. His legitimacy in the one sphere did not convey to any in the other.

Nehemiah 6:11

But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.”

Be both indispensable and humble. Do not abandon your duties or assume special status simply for doing them.

Luke 17:10

So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

May God give us more men like Nehemiah. Men confident in Christ to do the work He has called them to do: committed to carrying out their assigned responsibilities to the very end as well as confident in Christ that they do not imagine themselves to be on par with Him. May we see the rise of good and godly men who take their work seriously by sticking to it and who take Christ's work seriously by depending entirely on it without imagining that they add anything to it.

When you know who you are, you know what you have to do and what you must leave to Someone else to do. You can only do what you can do, but you must do what only you can do.

day no. 16,167: before the throne of God... or man

“He (the Puritan) prostrated himself in the dust before his Maker, but set his foot on the neck of his king.”  — Benjamin F.  Morris, The Christian and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States

No earthly authority is absolute and the only heavenly authority that exists is. That is why the Puritan bowed before the throne of heaven without reservation and approached the thrones of men with determination. He knew enough to lower himself before the former and to raise himself up against the latter when it raised itself beyond its permitted jurisdiction. The Puritan's faith in God through Christ provided confidence before the throne of God and man.

Acts 5:29

Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men."

Christ is the King of kings and Lord of lords. When kings defy their King, citizens are obligated to defy them in order to honor Him. To defy a tyrant in his tyranny is to obey God. To obey a tyrant's defiance of God is to disobey God. To go along to get along only makes you an accomplice. To accommodate evil is to approve of it. You are what you tolerate.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

If you are permitted to stand before the throne of God, you can stand anywhere. If God grants you to rise in His presence, you can rise up anywhere. If we are emboldened by Christ to have confidence before His Father's throne, we can be emboldened by Him to have confidence before any other. If we are accepted by God on His throne, we can face rejected by a man behind his desk. If by grace through faith we can stand before God Almighty, we can stand before any man. If in Christ we need not fear our Father, we need not fear our brother.

Psalms 118:6-7

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me.

day no. 16,166: the sins of others do not cleanse us of our own

1 Peter 2:1-3

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Slander assumes salvation is possible through the condemnation of others. We should not look to manipulation to save us. We cannot run others down enough to elevate ourselves and we cannot talk ourselves up enough to chase down righteousness. But salvation is not a matter of being less bad, but of being forgiven for being worse than we imagined. The sins of others do not cleanse us of our own.

"Be careful not to measure your holiness by other people's sins." -- Martin Luther

1 John 1:8-10

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

We are cleansed by confessing that we are dirty. Pointing out the dirt around you does not make you cleaner. Creating a higher contrast does not provide an excuse. 

Only Jesus saves.

Only Jesus cleanses.

day no. 15,635: then happy I

Then happy I, that love and am belov'd,
Where I may not remove nor be remov'd. (XXV)
-- William Shakespeare, The Sonnets

O what joy there is in loving and being loved in return and what hope there is in not moving nor being able to be moved.

1 John 4:10
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Hebrews 6:19
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil

Then happy I indeed. Blessed beyond measure.

day no. 15,168: a wrested development

Genesis 32:22-32 
The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.

Jacob's name meant "deceiver/heel grabber." His identity was connected to his proximity to his sin and for most of his life the distance between the two was quite minimal. But here God gives him a new identity, "Israel", which means "wrestles/struggles with God." This new identity is not based on how close he is to sin, but how close he is to God. Wrestling requires contact and on this night he came into contact with God Almighty.

Previously, Jacob was defined by his sins. He was a liar and a deceiver; and even if he walked away from that past, he was merely "less deceitful." That is to say, his orientation was still centered around sin. He was defined by how near or far from sin he was as his life orbited by definition around his sin.That is until this night. On this night, he came into contact with God and was given a new way of seeing himself, a new orientation, a new orbit, a life defined by his distance from God and on this night, the distance was nonexistent. He was so close to God that he was in constant contact with Him. That is his new identity: nearness to God.

And yet, he did not come away from that closeness unscathed. No one ever does. No one who comes into contact with God walks away with a strut. If your life is defined by your distance from sin, you may find yourself strutting around due to the distance you've placed between yourself and your sins, but no one who defines themselves by their proximity to God walks around like they own the place. They know the One whose Name is on the title and deed. He is the owner of the world and everything in it, including them. The paperwork has been filed with Heaven's DMV, the local church. He is registered now as a new vehicle, under new ownership with a new name on the title of his life, transferable on death to the hope of resurrection alone.

day no. 13,408: working to wash one's soul

Philippians 3:7-9

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Your gain cannot wash away your guilt.

In fact, if you present your gain to God as an explanation of why you ought to be welcomed into His presence, you will be turned away and found wanting.

The only righteousness that will suffice is the righteousness of Christ.

By His grace, He gladly and freely offers that to you.

day no. 13,406: you will die and were dead

Colossians 2:13-15

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.

Not only will you certainly die someday, you already are dead or were dead.

We were dead.

All of us.

And we all will die.

All of us.

If we do nothing, we will stay dead and die in our sins and be resurrected to eternal damnation and torment.

If God does nothing, there is nothing we can do to remedy our situation.

But God has done something.

He disarmed the rule of sin and the authority of shame that kept us held captive to death.

He died so that we might be brought to life and live forever with Him, the one who died and yet now lives eternally.

day no. 13,153: the never-forgetting God

Isaiah 44:21-22

21 Remember these things, O Jacob,and Israel, for you are my servant;I formed you; you are my servant;O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloudand your sins like mist;return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Remember... you will not be forgotten by Me.

Remember.

You will not be forgotten.

Your sins?

Forgotten.

You.

Never forgotten.
Redeemed.

Remember this.

day no. 12,971: mission impossible‏

Luke 18:27

He replied,“What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

The love of money is the most common stumbling block that keeps people from entering into God’s Kingdom. So much so that people rich in this life have a particularly difficult time receiving anything from God.

The disciples assumed that rich people were blessed and therefore if the most blessed people have a difficult time making it to heaven, who has a chance, right?
Jesus assures us that it is impossible for us to come to Him.

Wait, how is that assuring?

It is impossible for us.

But it is possible with and through Him.

But don't take my word for it:

1 Thessalonians 5:24

 

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.

 

Hebrews 10:23

 

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

day no. 12,966: one particular application‏

Proverbs 27:7

A person who is full tramples on a honeycomb,
but to a hungry person, any bitter thing is sweet.

 

A young lady who has given her attention to the Man Christ Jesus will not fall or settle for the inappropriate attentions/affections of a boy.

 

However, the girl who does not rely on Christ’s affection for her is vulnerable to inviting bitterness into her life thinking all the while it will be sweet.

 

Be filled young lady and even the sweetest distractions will be overlooked.

 

Take heed young lady, if you remain hungry, you are poised to pick poison in order to have anything.

day no. 12,960: debunking DIY Christianity‏

Galatians 6:2-3

²Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.³ For if anyone considers himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

 

At Connection Group the other night (March 11, 2014), I led my group first through these verses prior to jumping in to our discussion through Genesis 3 and the lies we are tempted to believe and the consequences we are quick to forget.

 

We default, without any effort, to DIY Christianity.

 

We want to carry our own loads and clean up our own messes.

 

We don’t want people seeing how embarrassingly dirty and muddled we are, so we go to great effort to portray ourselves as “OK” when in actuality we’re KO’d.

 

***sorry, that’s boxing lingo for Knocked Out for those of you not remotely familiar with sports and/or boxing – not that I am, I just played a lot of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out when I was a kid.

 

Stop considering yourself to be something.

You’re not.

 

Stop taking yourself so seriously.

You’re a joke.

 

Stop deceiving yourself.

Listen to truth.

 

Stop doing it yourself.

You can’t carry your own load alone and you can’t fulfill the law of Christ by neglecting the loads of others.

 

We fulfill the law of Christ when we take upon our shoulders the weight of other people’s heavy loads.

 

We fulfill the law of Christ in asking for help with the burdens we carry when they’re weighing us down.

 

Don’t be too proud to say, “Help!”

Don’t be too busy to say, “How can I help?”

day no. 12,943: believe, leave and cleave

When Christians start dating, they begin to draw closer and closer to each other.  This is the natural course of events as designed by God.  It is meant for the purpose of long, satisfying marital intimacy that grows in oneness until the marriage covenant is broken by death or Christ's return.

 

When the natural course of growing closer is expedited by sin, the Holy Spirit convicts and commands repentance which means turning around.  In that time of turning around, it feels like you're growing apart for the first time, but it only feels that way.  If you retreat to the right trajectory, you will be taking a few steps back, because you attempted to be too close too soon.  You wanted more oneness than your situation in God's sight allowed.

But if you return to the right trajectory, you will again begin to grow closer to each other and in individual godliness as you go about things God's way until coming together in oneness in marriage.  After that, you grow in oneness side-by-side and emotionally, spiritually, relationally and physically.

day no. 12,754: versus verses‏

Romans 8:31

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

When you feel like you’re up against it today consider the faithful fact that God through Christ is for you.

 

Paul is not saying that circumstances, people and patterns will not oppose you.

He is most certainly saying that they WILL oppose you.

He is saying, however, that they will not WIN.

 

Suffering, by nature, pulls people away from something.

 

If you desire God, the utmost desire of your heart can never be taken from you.

 

Suffering may pull a million and one comforts away, but if you are God's adopted child by faith through grace in Christ alone you will never suffer the loss of Christ for you.

 

If you desire fortune, fame, family, etc… your desires can and will be taken from you someday either in this life by circumstance or in eternity by death (theirs or yours, whichever rusts and/or decays first).

day no. 12,751: plants and pillars‏

Psalm 144:12

 

May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace

 

This is my prayer.

 

Full grown plants are strong and produce fruit.

They are stable and rooted.

 

May my boys become men.

May they do this at a young age.

 

Pillars are structurally necessary.

They are stable and determine the course for the columns to follow.

Corner pillars are beautiful.

They are not merely pragmatic, but powerfully persuasive.

 

May my daughters be beautiful and bountiful.

May they fill the roles determined for them in grace.

May they depend upon grace for their sense of beauty.

 

I love my kids.

I love the Bible.

I love what the Bible says about kids.

 

My heart echoes this prayer intensely.

There is so much I could flesh out from it.

 

I plan to encourage my kids with these words often.

 

Plants are only as strong as their dependence upon water, soil, sun and circumstances.

Pillars are only as beautiful as they are carved, conformed, anchored and established in the place and image that the Craftsman desires.

 

May my family be full of plants and pillars, boys and girls who become men and women after God’s own heart.

day no. 12,750: just as He had told them‏

Luke 22:13

 

And they went and found it just as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

 

Jesus knows the future.

Jesus holds the future.

 

When we arrive, we will find it “just as He has told us.”

 

Take courage, have hope, find faith and believe in Him. 

 

He has accomplished entirely the boast of God’s Gospel.

He is interceding on our behalf now.

He will one day make manifest the rest of what’s left to be fulfilled.

 

“Just as He has told us.”

“Just as He has told us.”

 

Amen.

day no. 12,749: a tale of two daughter‏s: the wall and the door

Song of Solomon 8:8-10

Others

 

⁸We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?

⁹ If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

 

¹⁰I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds peace.

 

I pray with my daughters, Penelope and Laurelai, every night that they might be a wall and NOT a door.

 

A young woman who is a wall is a gift to her parents, her siblings and her future husband.

 

That said, I would rather have a repentant door than a proud wall if my prayers for a humble wall are not answered by God.

 

God, by Your grace, save my daughters from insecurity, sexual immorality, promiscuity, crude flirting, facebook hook-ups, and the like. But if it is that they are ever in any of these, may You save them out of them to love and worship You as their Rescuer. Amen.

 

God rescues His elect from sin.

He restrains otherwise wandering hearts by His Spirit.

He forgives hearts that have wandered by His grace in Christ.

 

May Penelope and Laurelai be elected for eternal life by grace through faith to God, the Father through God, the Son in God, the Spirit. Amen (again).

day no. 12,747 continued... take courage‏

Mark 15:43
 
Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Joseph took courage.
He had been cowardly before.

BUT he took courage on this occassion.

He rose up.
He honored God.

You have been a coward.
Take courage today.
Honor God.

In whatever it is you do today ask for forgiveness for cowardice.

Pray for bravery for the occassions in which you find yourself.

day no. 12,742: all glory be to Christ

listen HERE
purchase HERE

Should nothing of our efforts stand
No legacy survive
Unless the Lord does raise the house
In vain its builders strive

To you who boast tomorrow’s gain
Tell me what is your life
A mist that vanishes at dawn
All glory be to Christ!

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign will ever sing
All glory be to Christ!

His will be done
His kingdom come
On earth as is above
Who is Himself our daily bread
Praise Him the Lord of love

Let living water satisfyThe thirsty without price
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet
All glory be to Christ!

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign will ever sing
All glory be to Christ!

When on the day the great I Am
The faithful and the trueThe Lamb who was for sinners slain
Is making all things new

Behold our God shall live with us
And be our steadfast light
And we shall ere his people be
All glory be to Christ!

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign will ever sing
All glory be to Christ!

day no. 12,741: a weekend away (a while back)

***for those just tuning in, I write these in bulk and then schedule them out. the following story took place back in the day. but I digress...

I took my wife to Omaha this weekend to celebrate her birthday and enjoy some time with just the two of us while the amazing Aunt Lauren watched our kids.

We did some shopping and went to Bob Thune's Acts 29 church plant, Coram Deo.

It was awesome!

He was wrapping up a series through 1 and 2 Samuel regarding David and knowing God.

He preached primarily focusing on David's generosity from 1 Chronicles 29:14-16:

¹⁴ “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. ¹⁵ For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. ¹⁶ O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.

Have you ever lent someone a CD?
Have you ever decided you would like it back?
Have you ever had the following conversation?

You: Hey friend, can I have my CD back?
Friend: Why?

I don't need a reason why!
It's mine.
Honestly, I should not have to explain to you why I want my CD back.
The fact that it's mine should be enough.
Right?

But don't we often act like this when God asks for what is His?
We demand explanations.
We give back only when His reasons are "good enough" for us to let go.

1 Chronicles 29:3

 

Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God

 

Generosity to God and His ways is an evidence of having received grace from Him.

We respond to His generosity by surrending our everything to Him.

Pastor Thune also pointed out that David was very purposeful in his giving

 

1 Chronicles 29:2

 

So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, antimony, colored stones, all sorts of precious stones and marble.

David knew that God's work required some gold, some silver, some bronze, some wood and some iron. He did not try to use gold for silver things or wood for bronze things. He made it a priority to consider all that God wanted to do and HOW He wanted to do it. David then oriented his life and work around ensuring an abundance of these things in order to most effectively be ready to provide to God's work when called upon to do so. This was a great conversation my wife and I later had over soup and sandwiches.

Overall, I ended up so grateful to God that His church is being so well shepherded by men like Bob Thune. It made me excited for Candeo and the adventure that will be starting the new church in Cedar Falls with Paul Sabino, Joel Vint, Stan Hayek and Thad Seydel. What joys exist for making much of Jesus according to His Word and finished work given to us.

As part of the service we read and responded to the Heidelberg Catechism's question #60 which reads:

Question 60. How are thou righteous before God?

Answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; so that, though my conscience accuse me, that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God, and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil; notwithstanding, God, without any merit of mine, but only of mere grace, grants and imputes to me, the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ; even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin: yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience which Christ has accomplished for me; inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.

I had such a great time.
I love church.
I love Jesus.

I'm so excited to see what God is going to do in Cedar Falls.

day no. 12,740: overcoming evil with good‏

I was listening to the Bible Answer Man on tthe way home the other night and he was mentioning how an evidence of the resurrection is the total transformation of the disciples after having witnessed the risen Christ. He was speaking to the fact that a group of 11 men turned an entire kingdom upside down. In a very short time, Christianity would spread over the entire Roman world.

It reminded me of Romans 12:21 and Romans 13:1.

Christianity did not overcome Rome by force.

Christianity overtook Rome by faith.

 

Paul's instruction to the Roman Christians paid dividends in their obedience to his command.

 

They obeyed Paul and the Scriptures and in so doing produced the very fruit promised in its pages.

 

Not only is it good advice to avoid being overcome by evil, but good actually can overcome evil.

 

Christ overcame evil.

Christians overcame the tyranny of Rome.

 

Against all odds.

 

Christ rose from the dead.

Christianity survived Nero.

 

And both by faith in God and His unfailing Word.

 

That encouraged my heart.

May it encourage yours as well.