Two thoughts about us, life, and worship

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:2

When I began writing this weekly devotional in 1985, I called it the weekly “worship meditation.”  The purpose was to give those attending the Sunday worship service something to read before the service began.  Its goal was to help people corral their thoughts and set their minds on worshiping God.

Over the years, this weekly spot in the bulletin has become more of a devotional than a specific “worship meditation.”

Today, this is a worship meditation.  Think of the Magi (aka the wise men).  They made a long and an arduous journey to Jerusalem, probably from faraway Persia.  They had only a star to guide them.  But they were resolute—not only about making the rigorous journey, but about what they were going to do when they found the King of the Jews.  They were going to worship Him.

Two thoughts about us, life, and worship:

First, every week has its challenges and our minds are not always focused on worship.  But at the end of our weekly journey, on the Lord’s Day, let us be resolute that along with our brothers and sisters, we will worship the Lord on His Day in church.

Second, our entire lives are a journey.  Throughout our lives we are not always focused on worship.  But at the end of life’s journey, when we are glorified and in His presence, we will, at last, worship Him without any hindrances whatsoever.  Let us worship the Lord every Lord’s Day with an eye to our future worship in Heaven.

A day of rejoicing, and eating together!

Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament.  It is probably because I am a preacher and the chapter is about preaching.  Great stuff!  I was particularly struck this time through by the people’s response to the preaching.  The people were cut to the heart by the preaching.  They wept, partly because they were hearing the Word of God, with which many of them were no doubt unfamiliar.  The wept due to conviction since they were hearing the Law.

Nehemiah then comforted the people saying the day on which we hear God’s Word preached, is to be a day of rejoicing.  Yes, we are convicted, but we are also comforted by the message of God’s grace in the gospel!

In addition, Nehemiah exhorted the people to share food with those who have none prepared.

1. We can do this by remembering to give to benevolence.

2. We can also do this by making it a point to (a) Attend the monthly lunch prayer meeting (every 4th Sunday), and (b) by bringing food to share before prayer.

3. We can do this by faithfully attending our Home Fellowships and bringing food to share.

4. We can do this by inviting someone from church for lunch or even dinner on a Sunday afternoon of evening. (Try inviting someone you have never had a meal with!)

Sunday: It is a day of conviction, rejoicing, and eating together!

Speaking up can be scary, but...

“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Esther 4:14

Queen Ester, who was Jewish, not Persian, was providentially made the queen of Persia.  Sadly there isn’t space to retell that interesting story found in the first three chapters of Esther.  But in the providence of God she was strategically placed to make the difference between the life or death of all the Jews in Persia.  It was risky for her to speak up, not only because she would have been killed herself, but her husband, the king, didn’t even know she was Jewish!

Esther’s uncle, Mordacai urged her to take that risk, saying, “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  She spoke up and the Jewish people were spared!

What has this to do with you and me?  We are probably never going to save a race of people from annihilation, but God has providentially placed each of us in every one of the relationships we have with others.  Many with whom we have contact do not know Christ.  It is scary to speak up sometimes, but if we do not, who knows what will happen to those God has placed in our lives?

Please remember mercy in Your judgment!

TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Daniel 5:27-28

It is from this biblical account that we get the phrase: “the handwriting is on the wall.”  In the midst of much revelry in the Babylonian palace, God sent a message to the Babylonians.  It was a message of doom!  And Babylon fell—that very night!

The cryptic “handwriting on the wall” that only Daniel could interpret, was clear:  “You have been weighed [judged] and found wanting [judged as guilty].”  Sentence was also passed: Babylon was to be turned over to her enemies, who in their case was the ascending Medo-Persian empire.

God used Babylon to judge His people, Judah—not because Babylon was righteous—far from it!  Then God judged Babylon for her many sins!  How?  By turning her over to her enemies.

God has richly blessed and used the United States.  But we have been systematically turning from God and toward every form of debauchery.  How long will God forebear with us?  He is patient, but He is also holy and righteous.  Unless God is pleased to bless this sinful country with a spiritual awakening, it is only a matter of time before God may turn us over to our enemies.  In many ways, He has been turning us over to our sin (Romans 1:24), and our government shows more concern for our ideological enemies than to our own citizenry.

God be merciful to us, and if judgment is inevitable, please remember mercy in Your judgment!

He sought us when we were not looking!

For thus says the Lord GOD: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.” Ezekiel 34:11

Ezekiel wrote a fair amount about the “false shepherds” in Israel in his day.  They did not care for the spiritual well-being of the sheep [people] God had put in their care.  Through the prophet, God contrasted those false prophets with the True Shepherd He promised to send in the coming New Covenant.  That True Shepherd is Jesus.  Didn’t Jesus say:

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

and

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15)

In Ezekiel 34:11 the prophet foretold how the True Shepherd would search for His sheep and seek them out—meaning that His search would end in finding His sheep.  And isn’t that exactly what Jesus has done and continues to do?

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

What good news and cause for rejoicing is it that He did not wait for us to seek and find Him (which we would never do), but rather, when we were lost Jesus came to seek and to save His lost sheep.

Oh, worship the Good and True Shepherd if you have been sought and found by Him!

When we we know he Lord?

“And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed. Then you shall know that I am the LORD...” says the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 20:43-44

1 1 1

That is the number of times in Ezekiel that the Lord says “they will know that I am the Lord.”  This tells us that God is not hiding Himself from us.  He is a God of self disclosure. 

In 20:43-44, God says when we are aware of our sinfulness before God “Then you shall know that I am the LORD..."

There is no theology test one must pass to be saved, but the only people who know the Lord are those who understand their sinful state before God who is holy.  This is essential because unless a person knows something of his or her need for forgiveness, that person will never cry out to God in faith asking for His forgiveness.

I pray that you know your need for God’s forgiveness and have received His forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.  That is what it means to know the Lord.

If you haven’t trusted Christ, I pray that the Lord will show you something of His holiness, which will reveal your sinfulness, and I pray that you will trust in Jesus who alone can forgive sin.

This is what it means to know the Lord.

Let us plead with God for mercy for the USA

Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored; Renew our days as of old,  22 Unless You have utterly rejected us, And are very angry with us!
Lamentations 5:21-22

The book of Lamentations, written by the prophet Jeremiah, is the heart cry of the man of God in the wake of God’s judgment of Judah.  The nation had turned away from God so severely for so long, that God gave them over to their enemies, the Babylonians.  Their sin was so great and perverse that the judgment was also great and severe.

Jeremiah’s perspective was spot on!  Unless God would be gracious to turn the people back to Him, and restore them—it wasn’t going to happen.  From a human perspective, revival may look like people turning to God, but people do not turn to God unless God turns them to Himself!  This does not preclude our responsibility to turn to God, but the consequences of sin always includes our inability to turn to Him if He does not supernaturally turn us.

The United States is not a covenant nation as was Israel.  He has made no promises to us as He did to them.  But when surveying the whole of human history, one would be hard pressed to name many nations (maybe any?) that have received God’s blessings as the U.S. has.  And God’s blessings have not merely been physical prosperity.  Our once great nation has been blessed spiritually like no other.

But we have turned away from Him, celebrating every form of sinful debauchery.  Unless He turns us, we cannot turn.  Let us plead with Him that He will turn us!

The danger of visions of grandeur

“And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them…”
Jeremiah 45:5a

These were the words of God through the prophet Jeremiah to Baruch.  You may remember that Baruch was Jeremiah’s personal secretary and scribe.  Because Baruch worked for the great prophet Jeremiah, he may have been tempted to think of himself as more than Jeremiah’s servant.  Maybe this was why the Lord lovingly, yet poignantly, reminded Baruch not to seek greatness for Himself.

The message of these words can apply to any of us who ever have visions of grandeur.  The message is not hard to decipher.  It is simply that we must not seek any elevated position or notoriety for ourselves.  If God is pleased to bestow it, we must not shirk it, but neither dare we seek it.

One of the key elements of the gospel is that we Christian are sinners who can do nothing to commend ourselves to God.  This is why we need a Savior who alone can save His people from our sins!  Understanding the gospel, according to Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, disallows any “boasting.”  Why?  Because when we know God’s Holiness, and our sinfulness, all boasting will be in the Lord, rather than in ourselves.

Take a moment and praise the Lord for His incredibly kind grace, remembering that “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9), and not of ourselves.

Footnote: Someone asked how this is to be understood in light of Paul writing in 1 Timothy 3:1 that desiring the office of elder is good. The answer lies in understanding that seeking to be a leader on the Church is good unless, one is seeking that position for self-promotion or aggrandizement. Rightly understood, desiring to be an elder is a desire to serve in humility!

The second to the last person you want to be

And the LORD said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.
Jeremiah 14:14

The last person you want to be is a person who claims to speak for God, but does not speak what God says.  That person is a false prophet and that person will have Hell to pay on Judgment day.

The second to the last person you want to be is the person who listens to false prophets and embraces their lies.  God not only pronounces judgment on the false prophets in (v.15):

Jeremiah 14:15  Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land'—'By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed!

God also has a few choice words for those who follow the false prophets in (v.16):

Jeremiah 14:16  And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.'

This is a stark reminder that we are responsible to test the prophets, listen to those who legitimately speak for God and have nothing to do with those who tickle people’s ears for the sake of popularity as they tickle ears with lies.

God is big. We are small.

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the LORD. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” Isaiah 66:1-2

I love these two verses.  They remind me that a right perspective and relationship with God enlarges God and diminishes me!

He is the God of the Heavens. 

He rules over all things!

He does not need anything from me since the only things I have, have been made by Him in the first place.

All He looks for in me is that I know how tiny I am in His presence. 

He looks for those who know they are spiritually bankrupt.

As for my attitude, He looks for genuine sorrow for having sinned against Him (that’s what being contrite means!).

He looks for those who are bowed in awe, not only in His presence, but also at the mere hearing of His Word.

How does all that square with this world that screams at us to esteem and believe in ourselves?  Hmmm...

What a Comforter Jesus is!

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" Says your God. "Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD's hand Double for all her sins.” Isaiah 40:1-2

Isaiah’s words are about Jesus, the Messiah.

There is no comfort like the comfort Jesus gives His people.  In fact apart from Jesus, there is no real comfort.

The comfort Jesus gives, He gives exclusively to His people.

The comfort we receive from Jesus comes from His Word.  As He spoke and the universe appeared, He speaks comfort to His people.

The comfort the Lord gives is based on His having ended our warfare with sin.  We still fight many battles, but He has won the war on behalf of those He came to save!

The source of the comfort Jesus gives His people is that our sins are forgiven—completely, forever, and irrevocably!

The grace by which we have received the Lord’s comfort is twice as good as we thought our sins were, and His grace is twice as wonderful as His wrath that we deserved—and that wrath was infinite!

What a comfort our Savior is!

Forgiven. Purchased. Overwhelmed by His love.

Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans." Hosea 3:1

Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel when they were sinfully and rebelliously worshiping pagan gods.  Hosea was called to the unenviable task of marrying a harlot who would be unfaithful to him, as a picture of Israel’s spiritual harlotries against God.  Sure enough Hosea’s wife ran after other lovers as Israel ran after false Gods.

Throughout her harlotries, she believed that her lovers were providing for her.  Unbeknownst to her, it was Hosea who from afar continued to support her even in her unfaithfulness.  When her lovers ad their way with her, they kicked her to the curb and she ended up on the slave block.  Due to her wild living, she was reduced to a level of worthlessness that no one bid for her.  No one but Hosea who bought her back to again be his wife.

Imagine how she must have felt upon experiencing Hosea’s love.

This is not only the story of the nation of Israel, it is the story of everyone who has ever been or ever will be saved.  God made us for Himself.  We sinfully rebelled against Him chasing the false god’s around us. Then, when we were worthless, the Lord purchased us for Himself—not with money and grain, but with His blood.  “For God so loved...that He gave His only begotten Son.”

Whenever you think of the love of God, and especially when you think of how the redeemed are called the Bride of Christ, remember Hosea and his adulterous wife.  And be overwhelmed with loving gratitude.

Dare we blame God for our sin?

"O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage…”
Micah 6:3-4

Through the prophet Micah, the Lord asks His sinful erring people, “What have I done to you?” He asks rhetorically, as though He may have done something wrong to them that warranted their disobedience. 

God continues, reminding them in the rest of verse 4 and verse 5, that He saved them from their 400-year bondage in Egypt.  He gave them good leaders in Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.  He protected them from being cursed by Balaam.

God had only done them good, yet they rebelled against their benevolent Benefactor, chasing after the false gods of their pagan neighbors.

I am sure it doesn’t need to be said, but I will anyway: Isn’t the same true regarding every one of us?  What has God done to Christians to cause us to sin?  Has He not saved us?  Has He not provided leadership for us?  Has He not protected us from the world that would have done away with us if it could have?

Lord, forgive us of our sins.  Help us to remember Your kindness, grace and mercy—that You saved us!  And by the blood of Christ, no less!  You have provided leadership.  You have protected us.  O Lord, may we remember these things that we would never turn away, much less against You! Amen!

How long will your faith last?

Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them.  Therefore they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served wooden images and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass.
2 Chronicles 24:17-18

Joash became king at the tender age of seven—hardly old enough to rule. Fortunately, there was a godly priest named Jehoiada who became a spiritual mentor and father figure in the lad’s life.  Joash did good for many years under Jehoiada’s care, but eventually Jehoiada died (at 130 years!).  And one the priest died, Joash did an about-face, listening to the ungodly people who were waiting in the wings.  They steered Joash in the wrong way.  He not only forsook the Lord, he had Jehoiada’s son killed.

Needless to say the nation of Judah entered into an immediate tailspin.  They suffered at the hands of the Syrians.  Joash became so wicked that his own servants, killed him, and his body was not even buried in the tombs of the kings.

Many people appear to follow the Lord as long as they are in a controlled environment, and accountable to godly people.  But when that accountability ends (for whatever reason), the truth comes out.  They disrespect those who led them in the ways of the Lord, and their former godly living was invalid and exposed as a farce.

Can people repent from such scenarios?  Yes, but they rarely do.

Lord, may our outward devotion be more than outward—lest we follow in the footsteps of young king Joash.

Anyone ever afraid?

And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
2 Chronicles 20:3

King Jehoshaphat provides a great example of what to do when fear takes hold.  And make no mistake about it, there are plenty of things that cause us to fear—whether they are real or imagined!

First, set your mind to seek the Lord.  When we have a problem, we tend to seek the Lord mostly because we are seeking help.  That is not bad, but how much more help might we receive if we were to seek the Lord Himself, instead of merely seeking favors from Him!

Second, be serious about it.  There is nothing magical about not eating.  Fasting may involve not eating, but the point is that when prayer is accompanied by fasting, it means this is a serious season of prayer.  Ten cent prayers do not yield million dollar answers.  When we are beset by fear, or anything else, we need not only to pray, but commit to serious prayer.  Abstaining from food is a means of humbling ourselves, and of giving ourselves a reminder to pray when we would otherwise prefer to eat.  The point, however, is serious prayer, not: “not eating.”

Judah was being attacked by three nations at once—I’d call that legitimate fear.  But the King sought the Lord, and the Lord answered, giving Judah one of their biggest-ever military victories.  While the particular strategy that God gave Jehoshaphat in that instance may not be typical, you might be encouraged by reading all of 2 Chronicles 20 to see what can happen when we seek the Lord!

Challenges for young and old

7Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, "How do you advise me to answer these people?"  8But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. 1 Kings 12:6 & 8 

King Rehoboam grew up in the household of his father, Solomon.  Solomon was so wise that when the Queen of Sheba visited, she said to the king:

Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! (1 Kings 10:8)

Young Rehoboam was no doubt exposed to his father’s wisdom.  When Solomon died, and he was faced with an important decision, the young king sought the counsel of those who “stood continually before Solomon.”  The counsel they gave Rehoboam was wise, but Rehoboam rejected their counsel.  Instead, he asked and followed the counsel of his young, inexperienced, and as it turned out, unwise peers.  This led to the downfall of his kingdom!

There is a great lesson to be learned from the contrasting counsel that came from the two groups of advisers, but that isn’t the point of this meditation.  I want to challenge both young and old with this:  First, why do the young reject the counsel of their elders?  Second, why are the older surprised when they do?

Young people, be wise and not foolish when it comes to whose counsel you follow.  Listen to your elders.

Old people, continue to offer wise counsel, but do not be surprised when it is dismissed.  This pattern is not new!  We who are older did it when we were younger as well.

Oh Lord, grant us wisdom and a dose of humility.

Understanding His Mercies

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
Psalm 136:1 

Psalm 136 has 26 verses and each verse ends with the refrain, “For His mercy endures forever.”  The opening verses bid us recall that God is good, that He does great wonders, that by His wisdom He created all things.  These are truths about which we can heartily respond, “For His mercy endures forever.” 

But further into the Psalm we read of God striking the firstborn of the Egyptians, and of God drowning the Egyptians in the Red Sea (v.10 & 15)!  Later we read of God striking down and slaying famous kings (v.17-18).  These too are echoed with the refrain, “For His mercy endures forever.”  But how are these understood as the mercies of God for which we should praise Him? 

Two thoughts: 

First, God’s mercies to some are often the result of God’s judgment on others.  When the wicked are justly beaten down, the righteous are delivered and raised up.

Second, we do not always understand God’s ways.  They sometimes make us recoil.  But His ways are always good, right, and equated with His mercies that endure forever.  The problem is never what God does or does not do.  The problem is our understanding.  And when our understanding is deficient, if we challenge God’s mercies, our faith is also deficient.

May we understand what we can, and trust Him when we cannot.

Who does God hear?

The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.
Proverbs 15:29

That the Lord is far from the wicked does not mean that He is unaware of them or of their wickedness.  He is everywhere, sees all, and knows all.  That He is far from them refers rather to their access to Him in prayer, and to His unwillingness to assist them in their distresses, even though they may cry out to Him for His help.

This is made clear by the contrasting parallel in the second phrase of this verse.  Though He is far from them, He is near, and hears (and answers) the prayers of the righteous. Hallelujah!

A further word of clarification is in order, however.  Who are the righteous and why does God hear their prayers?  We know from Romans 3:10-12 (citing Psalm 14:1-3, & 53:1-3) that “there is none righteous.”  No one is righteous in and of ourselves.  The righteous ones God is near to, and whose prayers He hears, are those He has graciously declared to be righteous.  He makes that declaration of those who trust on Christ Jesus, who alone is righteous.

We cannot earn God’s ear or His answers to our prayers based on how righteous we are.  He is near to those who are robed in the righteousness of Christ, imputed to the spiritual accounts of sinners who have trusted Christ for salvation.

All are born in sin and are therefore born spiritually estranged from God.  All who are born again are declared righteous, and God hears and answers our prayers.

Psalms 145:18  The LORD is near to all who call upon Him [Jesus], To all who call upon Him in truth [Jesus is truth].

Loving God's Word

Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
Psalm 119:97 

Salvation is more than merely “believing in” Jesus.  It is also loving Jesus (1 Corinthians 16:22).  And when one truly loves Jesus, one loves what Jesus loves and hates what Jesus hates.

Jesus loves His Church.  Do you love Christ’s Church?  I mean really love Christ’s Church?

Jesus loves the Word of God.  Why else would He often scold His detractors asking them, “Have you not read the scriptures?” and confronting them with the words, “You do not know the scriptures!”

Psalm 119, all 176 verses of it, is about God’s Word.*  It is more than a tribute to the Word of God, it is a declaration of love for God’s Word.

Those who love the Word of God order their entire lives, beginning with their thoughts, around the Word of God.  It is the standard by which every thought is judged, and either embraced as good or rejected as unworthy.  That is what it means to meditate on God’s Word.

May we love the Lord, His Church and His Word.  And may we order our lives, and even our thoughts, around God’s Word!

 * God’s Law in the Old Testament is equated with His entire Word, both Old and New Testaments.

That I am always on His mind—that is indeed precious

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
Psalms 139:17

A common phrase of encouragement in our day is: “My thoughts and prayers are with you.”  I have to admit, that phrase has tended to leave me a little flat.  As Christians, our prayers matter, but our thoughts?  Our thoughts are arguably not as beneficial as our prayers.  After all, prayers involve God.  Our thoughts cannot change anything, but God can—so prayers are preferred over thoughts.

But then I came across Psalm 139:17 in my daily Bible reading.  And there David writes of how “precious God’s thoughts” are and that “great is the sum of them!”

This has greatly encouraged me.  Pleasant thoughts of others, and especially God’s thoughts of me, are indeed precious.  It is actually encouraging that someone is thinking of us, wouldn’t you agree?

And how much more encouraging is it that (a) God’s thoughts are only always good; and (b) that God never stops thinking of those He loves.

I still think it is better to pray for someone rather than to merely think of them, but as a beloved child of God, that I am always on His mind—that is indeed precious, don’t you think?