The Mirage

Proverbs 2:23 ESV

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Would God command you to do the impossible? This is a fairly simply question that has significant repercussions on what you believe about your salvation. Erasmus answered this question with no. God would not be so cruel as to command people to do that which they were unable to complete. He knows their infirmities and would not ask to much of them. Luther would fire back in his response (The Bondage of the Will) that, Yes, God would ask us to do that which we are not able to do. This came down to a Roman understanding of justification and a Protestant understanding. Luther maintained that the work in its entirety was one of “Grace Alone”. As such no work on my part could contribute to it at all.

Luther would point out that sometimes earthly fathers, will command their sons to do things that are beyond them. I often am working while my sons are playing around. They will think they are bit enough to do a task so I tell them to go do it, it isn’t long before I hear them begging for help. I knew the entire time they would not be able to accomplish the task and yet I commanded them to do it anyway. Was this cruel on my part? No, they needed to learn what the extent of their strength was, and how to call for help. Both are very powerful lessons when learned and rightly undertaken, both physically and spiritually. So, Yes, God will command that which is completely impossible for me to accomplish. He will also command you to do that which is impossible for you to accomplish. Yet, we are not only responsible for achieving the impossible but also for persisting in it. To work hard and fail often. To die daily at our father’s feet that he might sustain us.

Jesus explains to us that nothing that enters a person can defile him but what proceeds out of the mouth defiles (Mark 7:15). I have said all this because here in Proverbs we are told to guard our hearts. Experience has shown the Christian that of ourselves this is an impossible command. How often have our guards failed and evil crept in? How often have I shown the blackness of my heart in what has proceeded out of my lips? The Christian must always be given the law, not that he may achieve it but that he might see how helpless he is and cling to him who is able to guard the Christians heart and change it, doing what we are not capable of doing, making holy and righteous that which is stained and wicked.

When before no matter how hard the Christian would try to guard his heart eventually the smear of sin would completely cover him. Yet, once surrender has occurred and revelation that the task is impossible for me but it is not for God, it is as if I am John Gotti and the white robs I have been given are made of Teflon! All that my enemy throughs at me simply falls away, because I wear another man’s righteousness one alien to me. As if my life is a mirage, and the enemy is attacking it, but God is not judging my righteousness it is Christ’s that is in view. I still love the Law and long to obey it. I am still not able to achieve the impossible but Christ has and that is the sweet savor of victory! Guard your heart and know that you have a watchman that never sleeps and he will make the impossibility of you pleasing God possible! (Mark 10:27)

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Strangers

Leviticus 25:39 ESV

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.”

Leviticus is a book often seen as flyover country. As biblical illiteracy continues to climb and many simply “hit the high points” between Genesis and Mathew. Choosing to read the bible as tourists who only have so much time and need to hit the big draws before retreating to “normal” life. This tourist approach has led to the loss of a great deal of conviction and wisdom. The occasional stops for the Sunday School stories and a word from Psalms does much to sustain a person in famine but it leads to an unbalanced and malnourished faith. As Christians read through the depths and work through the vast expanses of Gods word they find the health to fight the battles worth fighting and the faith strong enough to endure the siege of the enemy.

As our nation becomes a community of vagabonds under one banner the words of God given to a group of nomads wandering in the desert fighting amongst themselves and with their leaders always doubting the goodness of God as trials and tribulations were constantly found along the way. Our nation has not been tied to homesteads for many decades now, but we also are no longer tied to factories, nor any job in particular or profession in general. With government organizations and institutions of all kinds wanting to create fluid workers, men and women able to change direction and jobs as quickly as a new need arises, we have become as mobile as the devices we carry and the cars we drive.

Looking at the text of Leviticus speaks to us in a way that it has not spoken to a generation of Americans for the last hundred years. The American experience was one of strangers looking to set up roots and place them deep in the land, yet, often now we are simply strangers and wanderers. Even in this though we are not left alone and abandoned. Even as God was setting up the laws of the promised land he made sure that all were to know that they were strangers and the land was not theirs. They were strangers walking in his land. He had given it to them but it was his. They were on this journey WITH him though. Psalm 139 tells us that no matter where we go God is with us and can find us. The promise of God in his law and in his song are the same he loves us and provides for us and there is no escape from his love and care.

At times this care looks as if we are putting down deep roots and times it looks like we have wings to rise and be blown with the wind, but in all of this it is God’s hand that guides us and plants our footsteps even as we plan our path. Know that no matter where you, dear Christian, find yourself you are always dwelling in the safety of God’s sovereign hand.

CORAM DEO

Separated

Leviticus 21:26 ESV

“You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.”

As the people of Israel have come out of the bonds of slavery. They have crossed the Red Sea and are in the throes of remaking and redefining themselves. Much as the newly liberated teen heading to college is given the opportunity to define themselves apart from their parents and decide what type of person they will be so the nation of Israel is given this opportunity upon leaving the captivity of Egypt. Yet, their Baptism in the Red Sea was a real baptism. They were not given they ability to fully define themselves. Having been baptized they were to be defined by their relationship to God. Leviticus tells us some of what this was to entail. It was to make them a peculiar people, a holy nation, one set apart for God and his glory.

The people of Israel were to be a peculiar people from their eating habits to their bathing habits. Their worship was to look different also. No image was to be used representing their God. The Holy of Holies was not to house an image but a thrown, a seat of mercy, upon which their God could sit and dwell with, or tabernacle with, his people, camping in the very midst of them. A Hebrew community was to be different from the moment a stranger would enter it. Yet, it was also called to be so hospitable that the stranger would immediately not only recognize the difference but long to be a part of it.

This call has not changed towards the people of God. Those who have trusted him as Lord for their salvation follow him into the waters of baptism. They persist in calling themselves by his name because new life has come upon them. Death was on one side of the waters and life on the other, and that life taken up is lived in his name. Those taking upon them the Baptism of Jesus Christ are given a calling to be a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:10)

The welcoming nature of God is to be palatable in the presence of his servants. It is to permeate every aspect of their lives and homes, because they are holy and set apart for his glory. They have been told how this holiness and glory is to play out in their lives from day to day. They are to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit” that his excellencies and marvelous light might shine into the darkness of the people and homes around them. How are you going to accomplish this today? How will your life be set apart for his glory, the growth of his kingdom, today?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO

Recount

Psalm 118:17, 18 ESV

I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.

The Lord has disciplined me severely, but as not given me over to death.

“His steadfast Love Endures forever” is the heading given by the translators of the ESV for this Psalm. It is appropriate. That line is repeated five times in the twenty-nine verses that comprise this Psalm, they are in the opening and closing of it as well. Coming off the Easter weekend it is good to note that this is also the place where the line “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” in verse twenty-two. Truly his steadfast love does last forever and he has shown it to us through his son whom the builders rejected and God made the Cornerstone of his church. In light of these things what is the Christian response? When coming face to face with God’s might works, overwhelming love, and steadfast nature, how are Christians to respond?

The answer to this question is seen in verse seventeen. As the psalmist is overwhelmed by his mean estate he finds that God “has not given me over to death” and therefore the psalmist will persist and “recount the deeds of the Lord” with the strength remaining to him. This line hangs in the air around me. As if a giant bell were not ringing anymore but the vibration from it could still be felt, as if the base note on a giant Pipe organ were still being played. The very air was alive with its power and majesty, leaving the haunting impression of immensity and power. The resolute conviction in the necessity of his purpose in life had not been diminished or clouded. It was for him “to glorify God” while breath remained in him.

As I listened to the news today the story of an elderly couple (95 and 94 years old married 73 years) was told to me. Seeing the inevitable decline that lay ahead of them and not wishing to endure it chose to commit suicide together, submitting themselves to the physician to murder them at the same time. This breaks my heart because of what was lost in them and also what was really declared by them. Then I read my bible and am overwhelmed by the reality and depth of the witness of God’s people through out time. There is nothing new under the sun, men have deteriorated in health and mental ability for many seasons. The Psalmist even tells us that “the Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death”. No suffering, real or imagined, present or future, physical or emotional, removes the servant of Christ from the reality of his master being sovereign over him. Nor does it remove Christians from the reality of their call to “recount the deeds of the Lord”, most critically that which is prophesied later in this text and we celebrated this last weekend, the death and Resurrection of Christ.

Yet all of us have other notable examples of God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of trials. Events so meaningful we pray we would not forget them. Why are we not recounting them as we ought? Every night my children beg for stories, real or imagined. Yet, I constantly, am “too busy” or “too tired” to recount the deeds of the Lord. Even as many who read this are blessed with grandchildren longing to hear stories of how they fit into this thing called life, this story of redemption, how they fit into God’s plan. Will you take the time to recount the deeds of the Lord that he has done for you? How he has saved you from yourself? Are you willing to tell that story enough so that everyone in the room already knows it? Or does fear rule your tongue? Live your life in the presence of God, declaring to him, and those around you his faithfulness.

Coram Deo

Glory to God

Psalm 105:45

That they might keep his statutes

                And observe his laws.

Praise the Lord!

It is always amazing to hear voices from the past crying out over the years to ones mind in the present. This verse from scripture brought forth “Dog and Cat Theology.” The basics of this go like this; “You feed me, you love me, you take care of me, you must be God” (Dog theology) the second type of theology “You feed me, you love me, you take care of me, I must be God” (Cat theology). This funny memory was brought forth from the recess of past experience by this verse in Psalm 105. Having read the entire psalm while on autopilot, the key word “that” brought the plane crashing to the ground and a complete re-read was necessary.

The question that required such drastic action was this, what did God do that he expected to reap the result of Israelite gratitude and praise to the point they would desire “keep his statues and observe his laws.” Knowing what a dramatic failure the Israelites were at doing either of these points, and the drastic actions God took to punish their disobedience, what actions did he take to merit their obedience? The answer, he overwhelmed them with kindness, and care for their needs. He provided homes they didn’t build and food they didn’t plant. Imagine farming when all you had to do was harvest. You show up and the combine is already in the field simply waiting for you. No loan is needed to buy it, no fertilizer is needed, the crop is already grown, just harvest and enjoy the abundance of God’s blessing!

God’s judgement came on his people after they chose to “not acknowledge God or give thanks to him” (Romans 1:21). It is amazing to watch as we look around and see “the work of our hands” and choose to rob God of his glory by attributing to luck what was designed by God as a great blessing or attributing to bad luck what was given as warning, rebuke, or lesson for our betterment and encouragement. After all the “hard work” of driving and conquering the inhabitants of the Promise Land, they thought their skill and ability had won the day so they persisted in worshiping “images resembling, mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things” (Joshua 24:23, Rom 1:23).

As Christian’s come to scripture we must realize that it is not simply words but it is also a Mirror. We are given opportunity to see into our own darkened hearts a little more clearly than usual and see how evil our own actions are. How often do I look around and see the things “I have done” and fail to see the hand of God in providing them for me? It was not my hand to provided a strong enough back and knees to do the work, both being things many do not have, nor was it my ingenuity that developed and manufactured the majority of the tools I am blessed to use. My blessing was in partnering with God in doing what he desired to do. I was given much that I might work the field and bring glory to him, not that I might glory in either the field or in my labor. For the both were given by God. Partner with God in the work you have to do, but recognize it was he who blessed you with the job and the strength to do it. Do not play the Israelite who lies in your heart, do not rob God of the glory he so richly deserves.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below, praise him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, AMEN”

Soli Deo Gloria