We become what we worship. If you place your trust in Mount Zion, you will become like it: strong, enduring, faithful, hopeful, merciful, eternal. If you place your trust in the fruits of wickedness, you will become like them: decaying, rotting, devolving, tiring, expiring, etc... Those who trust in the Lord will one day be like Him. Those who don't, won't. If you stretch out a stiff arm against the Lord, it's rigidity will result in it being shattered. If you stretch out open hands to the Lord, their emptiness will be filled with His goodness.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Saturday, September 29, 2018
day no. 14,586: enmity in both directions
Psalm 124
God placed enmity between the seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent and ever since the world has been out to squash the worshipers of God. The children of the promise have been the victims of the children of the flesh. The sons of Abraham have been abused by the sons of perdition. And if it had not been for the grace of God, the flicker that is the children of light would have been blown out by the breath of the children of darkness. But we have not been snuffed out. The light survives because their Maker's design is to overcome the darkness. The enmity is reciprocal. It isn't merely violence being perpetrated against us. Violence will come riding on a white horse and the oppressors of God's children will be obliterated.
Friday, September 28, 2018
day no. 14,585: have mercy
Psalm 123
Just as a servant seeks mercy for his master or maidservant seeks mercy from her mistress, we seek mercy from our God. We are His servants and our salvation is not seeking to switch places, but to receive mercy. Our hope is not in finding a new master or successfully overtaking our current one, but in receiving undeserved favor from His hands. Mercy is not a reward, it is unearned. Our hope is not found in obtaining His favor by performing our tasks. It is in being given goodness we could not earn and being forgiven for badness we could not pay back. Mercy is our hope. God have mercy on us sinners.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
day no. 14,584: geographical center of the theological universe
Psalm 122
This is a song of ascent which means it was sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. At the time of its inception, Jerusalem was the one stop shop for all things Yahweh. If you worshiped Him, you set your heart on the city where His temple dwelt, His priests served and His sacrifices were offered. It was the geographical center of their theological world. Earthly Jerusalem is a foreshadowing of the new Jerusalem which will be a new Eden much like the old Eden - a place where God's people and those who desire peace (salem = shalom) gather and are free to worship their God without the hindrance of sin from within or sin from without. For now the city of peace suffers violence, just like it's Christ. But when Jesus returns, the violent will receive violence while the peacemakers will experience eternal peace in the presence of Yahweh. Jesus is our peace. Jesus is our Jerusalem. Where He is, there is peace for those who worship Him.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
day no. 14,583: the rest of our story
Psalm 121
God never sleeps. He never needs a personal day. He is at rest and at work at the same time. We are not like God. In many ways this is true, but with respect to rest it is abundantly clear. If God took His hand off the wheel, even for a moment, worlds would come to their end. It is not just that things would be chaos, it is that things would cease. He holds the atoms and if only for a moment He withheld His supervision, they would not only fall apart, they would evaporate. If this God is your help, then your help is always available. If this God is your strength, your weakness is no obstacle. His presence is our patience, His power, our perseverance.
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
day no. 14,582: freedom and fences
Numbers 24
If it were not for God's grace, our freedom would undo us. Balaam wanted to curse Israel in order to earn a handsome honorarium, but God constrained his tongue. God kept him from cursing and placed blessing in his lips. This may seem like an incredible infringement of privacy and personal liberty to those who are perishing, but it is the essence of grace and mercy. Our hope and joy is that God superintends our freedoms by providing fences in His pasture. It is to His glory and for our good.
If it were not for God's grace, our freedom would undo us. Balaam wanted to curse Israel in order to earn a handsome honorarium, but God constrained his tongue. God kept him from cursing and placed blessing in his lips. This may seem like an incredible infringement of privacy and personal liberty to those who are perishing, but it is the essence of grace and mercy. Our hope and joy is that God superintends our freedoms by providing fences in His pasture. It is to His glory and for our good.
Monday, September 24, 2018
day no. 14,581: a land of liars
Psalm 120
We need deliverance from the lies we've told, the lies being told against us, and the fact that we've grown accustomed to living in the land of liars. We have personal responsibility for our own words. We have fudged the facts when it benefited us. When it made us look better than we are or made us look less bad than we truly are. It is the Christian who has the confidence to speak plainly. Some are slandering us without cause and it produces a particular consternation of wanting the truth to be known. It is the Christian who can rest well knowing that God knows the truth and will vindicate completely from false accusation. We have pitched our tents too long in a place were lies are the familiar tongue. We are in danger of adopting their accent. We need to leave town before we become a townie.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
day no. 14,580: the ABC's from A to Z
Psalm 119
The ABC's of God's Word nourish souls from spiritual infancy to mature adulthood. The life that honors God is not one of simply learning the rules and striving to obey them, but one whose heart loves the law and wishes more than anything to align the will with them. The goal is to so delight in the law that it is the center of all thought, action, reaction, and speech. Only a new heart can desire this kind of life. The natural man wants to know the speed limit in order to avoid getting a ticket, the new man wants to embrace the limitations God has commanded to obtain oneness with Him. It is an inescapable concept, not a matter of whether, but which. We are created and thus limited. Which limitations will you embrace, accept and seek to understand and which will you seek to destroy, resist and overhaul? The man of God loves the Law and is grateful that it guides his feet on the narrow path that alone leads to life. The ABC's lead from A to Z.
Saturday, September 22, 2018
day no. 14,579: when considering bricks
Psalm 118
Builders are the best at eyeballing which blocks are best for construction. No one is more qualified to consider bricks than them. No one has more practical knowledge on the subject than them. So if they reject a stone, they do so for good reason. They know a good stone when they see one. And the best stones are reserved for the corners. Those stones determine the enter blue print of the structure. If the cornerstone is off a hair, the wall will be increasingly off the further from the stone it is built. But God is the architect of architects. He makes the makers of things. And the stone they cast aside as unfit even to be included in their ventures, He has chosen to be the cornerstone of the church He is building. The things we look to orient our lives around don't have room for this stone from Heaven. It has no place in our plans. But it is this stone that God has chosen to determine the course of every one who wants to be part of the kingdom He is building. It is perfectly formed and fitted to produce straight lines that lead to Him. And it is marvelous in our eyes.
Friday, September 21, 2018
day no. 14,578: you can count on Him
Psalm 117
There are few things more ugly than unreliable love and fickle faithfulness. If someone is intermittently faithful, they are constantly exasperating. One of God's most beautiful characteristics is His constancy. He is steadfast in love and enduring in faithfulness. He is always dependable. He never leaves. He is constantly reliable. He never flakes. You can count on Him.
Thursday, September 20, 2018
day no. 14,577: living sacrifice
Psalm 116
God likes sacrifice. He likes it so much, He sent His Son to become one. So it makes sense that when He looks down and sees His saints living, striving, believing, dying to themselves daily by picking up their crosses and laying down their lives for His glory; that it's precious in His sight.
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
day no. 14,576: we were made to worship
I was listening to a podcast by the White Horse Inn on the topic of worship. The big idea is that we were made to worship. It is an inescapable concept. Which means the question is not whether we worship, but what we worship. On the program, they read the following portion of a commencement speech given by atheist and author, David Foster Wallace, at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005.
The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship...
Because here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship-be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles-is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already-it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power-you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart-you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the "rat race"-the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.
David Foster Wallace killed himself by hanging a little over 3 years later on September 12, 2008. We were made to worship. Wish it away, yet there it stays. It is indomitable, unshakable… inescapable.
The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship...
Because here's something else that's true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship-be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles-is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already-it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power-you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart-you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the "rat race"-the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.
David Foster Wallace killed himself by hanging a little over 3 years later on September 12, 2008. We were made to worship. Wish it away, yet there it stays. It is indomitable, unshakable… inescapable.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
day no. 14,575: common denominators
Hebrews 5:14
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Discernment is a mental and spiritual muscle. It has power. It can be weak or strong. If it is too weak, you are powerless to discern between good and evil. It requires practice to do this well. It must be exercised in order to grow. And it isn't a 30 day fix. You can't get your discernment into shape for swimsuit season. It must be practiced... constantly. If, that is, you aspire to maturity. The mature want this. They want it enough to mentally sweat it out. If you don't want it or want to work at it diligently, you will be deceived. You will confuse evil for good and good for evil. Distinctions will devolve into common denominators and the bottom line will always read: "duped."
But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Discernment is a mental and spiritual muscle. It has power. It can be weak or strong. If it is too weak, you are powerless to discern between good and evil. It requires practice to do this well. It must be exercised in order to grow. And it isn't a 30 day fix. You can't get your discernment into shape for swimsuit season. It must be practiced... constantly. If, that is, you aspire to maturity. The mature want this. They want it enough to mentally sweat it out. If you don't want it or want to work at it diligently, you will be deceived. You will confuse evil for good and good for evil. Distinctions will devolve into common denominators and the bottom line will always read: "duped."
Monday, September 17, 2018
day no. 14,574: the crossroads of care and consideration
Hebrews 5:11
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Do you care enough to consider? Do you love what's right enough to question whether you could be wrong? Does it matter enough to meditate... have we become dull? Are we too lazy even to answer the question? Do you care enough about the answer to consider the question?
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Do you care enough to consider? Do you love what's right enough to question whether you could be wrong? Does it matter enough to meditate... have we become dull? Are we too lazy even to answer the question? Do you care enough about the answer to consider the question?
Sunday, September 16, 2018
day no. 14,573: are we there yet?
Numbers 23
Knowing what we know about how this whole thing ends helps us interpret what is happening in front of us. It appears in one glance that Balaam is faithfully prophesying in keeping with the will of the Lord, end of story. But what can go unnoticed is how many times he tries to curse Israel. That is why he's there after all. Balak didn't call him over to hear more about God's love for Israel. Balak already knew that. It struck terror into his heart. That is the very reason he called for Balaam to come. Balak knew that God was on Israel's side and wanted to see if he could get that God to curse Israel for him as though God, like Balaam, was for hire to the highest bidder. So we see the same song and dance time and time again with Balaam saying, "Sorry, let me try again," and Balak saying, "Hey, I didn't bring you all this way in order to hear what I already dreaded." Balaam was blessing Israel because God controlled his tongue, but his heart was aligned with Balak. His desire was to curse them which is why he was calling "do-over" so many times like a child nagging, "are we there yet?" as though getting there could be accomplished merely by inquiring enough times.
Knowing what we know about how this whole thing ends helps us interpret what is happening in front of us. It appears in one glance that Balaam is faithfully prophesying in keeping with the will of the Lord, end of story. But what can go unnoticed is how many times he tries to curse Israel. That is why he's there after all. Balak didn't call him over to hear more about God's love for Israel. Balak already knew that. It struck terror into his heart. That is the very reason he called for Balaam to come. Balak knew that God was on Israel's side and wanted to see if he could get that God to curse Israel for him as though God, like Balaam, was for hire to the highest bidder. So we see the same song and dance time and time again with Balaam saying, "Sorry, let me try again," and Balak saying, "Hey, I didn't bring you all this way in order to hear what I already dreaded." Balaam was blessing Israel because God controlled his tongue, but his heart was aligned with Balak. His desire was to curse them which is why he was calling "do-over" so many times like a child nagging, "are we there yet?" as though getting there could be accomplished merely by inquiring enough times.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
day no. 14,572: our help and our shield
Psalm 115
Our God can do whatever He wants because He's actually God. All other so called "gods" are blind, deaf, dumb and lame in every sense of the word. And those who make and worship idols like that become just like that. They are blind to God's grace, deaf to His Word, dumb in their speech and lame in their walk. They are as unnecessary as the work of their hands they worship. But God is our help and our shield. He can help because He is not the work of our hands, we are the work of His. He can protect us because He is above us, not on our mantelpiece.
Friday, September 14, 2018
day no. 14,571: care, custody and control
Psalm 114
God made everything once upon a time and sustains everything currently. There is nothing that is not under His care, custody and control. He can do anything with anything He has made. He is not a tinkerer that made artificial intelligence that has somehow surpassed Him. He is not baffled or confounded by His creation. He is eclipsed by nothing. Even rocks in their sturdiness are like water before Him, men in their pomp like puddles.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
day no. 14,570: no lack of loftiness
Psalm 113
The Lord has no lack of loftiness. He is high and lifted up. He is exalted. He does not look down on the sons of men to find lofty thing. If He wanted to see wonderful things, He'd simply look in the mirror. No, He looks down on those who are bowed down. He looks down at those who are looking back up. The proud and lofty are so high in their own minds that that they are always looking down on those around them. And when you spend all your time looking down, you never see anything above you. For us this is disaster, for God it is His glory to look down on others.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
day no. 14,569: not afraid of bad news
Psalm 112:6-7
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.
The righteous fear the Lord, not bad news. That's why he's firm. Nothing you could be told could be more powerful then your God. When your trust is in God, your hope cannot be dashed by bad news. The Good News is that the worst news you could be told has already been addressed.
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
day no. 14,568: wiseacres without a sq ft of wisdom
Psalm 111
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You can learn a lot without learning anything about Jesus but you cannot be wise about anything without first knowing Who He is. There is a ton of information available to anyone with a mind inspired to learn it, but transformation is only possible by beginning with God.
Monday, September 10, 2018
day no. 14,567: donkey lips
Numbers 22
If Balaam had possessed a sword, he would have also possessed a dead donkey. He desired a sword he didn't have to kill a donkey he didn't like for something he didn't understand. God had a sword but didn't kill the prophet plotting harm to a people He loved. The heart of God is to overlook offense while the heart of man is to find offense where there is none.
James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Balaam proved to be more of an ass than his donkey, which is quite the feat.
If Balaam had possessed a sword, he would have also possessed a dead donkey. He desired a sword he didn't have to kill a donkey he didn't like for something he didn't understand. God had a sword but didn't kill the prophet plotting harm to a people He loved. The heart of God is to overlook offense while the heart of man is to find offense where there is none.
James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Balaam proved to be more of an ass than his donkey, which is quite the feat.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
day no. 14,566: not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit
Zechariah 4:6
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."
Our natural strengths are often our supernatural weaknesses, our great ability to leap our stumbling block. God is not won over by our power. He is not reached by superheros on tippy toes. If He does not come down, we can never get up. If He does not descend, we cannot rise.
Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you may select, elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual power, yet none of these can reveal Christ." - Charles H. Spurgeon
If we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be losing
"A Mighty Fortress" - Martin Luther
Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak - G.K. Chesterton
When I am weak, then am I strong,
Grace is my shield, and Christ my song.
"Let Me But Hear My Savior Say" - Isaac Watts
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."
Our natural strengths are often our supernatural weaknesses, our great ability to leap our stumbling block. God is not won over by our power. He is not reached by superheros on tippy toes. If He does not come down, we can never get up. If He does not descend, we cannot rise.
Matthew 19:26
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Purify flesh and blood by any educational process you may select, elevate mental faculties to the highest degree of intellectual power, yet none of these can reveal Christ." - Charles H. Spurgeon
If we in our own strength confide
Our striving would be losing
"A Mighty Fortress" - Martin Luther
Humility is the mother of giants. One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak - G.K. Chesterton
When I am weak, then am I strong,
Grace is my shield, and Christ my song.
"Let Me But Hear My Savior Say" - Isaac Watts
Saturday, September 8, 2018
day no. 14,565: a regal authority and a religious necessity
Psalm 110
All of Scripture is breathed out by God to make the sound of Jesus - some passages more clearly and more loudly than others. This is one of that variety. The Father said to the Son, "I will make Your enemies Your footstool," and "You are a Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Who is this eternal high priest and conquering King? None other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He kicks up His feet and rests them on the necks of His enemies. He is an eternal priest without beginning or end of days to His rule and reign. He is a regal authority and a religious necessity. He is the master key to the Kingdom. In Him the citizens of heaven find their Lord and their Savior.
Friday, September 7, 2018
day no. 14,564: a kind of prayer more often mumbled in private than sung in public: imprecatory
Psalm 109
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.
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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