“Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies;
For they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the ancients,
Because I keep Your precepts.” (Psalm 119:97–100)
We need then to take a close look at what God has to say in His Word about living life the right way and then specifically apply it to our marriages. A lot of different approaches could be taken to do this (the Bible is a pretty big book), but I think one of the very best ways is to take a close look at God’s moral will as revealed in the Ten Commandments.
Why the Ten Commandments?
God’s Word is, among other things, a Law-Book. The word “law” automatically conjures up ideas in our heads, and, frankly, some people, including some Christians, don’t like the word or the concept. That’s too bad. Without “law” the whole world would fall apart, of course. God built law into the world because He Himself is a God who obeys laws, in a sense. That is, He is free to do anything He wants, of course, but He will never violate His own character. God is a law unto Himself. It would certainly be (and is) bad for you and me to be “a law unto ourselves,” but it is great for God. God is holy, and He can never cease to be holy—for God to cease to be holy would mean God would cease to be God. And because God is holy and will always be holy, God’s holiness becomes a “law” in the universe for all time: all that conforms to His holiness is good (obeys the law), and all that does not conform to His holiness is bad (“sin”).
So “law” is good, especially if we think of it as that which conforms to the character and/or will of God. Certainly there are bad laws created by men. And then there are sometimes good laws that are used by bad people or interpreted wrongly or applied badly. But the idea of law in and of itself should not be regarded by us as a bad thing. Law is good. Law-less-ness is bad. Indeed, that is exactly how the Bible defines sin at one point: “Sin is lawlessness.” (1 John 3:4)
That is why I say God’s Word, the Bible, is a Law-Book of sorts. In the Bible is recorded, by God’s own hand, a description of God’s character and the things God likes and doesn’t like. In the Bible God reveals to us His own mind on things—including things like marriage and relationships and how to be a good husband or a good wife. If we follow His law, His ways, His direction, leaning entirely upon His grace in doing so, we will have a much greater chance of having the kind of marriages God designed us for—in other words, good ones.
“Lord God, whose Word is Law and whose Law is our good, teach us what You are like and how we are supposed to be. Help us to hate and forsake all those things that are contrary to Your holy character and to love all that conforms to it. Grant to us the wisdom and knowledge that comes from knowing and keeping all of Your commands, and transform our marriages accordingly, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Showing posts with label Ten Commandments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ten Commandments. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
The Root of All Good Marriages: Knowing and Loving God (Part Two)
“I love those who love me,
And those who seek me diligently will find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)
The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.
Why is that? One of the reasons for this is that knowing and loving God results in becoming like Him. God is good, faithful, loving, and kind: those who love Him, admire Him, are in awe of Him, and lap up the wisdom found in Him will automatically grow to be more and more good, faithful, loving, and kind themselves. The same is true in regard to any characteristic or attribute of God: you “become” what you love. I don’t mean you become God, of course, but that you become “god-ly,” that is, like God. And there is no truly happy home unless it is first a godly home.
Another reason knowing and loving God is the root of all good marriages is that knowing and loving God means having God on your side. If you are building anything, but especially in building a marriage, you need to have God on your side because just about everything and everybody else, it seems, is pulling down as fast as you put up. Every marriage has its enemies: among them are the devil himself and the whole world of folks all around you who often act like the devil, not to mention your own tendency to do the stupid thing and sin a good bit of the time. God loves and cares for those who love Him, and the more you are “in good” with God, the more you are going to call on Him in time of need, fight with the weapons He supplies you, and follow His directions in the midst of the battle. Like Nehemiah and the warrior-builders at the Jerusalem wall (Nehemiah 4:17), we need a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other—and a prayer continually on our lips because “unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).
Yet another reason knowing and loving God has to come first in any marriage is the fact that God is your Creator. If anybody knows what makes for a good, successful marriage, it is the God who set it all up in the first place. God really does know best, and He is not sitting up there in heaven trying to keep His wisdom-for-living a secret from you or anybody else. The invitation is open to anyone who is willing to learn this stuff, but if you are not sitting at His feet, using His textbook, memorizing His diagrams and formulas, and if you are not taking what you are learning and applying it in the great lab-room of life, you are just flat-out going to fail, no question.
The question is, Do you really want to get to know God and learn to love Him? Do you really want to know Him and know what He thinks is important—about Himself, about the world, about yourself, about your spouse, about marriage? If you do, I have good news: God promises that those who come looking for Him (earnestly and sincerely) will, without fail, find Him.
“Lord God, we pray again You would make us like You, for You are the perfect Spouse and You do all things right in Your own marriage to us. Teach us according to Your Word and by Your Holy Spirit how we are to conduct ourselves in our marriages. You alone have created us, and You alone have created the institution of marriage; so You alone can really teach us and guide us in our own marriages. We pray, dear God, we would know You and love You above all others and that You would grant us the grace to really know and love our own spouses. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
And those who seek me diligently will find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)
The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.
Why is that? One of the reasons for this is that knowing and loving God results in becoming like Him. God is good, faithful, loving, and kind: those who love Him, admire Him, are in awe of Him, and lap up the wisdom found in Him will automatically grow to be more and more good, faithful, loving, and kind themselves. The same is true in regard to any characteristic or attribute of God: you “become” what you love. I don’t mean you become God, of course, but that you become “god-ly,” that is, like God. And there is no truly happy home unless it is first a godly home.
Another reason knowing and loving God is the root of all good marriages is that knowing and loving God means having God on your side. If you are building anything, but especially in building a marriage, you need to have God on your side because just about everything and everybody else, it seems, is pulling down as fast as you put up. Every marriage has its enemies: among them are the devil himself and the whole world of folks all around you who often act like the devil, not to mention your own tendency to do the stupid thing and sin a good bit of the time. God loves and cares for those who love Him, and the more you are “in good” with God, the more you are going to call on Him in time of need, fight with the weapons He supplies you, and follow His directions in the midst of the battle. Like Nehemiah and the warrior-builders at the Jerusalem wall (Nehemiah 4:17), we need a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other—and a prayer continually on our lips because “unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1).
Yet another reason knowing and loving God has to come first in any marriage is the fact that God is your Creator. If anybody knows what makes for a good, successful marriage, it is the God who set it all up in the first place. God really does know best, and He is not sitting up there in heaven trying to keep His wisdom-for-living a secret from you or anybody else. The invitation is open to anyone who is willing to learn this stuff, but if you are not sitting at His feet, using His textbook, memorizing His diagrams and formulas, and if you are not taking what you are learning and applying it in the great lab-room of life, you are just flat-out going to fail, no question.
The question is, Do you really want to get to know God and learn to love Him? Do you really want to know Him and know what He thinks is important—about Himself, about the world, about yourself, about your spouse, about marriage? If you do, I have good news: God promises that those who come looking for Him (earnestly and sincerely) will, without fail, find Him.
“Lord God, we pray again You would make us like You, for You are the perfect Spouse and You do all things right in Your own marriage to us. Teach us according to Your Word and by Your Holy Spirit how we are to conduct ourselves in our marriages. You alone have created us, and You alone have created the institution of marriage; so You alone can really teach us and guide us in our own marriages. We pray, dear God, we would know You and love You above all others and that You would grant us the grace to really know and love our own spouses. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Root of All Good Marriages: Knowing and Loving God
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (1 John 4:20, 21)
We are perhaps getting tired of hearing the same old statistics concerning marriage and divorce, but it is sobering to think that every other marriage doesn’t make it. This is not only true “out there” in the bad and wooly wildlands of general society but also right in the very living room of the church. I am a member of a fairly (if we have to use labels) theologically conservative, evangelical church, and I can throw a rock into a typical congregation like ours on any given Sunday morning (I wouldn’t do this, of course) and have an excellent chance of hitting someone whose family has been touched somewhere by divorce. That’s bad enough. Sad thing is, however, I could throw another rock and have a fairly good chance of hitting someone whose marriage is currently “challenged” at best and careening at worst, possibly someone who needs to do some quick U-turning and make some rather drastic life-changes, to avoid the rocks upon which so many around them have been wrecking their marriages.
Maybe things are better where you are sitting, but I don’t think that scenario is so atypical. If things are that bad—and I think both the statistics and experience indicate that they are—then we need to be asking why: Why can’t married people these days have a better expectation of getting it “right”? I am fully convinced the answer is found in our general lack of knowing and loving. But I don’t mean our lack of knowing and loving our spouses—that is obvious enough. I mean instead that our primary deficiency is in knowing and loving God.
The fact that we don’t love our spouses like we should is actually the main clue here. The apostle John put it this way (1 John 4:20): if you can’t love the brother (read “husband/wife” in this context) sitting in the pew, lying in the bed, sitting at the table right next to you, however in the world do you make it out that you are doing a fair to excellent job of loving the “invisible” God? I hear someone saying, “But I never claimed to be good at loving God.” To the which I say, again, That is precisely the root to your every problem, and, in particular, it is the root to your marriage problem. The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.
“Dear heavenly Father, teach us to love our spouses by teaching us to love You supremely and well. Grant that we would love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and grant that we would therefore love our closest neighbor—our husband or wife—as ourselves. Grant healing to our marriages, to the marriages in the Church and in our society, building the only solid foundation for them on a thriving, never-dying, ever-growing-and-deepening love for You, dear God, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
We are perhaps getting tired of hearing the same old statistics concerning marriage and divorce, but it is sobering to think that every other marriage doesn’t make it. This is not only true “out there” in the bad and wooly wildlands of general society but also right in the very living room of the church. I am a member of a fairly (if we have to use labels) theologically conservative, evangelical church, and I can throw a rock into a typical congregation like ours on any given Sunday morning (I wouldn’t do this, of course) and have an excellent chance of hitting someone whose family has been touched somewhere by divorce. That’s bad enough. Sad thing is, however, I could throw another rock and have a fairly good chance of hitting someone whose marriage is currently “challenged” at best and careening at worst, possibly someone who needs to do some quick U-turning and make some rather drastic life-changes, to avoid the rocks upon which so many around them have been wrecking their marriages.
Maybe things are better where you are sitting, but I don’t think that scenario is so atypical. If things are that bad—and I think both the statistics and experience indicate that they are—then we need to be asking why: Why can’t married people these days have a better expectation of getting it “right”? I am fully convinced the answer is found in our general lack of knowing and loving. But I don’t mean our lack of knowing and loving our spouses—that is obvious enough. I mean instead that our primary deficiency is in knowing and loving God.
The fact that we don’t love our spouses like we should is actually the main clue here. The apostle John put it this way (1 John 4:20): if you can’t love the brother (read “husband/wife” in this context) sitting in the pew, lying in the bed, sitting at the table right next to you, however in the world do you make it out that you are doing a fair to excellent job of loving the “invisible” God? I hear someone saying, “But I never claimed to be good at loving God.” To the which I say, again, That is precisely the root to your every problem, and, in particular, it is the root to your marriage problem. The degree to which you know and love God determines without exception the degree to which you will have success in knowing and loving your spouse.
“Dear heavenly Father, teach us to love our spouses by teaching us to love You supremely and well. Grant that we would love You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and grant that we would therefore love our closest neighbor—our husband or wife—as ourselves. Grant healing to our marriages, to the marriages in the Church and in our society, building the only solid foundation for them on a thriving, never-dying, ever-growing-and-deepening love for You, dear God, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Friday, April 8, 2011
Contentment 101
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
The tenth and final of the Ten Commandments is last for a reason. It holds great importance in the law of God. As with the first commandment—“you shall have no other gods”—when we obey this one, we kill in the root several of the others. You will never get to adultery if you do not covet your neighbor’s wife. You will never steal if you have no desire for your neighbor’s possessions. Most murder would be avoided if there were no jealousy or envy or lust for power or wealth. And how much lying and deception is in an attempt to grasp for what we desire? Covetousness is a mighty sin.
And again, the reason it is so mighty is that it is a root sin. James puts it this way: “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (1:14, 15) He reiterates this point later: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.” (4:1, 2) When you get down to it, covetousness forms the root of just about all of our other sins.
Oddly, however, and most unfortunately, it is probably the sin we least acknowledge but excuse the most. How many men—and women, surprisingly—think “looking at the menu” is OK as long as you don’t “order the meal,” meaning one can commit adultery in the mind—lust—as long as he doesn’t follow through with actions? How many pine after a bigger house, a newer car, a more lucrative job, a prestigious position—and are secretly angry (this is true envy) when they perceive their neighbor has something “undeservedly” better?
Is it wrong, then, to desire good things? Of course not. But desiring what God has given our neighbor and what God has chosen not to give us is always wrong. We should desire and look for and long for and pray for the blessing of God—and give thanks for the great blessings we have received from His hand. But when we are upset with the good fortune of others, or their perceived good fortune, we have crossed the line into the realm of envy and covetousness. We should be joyful and thankful for what God has given others as well.
We can know we have crossed over into this realm when we are eaten up with discontentment and a complaining spirit. Gratitude is the sure remedy. Love for others will lead us to be happy for their welfare and blessing, and love for God will lead us to be happy with what He in His sovereign and benevolent wisdom has given us. True and ultimate satisfaction and contentment will only be found in God, of course, but those who have Him have all things in Him. Contentment recognizes this by faith and finds a joy that cannot be robbed by any circumstance or situation.
“Father of lights and Giver of every good gift, we give You thanks this day for all the blessings of this life and of the life to come. We deserve none of this, and that makes us that much more grateful. Grant to us true contentment, dear God—make us truly satisfied with You, with Your will, and with all You have designed for our lives. Deliver us and keep us from covetousness, envy, jealousy, discontentment, and lust. Teach us how to keep Your righteous command not to covet and in that way nip in the bud so much other sin born of our desires. May our one desire be to dwell in Your holy presence, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
The tenth and final of the Ten Commandments is last for a reason. It holds great importance in the law of God. As with the first commandment—“you shall have no other gods”—when we obey this one, we kill in the root several of the others. You will never get to adultery if you do not covet your neighbor’s wife. You will never steal if you have no desire for your neighbor’s possessions. Most murder would be avoided if there were no jealousy or envy or lust for power or wealth. And how much lying and deception is in an attempt to grasp for what we desire? Covetousness is a mighty sin.
And again, the reason it is so mighty is that it is a root sin. James puts it this way: “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (1:14, 15) He reiterates this point later: “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.” (4:1, 2) When you get down to it, covetousness forms the root of just about all of our other sins.
Oddly, however, and most unfortunately, it is probably the sin we least acknowledge but excuse the most. How many men—and women, surprisingly—think “looking at the menu” is OK as long as you don’t “order the meal,” meaning one can commit adultery in the mind—lust—as long as he doesn’t follow through with actions? How many pine after a bigger house, a newer car, a more lucrative job, a prestigious position—and are secretly angry (this is true envy) when they perceive their neighbor has something “undeservedly” better?
Is it wrong, then, to desire good things? Of course not. But desiring what God has given our neighbor and what God has chosen not to give us is always wrong. We should desire and look for and long for and pray for the blessing of God—and give thanks for the great blessings we have received from His hand. But when we are upset with the good fortune of others, or their perceived good fortune, we have crossed the line into the realm of envy and covetousness. We should be joyful and thankful for what God has given others as well.
We can know we have crossed over into this realm when we are eaten up with discontentment and a complaining spirit. Gratitude is the sure remedy. Love for others will lead us to be happy for their welfare and blessing, and love for God will lead us to be happy with what He in His sovereign and benevolent wisdom has given us. True and ultimate satisfaction and contentment will only be found in God, of course, but those who have Him have all things in Him. Contentment recognizes this by faith and finds a joy that cannot be robbed by any circumstance or situation.
“Father of lights and Giver of every good gift, we give You thanks this day for all the blessings of this life and of the life to come. We deserve none of this, and that makes us that much more grateful. Grant to us true contentment, dear God—make us truly satisfied with You, with Your will, and with all You have designed for our lives. Deliver us and keep us from covetousness, envy, jealousy, discontentment, and lust. Teach us how to keep Your righteous command not to covet and in that way nip in the bud so much other sin born of our desires. May our one desire be to dwell in Your holy presence, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Thursday, April 7, 2011
True Witness (Part Two)
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
Speaking the truth in love does not always mean saying everything we could say or saying it to everyone who has “ears to hear.” We have to be careful judges with our own words. Love, and what the old-timers call “charity,” is to be the motive and operating principle behind our “truth-telling.”
In fact, God through the atonement in Christ “covers” our sin, and we are to do likewise when we can. “Love covers a multitude of sins.” Our desire should be to protect the good name of our neighbor as far as it is possible. If I have a problem in my relationship with someone, God instructs me to go to him alone to work it out. If I still run into difficulty, I may need to get “one or two witnesses” to act as counsel or to help us work through things, but it should still be for the purpose of reconciliation and working through to a solution advantageous to both of us.
So much of the time, however, our motive is our own defense or an attack on the person with whom we have the disagreement, so we start looking for “support” for our case in others—sometimes many others—and that can all too easily slip into gossip, slander, rumor, whisperings, back-biting, and complaining. Love, love for the truth, and the truth in love avoid all of these things like the plague. There is often absolutely no reason to talk to others, even if we think we are “telling the truth.” Here once again we find the golden rule well applied: we are to do as we would be done unto.
It is true that truth often hurts. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend—open rebuke is better than love concealed.” But this sort of hurt is once again motivated by love and a genuine desire for the good of the other, just as a parent’s loving discipline or the surgeon’s use of the scalpel. God is the master at this kind of truth-telling: all that He speaks to us His children—whether rebuke or praise, admonition or promise—is designed for our good and to build up our relationship with Him. His example must be our guide in all of our communications and relationships with others.
The worst of false witnesses we can give is our lying about God. We do this verbally when we complain—as if God has cursed us when in reality He has blessed us beyond measure and infinitely beyond what we actually deserve. We also lie about God without ever using our tongues—in fact through our actions and attitudes we may speak directly against what we do say with our tongues. But because we bear the image of God, and because we bear the name of Christ, we bear a false witness with every sin, whether it is with our tongues or not. Only as we follow the truth and live according to the truth will we begin to bear a true witness to the ultimate Reality, God Himself.
“Great and wonderful heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your truthfulness and for Your speaking to us the truth—through creation, through Your Word, in our consciences, and through Your own Son Jesus Christ. Thank You for always bearing a true witness, and we pray You would make us like You. Guard us and help us to guard our tongues. Keep us from bearing false witness through gossip, slander, hypocrisy, and complaining. Help us in our communications and relationships with others to speak the truth in love, to cover others’ sins for the sake of love, and to seek peace with one another through loving confrontation, confession, and forgiveness. Keep us from sin, dear God, that we might bear a true witness to Your glorious image, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Speaking the truth in love does not always mean saying everything we could say or saying it to everyone who has “ears to hear.” We have to be careful judges with our own words. Love, and what the old-timers call “charity,” is to be the motive and operating principle behind our “truth-telling.”
In fact, God through the atonement in Christ “covers” our sin, and we are to do likewise when we can. “Love covers a multitude of sins.” Our desire should be to protect the good name of our neighbor as far as it is possible. If I have a problem in my relationship with someone, God instructs me to go to him alone to work it out. If I still run into difficulty, I may need to get “one or two witnesses” to act as counsel or to help us work through things, but it should still be for the purpose of reconciliation and working through to a solution advantageous to both of us.
So much of the time, however, our motive is our own defense or an attack on the person with whom we have the disagreement, so we start looking for “support” for our case in others—sometimes many others—and that can all too easily slip into gossip, slander, rumor, whisperings, back-biting, and complaining. Love, love for the truth, and the truth in love avoid all of these things like the plague. There is often absolutely no reason to talk to others, even if we think we are “telling the truth.” Here once again we find the golden rule well applied: we are to do as we would be done unto.
It is true that truth often hurts. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend—open rebuke is better than love concealed.” But this sort of hurt is once again motivated by love and a genuine desire for the good of the other, just as a parent’s loving discipline or the surgeon’s use of the scalpel. God is the master at this kind of truth-telling: all that He speaks to us His children—whether rebuke or praise, admonition or promise—is designed for our good and to build up our relationship with Him. His example must be our guide in all of our communications and relationships with others.
The worst of false witnesses we can give is our lying about God. We do this verbally when we complain—as if God has cursed us when in reality He has blessed us beyond measure and infinitely beyond what we actually deserve. We also lie about God without ever using our tongues—in fact through our actions and attitudes we may speak directly against what we do say with our tongues. But because we bear the image of God, and because we bear the name of Christ, we bear a false witness with every sin, whether it is with our tongues or not. Only as we follow the truth and live according to the truth will we begin to bear a true witness to the ultimate Reality, God Himself.
“Great and wonderful heavenly Father, we give You thanks for Your truthfulness and for Your speaking to us the truth—through creation, through Your Word, in our consciences, and through Your own Son Jesus Christ. Thank You for always bearing a true witness, and we pray You would make us like You. Guard us and help us to guard our tongues. Keep us from bearing false witness through gossip, slander, hypocrisy, and complaining. Help us in our communications and relationships with others to speak the truth in love, to cover others’ sins for the sake of love, and to seek peace with one another through loving confrontation, confession, and forgiveness. Keep us from sin, dear God, that we might bear a true witness to Your glorious image, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
True Witness (Part One)
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16)
In a courtroom, the witness takes the stand. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” “I do.” If the witness tells partial truths, mixes fantasy with fact, or exaggerates one element of the truth while minimizing others, those making judgments—the judge and the jury—may condemn an innocent when the truth might have set them free. God is a just God and a merciful God, and His law is designed to protect against such injustices.
In the courtroom of life, we are continually and simultaneously the accused and the accuser, the judge and the judged, the witness and the one being witnessed “for” or “against.” We are making judgments about all sorts of things, including other people, and others are forming their judgments about us. We also give our witness about ourselves, others, and all the rest of our world; and others are “sharing” what they think about us, the world, others, and God Himself.
Because God is Truth and cannot lie, He calls for the truth in all of this. We are called upon to speak the truth, to speak it in love for God and for our neighbor, and to believe the truth as well and make our judgments according to it alone. God, of course, is the ultimate Judge—we are accountable to what He says is true and right and good; but He is also the ultimate Defender and the true Witness, who knows the truth about those who trust in Him, who look to Him for deliverance, who are repentant in heart and deed.
Satan, “the Accuser,” on the other hand, is a murderer and a thief and a liar from the beginning. His motive was the death and destruction of man and the theft of God’s glory for himself, but his tactic was false witness and deception. He twisted God’s Word, lied about God, lied about Adam and Eve, lied about creation, and lied about the consequences of sin. Mankind’s undoing, including yours and mine, was the result of believing Satan’s false witness, making false judgments, and becoming deceivers ourselves just like our adopted “father.”
The more we become like Christ, the more we know the truth and love the truth, and the more we discern the lie and hate the lie. When we come to Christ, we are coming into the light—and light exposes the lies for what they are. When liars and their lies become exposed, like roaches, they often begin to scurry for the dark places again, attempting to cover up with more lies. That approach will always fail in the end because the light always triumphs. But if we come to the light, live in the truth, walk in integrity—if we run into the light ourselves—we find there a loving and forgiving God, who knows the truth about us anyway and calls us to be true witnesses who truly admit the sinfulness of our sins—including our sins of deception and lying—and turn from them to the truth as it is in Christ.
“Lord God, Judge of the whole world, have mercy on us for Christ’s sake. Forgive us for our attempts at hiding from You. Forgive us for lying about You, ourselves, and the world. Jesus is the Light of the world, and nothing can be hidden from You. Shine Your light on us. Jesus is the Truth, and no one can come to You except through Him. Teach us the truth—about Yourself, about ourselves, about the world in which we live. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and lead us into all truth. Make us lovers of the truth, men and women of integrity, and keep us from lies, deceit, slander, secret-keeping, and hypocrisy—that we might be like our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
In a courtroom, the witness takes the stand. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” “I do.” If the witness tells partial truths, mixes fantasy with fact, or exaggerates one element of the truth while minimizing others, those making judgments—the judge and the jury—may condemn an innocent when the truth might have set them free. God is a just God and a merciful God, and His law is designed to protect against such injustices.
In the courtroom of life, we are continually and simultaneously the accused and the accuser, the judge and the judged, the witness and the one being witnessed “for” or “against.” We are making judgments about all sorts of things, including other people, and others are forming their judgments about us. We also give our witness about ourselves, others, and all the rest of our world; and others are “sharing” what they think about us, the world, others, and God Himself.
Because God is Truth and cannot lie, He calls for the truth in all of this. We are called upon to speak the truth, to speak it in love for God and for our neighbor, and to believe the truth as well and make our judgments according to it alone. God, of course, is the ultimate Judge—we are accountable to what He says is true and right and good; but He is also the ultimate Defender and the true Witness, who knows the truth about those who trust in Him, who look to Him for deliverance, who are repentant in heart and deed.
Satan, “the Accuser,” on the other hand, is a murderer and a thief and a liar from the beginning. His motive was the death and destruction of man and the theft of God’s glory for himself, but his tactic was false witness and deception. He twisted God’s Word, lied about God, lied about Adam and Eve, lied about creation, and lied about the consequences of sin. Mankind’s undoing, including yours and mine, was the result of believing Satan’s false witness, making false judgments, and becoming deceivers ourselves just like our adopted “father.”
The more we become like Christ, the more we know the truth and love the truth, and the more we discern the lie and hate the lie. When we come to Christ, we are coming into the light—and light exposes the lies for what they are. When liars and their lies become exposed, like roaches, they often begin to scurry for the dark places again, attempting to cover up with more lies. That approach will always fail in the end because the light always triumphs. But if we come to the light, live in the truth, walk in integrity—if we run into the light ourselves—we find there a loving and forgiving God, who knows the truth about us anyway and calls us to be true witnesses who truly admit the sinfulness of our sins—including our sins of deception and lying—and turn from them to the truth as it is in Christ.
“Lord God, Judge of the whole world, have mercy on us for Christ’s sake. Forgive us for our attempts at hiding from You. Forgive us for lying about You, ourselves, and the world. Jesus is the Light of the world, and nothing can be hidden from You. Shine Your light on us. Jesus is the Truth, and no one can come to You except through Him. Teach us the truth—about Yourself, about ourselves, about the world in which we live. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and lead us into all truth. Make us lovers of the truth, men and women of integrity, and keep us from lies, deceit, slander, secret-keeping, and hypocrisy—that we might be like our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Monday, April 4, 2011
God the Giver (Part Two)
“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
God’s giving is work, and His works are all gifts. God calls His acts of creation “work.” All that God does—in creation, in the outworking of history, in salvation—are His “good deeds,” His mighty works. God is not a workaholic, but He is always working—even though He is the greatest at “resting,” enjoying His labors, as well. God, in His character, is a worker. And again, His work is all tied to His giving. The different Persons of the Trinity work to give to Each Other, and God is always working on our behalf as well.
We may think God has it easy because He is God. We tend to think of God like Mary Poppins who can clean up a room with the wave of a hand. But the Bible doesn’t really portray God like that. Although God can bring worlds into being at the sound of a word, He is also a God of strength, a Man of War, and a God who is able to do all His mighty works because He is strong.
He is also a God who enjoys His labor and looks upon it all as “good.” Likewise, although our work may be unpleasant at times and difficult, we should see our labors—and the fruit of those labors—as good; and we should always be strengthening ourselves in our labors so that we might be strong for the sake of others.
That is why the Scriptures contrast working and giving with theft: “Let him who stole steal not longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28) As Christians, we are called to be like God, and that means we will be industrious, workers, and our working will be motivated by giving not taking. While it is certainly the right thing to work to provide for our own needs, that is not enough: we are to work in order to provide for the needs of others.
Stealing, on the other hand, is just the opposite. Rather than working in order to give, theft is all about taking what I have not worked for. And this can be seen in every facet of our lives, not simply in terms of money. Sometimes we love to receive glory or praise or honor even though we have done little or nothing to deserve it. Husbands and wives are often guilty of wanting good marriages without having to do the hard work it always takes to secure one of those. (And that is often what leads to adultery: we think we can “steal” a good relationship rather than having to work on the one God has already given us.)
We enjoy the benefits of the labors of others who have worked on our behalf, and all that we have is due to the work of God. This should lead us to lives overflowing with gratitude. But it should also lead us into our own labors—away from all theft and covetousness—that we might give back to God something of what He has given us, and that we might be like Him in our giving to others.
“Lord, we praise You this day for all Your glorious wonders, all Your mighty works. We give You thanks for all of Your working on our behalf, for all the gifts from Your hand for which we did not labor but You did. We pray that You would make us like You, that we would be hard workers, that we would enjoy our labors, that we would see them as good. We pray that You would strengthen us in our work, and that You would bless the fruit of our hands, that we might bring glory to You and joyful rest to others. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
God’s giving is work, and His works are all gifts. God calls His acts of creation “work.” All that God does—in creation, in the outworking of history, in salvation—are His “good deeds,” His mighty works. God is not a workaholic, but He is always working—even though He is the greatest at “resting,” enjoying His labors, as well. God, in His character, is a worker. And again, His work is all tied to His giving. The different Persons of the Trinity work to give to Each Other, and God is always working on our behalf as well.
We may think God has it easy because He is God. We tend to think of God like Mary Poppins who can clean up a room with the wave of a hand. But the Bible doesn’t really portray God like that. Although God can bring worlds into being at the sound of a word, He is also a God of strength, a Man of War, and a God who is able to do all His mighty works because He is strong.
He is also a God who enjoys His labor and looks upon it all as “good.” Likewise, although our work may be unpleasant at times and difficult, we should see our labors—and the fruit of those labors—as good; and we should always be strengthening ourselves in our labors so that we might be strong for the sake of others.
That is why the Scriptures contrast working and giving with theft: “Let him who stole steal not longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” (Ephesians 4:28) As Christians, we are called to be like God, and that means we will be industrious, workers, and our working will be motivated by giving not taking. While it is certainly the right thing to work to provide for our own needs, that is not enough: we are to work in order to provide for the needs of others.
Stealing, on the other hand, is just the opposite. Rather than working in order to give, theft is all about taking what I have not worked for. And this can be seen in every facet of our lives, not simply in terms of money. Sometimes we love to receive glory or praise or honor even though we have done little or nothing to deserve it. Husbands and wives are often guilty of wanting good marriages without having to do the hard work it always takes to secure one of those. (And that is often what leads to adultery: we think we can “steal” a good relationship rather than having to work on the one God has already given us.)
We enjoy the benefits of the labors of others who have worked on our behalf, and all that we have is due to the work of God. This should lead us to lives overflowing with gratitude. But it should also lead us into our own labors—away from all theft and covetousness—that we might give back to God something of what He has given us, and that we might be like Him in our giving to others.
“Lord, we praise You this day for all Your glorious wonders, all Your mighty works. We give You thanks for all of Your working on our behalf, for all the gifts from Your hand for which we did not labor but You did. We pray that You would make us like You, that we would be hard workers, that we would enjoy our labors, that we would see them as good. We pray that You would strengthen us in our work, and that You would bless the fruit of our hands, that we might bring glory to You and joyful rest to others. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Sunday, April 3, 2011
God the Giver (Part One)
“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20:15)
Not only is God the Life-giver, but He is the Giver of All Things. All creation was given as a gift from the Father to the Son, and the Son who redeems it and reforms it gives all creation as a gift back to the Father. The Father gives glory and honor and love to the Son, the Son gives love, glory, honor, and obedience to the Father, and the Holy Spirit gives honor and glory and praise to both Father and Son. The Trinity is the eternal Benefactor, the giver of all good things.
God is the giver of good things to us. If there is anything for us to give, it is only because He first gave it to us. All creation was delivered into the hand of man, and his primary “responsibility” in life is to care for it, enjoy it, and give thanks for it. Every sun that rises, every bird song in the night, every taste, feel, and smell, every popsicle, every “creation” of man in art, music, architecture, and book—all of it is given by God to man who, like Christ, is meant to give it back to God with all thanks. His ultimate gift to us, of course, is Christ Himself and all we have in Him.
This “giving-ness” found in God is to define our relations with one another as well. Our lives should be defined primarily as opportunities for us to give to one another (along with our giving to God) as God in Christ has given to us. What has God not given to us? Everything we have and are we have and are because God created us and gave to us. Even so, we are most like God when we give of our lives, of our substance, our homes, our money, our labors, our love, our food, our affection, and our very selves to those whom God has given to us as the “others” in our lives.
Theft is the opposite, demonic spirit of taking and withholding. Theft is not only taking what has not been given to you (and thus envy is to theft what lust is to adultery and what hate is to murder), but theft is the withholding from others what rightfully belongs to them—whether gratitude or honor or hospitality or paycheck.
As with other sins, theft comes in all shapes and sizes. We think of theft as a “lighter” sin than murder and adultery because theft of property is not penalized as severely as these other two in the law of God. But murder and adultery are theft at root: the taking of life and the taking of another man’s wife. The theft of God is seen as one of the most reprehensible of crimes in Scripture. Failing to give God His just due in tithes and offerings is called the “robbery of God” (Malachi 3:8), and the failure to give God thanks and honor and glory for all He has given us in creation is described as the primary root sin of the pagan world (Romans 1:21).
God gives, and His heavenly law is to give to others what we would have given to us. We can do this most confidently, regardless our circumstances, because we have the promise that in Christ God has given us all things, to the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
“Great God in heaven, Author and Giver of all things good, true, and beautiful, we give You thanks for all things, and glorify You as the great Benefactor of the universe. We pray Your forgiveness for our lack of gratitude, for our coveting and taking what belongs to You and to others, for our frequent tendency toward taking and stealing rather than giving and generosity. Keep us from theft in any form—theft of God, theft of others—and enlarge our hearts to be full of giving, generosity, gratitude, service, and hard work, which is to say we wish to be made in the image of God. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Not only is God the Life-giver, but He is the Giver of All Things. All creation was given as a gift from the Father to the Son, and the Son who redeems it and reforms it gives all creation as a gift back to the Father. The Father gives glory and honor and love to the Son, the Son gives love, glory, honor, and obedience to the Father, and the Holy Spirit gives honor and glory and praise to both Father and Son. The Trinity is the eternal Benefactor, the giver of all good things.
God is the giver of good things to us. If there is anything for us to give, it is only because He first gave it to us. All creation was delivered into the hand of man, and his primary “responsibility” in life is to care for it, enjoy it, and give thanks for it. Every sun that rises, every bird song in the night, every taste, feel, and smell, every popsicle, every “creation” of man in art, music, architecture, and book—all of it is given by God to man who, like Christ, is meant to give it back to God with all thanks. His ultimate gift to us, of course, is Christ Himself and all we have in Him.
This “giving-ness” found in God is to define our relations with one another as well. Our lives should be defined primarily as opportunities for us to give to one another (along with our giving to God) as God in Christ has given to us. What has God not given to us? Everything we have and are we have and are because God created us and gave to us. Even so, we are most like God when we give of our lives, of our substance, our homes, our money, our labors, our love, our food, our affection, and our very selves to those whom God has given to us as the “others” in our lives.
Theft is the opposite, demonic spirit of taking and withholding. Theft is not only taking what has not been given to you (and thus envy is to theft what lust is to adultery and what hate is to murder), but theft is the withholding from others what rightfully belongs to them—whether gratitude or honor or hospitality or paycheck.
As with other sins, theft comes in all shapes and sizes. We think of theft as a “lighter” sin than murder and adultery because theft of property is not penalized as severely as these other two in the law of God. But murder and adultery are theft at root: the taking of life and the taking of another man’s wife. The theft of God is seen as one of the most reprehensible of crimes in Scripture. Failing to give God His just due in tithes and offerings is called the “robbery of God” (Malachi 3:8), and the failure to give God thanks and honor and glory for all He has given us in creation is described as the primary root sin of the pagan world (Romans 1:21).
God gives, and His heavenly law is to give to others what we would have given to us. We can do this most confidently, regardless our circumstances, because we have the promise that in Christ God has given us all things, to the glory of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
“Great God in heaven, Author and Giver of all things good, true, and beautiful, we give You thanks for all things, and glorify You as the great Benefactor of the universe. We pray Your forgiveness for our lack of gratitude, for our coveting and taking what belongs to You and to others, for our frequent tendency toward taking and stealing rather than giving and generosity. Keep us from theft in any form—theft of God, theft of others—and enlarge our hearts to be full of giving, generosity, gratitude, service, and hard work, which is to say we wish to be made in the image of God. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Friday, April 1, 2011
Fidelity
“You shall not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14)
When God made humans, He made marriage. Marriage is the first and thus the most basic of all human relationships. Faithfulness to God reigns supreme over all, of course, but the next foundational layer for goodness in society involves faithfulness and goodness between a husband and a wife.
It doesn’t take much to observe this in our own society. The healthiest families are those in which a man and his wife love, honor, forgive, and help one another—and otherwise mirror the image set by Christ. This sets the pattern for their relationship with their children, as well as for their children’s relationships with each other as brothers and sisters. How we learn to relate to others in the home is our first and most important teacher for how we are to relate to others in community outside the home. And then of course we learn from our experience in our homes of origin how to set up our own homes, and thus the effect of marriage relationships is passed on ad infinitum.
God not only made the world this way—with faithful marriage at the center of all good society—but in His process of redeeming a broken and sin-filled world, His redemption of marriage is front and center as well.
God says in Proverbs, “For a man to take a wife is a good thing.” Adultery is the corruption of “a good thing.” Adultery extends to anything that corrupts the marriage relationship and takes away from the health of a marriage.
For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus applies this command in the realm of “just thinking about it,” making a direct correlation between adultery and lust in the mind and heart. It is not just that one leads to another—and it certainly does in many cases—but His point is that the desire itself adulterates the marriage and corrupts it. Sure, actual, raw physical adultery is worse than a moment of lust, just as murder is worse than a hateful thought. But hate will do in destroying society. It is murder in seed form, and enough relatively “little” weeds can ruin a garden as well as (and often better than) one big thorny thistle. So it is in marriage. The little foxes of daily infidelity will spoil the vineyard.
When God redeems marriage, He redeems it down to the roots. The fidelity called for in this command includes sexual purity from top to bottom—in thought, word, affections, and actions—and both before marriage as well as in it. But faithfulness in marriage also means loving your spouse sacrificially, in an understanding and honoring way, loving him or her as your own body, just as Christ loves His own Bride, the Church—again in every thought, word, attitude, and action. As God reforms our marriages in just such a way, all society and culture will be reformed as well—to His honor and His glory.
“Lord God, we give You thanks for Your own faithfulness to us, a covenant fidelity that led to such sacrifice as Christ made on the cross that we might live in true oneness with You, with God Himself. We pray that we would mirror that faithfulness in our own marriages. Grant forgiveness for this sort of sin in our marriages as well as others, and reform our marriages according to Your Holy Word and Your holy character, that we might bring You glory not only in our marriages but in our children, in their families, and in every other facet of our society. We pray for this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”
When God made humans, He made marriage. Marriage is the first and thus the most basic of all human relationships. Faithfulness to God reigns supreme over all, of course, but the next foundational layer for goodness in society involves faithfulness and goodness between a husband and a wife.
It doesn’t take much to observe this in our own society. The healthiest families are those in which a man and his wife love, honor, forgive, and help one another—and otherwise mirror the image set by Christ. This sets the pattern for their relationship with their children, as well as for their children’s relationships with each other as brothers and sisters. How we learn to relate to others in the home is our first and most important teacher for how we are to relate to others in community outside the home. And then of course we learn from our experience in our homes of origin how to set up our own homes, and thus the effect of marriage relationships is passed on ad infinitum.
God not only made the world this way—with faithful marriage at the center of all good society—but in His process of redeeming a broken and sin-filled world, His redemption of marriage is front and center as well.
God says in Proverbs, “For a man to take a wife is a good thing.” Adultery is the corruption of “a good thing.” Adultery extends to anything that corrupts the marriage relationship and takes away from the health of a marriage.
For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus applies this command in the realm of “just thinking about it,” making a direct correlation between adultery and lust in the mind and heart. It is not just that one leads to another—and it certainly does in many cases—but His point is that the desire itself adulterates the marriage and corrupts it. Sure, actual, raw physical adultery is worse than a moment of lust, just as murder is worse than a hateful thought. But hate will do in destroying society. It is murder in seed form, and enough relatively “little” weeds can ruin a garden as well as (and often better than) one big thorny thistle. So it is in marriage. The little foxes of daily infidelity will spoil the vineyard.
When God redeems marriage, He redeems it down to the roots. The fidelity called for in this command includes sexual purity from top to bottom—in thought, word, affections, and actions—and both before marriage as well as in it. But faithfulness in marriage also means loving your spouse sacrificially, in an understanding and honoring way, loving him or her as your own body, just as Christ loves His own Bride, the Church—again in every thought, word, attitude, and action. As God reforms our marriages in just such a way, all society and culture will be reformed as well—to His honor and His glory.
“Lord God, we give You thanks for Your own faithfulness to us, a covenant fidelity that led to such sacrifice as Christ made on the cross that we might live in true oneness with You, with God Himself. We pray that we would mirror that faithfulness in our own marriages. Grant forgiveness for this sort of sin in our marriages as well as others, and reform our marriages according to Your Holy Word and Your holy character, that we might bring You glory not only in our marriages but in our children, in their families, and in every other facet of our society. We pray for this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Life-giver
“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13)
God is a Life-giver. All life originates in Him, and all of life is kept alive by Him. God created us to be life-givers also.
Of course it is true God is also a God who kills. But all of His killing is just, and all of ours must be as well. God brought the sentence of death on man for his sin. But for all who will return to Him, the death sentence is removed and life given again through Christ. In the end God is a life-giver all over again.
There is “a time to kill.” Justice and defense both require this: God is just in sentencing us to death for our rebellion against Him, and He defends His own against their enemies. But in the end His justice and defense are for the sake of life as well. He protects against enemies to give life to the oppressed. He squashes rebellions that His kingdom might thrive.
But God’s mercy triumphs. God forgives those who turn from their rebellion; He lays down His own life that His enemies might be given life and become friends. The Christian life is an exercise in doing this very thing. Am I giving life to others by laying down my own life? Or am I distorting “justice” into vengeance, and “defense” into the murder of others for my own “self-preservation.” Is everything I do aimed at bringing life? Or are the words I am saying, the thoughts I am thinking, the emotions I am feeling, the action I am taking—are these things bringing destruction to others and ultimately to myself?
Sin, in whatever form, brings on death. Sin is a death sentence in and of itself: “the wages of sin is death.” When we work the work of sin, we can expect the pay-out to be in the currency of death. Like the body-bombs terrorists deploy in a crowded marketplace, our sin not only destroys us but obliterates life in the concentric circles around us, leaving wounds and scars and death in the wake.
God forgives our sins for the sake of Christ’s death that we might have life. But God forgives sin so that we might live lives of love for God and love for our neighbor, not the very death-producing lives of sin from which He saves us in the first place. God the Life-giver gives us life through Christ that we might be life-giving spirits ourselves.
When God gave life to Eve in the Garden, you will remember it was through Adam’s similitude of death in “deep sleep” and through his giving up part of himself—a rib—to form Eve. When Christ the Second Adam gives life to His Bride, it is through no similitude but the reality of death; it is not through giving up a rib but in giving Body and Blood entire. Even so, in our own marriages, with our children, in our relationships with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ—even with our enemies—we find life ourselves and give life to others when we follow Christ’s example and lay down our lives that others might live.
“Heavenly Father, we give thanks for our life through creation and through Christ our Creator. Thank You for including us in Him, for in Him and Him alone is life. We pray, dear God, You would breathe Your Holy Spirit in us, fill us with Him, that we might be life-giving spirits as well. Teach us to guard our thoughts, tongues, attitudes, and actions that they might always be useful for promoting life in us and others rather than destruction and death. Protect us from our enemies, O God, the last and greatest of which is Death itself, and grant us everlasting life through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
God is a Life-giver. All life originates in Him, and all of life is kept alive by Him. God created us to be life-givers also.
Of course it is true God is also a God who kills. But all of His killing is just, and all of ours must be as well. God brought the sentence of death on man for his sin. But for all who will return to Him, the death sentence is removed and life given again through Christ. In the end God is a life-giver all over again.
There is “a time to kill.” Justice and defense both require this: God is just in sentencing us to death for our rebellion against Him, and He defends His own against their enemies. But in the end His justice and defense are for the sake of life as well. He protects against enemies to give life to the oppressed. He squashes rebellions that His kingdom might thrive.
But God’s mercy triumphs. God forgives those who turn from their rebellion; He lays down His own life that His enemies might be given life and become friends. The Christian life is an exercise in doing this very thing. Am I giving life to others by laying down my own life? Or am I distorting “justice” into vengeance, and “defense” into the murder of others for my own “self-preservation.” Is everything I do aimed at bringing life? Or are the words I am saying, the thoughts I am thinking, the emotions I am feeling, the action I am taking—are these things bringing destruction to others and ultimately to myself?
Sin, in whatever form, brings on death. Sin is a death sentence in and of itself: “the wages of sin is death.” When we work the work of sin, we can expect the pay-out to be in the currency of death. Like the body-bombs terrorists deploy in a crowded marketplace, our sin not only destroys us but obliterates life in the concentric circles around us, leaving wounds and scars and death in the wake.
God forgives our sins for the sake of Christ’s death that we might have life. But God forgives sin so that we might live lives of love for God and love for our neighbor, not the very death-producing lives of sin from which He saves us in the first place. God the Life-giver gives us life through Christ that we might be life-giving spirits ourselves.
When God gave life to Eve in the Garden, you will remember it was through Adam’s similitude of death in “deep sleep” and through his giving up part of himself—a rib—to form Eve. When Christ the Second Adam gives life to His Bride, it is through no similitude but the reality of death; it is not through giving up a rib but in giving Body and Blood entire. Even so, in our own marriages, with our children, in our relationships with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ—even with our enemies—we find life ourselves and give life to others when we follow Christ’s example and lay down our lives that others might live.
“Heavenly Father, we give thanks for our life through creation and through Christ our Creator. Thank You for including us in Him, for in Him and Him alone is life. We pray, dear God, You would breathe Your Holy Spirit in us, fill us with Him, that we might be life-giving spirits as well. Teach us to guard our thoughts, tongues, attitudes, and actions that they might always be useful for promoting life in us and others rather than destruction and death. Protect us from our enemies, O God, the last and greatest of which is Death itself, and grant us everlasting life through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Monday, March 28, 2011
Honor
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
The apostle Paul calls this the “first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Giving honor leads to long life. Giving honor leads to a life truly blessed by God.
As with all God calls us to, honor begins with God. God the Father glorifies His Son, and the Son glorifies the Father. (John 13: 31, 32; 17:1–5) The Holy Spirit honors both the Father and the Son who send Him forth. (John 16:14) Honor is at the core of their relationship (as is love), and they could have no relationship without it. Even so, our relationship with God is meaningless if we do not first learn to honor Him, and our honor of God is at the root of all other meaning in life: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
God has created us in His image, which means, among other things, that love and honor are at the root of all human relationships as well. God commands not only that children honor their parents, but honor in the home must begin with the parents themselves. Out of all the things that Paul could say to wives, he zeroes in on this one thing: “Let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33) And Peter focuses on honor also in his instruction to husbands: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel [as you would a fragile vase], and as being heirs together of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7) If fathers and mothers are not giving honor to one another at all times, it should be no surprise if their children, as the good little followers they are, show like dishonor to them.
Honor learned in the home is to be applied to all other human relationships. We are to honor those in civil authority (1 Peter 3:13–17; Romans 13:1–7), as well as those who rule over us in the church (Hebrews 13:17). We are even exhorted to compete with one another, trying to “outdo” one another in showing honor to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. (Romans 12:10) In some way, we are to “honor all.” (1 Peter 3: 17)
Clearly honor and respect are not only to be present in our relationships, but rather honor and respect, which include the concepts of love and submission, are the very things that make any and all of these relationships function at all. Whether problems with kids, problems in the marriage, problems at work, problems in the church, problems in society at large, friendship problems—you name it—if there are “relationship problems,” they are sure to involve a lack of honor. Learn to honor, and you will have a long and blessed life. Where we fail to, we will have trouble and the unraveling of true relational unity and integrity.
“Great and wonderful Father, we give You thanks for Your great love for us, and for clothing us with the greatest honor, the honor of being adopted into Your family through the humility, sacrifice, and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. To You belongs all honor: teach us and fill us with honor for You in all that we think, do, say, and are. Teach us to honor one another: as husbands and wives, as children and parents, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Teach us, dear God, to show honor in all of our relationships, and may You receive the honor and glory forever and ever, through our glorious Lord and Savior. Amen.”
The apostle Paul calls this the “first commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Giving honor leads to long life. Giving honor leads to a life truly blessed by God.
As with all God calls us to, honor begins with God. God the Father glorifies His Son, and the Son glorifies the Father. (John 13: 31, 32; 17:1–5) The Holy Spirit honors both the Father and the Son who send Him forth. (John 16:14) Honor is at the core of their relationship (as is love), and they could have no relationship without it. Even so, our relationship with God is meaningless if we do not first learn to honor Him, and our honor of God is at the root of all other meaning in life: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
God has created us in His image, which means, among other things, that love and honor are at the root of all human relationships as well. God commands not only that children honor their parents, but honor in the home must begin with the parents themselves. Out of all the things that Paul could say to wives, he zeroes in on this one thing: “Let the wife see that she respects her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33) And Peter focuses on honor also in his instruction to husbands: “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them [your wives] with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel [as you would a fragile vase], and as being heirs together of the grace of life.” (1 Peter 3:7) If fathers and mothers are not giving honor to one another at all times, it should be no surprise if their children, as the good little followers they are, show like dishonor to them.
Honor learned in the home is to be applied to all other human relationships. We are to honor those in civil authority (1 Peter 3:13–17; Romans 13:1–7), as well as those who rule over us in the church (Hebrews 13:17). We are even exhorted to compete with one another, trying to “outdo” one another in showing honor to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. (Romans 12:10) In some way, we are to “honor all.” (1 Peter 3: 17)
Clearly honor and respect are not only to be present in our relationships, but rather honor and respect, which include the concepts of love and submission, are the very things that make any and all of these relationships function at all. Whether problems with kids, problems in the marriage, problems at work, problems in the church, problems in society at large, friendship problems—you name it—if there are “relationship problems,” they are sure to involve a lack of honor. Learn to honor, and you will have a long and blessed life. Where we fail to, we will have trouble and the unraveling of true relational unity and integrity.
“Great and wonderful Father, we give You thanks for Your great love for us, and for clothing us with the greatest honor, the honor of being adopted into Your family through the humility, sacrifice, and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. To You belongs all honor: teach us and fill us with honor for You in all that we think, do, say, and are. Teach us to honor one another: as husbands and wives, as children and parents, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Teach us, dear God, to show honor in all of our relationships, and may You receive the honor and glory forever and ever, through our glorious Lord and Savior. Amen.”
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sabbath Celebration
“Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8–11)
God is a God who honors His own work. When He had finished six days’ labor, He “rested” the seventh day. Why? Because He was tired? Rather, God “hallowed” the Sabbath, turning it into a holiday (“holy-day” is the origin of this word) on which He enjoyed and celebrated the wonderful creation He had brought into being.
God invites us to do the same. When Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, the day changed from Saturday to Sunday, but the celebration is the same, only ratcheted up to a much higher level. Instead of merely celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Creator of the World, we are now celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Savior and Re-Creator of the World—we are celebrating His salvation and transformation of us in and through Christ.
Many Christians have gotten hung up on what they “can” and “cannot” do on Sunday. The best solution is to treat it for what it is, a holiday—the truest of holy-days—and do those things appropriate for such. You don’t make your employees work on holiday, and you certainly don’t work yourself on a holiday. You spend time with your family—and on Sunday especially this always means gathering with the family of God. On holidays you conscientiously remember and observe what the holiday is set aside for: Sunday is set aside to commemorate our salvation through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; to observe His worship; to remember and celebrate the covenant God established in His Son’s blood. Holidays are for feasting, and so on Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Supper (which traditionally is normally followed by a big “Sunday dinner”!).
A lot of Christians in our day, however, treat Sunday as any other day, arguing that “the Sabbath command is no longer in effect.” Or, if they do have the day off from work, they treat it as a day centered on themselves: on their rest, on their play, on their family. While it may be true that the Sabbath per se is no longer celebrated (the seventh day, that is), 99.999999% of Christians throughout all of church history—including those mentioned in the New Testament—have treated the first day of the week, Sunday, as the most fundamental holy day, gathering in worship together, centered around all that God has done for us and who we are in Christ. Do we have less to celebrate in the New World Christ has given us? Less reason to worship Him together and give thanks? Rather, no one has more reason to holiday every week than us!
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Sundays. Thank You for setting aside a special day for us to gather together with those who love You, those whom You love, that we might celebrate all we have in You and glorify our Lord and Savior. Teach us how to “keep it holy,” and give us the desire to set Your day and Your worship apart as the most important time of each week. Help us to take the trouble necessary to prepare for Sundays, and teach us also how to give goodness and rest to others as You have brought rest and goodness to us through Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
God is a God who honors His own work. When He had finished six days’ labor, He “rested” the seventh day. Why? Because He was tired? Rather, God “hallowed” the Sabbath, turning it into a holiday (“holy-day” is the origin of this word) on which He enjoyed and celebrated the wonderful creation He had brought into being.
God invites us to do the same. When Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, the day changed from Saturday to Sunday, but the celebration is the same, only ratcheted up to a much higher level. Instead of merely celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Creator of the World, we are now celebrating and honoring and worshiping God the Savior and Re-Creator of the World—we are celebrating His salvation and transformation of us in and through Christ.
Many Christians have gotten hung up on what they “can” and “cannot” do on Sunday. The best solution is to treat it for what it is, a holiday—the truest of holy-days—and do those things appropriate for such. You don’t make your employees work on holiday, and you certainly don’t work yourself on a holiday. You spend time with your family—and on Sunday especially this always means gathering with the family of God. On holidays you conscientiously remember and observe what the holiday is set aside for: Sunday is set aside to commemorate our salvation through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; to observe His worship; to remember and celebrate the covenant God established in His Son’s blood. Holidays are for feasting, and so on Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Supper (which traditionally is normally followed by a big “Sunday dinner”!).
A lot of Christians in our day, however, treat Sunday as any other day, arguing that “the Sabbath command is no longer in effect.” Or, if they do have the day off from work, they treat it as a day centered on themselves: on their rest, on their play, on their family. While it may be true that the Sabbath per se is no longer celebrated (the seventh day, that is), 99.999999% of Christians throughout all of church history—including those mentioned in the New Testament—have treated the first day of the week, Sunday, as the most fundamental holy day, gathering in worship together, centered around all that God has done for us and who we are in Christ. Do we have less to celebrate in the New World Christ has given us? Less reason to worship Him together and give thanks? Rather, no one has more reason to holiday every week than us!
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Sundays. Thank You for setting aside a special day for us to gather together with those who love You, those whom You love, that we might celebrate all we have in You and glorify our Lord and Savior. Teach us how to “keep it holy,” and give us the desire to set Your day and Your worship apart as the most important time of each week. Help us to take the trouble necessary to prepare for Sundays, and teach us also how to give goodness and rest to others as You have brought rest and goodness to us through Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Friday, March 25, 2011
Taking God’s Name
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” (Exodus 20:7)
This is a decree, but it can also be read as a promise: If you call upon God, the one true God, the one God who is Three, if you cast your hopes on the name of Jesus Christ—you will not be calling upon that name in vain. God will come through for you. That is because God “obeys” this command as He does all the others. Or in other words, we see in this “law” the very representation of God’s character, what God is like and what He does all the time.
We can see this again clearly in our own baptismal vows. In baptism, God swears by His own name that He will wash you clean of your sin and guilt, pour out His Holy Spirit upon you, take you into His covenant family, give you a new start, and grant you an abundant, eternal life with Him. He also swears to take on your enemies, protect you from them, and defeat them for you. He swears to feed you, clothe you, provide for you in every way, and make you a full-fledged citizen of the one Kingdom that will outlast and outshine all others. There is more, of course, but you get the idea: God does not take His own name in vain, but what He swears by It He will perform.
For our part, we are to be like Him, that is, we are not to take His name, “the Name,” in vain. We are to be faithful to our covenant vows as well. In our baptisms we also swore in the name of the Trinity—to give God our lives, walk in His ways, and come to Him for our needs, which include forgiveness for our sins and His help in our repentance. When we take the name of Christ upon ourselves in baptism, we are calling upon the name of the Lord to save us, and in exchange we are vowing our allegiance to this one God alone, believing Him to be the True Source of Life, the One Way to Truth, the Only Standard for Right Living, the One Hope for the World.
Our baptismal vows are the most important, of course, but in marriage we swear by God’s name as well. When we “take His name” at our weddings, we are calling upon God to witness that we will perform what we vow: to take to ourselves no other, to have and to hold this one person alone, to love and to cherish them for the rest of our lives, indeed, to the day of our death. Just as our vows in baptism should guide the “performance” of our day-to-day, moment-by-moment lives, even so we should see that we did not take our marriage vows “in vain” but meant what we said and will do what we have to do—“in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer”—to fulfill the words uttered in the name of the Lord our God.
The one who dwells in God’s house is described in Psalm 15 as “he who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” Again, we see this is exactly what God has done for us. What did it cost God to fulfill His own promises to us? Nothing less than the humiliation, death, and sacrifice of His own Son. He swore to His own hurt. The cost was worth it to Christ—He saw the joy set before Him that enabled Him to endure the suffering. Give thanks to God for His faithfulness to keep His word, and pray God will enable you to follow in His steps, to stay true to your own vows, come what may.
“God, we give You thanks this day in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for Your covenantal love for us. We thank You for the fulfillment of Your own promises toward us in Christ—for the forgiveness of sins, abundant life in Him, the hope of eternal life, and the gift of Your Presence with us. We pray You would help us to keep our vows—not to take Your name in vain—and help us at all times and in whatever circumstances to walk worthy of the name You have placed on us in our baptisms. Hear us for Christ’s sake and through His name. Amen.”
This is a decree, but it can also be read as a promise: If you call upon God, the one true God, the one God who is Three, if you cast your hopes on the name of Jesus Christ—you will not be calling upon that name in vain. God will come through for you. That is because God “obeys” this command as He does all the others. Or in other words, we see in this “law” the very representation of God’s character, what God is like and what He does all the time.
We can see this again clearly in our own baptismal vows. In baptism, God swears by His own name that He will wash you clean of your sin and guilt, pour out His Holy Spirit upon you, take you into His covenant family, give you a new start, and grant you an abundant, eternal life with Him. He also swears to take on your enemies, protect you from them, and defeat them for you. He swears to feed you, clothe you, provide for you in every way, and make you a full-fledged citizen of the one Kingdom that will outlast and outshine all others. There is more, of course, but you get the idea: God does not take His own name in vain, but what He swears by It He will perform.
For our part, we are to be like Him, that is, we are not to take His name, “the Name,” in vain. We are to be faithful to our covenant vows as well. In our baptisms we also swore in the name of the Trinity—to give God our lives, walk in His ways, and come to Him for our needs, which include forgiveness for our sins and His help in our repentance. When we take the name of Christ upon ourselves in baptism, we are calling upon the name of the Lord to save us, and in exchange we are vowing our allegiance to this one God alone, believing Him to be the True Source of Life, the One Way to Truth, the Only Standard for Right Living, the One Hope for the World.
Our baptismal vows are the most important, of course, but in marriage we swear by God’s name as well. When we “take His name” at our weddings, we are calling upon God to witness that we will perform what we vow: to take to ourselves no other, to have and to hold this one person alone, to love and to cherish them for the rest of our lives, indeed, to the day of our death. Just as our vows in baptism should guide the “performance” of our day-to-day, moment-by-moment lives, even so we should see that we did not take our marriage vows “in vain” but meant what we said and will do what we have to do—“in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer”—to fulfill the words uttered in the name of the Lord our God.
The one who dwells in God’s house is described in Psalm 15 as “he who swears to his own hurt and does not change.” Again, we see this is exactly what God has done for us. What did it cost God to fulfill His own promises to us? Nothing less than the humiliation, death, and sacrifice of His own Son. He swore to His own hurt. The cost was worth it to Christ—He saw the joy set before Him that enabled Him to endure the suffering. Give thanks to God for His faithfulness to keep His word, and pray God will enable you to follow in His steps, to stay true to your own vows, come what may.
“God, we give You thanks this day in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for Your covenantal love for us. We thank You for the fulfillment of Your own promises toward us in Christ—for the forgiveness of sins, abundant life in Him, the hope of eternal life, and the gift of Your Presence with us. We pray You would help us to keep our vows—not to take Your name in vain—and help us at all times and in whatever circumstances to walk worthy of the name You have placed on us in our baptisms. Hear us for Christ’s sake and through His name. Amen.”
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Worshiping God as He Truly Is
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” (Exodus 20:4)
Far from simply a prohibition of statues or even religious art, this decree from a loving God for His people encourages us to worship God as He truly is.
Shortly after the command was given, Moses’ brother Aaron caved in to mob anxiety and fashioned for the Church of his day the infamous Golden Calf. When he presented it to the congregation, he shouted, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Some of them—actually, a lot of them—fell for it: they worshiped in their foolish and wicked way and suffered God’s judgment for it.
But others could not be so easily fooled. “What? I don’t care how golden it is—our God a moo cow? The God who turned the Nile River into blood and blotted out the sun for three days straight? The God who parted the Red Sea—we walked through it, for crying out loud!—and then drowned the entire Egyptian army in it? Let the Hindus have their cow-gods: our God is inexpressible in His greatness!”
Of course, the Bible itself describes God with metaphors and allusions to help us know what God is like. He is a Rock and Fortress, but He is not a rock and a fortress but far more. Take “rock-ness” and “fortress-ness” out to the nth degree, to infinity, and you have one aspect of what God is like. As a fortress will protect you from the invading army, even so our God will protect you from your enemies—only He does it infinitely better than the mightiest fortress on earth.
Even so God is called a “Man of War,” but He is no mere man, and we cheat ourselves and dishonor Him to think of Him so. Just as Christ is a “greater than Solomon” in His infinite wisdom, so God is not only mightier than the strongest and bravest of men, but also more compassionate, more forgiving, more patient, more intelligent, more understanding, more condescending, more kingly, and more “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
We will never come to the end of finding out what God is all about—after all, God is infinite in His glory, and we are finite and always will be. But we are to worship Him as He has revealed Himself to us—in His Word and in His Son especially—and, among other things, that will guide our prayers.
Pray to a God who is your Father, who loves you for Christ’s sake, who will never leave you nor forsake you, who protects you from your enemies, who gives better gifts to His children than the kindest father on earth. Pray to a God who is jealous for your love and utter devotion, yes, and is angry with those who are unfaithful to Him; but remember in your prayers He is also rich in mercy, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness. Pray to a God who is not like a man and will not lie to you but will fulfill all His promises to you and will keep His end of the covenant He has sealed with the blood of His own Son.
Never settle for a God of man’s making, but rather pray God to re-make you in His image, in the image of His glorious Son.
“Heavenly Father, we praise You this day as the God who is invisible yet who has revealed Himself to us. We praise You as the God who is more than any man yet who reveals His express image in the Man Jesus Christ. We give You thanks for unveiling Your glory in Christ and for revealing to us who You are and what You are like in Your Word. Teach us, O God, how we are to worship You in truth. Take away any false understandings or false imaginations we have concerning You. And fashion us, dear God, after the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Far from simply a prohibition of statues or even religious art, this decree from a loving God for His people encourages us to worship God as He truly is.
Shortly after the command was given, Moses’ brother Aaron caved in to mob anxiety and fashioned for the Church of his day the infamous Golden Calf. When he presented it to the congregation, he shouted, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Some of them—actually, a lot of them—fell for it: they worshiped in their foolish and wicked way and suffered God’s judgment for it.
But others could not be so easily fooled. “What? I don’t care how golden it is—our God a moo cow? The God who turned the Nile River into blood and blotted out the sun for three days straight? The God who parted the Red Sea—we walked through it, for crying out loud!—and then drowned the entire Egyptian army in it? Let the Hindus have their cow-gods: our God is inexpressible in His greatness!”
Of course, the Bible itself describes God with metaphors and allusions to help us know what God is like. He is a Rock and Fortress, but He is not a rock and a fortress but far more. Take “rock-ness” and “fortress-ness” out to the nth degree, to infinity, and you have one aspect of what God is like. As a fortress will protect you from the invading army, even so our God will protect you from your enemies—only He does it infinitely better than the mightiest fortress on earth.
Even so God is called a “Man of War,” but He is no mere man, and we cheat ourselves and dishonor Him to think of Him so. Just as Christ is a “greater than Solomon” in His infinite wisdom, so God is not only mightier than the strongest and bravest of men, but also more compassionate, more forgiving, more patient, more intelligent, more understanding, more condescending, more kingly, and more “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
We will never come to the end of finding out what God is all about—after all, God is infinite in His glory, and we are finite and always will be. But we are to worship Him as He has revealed Himself to us—in His Word and in His Son especially—and, among other things, that will guide our prayers.
Pray to a God who is your Father, who loves you for Christ’s sake, who will never leave you nor forsake you, who protects you from your enemies, who gives better gifts to His children than the kindest father on earth. Pray to a God who is jealous for your love and utter devotion, yes, and is angry with those who are unfaithful to Him; but remember in your prayers He is also rich in mercy, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness. Pray to a God who is not like a man and will not lie to you but will fulfill all His promises to you and will keep His end of the covenant He has sealed with the blood of His own Son.
Never settle for a God of man’s making, but rather pray God to re-make you in His image, in the image of His glorious Son.
“Heavenly Father, we praise You this day as the God who is invisible yet who has revealed Himself to us. We praise You as the God who is more than any man yet who reveals His express image in the Man Jesus Christ. We give You thanks for unveiling Your glory in Christ and for revealing to us who You are and what You are like in Your Word. Teach us, O God, how we are to worship You in truth. Take away any false understandings or false imaginations we have concerning You. And fashion us, dear God, after the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.”
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Living in the Presence of God
“You shall have no other gods before Me.”
The words before Me might best be understood as meaning “in My presence,” that is, in the presence of your God, your Lord. The Latin phrase coram Deo illustrates this thought as well: “before the heart of God.” What is in God’s presence, before the very heart of God? Everything!
Not only are we to have no other gods in the presence of the One God, but we are to live out our lives in His presence, fully acknowledging His presence and sovereignty. Any area of life, down to our thoughts and imaginations, kept “secret” from Him (which of course is no secret to Him) is an attempt on our part to give that part of our life to another, a rival, god.
Our little children know the catechism question well: “Can you see God? No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me.” And every child--and adult--ought to know Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place,/Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” We know intellectually and theologically that our God is a God who sees. This is a great comfort to us when we suffer unnoticed by others or when we are in danger or trouble. But it is also our greatest fear if we are doing what we know He disapproves. Living coram Deo, “before God,” is living in such a way that we not only theologically but experientially acknowledge God—our God—is there and that His presence makes all the difference.
Psalm 139 puts all of this beautifully and was written to be the sincere prayer of our hearts:
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me.’
Even the night shall be light about me.
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You. . . .
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen.”
The words before Me might best be understood as meaning “in My presence,” that is, in the presence of your God, your Lord. The Latin phrase coram Deo illustrates this thought as well: “before the heart of God.” What is in God’s presence, before the very heart of God? Everything!
Not only are we to have no other gods in the presence of the One God, but we are to live out our lives in His presence, fully acknowledging His presence and sovereignty. Any area of life, down to our thoughts and imaginations, kept “secret” from Him (which of course is no secret to Him) is an attempt on our part to give that part of our life to another, a rival, god.
Our little children know the catechism question well: “Can you see God? No, I cannot see God, but He always sees me.” And every child--and adult--ought to know Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place,/Keeping watch on the evil and the good.” We know intellectually and theologically that our God is a God who sees. This is a great comfort to us when we suffer unnoticed by others or when we are in danger or trouble. But it is also our greatest fear if we are doing what we know He disapproves. Living coram Deo, “before God,” is living in such a way that we not only theologically but experientially acknowledge God—our God—is there and that His presence makes all the difference.
Psalm 139 puts all of this beautifully and was written to be the sincere prayer of our hearts:
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall fall on me.’
Even the night shall be light about me.
Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You. . . .
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen.”
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Gods
“You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)
Gods abound these days and always have. In one sense, one’s “god” is whoever or whatever he most
• Worships
• Serves
• Loves
• Fears
• Trusts
• Believes in
• Looks to for deliverance (“salvation”)
• Obeys
• Devotes his life to
• Prays to
• Thanks
For one example among many, God specifically identifies money as a god in the New Testament when He equates greed with “idolatry” and when He opposes God and “Mammon” (“riches”) as two rivals for the hearts of men: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) Money worship in our day is as common as Baal worship was to the ancient Canaanites. This is evident in the way so many people—rich, poor, and everywhere in between—develop their entire sense of security around money, devote their entire lives to the obtaining of it, fear more than anything the loss of it, place their trust in it (despite what we say on our money), and look to it in the end for deliverance. After all, didn’t Solomon himself say, “Money is the answer to everything?”
Yes, but Solomon also said that God is the one who gives riches and wealth and even the power to eat of it. There is one God above all who meets all needs and deserves all honor, praise, thanks, and worship. One test of your “idolatry factor” is you prayers. If you don’t pray at all or you don’t pray much, even as a Christian, you serve other gods in the presence of God. Those who truly trust in God look to Him for all their needs—spiritual, physical, emotional, and other needs—and give Him thanks for it all as well.
“Great and wonderful God of heaven and earth, we give You thanks for all things this day and look to You alone for all things. We pray, dear God, we would have no other gods before You. We pray we would not be found at the end of the day to have worshiped or loved or feared anyone or anything above You. For You alone are our help, our hope, our Savior, our comfort; You alone are our Lord, our Master, our King, our Center-of-All-Life. Make our hearts truly devoted to You in all things, dear God, provide for us all our needs, and deliver us this day from all of our enemies, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Gods abound these days and always have. In one sense, one’s “god” is whoever or whatever he most
• Worships
• Serves
• Loves
• Fears
• Trusts
• Believes in
• Looks to for deliverance (“salvation”)
• Obeys
• Devotes his life to
• Prays to
• Thanks
For one example among many, God specifically identifies money as a god in the New Testament when He equates greed with “idolatry” and when He opposes God and “Mammon” (“riches”) as two rivals for the hearts of men: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) Money worship in our day is as common as Baal worship was to the ancient Canaanites. This is evident in the way so many people—rich, poor, and everywhere in between—develop their entire sense of security around money, devote their entire lives to the obtaining of it, fear more than anything the loss of it, place their trust in it (despite what we say on our money), and look to it in the end for deliverance. After all, didn’t Solomon himself say, “Money is the answer to everything?”
Yes, but Solomon also said that God is the one who gives riches and wealth and even the power to eat of it. There is one God above all who meets all needs and deserves all honor, praise, thanks, and worship. One test of your “idolatry factor” is you prayers. If you don’t pray at all or you don’t pray much, even as a Christian, you serve other gods in the presence of God. Those who truly trust in God look to Him for all their needs—spiritual, physical, emotional, and other needs—and give Him thanks for it all as well.
“Great and wonderful God of heaven and earth, we give You thanks for all things this day and look to You alone for all things. We pray, dear God, we would have no other gods before You. We pray we would not be found at the end of the day to have worshiped or loved or feared anyone or anything above You. For You alone are our help, our hope, our Savior, our comfort; You alone are our Lord, our Master, our King, our Center-of-All-Life. Make our hearts truly devoted to You in all things, dear God, provide for us all our needs, and deliver us this day from all of our enemies, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Monday, March 21, 2011
God’s Covenant Name
“And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord [Jehovah] your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.’”
When God meets His children at Mt. Sinai to seal a covenant with them, these are the gracious words with which He opens: “I am Jehovah—your God.” In effect He is saying, “I belong to you, and you belong to Me. I am not some generalized, public-square kind of ‘God’ who demands no commitment and who makes no real difference in the lives of those who ‘believe’ in Him. I am Jehovah—I have a covenant name, the name by which I am known to you—and I am like no other god.” Jehovah, creator of heaven and earth, is not only the God who had created them but the God who had saved them from their enemies, who had given them their lives again. Thus they owe their allegiance to Him—to this God with a covenant name—and He promises to be faithful to them as well.
In the same way, God meets us in baptism and seals a covenant with us, and once again the covenant name is important: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38) “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Those who are baptized into this name—Christians, in other words—owe all their allegiance to Christ and His law; and our deliverance—from sin, death, and the devil—is secured by our God for us. His name is on us: He has sworn by His own name to be faithful to His own people, and we who have been bought at the price of His blood are obliged to trust and obey Him in all things, to walk worthy of the name of our God.
“Heavenly Father, we give You thanks this day for placing Your Son’s name upon us. Thank You for sealing us through baptism into the covenant name of Jesus Christ. Thank You for being our God and for making us Your children. We pray, dear God, we would live worthy of His name, trusting fully in the God who saves us and living in obedience to His holy and righteous law. And it is in that name we pray—the name of Jesus. Amen.”
When God meets His children at Mt. Sinai to seal a covenant with them, these are the gracious words with which He opens: “I am Jehovah—your God.” In effect He is saying, “I belong to you, and you belong to Me. I am not some generalized, public-square kind of ‘God’ who demands no commitment and who makes no real difference in the lives of those who ‘believe’ in Him. I am Jehovah—I have a covenant name, the name by which I am known to you—and I am like no other god.” Jehovah, creator of heaven and earth, is not only the God who had created them but the God who had saved them from their enemies, who had given them their lives again. Thus they owe their allegiance to Him—to this God with a covenant name—and He promises to be faithful to them as well.
In the same way, God meets us in baptism and seals a covenant with us, and once again the covenant name is important: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” (Acts 2:38) “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Those who are baptized into this name—Christians, in other words—owe all their allegiance to Christ and His law; and our deliverance—from sin, death, and the devil—is secured by our God for us. His name is on us: He has sworn by His own name to be faithful to His own people, and we who have been bought at the price of His blood are obliged to trust and obey Him in all things, to walk worthy of the name of our God.
“Heavenly Father, we give You thanks this day for placing Your Son’s name upon us. Thank You for sealing us through baptism into the covenant name of Jesus Christ. Thank You for being our God and for making us Your children. We pray, dear God, we would live worthy of His name, trusting fully in the God who saves us and living in obedience to His holy and righteous law. And it is in that name we pray—the name of Jesus. Amen.”
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