Sing Thankfully

In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you. --1 Thes. 5:18

The sermon this last Sunday was all about how to have a meaningful quiet time.  Our Pastor said when he was in his quiet time one day, he felt the Lord encouraging him to sing.  The first thought that came into his mind was, "Lord, have you heard me sing?"  God seemed to be saying, Yes, and I love it.  The second thought that came into the Preacher's mind was, "Well, what do you want me to sing?"  The answer was Sing the Song I put in your Heart this Morning.

I often have a song on my heart in the morning.  Last week, it was the old hymn Be Thou My Vision. You might remember that I put it in one of my blog posts.  So this week I have paid more attention to the first song on my mind in the morning.  I don't sing in the shower, but I do pray.  Many, many times a song pops into my head.  Lately it has been the old hymns.  Yesterday it was Come Thou Fount.  For those who don't know it, here is the text:

1. Come, thou Fount of every blessing, 
tune my heart to sing thy grace; 
streams of mercy, never ceasing, 
call for songs of loudest praise. 
Teach me some melodious sonnet, 
sung by flaming tongues above. 
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, 
mount of thy redeeming love. 

2. Here I raise mine Ebenezer; 
hither by thy help I'm come; 
and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 
safely to arrive at home. 
Jesus sought me when a stranger, 
wandering from the fold of God; 
he, to rescue me from danger, 
interposed his precious blood. 

3. O to grace how great a debtor 
daily I'm constrained to be! 
Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 
bind my wandering heart to thee. 
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
prone to leave the God I love; 
here's my heart, O take and seal it, 
seal it for thy courts above. 

Meditate on those lyrics for a moment.  Think of the Psalms, where David describes the blessings of God as streams.  Think of the little shepherd boy with his harp, tuning the strings so that he could learn to play so beautifully that King Saul summonned him to the palace to play his music. (See 1 Samuel 16:23).  Then think of the songs the angels sing in Revelation 5.  Exodus 24 talks about Moses going up on Mount Sinai, which was called the Mount of God, and staying there in the presence of God for forty days.  Wouldn't you like to be in God's presence that long, fixed in one place while He teaches and feeds and blesses you?  And that's just the first verse of the hymn!

The second verse begins with a reference to 1 Samuel 7:12.  Here it is in the New Living Translation: "Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah.  He named it Ebenezer (which means "the stone of help"), for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us."  The hymn writer immediately goes to Luke 15, where Jesus compared His mission to leaving the 99 sheep and searching for the one that was lost. (You could also make the case for the Prodigal Son being the inspiration for the text in verse 2).

The last verse points to the grace of God, in that He freely gave up His Son for us, and how we owe him our lives and our fortunes forever.  We should willingly yoke ourselves to Him, because in Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus invites us to be paired with Him, because "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Even as our hearts tend to wander away from Him, yet we wear the seal of God on our foreheads (Revelation 9:4) which will mark us as His own at the end.

Today, the first song I thought of was Now Thank We All Our God, which I thought was appropriate with Thanksgiving Day just two days away.  If you haven't heard it, here is are the words:

1. Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices; who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today. 
2. O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us; and keep us still in grace, and guide us when perplexed; and free us from all ills, in this world and the next. 
3. All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given; the Son, and Spirit blest, who reign in highest heaven; the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore. 

 We must thank God always, because this is His will for us (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  Not just with our mouths, but with our hearts and our hands also.  We all know the phrase "heartfelt thanks".  This is how we know it is sincere.  But the hymnwriter goes even further than that, and tells us to Thank God with our hands, as well.  Whatever you set your hands to do, do it with all your might, as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23).  Why?  Because of all the works He has done for us, from the time of our youth until now. "Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds." (Psalm 71:17).

The second verse is one of the hardest texts set to music I have ever sung.  The musicians among you will understand: there is a half-note above the rhyming words "Perplexed" and "Next", but there is no way to hold those words out on pitch and then cut off at the same time as everyone else in the choir or congregation.  Yet the verse is so deep, it could be borrowed as a prayer to recite over your Thanksgiving meal.  God is near to those who are near to Him.  That thought should give us everlasting joy, to think of the grace He so richly bestows on us.  And yes, we do sometimes get perplexed, and need His wisdom to guide us.

The last verse teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.  So many of the old hymns were used to teach the truths of Scripture in such a way that people (many of whom were illiterate) could remember.  God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all in one.  He is the Alpha and Omega, the One who was and is and is to come (Revelation 1:8).  No wonder we praise Him so!

Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name Of the Lord

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  From the house of the Lord we bless you.  --Psalm 118:26

When I was in high school I remember going to youth camp every summer.  We would have breakfast every morning, then go to devotional time, then do sports, have lunch, and have free time in the afternoon.  Every evening after dinner we would all meet together at the open-air auditorium and have a worship service.  There was usually a guest preacher called in for that entire week, so we would hear a series of sermons from someone who was not our pastor.

The worship services were structured very much like the Sunday services at the churches we attended.  There would be participatory singing of spiritual songs (not the stuffy hymns they sang in church), then some general anouncements, a soloist or band to sing a song to get us prepared to sit still, a prayer, and then the sermon.  One very vivid memory I have after almost 40 years was of one particular pre-sermon prayer.

You see, most of us had grown up in church.  We knew that during a prayer, we all reverently bowed our heads and listened.  The prayer generally began with "Dear Lord," or maybe "Our Heavenly Father," or sometimes the one-word beginning, "God."  We all knew we could check out mentally for a few minutes, until we heard the next code words, signalling that the prayer was almost over.  Those code words were, "In Jesus' Name."  Whenever we heard someone say, "In Jesus' Name," we knew that the next word would be "Amen."

But this one youth pastor got up to pray, and his prayer was a bit different.  He prayed that we would all live as intentional Christians.  He prayed that every thing we did from this moment on would be in the name of the Lord.  So he was praying along, and said something like, "Let us all live our lives in Jesus' Name."  Instinctively, half the group sat down.  We all jumped back up again when he started another phrase that didn't begin with "amen."  Some of us thought he might have remembered something or some one who needed special prayer, that he had forgotten.  So we listened a little more intently.  He said something like, "We want to do all that we do in Jesus' Name."  He wasn't doing what we thought he would do.  He didn't say, "Oh, before I forget, Lord, bless the guy who broke his ankle on the softball field yesterday," or "bless the kids from Friendship Baptist who all came down with food poisoning."  What he did say was different that any prayer we had heard.  So we all started listening a lot harder.  Thinking back, I'm sure he said the words "In Jesus' Name" at least ten time. When he finally did say "amen," we didn't know whether to sit, or stand, or sing Amazing Grace.

I have been thinking a lot about that particular prayer in that particular worship service that one summer at camp.  Last week, the leader of our small group Bible study said that God had given him a word for us that week, and the word he gave was "intentional."  Intentional living has been a theme in some of the radio sermons I have heard during rush hour this week.  So let's think for a few minutes about living intentionally, like Jesus did.

I mentioned praying.  We are taught in church to pray in Jesus' Name, because of what Jesus said in John 14:13-14:

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.

Most of us equate this with praying.  We ask God for blessing and favor in Jesus' Name.  Unfortunatley, many of us go days without praying.  Even the most spiritual among us may go hours between prayers.  In 1 Thesalonians 5:17, Paul told us to "pray without ceasing."  If we are always in an attitude of prayer, then our thoughts and our words will always be in Jesus' Name.

Let's take this a step further.  What if we were all like David.  You remember the story of when young David came to the battlefield with provisions, and he heard the giant Goliath taunting the army of Israel.  David had heard that Saul the king would give great wealth to anyone who fought and killed the Philistine champion, and he was astounded that not one of the soldiers in the army of God would stand up to him.  David started trying to encourage the men.  Don't you want the king to give you his daughter in marriage, and don't you want for your family to be tax-exempt?  More importantly, don't you want to defend your king, your country, and your God from this heathen?  David didn't want great wealth, or to be Saul's son-in-law.  He stood up to face Goliath when no one else did.  And what did he say to him?  "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel." (1 Samuel 17:45).

If we were all like David, we would face our battles in the name of the Lord.  If we were like Paul, we would always be thinking prayer and praise to God, in Jesus' Name.  I think, though, that God intends for us to do more than that.  He doesn't just want us to speak in His name when we pray.  He doesn't just want us to fight our battles in His name.  Micah 4:5 says, "All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever."  Not just speak.  Not just fight.  We will walk in His Name.

That means everything we do, everywhere we go, we represent Him.  Whatever we say, we say in His authority.  Whatever we purpose in our hearts to do, we will do it with all our hearts, as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23).  For some, this is a 180 degree change.  We are used to walking in fear.  But "perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18), and "God is Love" (1 John 4:8, 16).  We are used to walking in shame.  Shame steals our confidence.  Philippians 1:6 says, "For we are confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

There is an ancient Irish hymn that many of us older Christians will remember;

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
be thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
be thou ever with me, and I with thee Lord;
be thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
be thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
be thou my whole armor, be thou my true might;
be thou my soul's shelter, be thou my strong tower:
O raise thou me heavenward, great Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise:
be thou mine inheritance now and always;
be thou and thou only the first in my heart;
O Sovereign of heaven, my treasure thou art.

High King of heaven, thou heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after victory is won;
great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be thou my vision, O Ruler of all.

Look at that third verse.  It reminds me of Exodus 4:14, "The Lord will fight for you, you need only be still."  Each one of these verses begs our meditation, for they are steeped in Scripture and edify the faithful.  Echoes of the following scripture may be found in the text: Colossians 1:15-23; Colossians 2:2-3; Proverbs 9:1-6; Revelation 5:12.  I would encourage you to meditate on these scriptures while you reacquaint yourself with the hymn text.  I would also encourage you to live deliberately, in Jesus' Name--in all you say, in all you do; as you rise up and as you lie down; and in the battles you may fight from time to time, remember to come against the enemy in the Name of the Lord Almighty.  Be blessed.

Know Jesus, know peace

And my God shall supply every need of yours according to His riches in Christ Jesus.       --Philippians 4:19

What steals your peace?  The Apostle Paul wrote that "the fruit of the Spirit is...peace..."  You who have given your life to Christ, who are filled by the Spirit, can have your peace stolen, either by things you can control, or by things you can't.

In the news this week is a group of people who have taken up an injustice against one of their members.  A minority group on the University of Missouri campus took up the offense of one student who may have been called a racial epithet.  Details are sketchy, but this group of students came together and demanded change.  The president of the university resigned.  They were afforded "safe places" on campus where divisive terms and name-calling is not allowed.

About the same time this group was looking to affect more change in the name of justice, news came of a terrorist bombing in Paris, France.  In a coordinated effort not seen since 9/11, radical members of ISIS took the lives of 149 innocent people.  Hundreds more were injured.  The news cameras left the UM campus and began broadcasting images of frightened Parisians, French people whose peace was taken from them by an outside group.  Just days later, the good people of Paris are back in the street, showing the terrorists that they are not willing to have their peace shattered permanently.  They will not live in fear.

There are reports that the university students in the first story are upset about having the spotlight taken off of them.  They feel their grievances have not been fully aired.  They continue to choose to sacrifice peace for social justice.  Their focus is not on Society at large, but on the small part of society that intersects their own lives.

When Jesus taught here on Earth, he spoke about things that might steal your peace.  He spoke about nakedness and hunger and homelessness, things people worry about even today.  Stories abound about how most people are just one paycheck away from homelessness and despair.  Yet Jesus told us not to despair.

"If you decide for God, living a life of God-worhsip, it follows that you don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.  Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God.  And you count far more than birds.  Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?  All this time and money wasted on fashion--do you think it makes that much difference?  Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers.  They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it?  The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.  If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers--most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in yoiu, do his best for you?  What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.  Peoplw who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works.  Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions.  Don't worry about missing out.  You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.  Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  God will help yhou deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."  --Matthew 6:25-34, The Message

Isn't that a fresh way to look at life?  "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well."  All what things?  Things you worry about, like food, and clothes, and shelter.  Even things like injustice.  Even things like terrorists.

Fail-anthropist

On my way to work every morning I pass more than a few billboards showing the updated jackpots for multi-state lotteries.  I must admit it is very tempting to play for a chance to win more than one hundred million dollars.  Sometimes I daydream about what I would do with such a windfall.  Sometimes I bargain with God, praying that if He would just let me win, I would be a philanthropist.

As you know, a philanthropist is someone who spends his or her own money for the good of mankind.  The name comes from two Greek words:  phileo, or brotherly love, and anthropos, or mankind.  So ideally, a philanthropist would be able to show that he is a friend of all men, or that he loves mankind.  I could do that.

Unfortunately, there is no one person who is rich enough to help every person on earth.  So a philanthropist must be selective, even discriminating, on who should get the bulk of the funds available.  Should we underwrite cancer research?  How about children of prisoners?  Would we like to provide clean water to citizens of third world countries?  What about food for the hungry, or housing for the homeless, or education to help lift people out of poverty and ignorance?  There are so many needs, that even if I did come into millions, I would not be able to choose which charity is more deserving, or what people are more worthy of my help.

Sadder still is the fact that many philanthropists are not friends of people at all.  Many times they purchase a wing for a hospital to get their own name out there as a really giving person.  They give land to a community with the condition that the park be named after them.  They set up a Foundation or a Charity that bears their name, so that anyone who receives help from that institution would be indebted to them.  These people are better described by another term borrowed from the Greek: ego, or self, and maniac, someone who is crazy or out of control.

The only one with the means to help everyone, and the wisdom to know how much they need, is God Himself.  He recognized our greated need was spiritual, and out of His great love He sent His Son to die a sacrificial death so that we might have access to Him (John 3:16).  Yet when Jesus was here, the Jewish religious leaders accused him of mania, because He did not fit in their pre-determined box of what a religious person should look like.  They called him philos ton amartolon, a "friend of sinners." When He laid down His life for our sins, they rejected Him as Messiah, and saw his laying down his life as a sign of weakness, not of strength.  

The thing that the Pharisees (and some of us today) fail to realize is the depth of love that Jesus showed in laying down His life for us.  His love went way beyond philos, or brotherly love.  His love was better described by the word agapos, the highest form of love.  Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  The great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way:

When Christ has renewed us by his Spirit, there may be a temptation to imagine that some excellency in us won the Savior's heart; but, my brethren, you must understand that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Not that infant washed and swaddled, not that fair maiden with the jewel in her ear, and with the pure golden crown upon her head, not that lovely princess, presented like a chaste virgin to her husband; no, that was not what Jesus saw when he died. He saw all that in the glass of his prescience, but the actual condition of that fair maid was very different when he died for her; she was cast out, unwashed, unsalted, unswaddled, in her blood, a foul, filthy thing. Ah! my brethren, there is no filthy thing under heaven so filthy as a filthy sinner. When there was not a ray of beauty to be discovered in us, when neither without nor within a single thing could be found to commend us, but we were morally altogether abhorrent to the Holy nature of Christ, then—oh wondrous grace!—he came from the highest heaven that the mass of our sin might meet on him.

Isaiah 53:6 says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."  Think of the astounding mass of sin that must have been laid on Jesus, Him who knew no sin.  Again, Spurgeon says:

Now do not jump at it, and say, "Yes, the sins of the millions of his elect." Do not leap at that, get at it by degrees. Begin with your own sin. Have you ever felt that?—your own sin. No, you never felt the full weight of it; if you did you would have been in hell. It is the weight of sin that makes hell. Sin bears its own punishment in its own weight. Do you remember when you felt that the pains of hell get hold upon you, and you found trouble and sorrow? That hour when you called upon the name of the Lord, saying, "O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul!" Then you only felt as it were the little end of your sins, but all your sins, what must they weigh! How old are you? You know not how old you may be before you enter into rest, but all the sins of all your years he carried. All the sins against light and knowledge, sins against law and gospel, week-day sins, Sabbath sins, hand sins, lip sins, heart sins, sins against the Father, sins against the Son, sins against the Holy Ghost, sins of all shapes, all laid upon him; can you get the thought now? Now multiply that. Think of the sins of all the rest of his people; persecutions and murders at the door of such an one as Saul of Tarsus; adultery at the door of David—sins of every shape and size, for God's elect have been among the chief of sinners; those whom he has chosen have not been the best of men by nature, but some of them the very worst, and yet sovereign grace delighted to find a home for itself where seven devils had dwelt before, nay, where a legion of devils held their carnival. Christ looks abroad among the sons of men, and while a Pharisee is passed by, Zaccheus the publican is selected—and the sins of all these with their full weight laid upon him. The weight of sin would have crushed all these into hell for ever, and yet Christ bore all that weight; and what if I venture to say the very eternity and infinity of wrath that was due for all that mass of sin, the Son of God, marvellously sustained by the infinity of the Godhead within, bore and sustained the whole. I would like to stop a minute and let you turn it over, but when you go home perhaps you will spend half an hour very profitably in thinking that

"The enormous load of human guilt
Was on my Savior laid;
With woes as with a garment he
For sinners was array'd."

My friends, our ultimate aim should not be that of a philanthropist, as one who must love men.  Our highest aim should be that of agape-theist, one who loves the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Anything less is missing the mark.

"Current"-ly Praying

And now I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, "The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the inquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation." --Numbers 14:17-18

O the awesome power of God!  "Be exalted, O God, in Your own strength!  We will sing and praise Your power." (Psalm 21:13).

I was thinking today about the last time an electrician was in my house.  I had replaced some outlets in the upstairs bedroom, but when I was done, there was no power.  I checked and rechecked the connections.  Each of the live wires was connected securely.  When I had given up hope, I called a friend with some knowledge of electricity, and he said, "You've got no current."  He checked the wires, and found out that I was not grounded properly.  When he was done, power flowed freely through all four outlets.  We had current.

Today I was reminded of that episode while I was struggling to stay plugged in to God.  After the morning I had, I was ready to turn off, power down, and go dark.  But I didn't, and it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.  Throughout the day, I kept the channel of prayer open to God.  He never fails.

Electricians call the stream of electrons that run through the wires in our home "current".  If there is no current, there is no power.  With no current, your appliances are dead.  The word "current" can also mean belonging to the present time; happening or being used now.

As I think about these two uses of the word "current", I think of a spiritual word play.  Without a continual, present-tense connection to electricity, an appliance will not work.  It could have been plugged in yesterday; it can certainly be plugged in tomorrow.  But unless the connection to the "current" is current, the appliance is useless.

I think this is why the Apostle Paul admonished us to "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  If we fail to give thanks in all circumstances, we get run down.  If we fail to pray at all times, we grow powerless.  Our prayers must be "current" to give us strength to go on day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.  If we fail to connect to the Power Source, there is no "current" in our lives.

On the other hand, if we do learn to pray without ceasing, to rejoice always, the result is electrifying!

Providence

The longer I live, the more faith I have in Providence, and the less faith in my interpretations of Providence. --Jeremiah Day

 I am struck, as always, by the everlasting mercy of a gracious God.   His mercy and grace can be seen even in the most mundane things.  They are evicenced even in the minutiae of each day.

So it was, when I took up my Bible after a brief haiatus, promising to be faithful again in daily reading.  My first assignment was a passage in Leviticus.  "O, Lord," I thought.  "This is surely a test."  In my experience, reading through the Law in the Old Testament can be quite dry and uninspiring.  Yet as I slogged through the passage, the 14th chapter to be exact, God opened my eyes to something I had not seen before.

We are all quite familiar with the story of how Jesus healed the ten lepers, and only one came back to thank Him.  The command that Jesus gave to all ten was to "go, show yourselves to the priests." (Luke 17:14).  This action of going before the priests for inspection, to be declared clean, was actually a lengthy process.  The process is described in greater detail in Leviticus 14.  The Jewish people in Jesus' day were aware of this process, much more aware than those of us Gentiles on this side of the Cross.  I believe it is important to know the background, so that we can more fully understand the Bible.

You see, Jesus came to fulfill the law, not abolish it.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."  --Matthew 5:17-20

Jesus went on in this passage to compare the Law to true Righteousness: The Law says do not murder, but I say don't hate (or be angry with)  your brother.  The Law says do not commit adultery, but I say to you don't look lustfully at a member of the opposite sex.  The Law says love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say love your enemy.  On and on Jesus goes beyond what was written in the Law.  And yet we, because we love Freedom (or perhaps because we are lazy), overlook the Law and rely solely on Grace.

Let me show you how the Law is a picture of Grace.  Leviticus 14 tells us what Jesus meant when He told the ten lepers to "go, show yourselves to the priests", and why He marvelled when only one came back to thank Him.  I won't quote verbatim, but will summarize, inserting my own observations of how Grace is evident in the Law.  See if you don't agree.

No other disease in the ancient world was more feared than leprosy.  It could not be hidden.  It was usually incurable.  It was highly contageous, so that if one had it, then he had to be separated from the rest of society.  If he was going to move about where people are, he had to warn others of his approach.  "Unclean!  Unclean!!"  But if the symptoms seemed to resolve, then the job of reintigrating those people back into society fell upon the priests.

The priests were to examing the person outside the camp.  If he could find no evidence of the disease, then the leper was to provide two doves (or pigeons, or some other clean bird), along with some cedar wood, some hyssop, and some scarlet yarn.  The priest would wring the neck of one of the birds over a bowl of clean water.  The yarn, hyssop, and live bird would be dipped in the bowl, which collected the blood of the dead bird.  Then the priest would sprinkle the blood of the dead bird on the supplicant seven times.  Finally, the priest would release the live bird, stained with the blood of the sacrifice, to fly away in an open field.  Then the supplicant would be declared clean, and would be allowed back into the city.

I think the sprinkling of the blood sacrifice reminds us that we are stained with sin.  Yet by the Grace of God, our sin is lifted off of us, and flies up to the heavens, as signified by the release of the live bird into the open field.  "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin." (Hebrews 9:22)  This, though, is just the beginning of the process of being declared clean.

The second step is that the supplicant must wash his clothes, and bathe, and shave off all his hair.  Only then could he be seen as ceremonially clean.  I think this signifies a separation from our sin.  We don't want to continue to associate with the things we surrounded ourselves with when we were under sin.  Anything that covered us--the blood that had been sprinkled on us, our clothes, even our hair--must all be removed so that we can be reminded of our separation from sin.  We must approach God with clean hands and a clean heart. (Psalm 24:4)

Even then, the supplicant could not return to his home.  For seven days, he had to stay outside his home.  On the seventh day, he would again be required to shave off all his hair, bathe himself and wash his clothes.  Again, I think this was a week-long reminder that God is our covering.  Everything we hold dear, everything that is close to us, everything that covers us and hides our sin--all of it must be removed in order for us to be in good standing before God.  "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord." (Job 1:21)

Finally, three more sacrifices had to be made.  The supplicant was to bring two male and one female lambs, without blemish, to the priest.  The first was to be a guilt or a sin offering.  This type of offering was known as a "wave offering".  This means that it was to be bled completely, and put next to the fire, and the cooked meat was to be waved in the presence of the Lord.  The priest would eat it, he and his family together.  This was to be a sacrifice for specific sins, sins that the supplicant had committed prior.  As a symbol of God's grace, the priest was to take some of the blood, and smear it on the right earlobe of the supplicant.  Some blood also was to be smeared on the right thumb and the right great toe.  Then the priest was to take some oil and pour it into his cupped left hand.  The priest would dip his right forefinger into the oil and wipe the blood from the earlobe, the thumb, and the right great toe of the supplicant.  The rest of the oil was to be placed on the supplicant's head.

I think the meal is significant.  It is restoring fellowship to the applicant.  Cooking the male lamb, waving it before the Lord, and consuming it together was an act of Communion.  The placement of the blood on the ear, thumb, and toe of the supplicant may have consecrated his mind--his thoughts, what he heard, and what he said--as well as the work of his hands, and his going and coming.  Every part of him was consecrated to the Lord.  The anointing of oil removed the blood, but it was also signifying a setting apart.  Kings and priests were annointed with oil.  "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You annoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." (Psalm 23:5)

The other two lambs were also killed.  One was to be a burnt offering, totally consumed by fire.  The smoke that arose signified the sharing of the sacrificial meal with God Himself.  I am reminded that the act of Communion is never just between the pastor and the parishioners.  God Himself should be included.  The third lamb was to be a sin offering, or offering of atonement.  It was not so much for specific sins, as to remind the supplicant that he was a sinner.  It was for the general sin condition, into which we are all born.

Going back to the beginning of the discussion, this process was to be initiated by one who had been healed of leprosy.  It was a done deal.  Remember the New Testament passage, when Jesus healed the ten men.  They were healed.  But under the regulations outlined in Leviticus, each of the steps must be completed by "the person to be cleansed", or "the person who wants to be cleansed."  Think about it.  Each of us has been forgiven by God Himself.  However, if we want full restoration within His fellowship and with the fellowship of Believers, we must make amends.  We must go through a process to reconnect.

Salvation is a one-time event, but the Apostle Paul said for us to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12)  Paul definitely knew what he was talking about.  He audibly heard the voice of God at his own conversion.  Yet because of  his background as a zealot, a persecutor of the Church, many were at first reluctant to allow them into their fellowship.  It is not the Journey that saves us, but it is through the fire that we are refined.

“My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.

Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.

Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned

He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.” 
― Corrie ten Boom

A Life Well Planned

My daughter was in a wedding recently.  No, she was not the bride.  She was the maid of honor. What a ton of work she had to do!  By the time it was all over, well, let's just say she was very happy for the newlywed couple.  Verrrry happy.

I started thinking about weddings, church weddings in particular.  If we followed that same blueprint throughout our marriage, there would be no more divorce.  Let me show you what I mean.

The Planning
Every detail is planned out in advance, from the guest list to the decorations to the vows to the reception.  Every moment is special, because it was thought out in advance.  Sometimes well in advance.

Now if we planned out our marriage the way we planned the wedding, there would be fewer mistakes.  I know that unexpected things happen in life.  But if you are following a plan, you'll know better how to handle life's little surprises.

I don't mean you have to plan where you'll live, what you'll drive, or what career you will have for the rest of your life.  Those things are subject to change.  I know young women who just knew they'd marry a businessman (or a blue collar worker, or a cowboy), and they'd work to save up a down payment on a house, and they'd get pregnant by the time she was 24, and they'd have two (or three) kids, who would go to the best schools....  On and on it goes.  When unexpected things happen, like sickness, or debt, or infertility, or job loss--when these things happen, we are often devastated.

How, then, can we plan ahead in life?  What plans can we make with any certainty that, whatever else happens, this will come about?  Again, let's use the wedding as an example.

The Church
When my wife and I were engaged, a lot things depended upon which church we chose.  We wanted to be married in the church where we met, where many of our friends were.  But there were some dates, for instance, that were not available.  In fact, if we wanted a summer wedding, there were exactly two dates available at that church.  People still ask us what was the significance of August 19--why did we choose to be married on that date?  We tell them it was either then or August 26; anything other than those dates, and we would have had to choose a different church.

I have discovered that a lot of things depend on which church you choose to attend.  Are you being fed?  Are you engaged in the worship experience?  Do you have friends there?  Is your being there a special event?  I don't mean you go once a year on special occasions, like Easter or Christmas.  I mean that every time you go, as often as you attend, do you put in as much preparation as you did the day you were married?

Think back to your wedding day.  Or if you are still single, think of the last wedding you attended. There were probably flowers, maybe some candles.  There was music that you enjoyed, that you remember still.  Who put all those decorations there?  It wasn't the church staff.  It was probably you, or your family and close friends.  The same thing goes on today.  We go to church expecting the pastor or staff to do all the work, but we contribute nothing.  More often than not, with that attitude, we leave the church as empty as we were when we came in.

Hebrews 10:25 says, "We should not stop gathering together with other believers, as some of you are doing. Instead, we must continue to encourage each other even more as you see the Day drawing near."

The Preacher
Many pastors in churches today will not agree to perform the ceremony unless they meet with the couple first.  Some require pre-marital counseling, and some may want to meet with the couple several times.  At the very least, the pastor will ask what you want to get out of the ceremony, and then will share what he wants to do for his part.  The entire wedding party will be present at the rehearsal, so that on the Big Day, everyone knows what to expect.

How many of us are so involved in the church that we ask the preacher what he'll be sharing the next Sunday?  If you really want to surprise your minister, look at the next Sunday's sermon title and Bible passage in the church bulletin or the church mailer, and then read the passage beforehand.  You might even want to write a short devotion on that passage and take it with you to the Sunday service.  The Bible is so rich, and has so many different layers, that the homework you do may line up perfectly with the sermon, or it might pull something completely different from the Scripture passage.  Then, if you have a chance to speak to your pastor after the service, you can encourage him with your knowledge of the passage instead of just shaking his hand and mumbling, "Good sermon."

Why do you think that is so far-fetched?  Remember what I said about preparing for life as you would prepare for your wedding day?  Many of us want to write our own vows to share on our wedding day.  As the Church, we are the Bride of Christ (Matthew 25; Ephesians 5; 2 Corinthians 11).  We want to reaffirm our love for God, in a church setting, before a priest or a pastor.

Don't let you wedding day be the last time you speak to your pastor face to face.

The Guest List
There are some people you have to invite to your wedding, like Aunt Getrude or Cousin George.  Then there are people you want to invite to your marriage celebration.  Those people are invested in your lives.  They are there to support you.  They are there to rejoice with you.  They are there to pick you up when you fall.

A good Best Man will make sure the Groom shows up on time, and is dressed and sober by the time the wedding starts.  A good Best Friend will call you on Sunday to make sure you are up and ready to go to church.  If we surround ourselves with celebrants who love God and love us, we are less likely to backslide out of the church experience.  Yes, you can worship God wherever you are, just like you can get married just about any place.  But just as there is something special about a church wedding, there is also something missing if you spend your Sundays at the lake or watching the game.  Finding friends who will share that passion with you, who will encourage you in your Christian walk, is invaluable to your spiritual life.

Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."  If you choose to hang out with friends who are on fire for God, then you can be encouraged in your daily walk with Christ, as well.

Most of the time, the guests at the wedding are also invited to the wedding reception.  This is usually a big party with our best friends.  A meal is usually shared together.  Everyone in attendance wishes the happy couple success in life and joy forever.  No expense is spared--this may be the biggest party you'll ever throw.  The Bible talks about heaven as "the Wedding Supper of the Lamb."  God spared no expense to see that you are together with Jesus forever.

From time to time, I think, there ought to be parties in life.  Fellowship with like-minded believers is very important to our spiritual health.  Spare no expense.  Go all out.  Throw the biggest party you can, as often as you can.  Just make sure you invite good people that you wouldn't mind spending Eternity with.

The Vows
As I have mentioned before, the vows we take before God, His Church and each other are very serious.  In the same way, the affirmations of our faith that we make every week can encourage us greatly to be faithful, loyal, trustworthy and true.  Many men I know have said that one big reason they didn't cheat on their wives was that they had promised "for better or worse, in sickness and in health, to forsake all others as long as you both shall live."

As we go on through life, there are certain affirmations we need to make.  It doesn't hurt us to repeat aloud "I will love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength."  We need to speak Scripture over our lives, over our jobs, over our friends.  This will encourage us to be faithful.  It reminds us to keep things in perspective.  And when we make mistakes, we remember that we are in a covenant relationship with a God who is always faithful, always true.

2 Timothy 2:13 says, "If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is."  None of us is perfect, but we serve a perfect God.  In this way, God models forgiveness toward us, so that we in turn can forgive others.

I'm So Broke I Can't Pay Attention--God Please Use Me

For the wages of sin is death, but the FREE gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.  --Romans 6:23

Not long ago I was complaining to my son about being overdrawn in one of my accounts.  He found a video online of some stand-up comic (no, I don't remember who it was, and I am too lazy to look it up), who was also complaining of being broke.  Part of his schtick was to complain about the bank's "low balance" charge. "It's like, 'You don't have enough money in the account, so we are going to take some of what you don't have.'  I guess the bank needs it more than I do."  And my favorite quip was about being overdrawn.  "So I have negative ten dollars in my account.  I am worse than broke.  I have less than nothing.  I can't even take something that's offered to me for free.  It's like, 'Free, Take One,' but I say, 'No!!  That free thing is going to cost me ten bucks.' "

I thought of that comedy routine this morning as I was listening to a radio preacher talk about the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price.  Jesus was teaching the people what the kingdom of heaven is like.

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.  When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought the field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.  --Matthew 13:44-46.

Essentially, Jesus was saying that finding heaven is worth giving up everything you have.  You have to come to Jesus empty, without any distractions.  You can't have anything in your life that is more valuable to you than He is.

The parable He told had two examples.  One is some fellow who just happened upon a treasure.  Here he is, walking through a field that is not his.  He is probably taking a shortcut, somewhere off the beaten path.  He is not actively looking for treasure; he just stumbles upon it.  When he sees what it is, and how valuable it is, he is willing to go sell everything he has to buy the field.  Why?  Is he interested in real estate?  No, I don't think so.  The field is where the treasure is.  If he wants the treasure that much, it must be worth a lot more than the land it is buried in.

The other example is a businessman.  He is a trader, a buyer and seller of goods.  He is actively seeking the Next Big Thing.  When he sees this pearl, he recognizes its value.  He knows its worth.  He is willing to sell everything he has to own this one amazing pearl.  This is no accident.  He is not some untrained person who sees the pearl and doesn't recognize its worth.  There may have been dozens, even hundreds, who saw this pearl and passed on by.  But this man knew its value, so much so that he divested himself of everything to get it.

The real world example is some people are not looking for God.  They are spiritually hungry, but when He appears to them, it is quite a surprise.  Others may be actively seeking.  They, too, are spiritually hungry, but they know what they want and know where to go look for it.  Others may see the treasure, shrug their shoulders, and say, "I'll never be able to afford that."  Others may look at the pearl and think, "I hate pearls.  I'd rather have something else."

God knows who is ready to receive Him.  He knows our minds, and will reveal Himself to us if we seek Him with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13).  I'll confess that when I was younger I studied evangelism.  The men I looked up to, the great evangelists, would get hundreds of people to pray the sinner's prayer.  My father, the pastor that he was, measured the success of his church by how many people were baptized each year.  Both those are great things.  Making confessions of faith and being baptized are the first steps in knowing Christ personally.  But we never know how many fall away, how many slip back into sin or are swallowed up by the world.  Remember the parable of the sower? It was the seed that fell on good ground that took root and produced a hundred-fold.  These are the people who know the worth of the treasure they have found, and are willing to give up everything to keep it.

I know several people who made a profession of faith when they were young.  Many who were baptized.  But now they pursue worldly pleasures, and have forgotten God.  They go out drinking and partying every weekend.  They take the boat out on the lake.  They chase women.  This is what they live for.  God knows it is not what they were made for.  We are made to glorify Him, and to have fellowship with Him forever.

I made a profession of faith when I was just seven years old.  I was baptized.  Thankfully, though, over the years I have realized that nothing I own, nothing I can earn, nothing I can create can compare to the love of God through our Savior Jesus Christ.  Sometimes I have been distracted by sinful pleasures, by possessions, by my work or my leisure time.  From time to time God has to remind me that all of these things are standing between me and Him.  In order to get to Him, I have to put away all my toys, put off my work, ignore the worldly pleasures around me.  Only then can I get close to Him, and pursue Him with all my heart.

Yest, the love of God is a free gift.  But in the end, it costs us everything.  It is only when we empty ourselves that we can be used by God in a mighty way.

Washing With Water And The Word

God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up.  They're created new every morning.  How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with GOD (I say it over and over).  He's all I've got left.  --Lamentations 3:22-24 (The Message)

I saw the movie War Room yesterday.  What a great film!  I found myself wiping tears from my eyes several times during the story.  Basically, every time they depicted the grace of God in the lives of men and women, I teared up.  (I will confess at shedding one or two tears when seeing Les Miserables--even though it is a secular story, it has moments of grace in it as well.)

As we were leaving the theater, my wife commented how the story line parrallels our own marriage in many ways.  I had to stop her in the parking lot and look her in the eyes to thank her for showing grace to me years ago when we divorced and remarried.  More recently than that, there were times when I would not shed tears for anything or anyone.  I was like an emotional zombie.  But the older I get, the more grateful I am for grace.  It brings tears to my eyes every time.

The marriage relationship is a fantastic vehicle for grace.  I think that is why the Apostle Paul used marriage as a picture of Jesus' relationship with us.  In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul admonished husbands to love their wives, "just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,. to make her holy"  He goes on in the very next verse to explain exactly how Christ makes her (the church) holy, and by extension how we (people) should treat our spouses:

To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to prsent her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church. --Ephesians 5:26-29

The first thing I do every morning as soon as I get out of bed is take a shower.  Without that washing of my own body, I feel stinky and smelly, sweaty and oily; I don't want to be around anybody until I have had my shower.  I would not think of going more than one day without a shower.  Yet how many times have I gone days and days without "the washing of the Word"?  My Bible gathers dust as I try to face life's challenges myself, without any help.  Is it any wonder I struggle during those times?

Think about it:  Most of us in the First World bathe once a day.  We brush our teeth twice a day.   We wash our hands multiple times a day, either after they become unclean, or just before cooking or eating.  And yet we try to get by with just a weekly (or longer) episode of the washing of the Word.  Then, if someone comes to us who is filthier than we are, who needs a spiritual cleansing, we act like it is beneath us to minister to them, to care for them spiritually.  Are we really so holy that we cannot lower ourselves to the position of the drunks and prostitutes in order to help them out?  Or do we really have a knowledge deep down in our souls that we are just as sinful as they are, and we don't want our own sins to be exposed?

I know that my walk with Jesus is deeper and more fulfilling when I read my Bible some every day.  This is what I mean by the washing of the Word.  Read it.  Study the Scriptures.  "Be ready, in season and out of season," to share the Gospel message (2 Timothy 4:2).  To really be prepared, I must take the time every day to be in the Word, and to engage in the presence of Jesus.

Back to Paul's message in Ephesians 5 about our relationship with Christ being like a good, solid marriage relationship.  If we present ourselves to God, His grace takes us in and cleans us up.  In the same way, if your spouse has those annoying habits that just drive you up the wall, it is better to handle it with grace rather than with arguing or fighting.  In one scene of the movie War Room, the older lady who works as a spiritual mentor asks the young mother to write down all of her husband's faults.  She comes back in an hour, and the young mother has three pages of grievances written down. Then the older woman puts it in perspective when she asks, "How much grace has God given you?"  In other words, God has a lot more than three pages of sins and shortcomings in my life.  Yet He was willing to give His only Son as a sacrifice, to blot out my transgressions, and to restore a right relationship between me and a holy God.

Today in my quiet time I was reading a chapter from Leviticus.  There were so many things in the Law that made people unclean.  The chapter I read was about clean and unclean food.  Eating an unclean animal, or even touching the dead body of an unclean animal, made you unclean (that is, unholy, unfit to come before God or other people).  Elsewhere, there are warnings about touching unclean people; so if I touched the carcass of an unclean animal (maybe a dog had died in the street, or a shepherd had killed a wolf who was attacking a sheep), I would be unclean, and anyone who touched me would be unclean, as well.  But as I slowed down to read the real meaning of the verses, it struck me how many times the Scripture says "he will be unclean until evening."  Why do you think that was?  Because in the Jewish culture, the new day began at sundown.

As the old saying goes, "Tomorrow is a new day."  There is more truth to that adage than one would think.  God holds our sins against us until the day is done.  The next morning, "His mercies are new." (Lamentations 3:23).  Grace.  It makes me cry every time.  The beautiful thing is, we can show that same grace to each other, beginning with the people in our own family.

Don't get me wrong. We can't expect broken hearts to mend quickly.  My pastor said he's heard from more than one married couple in counseling that the man confessed infidelity, then demanded his wife forgive him right away, because Scripture says "don't let the sun go down on your anger." (Ephesians 4:26).  There are more regulations in the Law about being set "outside the camp" indefinitely (Leviticus 13) for being unclean.  Even a woman who gave birth was to be unclean for 33 days (Leviticus 12).  Some grace takes longer.  It is that same grace, the kind that takes longer, that is the most meaningful.  It will be remembered longer.

Every day there are people who fall in the mud, and their clothes are stained with dirt and grime.  There are those who by necessity have to work on a car motor so it will run, and their clothes are stained with grease and oil.  There are folks who get sick, and those who help the sick get well, who get their clothes stained with blood and vomit, urine and excrement.  You know what?  Those people wash their clothes, and wash themselves, and are right back at work the next day.  That's life.  I thought of life's dirty chores when I read Leviticus 11:39, 40:  "If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean until evening....Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening."  After the day is done, you are clean again.  You get another chance to do the right thing.  You get grace.

Wonderful, merciful SaviorPrecious Redeemer and FriendWho would have thought that a LambCould rescue the souls of menOh you rescue the souls of men

Counselor, Comforter, KeeperSpirit we long to embraceYou offer hope when our hearts haveHopelessly lost the wayOhh, we hopelessly lost the way

You are the One that we praiseYou are the One we adoreYou give the healing and graceOur hearts always hunger forOhh, our hearts always hunger for

Almighty, infinite FatherFaithfully loving Your ownHere in our weakness You find usFalling before Your throneOhh, we're falling before Your throne

You are the One that we praiseYou are the One we adoreYou give the healing and graceOur hearts always hunger for

Ohh, our hearts always hunger for