There is a time to love and a time to hate. And it requires divine discernment to know when to pull the trigger and when to take a punch. The martyrs in Heaven sit on the edge of their seats waiting for their lives to be avenged. It is not wrong to long for justice and to yearn to see God's Name glorified by the saving of His elect and the judgment of the wicked. Yet all of God's children must remember that they too were once enemies. Those who are saved recognize what they have been saved from and also then must recognize what is coming for those who refuse to humble themselves. The more we understand what we deserve, the more we appreciate what we got instead and the more we recognize what is still due those who are begging for their wages paid in full by their unrepentant lives.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
day no. 14,563: salvation on a stick
Numbers 21
Israel's grumbling and complaining was met with painful consequence. God holds those accountable who refuse to show gratitude. We live in a world where only 1 out of 10 lepers turn around to say, "Thank you." All bitterness is bitterness with God. The chain inevitably always leads back to Him, the Engineer and Author of each and every one of our circumstances. But even in the midst of our suffering at the hands of our own selfishness, He makes a way. He commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent to which any who would look could see salvation. Their bodies burned with the poison they invited into their lives, but their healing was at hand with only a glance. No medicine our merit would make up for their misdeeds, but merely gazing by grace through faith at the object on the stick would mend every malady.
John 3:12-16
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Israel's grumbling and complaining was met with painful consequence. God holds those accountable who refuse to show gratitude. We live in a world where only 1 out of 10 lepers turn around to say, "Thank you." All bitterness is bitterness with God. The chain inevitably always leads back to Him, the Engineer and Author of each and every one of our circumstances. But even in the midst of our suffering at the hands of our own selfishness, He makes a way. He commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent to which any who would look could see salvation. Their bodies burned with the poison they invited into their lives, but their healing was at hand with only a glance. No medicine our merit would make up for their misdeeds, but merely gazing by grace through faith at the object on the stick would mend every malady.
John 3:12-16
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
day no. 14,562: with or without you
Psalm 108
With God we go forth valiantly, without Him we go forth in vanity. Against Him no mortal can prevail, with Him no moral can fail.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
day no. 14,561: the downcast and the steadfast
Psalm 107
The love of the Lord is steadfast. It suffers much and lasts forever. It is covenantal. It endures because it said it would. This song highlights a familiar pattern. God initiates, we respond. God establishes His promise. We break faith with Him and suffer the consequences. And at some point, Lord willing, we cannot bear it any longer and cry out to Him for help. Sometimes only after seeking help from every other imaginable outlet, but by His drawing, we are compelled to call out for Him. And He shows up because of His steadfast love. He is not withholding, we are. He is a rock. We are rocky. He is the fixed foundation of the ocean floor. We are the constantly moving current being tossed to and fro above.
Monday, September 3, 2018
day no. 14,560: Meribah and the Messiah
Numbers 20
Israel complained about not having enough water so God commanded Moses to speak to a rock from which rivers of water would flow - enough to quench the parched tongues of all the people and their livestock. Instead, an angry and frustrated Moses, struck the rock twice. The water still came, but along with it came the consequences of disobedience. Despite all of his good and godly efforts in leading God's people, Moses was barred from leading them beyond the Jordan because of his disobedience at Meribah. God's specific accusation was that Moses and Aaron did not believe Him. Their actions were the result of unbelief. Not a steady state of unbelief, but a moment of unbelief. Jesus is our better Moses. He never sinned by acting out of unrighteous anger. He marched into the land of milk and honey because He kept His head - in several figurative ways.
Israel complained about not having enough water so God commanded Moses to speak to a rock from which rivers of water would flow - enough to quench the parched tongues of all the people and their livestock. Instead, an angry and frustrated Moses, struck the rock twice. The water still came, but along with it came the consequences of disobedience. Despite all of his good and godly efforts in leading God's people, Moses was barred from leading them beyond the Jordan because of his disobedience at Meribah. God's specific accusation was that Moses and Aaron did not believe Him. Their actions were the result of unbelief. Not a steady state of unbelief, but a moment of unbelief. Jesus is our better Moses. He never sinned by acting out of unrighteous anger. He marched into the land of milk and honey because He kept His head - in several figurative ways.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
day no. 14,559: the plague of passivity and promiscuity
Psalm 106:20
They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
God's people traded the glory of the all-consuming, eternal God for a statue resembling an ox that consumes grass. Rather than worshiping the hands that made them, they worshiped what their hands had made.
Psalm 106:30-31
Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was stayed.
And that was counted to him as righteousness
from generation to generation forever.
It is a rare man who actually takes a stand. Most are unwilling to intercede or intervene. But Phinehas stood up. He intervened. And it was counted as righteousness forever. Just like Abraham, he believed in God and it was credited to his account as righteousness. He believed and God declared him righteous and demands generation after generation to commend him as righteous. God blessed Phinehas' zeal by justifying his passion and saving many others who were suffering under the plague of passivity and promiscuity. While they were laying down in sin, Phinehas stood up in righteousness.
They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass.
God's people traded the glory of the all-consuming, eternal God for a statue resembling an ox that consumes grass. Rather than worshiping the hands that made them, they worshiped what their hands had made.
Psalm 106:30-31
Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was stayed.
And that was counted to him as righteousness
from generation to generation forever.
It is a rare man who actually takes a stand. Most are unwilling to intercede or intervene. But Phinehas stood up. He intervened. And it was counted as righteousness forever. Just like Abraham, he believed in God and it was credited to his account as righteousness. He believed and God declared him righteous and demands generation after generation to commend him as righteous. God blessed Phinehas' zeal by justifying his passion and saving many others who were suffering under the plague of passivity and promiscuity. While they were laying down in sin, Phinehas stood up in righteousness.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
day no. 14,558: the Lord of feast and famine
Psalm 105
God created the famine that drove Joseph's brothers to Egypt. God gave Joseph favor in the eyes of Pharaoh. God led His people to Egypt to incubate until the time of their departure. He called His shots and orchestrated our history as an instrument of His own delight. He brings about the details of our lives and all of our trials are appointed. He fulfills every promise He makes. He has the ability to bring forth the results He desires. He is not dependent on us, our decisions or our compliance. He can overrule and influence and orchestrate to bring about whatever He wishes. What an awesome meditation for the children of Abraham and what a horrible reminder for the wicked.
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