day no. 14,434: uh, needs more salt

Leviticus 2:13

You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt; it is a food offering to the Lord.

God likes salt. Maybe it's because He dislikes bland. We know He has distaste for lukewarm water (Rev. 3:16). Bland, tasteless offerings are the chewable equivalent of lukewarm water. Grace is not tasteless. It adds flavor.

Colossians 4:5-6

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

God cares how things are seasoned.

Psalm 34:8

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

day no. 14,433: happy birthday, penelope!!!

Penelope is eight! I love my little lady. I love the freckles on your nose and how you love to read and your sense of humor. I love that you like to sit by me during family movie night and that you like me to carry you to your bed when you're not feeling well. I like that you look for ways to spend your hard earned money on other people and the stories and characters you create. You are such a delightful person and I am so glad that I know you and have the chance to spend so much time enjoying you and getting to know you. You ask good questions and have good answers. You are inquisitive and contemplative. You hate to see me go to work in the morning and welcome me home with hugs. You love to sing and dance and you are a good sister to your siblings. I love you, my daughter. You are special to me. Always have been. Always will be. No matter what. Forever and ever. Amen!

day no. 14,432: power and protection

Psalm 59

God is our strength and our shield. He is the power by which I exist and the protection from that which seeks to destroy me. I am strongest when I'm at my weakest and it is His strength alone sustaining me. I am safest when I'm behind Him and trusting His ways to absorb the blow. If I walk as though I'm strong or get out ahead or off to the side of where He's going, I'm vulnerable: caught in the net of pride and without a defense.

day no. 14,431: acceptance and atonement

Leviticus 1:4

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.

Leviticus is a long book of lots of rules, but don't miss the heart behind the hoops: acceptance and atonement. God wants to accept His people. He wants to be at one with them. He has provided a way to approach holiness. He has made a way to stare directly into the sun without being undone.

day no. 14,430: the aim and end of all things

Psalm 58

The aim and end of all things is doxological. Everything fulfills it's purpose in bringing glory to God and God will not be robbed. He will be glorified. Justice brings God glory. If the aim and end was primarily soteriological, God would seem to have failed when the wicked reject Him and His glory would be diminished. But God is more interested in His glory than we are so that even the wicked, who have no interest in Jesus, will bring glory to God giving occasion for His perfect justice to be displayed.

day no. 14,429: dwelling by cloud and fire

Exodus 40:38

For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

God's presence tabernacled with His people night and day in the form of cloud and fire. Years later, God's Son would tabernacle with His people night and day in the form of flesh and blood. Upon the Son's ascension, He sent God's Spirit to tabernacle with His people inside their flesh and blood.

day no. 14,428: the security and the shiver of His shadow

Psalm 57

Under the shadow of God's wings is safe, but dark. To be protected and under His authority means to be in the security of His shadow. It also means there will be times of darkness and cold, stiff breezes, but the warmth of His presence comforts even then.

day no. 14,427: those who pour are filled

Proverbs 11:25

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

In "Morning & Evening" (August 21st) Spurgeon directs our attentions to this verse as a means of discipleship. If you want to learn, attempt to teach. If you want to be happy, seek the happiness of others. If you want to feel like you have purpose, dedicate yourself to the purposes of others. If you want to be filled, pour yourself out. If you're feeling dry, water others.

Essentially, we are discipled by our discipling others

day no. 14,426: they actually did it

Exodus 39:42-43

According to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. 43 And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.

Behold, they had done it. They actually did what God told them to do. They actually did what they said they would do. It is one thing to know what God commands. It is another to say you will do it. It is yet another thing to actually do it. As Jesus said, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." (John 13:17)

day no. 14,425: what can man do to me?

Psalm 56

In God I trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? It is not a sin to be afraid. But it can be sinful if our fears prevent us from doing the right thing or prompt us to do the wrong thing. In those moments, it is helpful to remind ourselves of what is true: God is trustworthy. Whatever man is threatening me with will be over soon enough, but life with God will last forever.

day no. 14,424: men who knew the times

Esther 1:13,15
Then the king said to the wise men who knew the times, “According to the law, what is to be done to Queen Vashti, because she has not performed the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the eunuchs?”

1 Chronicles 12:32

Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.

We need men who know and understand the times. Men who are grounded in timeless, eternal principle and turning over the soils the timely, extant present. Men who know what we ought to do.

day no. 14,423: from friend to fiend

Psalm 55

Being at odds with people is exhausting. It is difficult knowing other people have a problem with you, even more so when it is someone who used to be a close ally. The distance between friend and foe carries with it its own sense of hurt and confusion. As though being opposed wasn't strenuous enough, dealing with the hurt of who it is that is opposing you only compounds the interest. 

day no. 14,422: the rumor mill

Psalm 54

When people turn on you, where do you turn? It is no easy thing to endure disloyalty and derision, but there is great hope in knowing that the God of truth is not moved by the rumor mill and moves His hands on our behalf. God is good when things are bad. Do not doubt during the darkness what you've seen in the light.

day no. 14,421: no more

Exodus 36:6-7

So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.

God provides vision for the work He wants performed and He provides generous hearts to provide the means. But He also provides protection from greediness. Enough was enough and there was no need to hoard for later or redirect the funds into a personal account. The people were restrained by the prophet. 

day no. 14,420: things aren't looking up

Psalm 53

God looks down and sees no one looking up. And unless He comes down to change hearts and minds, that will never change. Unless Zion comes to us, we will never seek to go to Zion.

day no. 14,419: everything and anything

Exodus 35:29
All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.

In order to participate in God's work, you don't need to have everything required,  but you do need to be willing to give anything you do have.

day no. 14,418: defending ourselves

Psalm 52
More often than not, the wicked choose words for their warfare. Words aimed at devouring and consuming the righteous in constant defensiveness and justifying themselves. Since the righteous love the truth, false accusations typically inspire passionate refutation. But sometimes the enemy's goal is not necessarily that the lie would stick, but that we would tucker ourselves out defending ourselves against the lie that we would have nothing left in the tank to fight for what is right. If our identity is in Christ, we do not need to be as interested in our reputation. We seek to clarify and correct misunderstandings when possible, but we aren't consumed by the idea that someone may not like us or that someone may form an unfair opinion of us based on bad information.

 “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” - St. Augustine of Hippo

day no. 14,417: we become what we behold

Exodus 34:33

And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

We become what we behold. When we behold the glory of God, we are transformed from one glory to another (2 Cor 3:18).

day no. 14,416: jealousy

Exodus 34:14

You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

God alone is worthy of worship. It is for our good that He is concerned with His glory. It is our glory to be concerned with His good.

day no. 14,415: justice and mercy

Exodus 34:6-7

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

God is just and merciful. He will not clear the guilty with a wink. He can't. He's just. He will not send everyone to hell. He won't. He's merciful. Justice would require sinners to get what they have coming to them. Mercy provides a sacrifice to take the place of sinners. On the cross of Jesus, God showed His justice and His mercy in one perfect collision.

day no. 14,414: the power of sin is secrecy

Psalm 51

There are few things worse than the feeling of knowing you have let God down. You've brought shame to your testimony and ultimately against your God. Now what? In Pilgrim's Progress, Apollyon points out Christian's backslidings and suggests it is now time to return to Satan. He points out that sin will always take him back, but God may not.

In this psalm, David confirms his allegiance to God's undeserved mercy as his only hope. In order to choose God, we must often tattle on ourselves. The power of sin is secrecy. The power of God is confession. Sin requires you to fudge the numbers in order to appear good. Salvation requires you to confess your failures in order to be forgiven.

day no. 14,413: deal or no deal?

Exodus 33:3, 15

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.

Jake Hering captured the essence of this chapter when he said, "If you could have Heaven without God, would you want that deal? If you could have happiness, health, wealth, prosperity, protection, etc… but NOT the presence of God, would you?"

Moses said, "No deal." He wanted to be wherever God was and receive whatever conditions or circumstances accompanied His presence.

day no. 14,412: the heart behind, "how far is too far?"

Ephesians 5:5-10
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

The Christian couple that is dating and seeking counsel that begins by asking, "How far is too far?" is often not asking because their particular concern is to please God. More often than not, their primary concern is to please themselves without pissing God off.

day no. 14,411: need to need

Psalm 50

God has not been unclear about what He requires. He wants a sacrificial heart. Does that heart bring the blood of bulls and goats? Yes. Why? God said so. But what God requires and delights in is the heart that desires to do whatever God requires. God sees the gratitude or the attitude and He knows the difference. God doesn't need anything from us - nothing at all.  But He knows that we need to need Him. The aim of all things is to give glory to God. So it is in our best interest to give our first and best to Him. He could not command less and continue to love us. It would be sin for Him to require and command less.

day no. 14,410: minimalism

Exodus 32:26-29

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

This seems excessive… but only if you minimize the significance of sin. If you see sin as small, easy to forgive, no big deal, etc… this response seems like too much. If you see sin as large, creating a great chasm between God and man and great hurt and brokenness, this response seems tempered. If you see sin as minor, 3,000 dying is a tragedy. If you see sin as major, only 3,000 dying is an act of mercy. 

day no. 14,409: cow pie

Exodus 32:24

So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

According to Aaron's retelling of the story, it sounds like the gold became a cow and walked out of the fire asking to be worshiped. Absent from this version of events, of course, are the engraving tools he used to painstakingly fashion the lump of softened gold into the shape of a cow. Aaron knew enough to attempt to make his sin look less important. He didn't know enough to acknowledge that his God was more important.

day no. 14,408: where there's smoke...

Exodus 32:19-20

And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

Moses burned with anger when he saw the calf. He had heard about it previously and his anger was kindled, but he exploded when he saw it firsthand. Many falsely equate God's current patience with indifference or even worse, with approval of our sinful behaviors; but make no mistake, His anger is kindled and will, like Moses, explode upon His visible return.

day no. 14,407: a mistress by any other name

Exodus 32:6

And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

If your spouse were to cheat on you with another person with your same name, would that make it any better? Israel fashioned a god of their own liking in the shape of a golden calf, yet retained the name of YHWH for it. So they could say in one sense that they never stopped worshiping YHWH. But in another sense, they clearly had changed the object of their worship. Many people today make the mistake of worshiping a Jesus of their own making.  They can say with confidence and clarity, "I worship Jesus!" yet the object of their worship is a figment of their imagination, an idol of their own mental masonry, a mistress bearing the name of their spouse.

day no. 14,406: payment plan

Psalm 49

Wise and foolish, rich and poor, men and women, elderly and young all eventually die. But none can acquire, even in a lifetime of good, hard work the ransom price of their own life. No one is capable of being their own redeemer. No one will take their achievements with them beyond the grave. But those who are in Jesus will not live in the grave. They may die, but they live.

day no. 14,405: dinner conversations can destroy demonic dynasties