Category: Published

Deuteronomy 28:11-14 (MSG) ^11-14 “God will lavish you with good things: children from your womb, offspring from your animals, and crops from your land, the land that God promised your ancestors that he would give you. God will throw open the doors of his sky vaults and pour rain on your land on schedule and bless the work you take in hand. You will lend to many nations but you yourself won’t have to take out a loan. God will make you the head, not the tail; you’ll always be the top dog, never the underdog, as you obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you today. Don’t swerve an inch to the right or left from the words that I command you today by going off following and worshiping other gods.”

Matthew 5:17-18 MSG “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.

Observation

Deuteronomy 28 is a list of the covenant promises from God – blessings for obedience and cursings for disobedience.  The blessings are God’s dreams, what He desires to do, for His people.  He wants to lavish prosperity, peace and grace upon them – blessing upon blessing on His beloved.  I can imagine God closing His eyes and envisioning all of His dreams coming to pass – His people resting in His faithfulness, returning love for love, trust for trust, grace for grace – giving everything, all their hearts, in return for the all He provides – embracing Him as Father, Protector, Redeemer, Beloved.  How His heart must yearn for this!  Sadly, what He dreams for us is rarely what we allow Him to deliver.  

Because He is just, He must also keep His promises for disobedience.  Keeping those promises must be heartbreaking for Him.  He asks us to trust Him absolutely, but His people (we) are inconsistent in our response, sometimes obedient, trusting, listening, wanting only to please Him and sometimes wandering hearts, easily distracted, making our own rules, choosing our own ways, gratifying our own pleasures at the expense of wounding Him.  Knowing that He is slow to anger and full of mercy, we play the odds as we gamble with the temptations that become transgressions that then become barriers which we find difficult or impossible to overcome on our own. 

Because we humans are so inconsistent, fallible and distracted by the shiny baubles of the world, He made a new covenant with the only innocent, unfailingly faithful human who would never break it – Jesus Christ – allowing us to be the beneficiaries of Jesus’ unfailing obedience.  Because His patient endurance and mercy far surpasses mine (or, be honest, all of us) He made provisions for redemption, repentance, and restoration in and through Jesus’ sacrifice.  He did this so He could reach His hand over the barriers we ourselves construct and beckon us to let Him rescue, restore and fulfill His dream for us – because He is not willing to let His dreams die.

Impact on Me

Who is this God Who has such vast oceans of love, loving kindness as a flood, grace and peace like mighty rivers, Who would give His own Son so that He can reach over the barriers I myself constructed to draw me into His dream for me?  Who is this God Who remains merciful in the face of the rebellion and offense that humankind throws in His face? Why would He pursue this lost soul, broken and recalcitrant, with patient endurance and undeserved grace to bring me to repentance? I am so grateful that He created repentance, redemption and restoration because I need it all. Why does He insist on making me His partner in revealing His heart and His message of redemption? Surely He could do it more efficiently and effectively without my clumsy efforts.

Why? Because He is the One Who calls us His beloved, His creation, His child, even as we come before Him soul-naked without excuse and our hands empty. I do not deserve His love, His grace, His forgiveness but I am going to embrace it. I will never take for granted the price paid. Obedience seems a small price to pay on my part for living God’s dream for me.

Prayer

I come before My God, My Creator, My Father, My Redeemer, the only true God, to worship You and thank You for rescuing me.  Oh, Lord, I want to enter into your dreams for me.  I am human, fallible, inconsistent and weak.  Give me the courage, wisdom and strength to be faithful and wise in my choices. Let me be one who will always “obediently listen to and diligently keep the commands of God,” so I may walk only in Your ways and continuously bring joy to Your heart.  Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Micah 6:6-8 NLT ⁶ What can we bring to the Lord? Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves? ⁷ Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins? ⁸ No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Matthew 22:35-40 NLT ³⁵ One of them [a Pharisee], an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Observation

We are a people who love metrics, the objective ways we measure achievement, commitment, success, winning.   These metrics are beneficial when an activity or performance has truly objective measures of success and achievement. Winners in many sports can be measured in these ways – the number of shots in golf, the number of missed balls in tennis, the number of players across home base in baseball, and so on.  The “even playing field” (consistent rules and method of scoring) also provides a relative method of comparison to all those who have competed in the sport in the past. This is why competitors are not only focused on finishing first but also doing it in record time or by beating a record score.  Controversy begins to increase as we apply metrics to more subjective activities that rely on a judge’s opinion using a grading system (e.g., gymnastics, diving, skating).

However, the real breakdown for us occurs when we try to create metrics for more subjective activities or performance, such as honoring the Lord. When we attempt to create rules and regulations that measure our success, achievement, or commitment by visible results or actions, we find ourselves among the Pharisees who became so focused on enforcing the rules that they lost the joy and meaning of the goal. It is as if they stopped running the race midway to stand on the course and inspect all the other competitors to find reasons to disqualify them! (Matthew 23:13 Woe to you, you teachers of the law and Pharisees. There is such a gulf between what you say and what you do. You will stand before a crowd and lock the door of the kingdom of heaven right in front of everyone; you won’t enter the Kingdom yourselves, and you prevent others from doing so.).

Impact on Me

The two passages I chose today do not lend themselves to human metrics.  There is no way to keep score or objectively compare my performance to another. While there should be visible evidence of my efforts to obey, only God can truly judge my motives and effectiveness in these areas – whether and why I am faithful “to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Only He can judge how well I “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ … [and] ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Our God is Love and all He is and does is motivated by that Love.  He is not looking for me to be motivated simply by a dutiful response to His authority.   Rather, He wants me to love Him enough to trust Him and be as generous with my love for Him and others as He has been to me.  I am not in competition with anyone one else to win His love or His favor; He has more than enough for me and has provided me with more than enough to give away to others. That is simply what He asks me to do to honor Him, to show my gratitude, to love Him in return.

Why do I want to make serving Him more physically demanding, more difficult, more challenging, more painful (no pain, no gain)?   Here is where the ” walk humbly with your God” comes in. Perhaps I am so bound to human metrics and what people think that I find it hard to simply let go and let God alone make the rules and be my judge.

Prayer

Lord, I pray that I will allow You to work Your love, grace, peace, mercy in me so that I can be meek and humble, walking this earth as Jesus did, secure in Your love, overflowing with your grace and truth, allowing Your power and anointing to flow so that You are revealed in and through my life, so that others will come to know You because they meet You in me.  Help me to be simply and constantly motivated by gratitude borne of love so that I will be faithful to say “yes” whenever You ask. In Jesus’ name I pray. Make it so.

Ephesians 1:3-6 PHILLIPS Praise be to God for giving us through Christ every possible spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven! For consider what he has done—before the foundation of the world he chose us to become, in Christ, his holy and blameless children living within his constant care. He planned, in his purpose of love, that we should be adopted as his own children through Jesus Christ—that we might learn to praise that glorious generosity of his which has made us welcome in the everlasting love he bears towards the Son.

HYMN – “Here is Love”

Here is love, vast as the ocean, Lovingkindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our ransom, Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember? Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten, Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days.

On the mount of crucifixion, Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers, Poured incessant from above,
And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice Kissed a guilty world in love.

Let me all Thy love accepting, Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory, Nothing in the world I see.
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me, Thou Thyself hast set me free.

In Thy truth Thou dost direct me By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting, As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring Thy great love and power on me,
Without measure, full and boundless, Drawing out my heart to Thee.

Observation

“Here is Love” is called the Love Song of the Welsh Revival of 1904-1906. It expresses how hearts responded to the redemptive power of God’s love unleashed during that remarkable and miraculous revival.  All revival starts with repentance which evokes surrender to God’s will and an urgent desire to share the joy and freedom with others. Like all true revivals, the Message was simple – the redemptive power of God’s love.

Over 100,000 people gave their lives to Christ in the first six months in the Welsh Revival. A great number of these were rough and irreverent coal miners. It is said that the ponies used in the mines had to be retrained to respond to new commands because the miners no longer used the old ones full of curses and swearing. During this time a great number of drinking establishments went bankrupt and crime was reduced so significantly that the police and judges often found themselves without work.  This demonstration of God’s grace and love, having Acts 2:38 as its signature, resulted in repentance, confession and the Holy Spirit enduement of power from on high.

This revival was the forerunner of the subsequent worldwide Pentecostal revivals of the 20th Century, including Azusa Street in California. One by one they chose to be “in Christ,” becoming “His holy and blameless children living within his constant care.”  One by one recognizing “that glorious generosity of His (Father God) which has made us welcome in the everlasting love He bears towards the Son.”  One by one they recognized, embraced and owned their place in the Father’s love for them – “Grace and love, like mighty rivers, poured incessant from above, And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love.”  This simple but mighty move of God was a manifestation of love and power which completely transformed thousands of lives one-by-one. 

Impact on Me

Revival happens individually, each heart accepting that kiss from Jesus. I can remember when my heart was first flooded with His overwhelming presence, the sensation of floating in the sea of His love, grace, freedom and peace, the weight of my sin, depression and anger being simply and completely washed away, of being swept up into God’s glory by His grace!  How do I ever get to a place where I forget, where I trade Him, His presence, His love, for anything of this world? Why would I allow my response to this love to become dull or indifferent? Where and why would I hesitate to share Jesus as the only answer that really makes any difference? 

The Holy Spirit has been stirring the embers of His first revival in my heart, asking me to return to my first love by feeding His Fire, by spending more time with Him, allowing Him to continually revive me while I am serving Him by serving others, by praying that my living might be a vessel bubbling over with hope, grace and peace, an instrument in the Redeemer’s hand used to unleash that overwhelming outpouring of His love in hearts – one-by-one – and that I might be faithful and true to Him all the days of my life.

Prayer

Lord, You are God, almighty, everlasting, omnipotent, omniscient, and yet You cared for me, even before I cared for You. You woo me back when I wander and become distracted, You forgive me when I ask and restore me in Your love, peace, righteousness by Your grace. How wide, how deep, how vast is Your love for me!  I am so grateful for the Cross, the price paid for me to be firmly and forever Your child with all the privileges of family. Forgive me for letting the fire You set in me to burn low. Stir up and rekindle the flame that I might fully and completely cooperate with the Holy Spirit to use the gifts You  have given me to reveal Christ to each one I meet.  Lord, endue me with power and anointing to be an instrument of revival in those around me. May many others join me in this prayer. In Jesus’ name I pray.

Psalm 105:37-38, 42-45 NLT  The Lord brought his people out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold; and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled.  ³⁸ Egypt was glad when they were gone, for they feared them greatly. … ⁴² For He remembered His sacred promise to His servant Abraham.  ⁴³ So He brought His people out of Egypt with joy, His chosen ones with rejoicing.  ⁴⁴ He gave his people the lands of pagan nations, and they harvested crops that others had planted.  ⁴⁵ All this happened so they would follow His decrees and obey His instructions.  Praise the Lord!

EGYPT (Bethel Music)

I won’t forget the wonder of how You brought deliverance, the exodus of my heart.  ‘Cause You found me, You freed me, held back the waters for my release – O Yahweh!

You stepped into my Egypt and You took me by the hand And You marched me out in freedom into the promised land.  And now I will not forget You, no, I’ll sing of all You’ve done.  Death is swallowed up forever by the fury of Your love!

Observation

“Egypt was glad when they were gone, for they feared them greatly.”   I have been a Sunday School teacher for over 30 years.  This story is very familiar.  It is a story of victory and deliverance for the Israelites, but also one of ignominious defeat for the Egyptians and their gods (each plague defied and defeated them one by one).   After the ultimate plague of death of the firstborn, Egyptians were terrified and wanted the Israelites gone.

Egypt for us is a representation of our sinful state before we embrace the deliverance of salvation through Jesus Christ.    The Book of Exodus is about redemption from sin and our journey toward complete reconciliation, harmony, reunion with who and what we can be in Christ.  “So He brought His people out of Egypt with joy, His chosen ones with rejoicing.”  Do you remember this joy?  There is nothing else like it.

However, the story of the Israelites in the wilderness is our story.  We can easily allow our first joy to be blunted as we struggle to allow redemption through the work  of the Holy Spirit to:

• expose and give us victory over the habits of Egypt,
• quiet the nagging whine of our flesh,
• clean up and clear out the muck of our souls,
• teach us to love mercy, do justly and walk humbly before our God,
• give us Jesus’ eyes to see and heart to understand as we respond to the difficulties of our personal and ministry lives. 

In all of the journey, let us never forget that first joy of deliverance, that first experience of the fury of His love.  “And now I will not forget You, no, I’ll sing of all You’ve done.  Death is swallowed up forever by the fury of Your love.”

Impact On Me

My salvation experience was one of wonder and joyful deliverance.  I had grown up in church but had no knowledge of a personal relationship with Jesus.  I lived with the continual guilt of feeling inadequate and a disappointment to God.  My life was high responsibility and low emotion.  We lived down a dirt road in a rural area with very poor television reception.

One morning, I turned on the TV and a preacher gave an invitation to accept Christ.  I put my hand on the screen and prayed with him.  My life was recharged from deep down inside as I experienced the fury of His love as the Holy Spirit flooded me with salvation.  I experienced joy – indescribable and glorious.   I want my gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice to be ever increasing, my response to His love ever more intense, so that I can revisit that joy again and again.  That is what praise, worship, study and service are all about – remembering and sharing the joy of deliverance with everyone He brings across my path.

Prayer

Almighty and eternal Father, Provider, Redeemer, I present myself to You in gratitude for all You have done in and for me.  Let me live in the wonder of Your love for me, always present in that experience of the fury of Your love. May I allow Your Holy Spirit to work without reservation in me to generate joy and hope constantly bubbling up to overflow me.  Mold me, make me, use me as You see fit to fulfill Your will and purpose in my life and the lives of those around me.  On the Day I stand before You, may I be like the servant who received 10 talents and brought back 20 – deemed a good and faithful servant.  I pray it all in Jesus’ name.  Make it so.