Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!
You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
Psalm 40:4-5
"Who does not go astray after a lie" - everything in this world that promises something better than God is a lie. Happy is the man who makes the Lord his trust...who ONLY trusts in the Lord. There is no certainty in anything else in this world, everything here is fleeting and will come and go, but not the Lord. Verse 5 is a reminder of why the psalmist trusts in the Lord, because he has been faithful more times than he can even remember or say!
We must remember his faithfulness, speak it to ourselves everyday, remind ourselves of all that he has done as often as possible. God knows our minds forget easily which is why he instructed the Israelite people to write his words everywhere and remember what he did in Egypt from generation to generation. We must tell people of the great works that He has done in our lives not only for their sake, that they might trust in Him, but for OURS...that we might remember the truth of who he is. If we can remember the truth, we will be able to pick out the lies.
There are lies all around us trying to get us to follow them and forget about God. But we must see them as they are....lies. They are nothing but lies. Lies. Everything that is not of God is a lie. Satan is the father of lies. We must be adamant about seeing them that way and not let them convince us that they might be ok. "You won't surely die...." Lies.
Remember who is the truth...Jesus. Forget lies, remember.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Dare to worship?
Do you dare to worship?
Most of the time we show up Sunday mornings not ready to sing praises to God. We probably don't feel like clapping our hands and jumping around in praise to our King. Why? Because life is hard. More often than not our weeks have been hard, our months have been difficult, our years have just been one broken family, friendship, attempt, after another. The enemy works overtime to make this world a terrible place to be and then gets us to believe that the only way to find some happiness in it is to look after yourself alone. Yet we continue to show up to church with a mask on that tries to say "I got it all together." But you don't, I don't, you don't, no one does. Just take off the mask because true worship is even greater with the mask off...
Many people living in this reality think that those who worship God do so only as an escape. To pretend for a moment that things are ok, an effect similar to drugs, and the truth is that many probably do worship in this way. But that's not what true worship is. Worship is defiance. It is daring to proclaim a truer reality than this world offers, that Jesus Christ is Lord and in him is found life. That in him is found refuge, strength, peace, because greater is He who is in me than who is in the world! Do you dare to worship the almighty God amidst a world trying to erase him? Do you dare to look into the eyes of the enemy amidst your struggling family, finances, and friendships and declare "Jesus has saved me and you have no hold on me!"
Let us no longer dream to worship, let's dare to worship.
Most of the time we show up Sunday mornings not ready to sing praises to God. We probably don't feel like clapping our hands and jumping around in praise to our King. Why? Because life is hard. More often than not our weeks have been hard, our months have been difficult, our years have just been one broken family, friendship, attempt, after another. The enemy works overtime to make this world a terrible place to be and then gets us to believe that the only way to find some happiness in it is to look after yourself alone. Yet we continue to show up to church with a mask on that tries to say "I got it all together." But you don't, I don't, you don't, no one does. Just take off the mask because true worship is even greater with the mask off...
Many people living in this reality think that those who worship God do so only as an escape. To pretend for a moment that things are ok, an effect similar to drugs, and the truth is that many probably do worship in this way. But that's not what true worship is. Worship is defiance. It is daring to proclaim a truer reality than this world offers, that Jesus Christ is Lord and in him is found life. That in him is found refuge, strength, peace, because greater is He who is in me than who is in the world! Do you dare to worship the almighty God amidst a world trying to erase him? Do you dare to look into the eyes of the enemy amidst your struggling family, finances, and friendships and declare "Jesus has saved me and you have no hold on me!"
Let us no longer dream to worship, let's dare to worship.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Skipping like a calf loosed from its stall...
"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4
Great verse. I've quoted it many times to people and myself, its even in my signature for one of my email accounts! Its one of those great one liners thats always encouraging. But what does it really mean? How do you just delight yourself in the Lord? I realized that this verse is not as stand alone as I thought...
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." - Psalm 37:3-6
Trust, Delight, Commit. Delighting in the Lord is just part of a greater process!
Trust. First before you can delight in the Lord you must trust him. And as you trust him, you can dwell in peace and befriend faithfulness (also translated "find safe pasture"). It is this first step that begins the rest of the process, the mental action to trust God with whatever is in your life will allow you give it away and take away the burden so that you may live in peace and "graze" on faithfulness. Only then are you ready to delight in the Lord.
Delight. Once you have trusted him and find his peace, then you are free of the burdens of the world and are able to delight in the Lord. And as you are empty, he will fill you with his desires and then fulfill them which will cause you delight in him more and more! As you find your delight in him it will lead you to greater intimacy and commitment to him.
Commit. Again, the psalmist reminds us to trust in the Lord as we commit to him, but this true commitment is only found after we have delighted in the Lord. Anyone who commits to something out of obligation is never very committed but those who commit out of a place of desires and delight will always be committed followers. The more and more we trust God, the more and more we will commit our way to him and in that he promises that he will act. We commit to him and he will deliver. What will he deliver? Righteousness and justice. What about blessings God? What about a bonus, a new car? a better place...maybe a vacation? If I commit to you will you act on those?? God tells us what he acts on. And only after we go through the process of trusting, delighting, and committing will we discover that His righteousness and justice are exactly what we desire.
I realize that to delight myself in the Lord is not just something I can pursue on its own but I must pursue God with all my trust and give him everything and in the process I will discover all the yearnings of my heart satisfied.
Great verse. I've quoted it many times to people and myself, its even in my signature for one of my email accounts! Its one of those great one liners thats always encouraging. But what does it really mean? How do you just delight yourself in the Lord? I realized that this verse is not as stand alone as I thought...
"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." - Psalm 37:3-6
Trust, Delight, Commit. Delighting in the Lord is just part of a greater process!
Trust. First before you can delight in the Lord you must trust him. And as you trust him, you can dwell in peace and befriend faithfulness (also translated "find safe pasture"). It is this first step that begins the rest of the process, the mental action to trust God with whatever is in your life will allow you give it away and take away the burden so that you may live in peace and "graze" on faithfulness. Only then are you ready to delight in the Lord.
Delight. Once you have trusted him and find his peace, then you are free of the burdens of the world and are able to delight in the Lord. And as you are empty, he will fill you with his desires and then fulfill them which will cause you delight in him more and more! As you find your delight in him it will lead you to greater intimacy and commitment to him.
Commit. Again, the psalmist reminds us to trust in the Lord as we commit to him, but this true commitment is only found after we have delighted in the Lord. Anyone who commits to something out of obligation is never very committed but those who commit out of a place of desires and delight will always be committed followers. The more and more we trust God, the more and more we will commit our way to him and in that he promises that he will act. We commit to him and he will deliver. What will he deliver? Righteousness and justice. What about blessings God? What about a bonus, a new car? a better place...maybe a vacation? If I commit to you will you act on those?? God tells us what he acts on. And only after we go through the process of trusting, delighting, and committing will we discover that His righteousness and justice are exactly what we desire.
I realize that to delight myself in the Lord is not just something I can pursue on its own but I must pursue God with all my trust and give him everything and in the process I will discover all the yearnings of my heart satisfied.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Why Doesn't Anyone Name Their Kids "Obed-Edom"??
End of 1 Chronicles 13. A guy named Obed-Edom the Gittite (Goliath was also a Gittite) gets dropped with the task of taking in the Ark of the Covenant into his city and taking care of it. That new king guy wants me to do what? I'm just trying to mind my own business here, I don't want to mess with those Israelites and their issues. And I heard that Ark thing killed a guy! Why do they have to send it here. Ugh. Yet while David and the rest of Israel are dealing with other things, Obed-Edom gets his first encounter with the presence of God. He spends just 3 months near to His presence and sees the blessings from it, gets to feel the power of it, he gets to experience the living God at work in his city and all around him. 3 months go by. 1 Chronicles 15. David says they are gonna take the Ark to Jerusalem again and this time, they are gonna do it right. Who is part of the processional? Obed-Edom. There taking it where? I gotta be with it! I can't get enough! When it arrives in Jerusalem and David starts assigning tasks. Pick me! Pick me! Yea I will be on the praise team, whatever keeps me near to that box! Sure, I don't care if its the back-up team! Wait, what you need a harp player too? Sure. I mean, no I don't know how to play but I'll learn! And when it comes time to choose the gate keepers (one of the most important roles), who gets picked? Yep, Obed-Edom.
A guy going about his normal business has an encounter with God and it changes him forever. Spends 3 months in the presence of God and when it moves on, he drops everything and follows. This is the power of God. We need not forget it, or ever cease to follow it!
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