Month: July 2022

Psalm 8 (NLT) (A Psalm of David) 1  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.  2  You have taught children and infants to tell of your strength, silencing your enemies and all who oppose you.  3  When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you set in place –  4  what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  5  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  6  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.  7  the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, 8  the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  9  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!

“Lord, who am I compared to Your glory?  Who am I compared to Your majesty? I am Your beloved, Your creation, and You love me as I am. You have called me chosen for Your kingdom, unashamed to call me Your own.” (“Your Beloved” from Jesus, Lead On album, Vineyard Music).

Observation

Reflecting on David’s life and reign, I recognize that his life experiences produced awe and wonder that is clearly evident in David’s song of praise in Psalm 8. Despite living a tumultuous life – a wild roller coaster ride of faith and faithlessness, submission and selfishness, sin and repentance, loyalty and betrayal (both his own and that of those he trusted), humility and pride, courage and cowardice, from being hunted like a dog to becoming king over all – at the end David puts his hope and trust in the God he has depended upon, served and returned to all of his life – the God Who has rescued and restored him over and over again.

Half of the book of 2 Samuel focuses on David’s sin, his failures as a father, king and commander, and the troublesome consequences of those failures; yet, at the end David is no longer crying out for rescue, restoration or deliverance but only marveling at the wonder of this limitless awesome God Who first even takes notice of us and then loves us so that He forgives our sin, ignores our shame and calls us His beloved (“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers — the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?”).  I believe David in his darkest, lowest, most desperate places experienced the wonder of being God’s beloved, one whom God redeemed, restored and gladly called His own.

Impact on Me

Like David, I am so human and have in my life had my own roller coaster of trauma, sucess, tragedy, joy and sorrow. Some of the low points were not of my doing (deaths, relatives who struggled with mental illness, etc.) The failures I must own are the result of poor judgment or selfishness or pride or other choice that “seemed good in my own eyes.” However, although I present myself before Jesus with nothing to offer but a load of guilt and shame to my name, He forgives me again and restores me like the Prodigal Son. I marvel at the wonder of it.

So, like David who kept repenting and returning, I dare to believe that Jesus was serious about making salvation accessible to me when He died on the Cross even though my life is sometimes a roller coaster.  I want to fully embrace and, yes, even live my life as evidence that:

• Regardless of the most worthless or despicable past, redemption, restoration and renewal are truly available for whosoever will call on the name of The Lord;
• The Creator of the Universe, the King of Kings knows me;
• That same King has entrusted me with power and authority in His name (You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.);
• In times of failure, the throne room of that same King is where I enter in to find grace, mercy, Jesus there as my strong advocate, where guilt and shame are washed away, and
• In my victories, I give all the praise, honor and glory to my King, holding nothing back for myself.

I never want to forget the wonder of His grace, His sacrifice on my behalf, His continuing care, His love for me.  I want to live my life fully embracing that He has called me (and you) His beloved, chosen for His kingdom, unashamed to call me Your own.  What a wonder!!

Prayer

God of Wonder and Majesty, Father, Redeemer, I dare to believe that I am Your beloved even though it seems too good to be true. Lord, may I also hear You describe me as one after Your own heart, one who gives You joy in Your heart, one who knows without a shadow of a doubt that I am Your beloved, one who has been good and faithful in Your service.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Ephesians 1:15-23 MSG ^15-19 That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life He has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of His work in us who trust Him—endless energy, boundless strength!

^20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised Him from death and set Him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the Church. The Church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the Church. The Church is Christ’s body, in which He speaks and acts, by which He fills everything with His presence.

Observation

“The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church.”  The word “peripheral” is defined as something sitting on the edge, and is a synonym to such words as outermost, fringe, border, and surrounding.  Because we are creatures that live by our senses, we tend to accept as real what we can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.  We can fall into the trap of letting this physical world seem to be more central to our existence, more impactful, more powerful, more substantive than the spiritual, which we can’t see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.  Paul is reminding us here to keep our perspective in line with reality – the world, as well as everything and everyone in it, revolves around Jesus, Who “is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything.”  He is the center of all that exists – the Word that created all and the Life that sustains it.

“God raised Him (Jesus) from death and set Him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule.”  Satan is an insurrectionist and wants to deceive us into allowing our physical world to be our center because then we have put him in charge.  He wants to manipulate our circumstances so we depend on what we can do in our own strength to fix or improve them.  He wants to get our eyes to wander and our understanding to dim so that we forget Whose we are, Who we serve, and Who is really in charge – “everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule.”  Jesus walked this earth as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit to show us what He intends for us to do and be in His name – individually and as a part of His Body, the Church. 

Impact on Me

I confess that I have at times allowed my eyes to wander and my understanding to dim when I look at the condition of the world around me.  So many families, including my own, struggle with keeping Jesus as the center.  We feel the need to do something!!  There are times when fear, heartache or desperation creates an urgency for me to do something to fix situations or people rather than trust in and wait on God.  In times like these, I have allowed myself to drift out from the center toward the fringes.  It is in those times when I don’t remember and dwell in that personal relationship with Jesus that the physical impossibilities swell to become overwhelming.  It is then that I must repent for insurrection.  “God raised Him from death and set Him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule.”    When I take matters into my own hands, am I not putting myself on the throne? 

When I wake up to my insufficiency to rule the Universe, the Holy Spirit so sweetly reminds me of Jesus, Lord of the Universe, Creator of all, God’s Son, changing the course of all history by dying an excruciating, shameful death on a Cross and rising again to provide life eternal for whosoever will come – including all those I think need fixing and, especially, me.  One faithful person submitted to God changed the future of nations and generations.  He listened and obeyed God in the face of overwhelming circumstances.   What can I accomplish in His name if I do the same?  “I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life He has for his followers.” 

Prayer

Lord, God of the Universe, Creator of all, Savior, Redeemer – why do I ever neglect time with You?  Why do I ever consider my ways as better than Yours?  Lord, forgive me for doubt, unbelief and the arrogance of trying to usurp Your authority and throne.  I embrace Paul’s prayer for me so I can become intelligent and discerning as our personal relationship deepens so I will fulfill Your call on my life and allow Your love, grace, power, anointing and hope to flow through me without any human hindrance.  Make it so, Lord.  I pray this in Jesus’ name.

Exodus 8:1-15 NIV Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. ² If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. ³ The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. ⁴ The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.’”

⁵ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’”

⁶ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. ⁷ But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.

⁸ Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

⁹ Moses said to Pharaoh, “I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile.”

¹⁰ “Tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

Moses replied, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God. ¹¹ The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

¹² After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. ¹³ And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴ They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

Observation

This Exodus story of the 10 plagues of Egypt is told and retold year after year in Sunday School.  We miss the deeper meaning of this story if we just view it as God using miracles to wear the Egyptian’s resistance down.  Each plague demonstrated God’s power and authority over an Egyptian god who could not protect Egypt from the effects of the plagues; the Egyptian magicians by calling on their gods were only able to add to the plagues but never able to reverse them.

Turning the waters to blood challenged the authority of Khnum, the creator god who also controlled all the waters.  Creating an overabundance of frogs made mockery of Heqet, the goddess of fertility, childbirth and the one who breathed life into every child.  The sun god, Ra, could not dispel the plague of darkness, and so on through the rest.  The ten plagues are about Yahweh declaring that He is God over all, supreme in power and authority, Creator, Giver of Life and Light – the one true God.  

So, my “favorite” plague is the frogs.  Since frogs were closely associated with Heqet (the goddess with a frog’s head – ick!), they were considered sacred and could not be killed.  I can just hear the Egyptians: “Watch your step!  Look before you sit down!  Don’t hurt the frogs!  Don’t touch them!”   Also, anyone who studies frogs will tell you that many frogs have a slightly toxic, some even poisonous, slime that, on contact, can cause painful skin irritation.  (There is a reason that you only find frog legs on the menu!)  Being overwhelmed by frogs had to make life truly difficult, annoying, frustrating, slimy and possibly very itchy.  The consequences of each plague became increasingly serious and even deadly as they progressed. 

Impact on Me

I am sure that I have heard and taught this story dozens of times in over 30 years in Children’s Ministry.   This plague of frogs has always left me with a few questions. 

• How could anyone possibly know that the magicians were successful in creating more frogs since there didn’t seem any place free of frogs?  “The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. ⁴ The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.”  
• Why in the world would Pharaoh choose another night with the frogs?  I certainly would have said, “Now, immediately!”
• What relief?!  “The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields. ¹⁴ They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them. ¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief …”
• Even cleaning up the carcasses was going to cause issues – How do you dispose of holy creatures whose slime will cause serious itchiness?   Where do you put them as they are already everywhere?

So, why is this my “favorite” plague?  I think it is that “tomorrow” of Pharaoh.  Just as he procrastinated in his and his people’s misery, it is so human for us to procrastinate in leaving our own – those temptations that plague us, those habits of spiritual laziness, those wasted times that could be spent with the Lord.   If I hold on to these, aren’t I also choosing one more night with the frogs?

Prayer

Dear Lord, Almighty and gracious Father, I do not want to procrastinate in seeking You and making time for You in my life.  No more nights with the frogs!  By Your Holy Spirit, search me and find the frogs that remain.  Help me to clean them out of my life.  I desire to worship and adore only You.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.