Rejoice in the Lord

Many times when I find what I think is a profound truth in Scripture, I proudly go to God and say, "Look what I found!"  He just as often humbles me by pointing out that this truth has been there all along.  It's as if He says, "What took you so long?"  I go to my friends, and am excited to share this truth with them, but they may already know it, or more often, their journey is in a different place, so their attitude is, "Uh-huh.  That's nice.  What does that have to do with me?"

Just such an insight has been revealed to me in the last couple of days.  Maybe this will be an encouragement to you, as much as it was for me.  Or maybe you have already made this discovery.  If you have, be patient with me.  And if you are in a different place in your walk right now, keep this in mind for future reference.  You may need it later.

Psalm 22:3 says, "You are enthroned as the Holy One, you are the Praise of Israel."  Some translations say that God is enthroned on the Praises of His people, that he indwells or inhabits their praises.  In any case, we are commanded by Scripture to constantly give praises to God.  This is the way that the angels in heaven worship God in Revelation 7:12, by saying, "Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever."  So obviously, praising God lifts Him up, gives Him honor, and acknowledges Him as greater than we are or could ever be.

The praise we give to God is not like the encouragement we give to our children ("You are such a big girl! You did it all by yourself.").  It is not like the kudos we give to our peers ("We want to recognize John as our employee of the month.  He really went above and beyond on this project.")  It is not even like the honor we give to the elderly, or the lofty position we give to elected officials ("The band is playing 'Hail to the Chief' when the President walks in; who knows, Susie, you could be President one day.")  No, God is like no other, and He deserves praise like no other.

Throughout my Christian walk, I have encountered people in the Church who seem to praise God incessantly.  Yes, I know the Bible says, "Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."  But frankly, I have always thought of people like that as very shallow.  It's like if every other word is, "Praise God," then there is no depth--they must not know what an ordinary person goes through every day.  They must not know our emotions, our struggles, or our sorrows.  After all, didn't Solomon say, "There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance."

Nevertheless, I have come into contact with a man who seems to praise God unceasingly.  He is so full of joy that I seem downright dour in comparison.  Yet whenever I am with him I am encouraged.  So I determined in my heart that I would change my prayer practices.  Instead of every day coming to God with my list of wants and wishes, instead I would begin with praises, and if there is time, I would bring my needs before Him.  And I have to say, it has revolutionized my prayer life.  But instead of my feeling shallow and lacking depth, God is showing me how lifting Him up in praise allows Him to bless me.

Look at it this way.  We are commanded to follow Him.  So scripturally, following Him is a duty.  Experientially, we know that following Him is for our good and His glory.  Ultimately, following Him will get us to heaven.  But we can follow Him in our own strength, or we can find joy in the journey.  Praising God helps us find joy.  But it also helps us in so many other ways.  Let's go back to Revelation 7:12.  There are seven words listed there, seven things we attribute to God.  Seven is the number of wholeness and completion, so I want us to look at that list carefully.  Don't we all have times when we want or even need some of those things?  Isn't that our desire, to be strong, and powerful, to receive honor and thanks, to be wise, glorious and praiseworthy?

I want to show you what God has shown me this week: that by giving to Him, he gives back to us.  This is trustworthy and true in our finances: if we give our tithes and offerings to Him, without compunction, "for the Lord loves a cheerful giver", then He can bless us financially above what we can even ask or think.  Well, if that's true with money, it is also true with other things.

Strength
The angels worship God by giving Him praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength.  That means that when they serve God, it is will all their might.  What did Jesus says was the greatest commandment? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all  your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."  If we pledge ourselves to God, including our strength, then he will strengthen us in our hour of need.  "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."  How do you do that? By giving Him all of your strength.  We cannot begin to serve Him in our own strength.  Yet if we do all for the glory of God, he will strengthen us.  Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving."  Give him your strength, and He will make you strong.

Power
Romans 13:1 says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established."  God sets people in authority to do His will, even those who desire to exercise that authority for their own purposes and profit.  God is all powerful, and when He shares that power with people, those people are accountable to Him for the exercise of that power.  Therefore those in positions of power must use that power for good, for God's glory.  But you may say, "I'm not a king, or president, or governor, mayor, councilman, or dog-catcher."  Maybe not, but you are a person of influence.  You are a parent, or a teacher, or a mentor, or a friend.  Whatever power you have, use it for God, and He will give you more of it.  Remember the story of Joseph:  he was the second youngest of Jacob's sons, despised by his brothers and sold into slavery.  But even as a slave, he became the second most powerful man in Potiphar's house.  He was sent to prison, but became the second most powerful man in the prison.  He was elevated to a cabinet level position in Pharaoh's government, but became the second most powerful rule in Egypt.  Why? Because he used his power for God's ultimate purpose.  And when he did, God gave him more power.

Honor
There are times when we want credit for what we've done.  Honor where honor is due, right?  But often, the more we try to get honor, the less honorable (and less honored) we are.  But if we honor God in all things, He will set us in a position of honor for his glory.

Thanks
Gratitude is a great thing, especially when it is directed at us.  We all like to get credit for things we have done.  But who has done more than God, and who deserves more thanks?  And the deal is, the more thankful we are to him, the more we find others thanking us for our attitude, our encouragement, and our devotion to Him.  The world calls it good karma.  They just don't get it.

Wisdom
There are times when we really seek God's direction.  The Bible says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives generously and without finding fault." (James 1:5)  The wisest thing you can do is seek direction from God.  So if we give wisdom to God, He will give us more wisdom.  Stands to reason, no?

Glory
Who doesn't like to get kudos from others?  How much more does God deserve our glory?  And, I'm sensing a theme here, the more glory we give to God, the more He puts us in a position to receive glory.

Praise
Like glory and honor, we all like to be praised.  From the time we are kids, we seek the praise of peers and parents.  We like to be lifted up.  Many live for praise.  God dwells in it.  He is enthroned on it.  He knows His people by their praise.  So praise Him.  He just might--no promises here, but just maybe--He will set you in a position of strength and  power and honor and thanks and wisdom and glory.

Now, isn't that obvious?

Remember the Alamo

I have  fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  --2 Timothy 4:7

In 1961 President John F. Kennedy was in Texas, visiting San Antonio.  One of his publicized stops was at the Alamo, and the crowds pressed in so much that the President's itinerary was getting pushed back.  They were getting behind on their schedule.  President Kennedy asked one of Governor Connally's aides if he could find the back door, so they could slip out and get back on schedule.  "Mr. President," the aide replied, "This is the Alamo.  There is no back door.  That's why they're all heroes."

The memory of men like Davy Crockett, William Travis, and James Bowie, heroes who fought and died defending this small outpost during the Texas war of Independence, served to inspire other men to fight on, to persevere until the end.  "Remember the Alamo" became a battle cry for other brave soldiers who went on to win Texas' Revolutionary War.

There are other heroic figures throughout history, heroes who have inspired in any number of areas.  In the area of civil rights, we remember Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and The Little Rock Nine.  These people decided that there was no "back door", no easy way to achieve their goals.  In the area of Labor rights, we think of people like Samuel Gompers, Frances Perkins, and Cesar Chavez.  These people were so successful at fighting for workers' rights that today most people feel that there is no need to join a Labor Union.

But today, I'd like to spend a few minutes thinking of Bible heroes, men who persevered unto death and beyond in defense of truth, and of faith, and of righteousness.  These people did not look for a "back door", and their individual accomplishments are so inspirational that they have literally changed what we think is possible.  The three most inspirational biblical figures, to me, are Daniel, Paul, and Jesus Christ himself.

Daniel
Daniel was an Israeli exile in Babylon.  Hand-picked by Nebuchadnezzar to serve in his administration, Daniel resolved early on not to defile himself with Babylonian culture, including the rich food and wine served from the king's own table.  Daniel kept true to his God throughout his life, and was used by God to prophesy against king Nebuchadnezzar and his successor, Belshazzar.  When Babylon was overrun by the Persian empire, Daniel was even held in high regard in the eyes of Darius, the ruthless Persian ruler.

Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.  At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so.  They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. --Daniel 6:3-5

Darius had set up administrators, and over them 120 satraps, and over them three governors, one of whom was Daniel.  Daniel was so good at what he did, and so trustworthy that Darius wanted to set him up in a position overseeing the other two governors.  These other two governors were so wicked and so jealous of Daniel that they tried to find fault with him, so that they would not be subject to him.  But they could find nothing against him.  "Finally, these men said, 'We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God'." (Daniel 6:5)

These men hatched a plot to endear themselves to Darius the king, while at the same time betraying Daniel.  They said, "O King Darius, live forever!  The royal administrators, satraps advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next 30 days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den." (Daniel 6:7).

The Persian ruler had established a zoo of sorts.  In a pit beneath the royal home, there were lions and other animals that were kept in captivity to amuse the royal family.  Darius had been known to take dissidents and feed them to the lions, while his royal court watched from above.  The governors knew this, and so they lied to the king, saying that "all of us have agreed" to honor the king in this way.  Darius did not notice that Daniel was not in the group when this proposal was made.  So he agreed, and signed the law.

Now when Daniel leaned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem.  Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.  Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. --Daniel 6:10-11

Three things we notice about Daniel in this passage.  First, he did not stop being faithful.  He continued to pray, "just as he had done before."  Even in the face of persecution and certain death, he did not waver in his commitment to God.  Second, he did this openly.  Many times when a movement is under duress, they are forced underground.  People may continue their  practices, but in secret.  Not so Daniel.  He did not shut his windows when he prayed.  He did not go into a closet.  He didn't even try to stay out of sight, staying on the first floor.  No, he went to the upper room and prayed openly.  Third, he asked for help from God, not from Darius.  He did not try to change the political situation, to talk Darius out of enforcement of the law, or to plead for mercy.  He went straight to God for help.  He did not look for a back door for escape.

We all know the rest of the story.  Daniel was thrown into the pit where the lions were being kept.  The lions did not eat him, or even harm him at all.  The king rejoiced, and believed in Daniel's God.  "At the king's command, the men who had falsely accused Daniel were brought in and thrown into the lions' den, along with their wives and children.  And before they reached the floor of the den, the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones." (Daniel 6:24).  What an inspiration to us to remain faithful.

Paul
There was no more outspoken and successful missionary in the early church than Paul.  And none was more faithful in the face of persecution.  As a former member of the Sanhedrin (the Jewish council), Paul had been raised as a militant Jew.  He had been a persecutor of the church, killing many who professed the name of Jesus.  But when he was converted, he became an outspoken proponent of Christianity, and he was severely persecuted by the same militant group of Jewish zealots that he had been a member of prior. Paul said

(I have) been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.  I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.  --2 Corinthians 11:23-27

One of the events he describes is found in Acts 14.  Paul and his friend  Barnabas were constantly on the move. They arrived in Iconium, a city in modern-day Turkey.  They went to the synagogue, as there was a Jewish outpost there.  Many Jews believed their message, and followed Christ, but many other Jews became indignant.  In fact, they became violent.  "There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and to stone them." (Acts 14:5).  Stoning was a Jewish form of capital punishment, meant to keep the religion pure and undefiled by idolatry, witchcraft, and disobedience.  While Paul's message was that Christ was the fulfillment of Jewish law, the disbelieving Jews thought that Paul's message was heresy, and needed to be permanently eradicated.  So the Jewish leaders met with the Gentile law enforcement, so they could arrest Paul and the Jews could then put him to death.  "But they (Paul and Barnabas) found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, where they continued to preach the good news." (Acts 14:6-7).

Lystra is about 19 miles southeast of Iconium.  There they met a man who had been lame from birth.  He had never walked.  But this man listened to Paul's teaching, and believed.  Seeing his faith, Paul healed him in Jesus' name.  Well, word spread all over Lystra about this miraculous healing event.  In the city was a temple of Zeus, and the people who had brought sacrifices to Zeus came out to where Paul and Barnabas were teaching.  They thought that the gods were visiting them in person.  Barnabas they called Zeus, since he was the more handsome man, taller and stronger looking, and Paul they called Hermes (or Mercury, in the Roman pantheon of gods) because he appeared to be the messenger.

Paul and Barnabas begged the people to not look at them as gods, but instead as messengers of the true God, and of his Son, Jesus.  About this time, the Jews who had wanted to put Paul to death arrived from Iconium.  They seized Paul and convinced the crowd that not only was he not a Greek god, but that he was a fugitive from Jewish justice.  They picked up stones and started throwing them at Paul until they were convinced that he was dead.  Then they dragged him outside the city, not even giving him the respect of a Jewish burial.

What happened next is unclear.  Acts 14 concludes that the disciples surrounded Paul, and he got up and walked away.  In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of himself in the third person, recounting an experience that may correspond with this event in Acts 14, or one like it:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven.  Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows.  And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows--was caught up to paradise.  He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. --2 Corinthians 12:2-4.

So it may be that Paul actually experienced death, and that he was raised by Barnabas and the other disciples there outside of Lystra.

What is clear is that this event did not dissuade Paul from preaching the gospel, from planting churches, and from writing public letters to those churches.  He did not seek a "back door" way to avoid persecution and death, but having gone through persecution leading up to (and maybe including) death, he went on with his mission to share the good news of Christ to all men.

Jesus
Paul wrote about Jesus in Philippians chapter 2

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. --Philippians 2:5-11.

Jesus himself, although obedient unto death, prayed in anguish that God would spare him from it.  He begged God to find another way, and was so agonized about it that he literally sweat blood in the hours before he was arrested and crucified.  And by completing this sacrificial act, Jesus provided the way for men to come to God, to be saved from sin, and to avoid eternal hell fire.

Aren't you glad that Jesus did not find a "back door" to avoid his own death?  And unlike the men at the Alamo, the result was not just a rallying cry for his followers: we do not say, "Remember the Cross!" when we face the battles before us.  We know that we have the hope of resurrection to eternal glory because of His resurrection from the dead.  Praise God for his unspeakable gift!

Jesus exponentially greater than the Law

Every morning on my way to work, I stop in the deli in my building to get a bagel with cream cheese.  I have learned a long time ago that slicing the bagel in two and toasting it makes the bread so much better.  But as much as toasting it makes it better than eating it cold, in the same way adding cream cheese makes it so much better than eating it plain.  It's like toasting doubles the goodness, and adding cream cheese doubles it again.

Well, this past week I was talking with the new assistant manager at the deli.  He is originally from New York, where they have great bagels.  He asked if I'd ever tried lox and bagel.  I never had.  So he promised to bring some for me.  Well, the last day of the week, I went in to get my usual bagel and cream cheese, and the assistant manager said to wait.  He reached into a cooler under the counter, and pulled out a plate.  As he uncovered the plate, I could see strips of smoked salmon, as well as capers and finely diced pieces of boiled egg.  He took my bagel with cream cheese, and added a layer of smoked salmon.  The he sprinkled the capers and diced egg onto it.  He wrapped it up and gave it to me.

When I bit into it, the flavors all hit me at once.  It was so good, I closed my eyes and slowed my jaws--there was no gobbling that morning.  The enjoyment I had eating this special bagel was more than double the enjoyment of my normal breakfast.  I am salivating even as I write this.

I want you to get your Bibles and look at two passages, one in the Old Testament, and the other in the New Testament.  Put a marker in Isaiah 64:4-5.  Then turn over to Hebrews 10:1, and let's start reading there:

The Law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.

Let's stop there and think for a moment.  The writer of Hebrews is not saying that the Law was bad.  Not at all.  The law was good.  It was a way that God provided for His people to be reconciled with him.  It was like toasting the bagel--it was twice as good to know that God had set a way for us to overcome sin and separation from Him than it was to just know that we were sinful, that we failed to measure up to His perfection.

We know from early on that there are standards that we fail to live up to.  As children we disobeyed our parents, and usually suffered consequences from our disobedience.  Later, we all started school; and if we failed to turn in the work, or failed to study for the test, we would receive a failing grade.  So we all learned that to get along in the home, to get along in school, we had to follow certain rules.  Failure to follow the rules brought consequences.

Hopefully, at some point in our lives, we made the connection from the physical realm, with its rules and regulations, to the spiritual world.  We all must come to the realization that God is holy, and we are not.  To bridge the gap, we try to lay a foundation of works.  This is the Law.  We strive to be good enough for God. But soon we discover that the Law is not enough: we will never be good enough on our own to have a right relationship with God.  Let's go back to Hebrews 10, and read on.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.  For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.  If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?  For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for heir sins.  But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. --Hebrews 10:1-4

So we see the insufficiency of the law.  God required that animal sacrifices be made for our sins.  But as the sacrifices were made year after year, they only served as a reminder of how sinful we truly are.  The fact that God does not kill us on the spot is a sign of His abundant grace.  We bring ourselves into judgment if we fail to follow His commands, but he does reward righteousness.  He always has.  Look at Isaiah 64:4-5, where it says:

Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

The Old Testament looks back to what God had done from the creation of the world.  He has always been faithful.  He has always done right.  He has always punished the wicked, and rewarded the righteous.  He has always opposed the proud, but given grace to the humble. (Proverbs 3:34).  But when Christ came to fulfill the law, as we will see in a moment, it changes our perspective from backward looking to forward looking. This is why, when Paul quotes this Old Testament verse in 1 Corinthians 2:9, he uses it as an encouragement of what God can and will do in our lives if we are controlled by His Spirit: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

What Jesus did was to take us out of the Old Testament, and into the New Covenant of His blood.  He took us out from under the Law, which accused us and left us feeling guilty, and offered his own body as a more perfect sacrifice for us.  Look at Hebrews 10:5-7

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a Body you prepared for Me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.  Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.' "

If you want to know what scroll, he is talking about the Old Testament law.  This passage is a direct quote from Psalm 40:6-8, where David prophesied about the Messiah.  The Bible is so rich!  Just as giving us the Law was better than allowing us to die in our sins, the sacrifice of Christ in his body is so much better than relying on the annual ritual of slaughtering bulls and goats. The ritual is still followed by some, who do not realize the better sacrifice has been made for them. "Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.  But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.  Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." (Hebrews 10:11-14).

But that's not even the best part.  Remember when I told you that the cream cheese toasted bagel was infinitely better than the plain, untoasted bread, but that the addition of the lox was far and away the best thing ever put on a bagel?  Well, Jesus told his disciples in John 14:26 that when he was taken up from them, he would send a Comforter, a Helper, who "will teach you all things and will remind  you of everything I have said to you."  Jesus came as a fulfillment of the Law, but in the earthly body he was limited in what he could do.  The body served as the perfect sacrifice, but the Spirit is the one who indwells us.  Look at Hebrews 10:15-17

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this.  First he says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.  I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." Then he adds, "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." (see Jeremiah 31:33-34)

The sin that broke fellowship between us and God was covered by the blood of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is God Himself living in us, the fulfillment of His righteousness.  "And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin." (Hebrews 10:18.)  We don't have to go back to the Temple every year with a lamb to offer up.  The priest does not have to lay a bull on the altar for the sins of the people any more.  It is finished.  Jesus offered His body as the final payment for all our sins--past, present and future.  The Holy Spirit seals the deal by living in us, and etching the Word of God on our hearts.

No human mind could have conceived of such a plan, but God had it all worked out from the beginning of time.  We worship him in spirit and in truth, but the revelation we have is still incomplete; none of us can fathom what lies in store for us at the end of time, when He brings us home with Him in heaven.  "Praise be to God for his inexpressible gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)

The significance of today

This is the Day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.

A week ago Wednesday was the Jewish New Year, known as Rosh Hashanah.  It may seem insignificant to you, since most of us follow an amended Julian calendar.  But a friend of mine in a home Bible study made this observation: the Julian calendar was set up by men; the Jewish calendar was set up by God.

In the Jewish calendar, this is the year 5775.  I have to keep reminding myself of this, because I keep on writing 5774 on all my checks.  (Old joke--no one writes checks any more, right?  I need to get some new material!)  The leader of my small group home Bible study is excited about numerology.  He says that the number 5 denotes Grace, and the number 7 means favor or completeness.  So the numbers associated with this year are double grace, and double favor.  What more could we ask of God?

As I am writing this, it is now ten days after Rosh Hashanah, on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.  But it is no ordinary Sabbath.  No, today (technically beginning at sundown last night) is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.  On this day, devout Jews will ask God to forgive their sins, having used the last ten days to purify themselves.  The last week and a half was meant, on God's calendar, to identify our shortcomings and think about how we could have done better.  Then today, the day of Yom Kippur, is spent in prayer, asking for grace and favor in the coming year.

I know that most of you will not read this on the day it is written.  Most of you are not Jewish.  That's okay.  We are in a new dispensation, under a new covenant--we are not under the Law, but under Grace.  So we don't have to wait until a given day to make ourselves right with God and with our fellow man.  In the New Testament (which literally means "new covenant"), Hebrews 3:12 and 13 are significant:  "See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Each day, we are to confess our sins to the Father, so that we do not turn away from Him.  Each day, we are to encourage others to faith, to hope, to good works, to the glory of the Father.

Today is also of some significance to me--it is my birthday.  I will get calls and texts from close friends and family wishing me well.  I will get special Facebook postings from other friends and more distant family members, all with encouraging messages.  It is appreciated, and appropriate for this to happen today, on my special day, just as it is appropriate and no doubt appreciated by God when people turn from their sins and seek His face and His forgiveness on this special Sabbath day.

But how much more encouraging is it to receive a kind word, or text, or message on a day that is not set aside for remembrance?  If you call someone on a Monday, and just say "Hang in there, Friday's coming," that act of kindness could make all the difference in that person's life.  If you send someone a letter or message of encouragement on a random day, it may mean more to them than you know.  Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more, as you see the Day approaching."

The Bible says that the angels rejoice when a person on earth comes to repentance.  God wants to hear from you today--not just on the Day of Atonement, but whenever it is called Today.  2 Corinthians 6:2 says, "At just the right time I heard you.  At just the right time I helped you.  Indeed, the right time is now.  Today is the day of salvation."  There will come a Day when Jesus will return for his flock.  Heaven beckons us home; let us not lose hope.  God desires fellowship with us, both now and in heaven in the future.

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here?
If you gotta start sometime, why not now?
If we gotta start somewhere, I say here
If we gotta start sometime, I say now

Through the fog there is hope in the distance
From cathedrals to third world missions
Love will fall to the earth like a crashing wave

Tonight's the night
For the sinners and the saints
Two worlds collide
In a beautiful display

It's all love tonight
When we step across the line
We can sail across the sea
To a city with one king
A city on our knees
A city on our knees, oh

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here?
If you gotta start sometime, why not now?
If we gotta start somewhere, I say here
If we gotta start sometime, I say now

Through the fog there is hope in the distance
From cathedrals to third world missions
Love will fall to the earth like a crashing wave

Tonight's the night
For the sinners and the saints
Two worlds collide
In a beautiful display

It's all love tonight
When we step across the line
We can sail across the sea
To a city with one king
A city on our knees
A city on our knees, oh

Tonight couldn't last forever
We are one choice from together
Tonight couldn't last forever, oh

Tonight couldn't last forever
We are one choice from together
Family, we're family

Oh, tonight couldn't last forever
We are one choice from together
You and me
Yeah, you and me

Tonight's the night
For the sinners and the saints
Two worlds collide in a glorious display
'Cause it's all love tonight when we step across the line

We can sail across the sea to a city with one king
A city on our knees, a city on our knees, oh
A city on our knees, a city on our knees, oh

If we gotta start somewhere, why not here?
If we gotta start sometime, why not now?
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/tobymac/city-on-our-knees-lyrics/#8d7XbMmyv6UD5TDq.99

Spiritual Soil Samples

All of the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen!  Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.  Amen!"  --Revelation 7: 11-12

Where to start?  I have much to share, dear friends, and do not want my words to get in the way of my meaning.  I, like the angels in the above passage, want to fulfill what Jesus said was the first and greatest commandment, to wit: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  Why?  Because Praise belongs to God forever; Glory belongs to God forever; Wisdom belongs to God forever; as do Thanks and Honor and Power and Strength.  All seven belong to Him.

It is Wisdom and the Mind that I want to focus on here.  The Bible says that wisdom belongs to God.  So how can we give Him wisdom?  By focusing our mind solely and completely on Him.  By meditating on His Word.  By defending Him in the court of public opinion.  I think we are all called to be Christian apologists, defending the Gospel at every opportunity.  So why don't we?  The answer, I think, can be found in the Parable of the Sower.

Listen!  A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil.  It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.  Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.  Still other seed fell on good soil.  It came up, grew, and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times. --Mark 4:3-8

Jesus went on to explain the parable.

The farmer sows the Word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown.  As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.  Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time.  When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away.  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful.  Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown. --Mark 4:14-20

 Growing up in an evangelical church, this parable was always associated in sermons about evangelism.  You want to sow the seed, the Word of God, and some will accept it, others will reject it, but you still sow the seed because you never know who is ready for salvation.  But I think it is more than the word of Salvation.  We live in a time where there is more access to the gospel than at any time in history.  In the United States, as in most industrialized countries in the world, there is almost universal literacy.  People can read it for themselves.  Not only that, but every media platform, from television to Twitter, has people proclaiming the gospel.  You almost have to stick your head in the sand to keep from hearing it.

So the point of the parable is not necessarily the sower, but the condition of the soil.  I don't know about you, but I want to be productive in my Christian walk.  I want to bear good fruit.  In order to do that, I must prepare my mind.

The Path
Every gardener knows that hard-packed soil is difficult to plant in.  As people and animals trample along the path, they push the soil down so that it becomes dense.  Anything that lands on it will sit on top of the soil, not be absorbed into it.  It will sit there until it dies, or until it is washed away or carried off.  It could become trampled underfoot.  None of these situations is a good thing for the Word of God.

So if I want to absorb the Word of God into my life, I need to do some preparation.  I might want to aerate the soil, plow it up so that it is loose, and not so dense.  That way it can absorb water and nutrients after it receives the seed.  I don't want to be so hard-headed, so rigid in my thinking, that nothing can penetrate my thoughts.  The plow may not be pleasant at the time, but without it the Word of God will just bounce off, and be swept away.

I might also want to divert the path around my thoughts.  I wouldn't want to have people continually trampling through.  Their boots may make lasting impressions, but the upshot of it is that either the soil will need to be re-sifted, or the seed will not take root.  So not only do I want to prepare the soil, but I also want to build a hedge or a fence around my mind.  I can decide who and what I let in, and everyone else can be shut out.  I want to let the Sower in, the one who brings the Words of Life.  I want to leave the Philosopher out, as he will sit in my garden and pack the soil down with the seat of his pants.  I want to feed the soil with the Scriptures, and water it daily with prayer.

The Rocks
We all have a world view, a series of truths we hold to be self-evident.  The foundation of your thinking might be science, or logic, or laws.  These hard and fast rules of our life are like stones in our mind.  Some may be just on the surface, like stepping stones.  Others may be deeply held beliefs, difficult to dig around.  So when the Word of God appears like a seed in our minds, the roots compete with the rocks for space in the soil.  The rocks are hard.  The roots are tender.  Guess which one wins?

The thing is, rocks don't produce fruit.  If you want to be fruitful, especially in your spiritual life, you might have to gather up the stones and throw them out.  You might have to dig deep, and loosen the deeply held beliefs that stand in the way of your receiving the Word.  The stone may be heavy, and it may be difficult to remove.  So you have to decide--does it stay or does it go?

What do I mean?  Well, if your world view centers on the principles of evolution following the Big Bang, then that doesn't leave much room for the concept of Creation, does it?  If God did not create the world in six days, then Jesus' prayer in John 17:24 kind of rings hollow: "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." (Logically, if there is no creation, then there is no glory, no heaven, no power of the Father, and Jesus is a liar.  Think about it.)  If there was no creative act by God, then marriage isn't meant to last forever, because Jesus made this analogy: "Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh"?  So they are no longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew 19:4-6).  See, the world does not hold to the scriptural world view, thinking that man is a random gathering of cells and matter, and therefore lasting relationships don't matter--the only thing that makes a heterosexual relationship important is procreation, and then you can go on your way. Does that sound like a fruitful way to live?

If your world view is founded on logic, then the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ does not fit into your rock garden, because that just could not happen in real life.  But if you want to be spiritually minded, and fruitful in your Christian walk, you might need to dig up the logic stone and throw it away.  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." (1Corinthians 1:18).  Why, even the laws of mathematics are subject to him.  Where else but the Bible do you learn that you can live more fruitfully with 90% of your income if you are faithful with a tithe than you can be with 100% of your income without being faithful?  I don't mean to say that when you accept Christ your intellect goes out the window.  I'm only pointing out that truth, when viewed through the prism of faith, takes on a different hue.  So called "white light" can be separated into different colors and the various wavelengths explored.  So, too, is the prism of faith used to open up a whole new world of knowledge and wonder to us, if we are willing to keep an open mind.

The Thorns
Many of us accept the Word of God, and let it grow in our lives.  But because of worries about "what will people think" or "this is just not politically correct", the Word does not bear fruit in our lives.  Fear strangles the Word, and makes it unproductive.  And what good is the Word if it does not produce fruit?  Some of us have it for "fire insurance" to keep us out of hell, and it is as ineffective as a pot-holder in a drawer by the stove.  No one can see it; it's only important if you handle something hot; and it is hidden away 99% of the time.  Pot holders do not bear fruit.

I read an essay about novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson.  She is quoted as saying:

I hate to say it, but I think a default posture of human beings is fear.  What it comes down to--and I think this has become prominent in our culture recently--is that fear is an excuse. "I would like to have done something, but of course I couldn't." Fear is so opportunistic that people can call on it under the slightest provocations.  "He looked at me funny."  Fear has, in this moment, a respectability I have never seen in my life.

She goes on to say:

One of the things that bothers me is that there are prohibitions of an unarticulated kind, that are culturally felt, that prevent people from actually saying what they think.  If you're Jewish or Catholic, you can make all the jokes about your mother or the nun, but in terms of saying on one's deathbed, "what will it mean to me that this is how I would have described myself, how does the cosmos feel as it nestles in my particular breast?"--they are completely inarticulate about that.

So the fears of the world, both spoken and unspoken, keep most people from speaking out about their faith, from being fruitful in the Word. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self control." (Amplified Bible)  These things overlap what is known as the fruit of the Spirit--love, discipline and self control. (See Galatians 5:22-23).  We don't share our faith, because we don't want folks to look at us funny.  We don't bear fruit as God intended, because we hide our light under a bushel.


So, friends, prepare your minds for the Words of Life.  Plow up the fallow ground so that you can receive the Word and absorb it.  Gather and remove the stones and stumps that trip up your Christian walk, and that prohibit the Word from taking root.  Weed out the thorn bushes that would choke your message, and keep the Word from producing fruit in you.  Only then will you be like the good soil; only then will the Word of God be fruitful in your life.  Give God praise, and glory, and the wisdom that is His, even though it may be folly to the world.