Gratitude – Page 2 – Pressing On In His Footsteps

On Cleaning the Slate

Psalm 19:7-14 NLT ⁷The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. ⁹Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever. The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair. ¹⁰They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. ¹¹They are a warning to Your servant, a great reward for those who obey them. ¹²How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. ¹³Keep Your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. ¹⁴May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to You, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:7-14 MSG The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree. ¹⁰God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.

^11-14There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure. Otherwise, how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool? Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work; Then I can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. These are the words in my mouth; these are what I chew on and pray. Accept them when I place them on the morning altar, O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-My-Altar.

Observation

God’s nature is revealed through His Word. Through all David’s disappointments, trials and failings, he learned that everything he needed could be found in submitting to and obeying God’s commands. David’s worship extols God’s nature as revealed to him by God’s words and actions – “…perfect, reviving the soul…trustworthy, making wise the simple…right, bringing joy to the heart…clear, giving insight for living… pure, lasting forever… true; each one is fair.” Regardless of his experience or current circumstance, David’s worship reflected and rejoiced in Who God is.

Nonetheless, David recognized that he himself was less than perfect or trustworthy. He ends this psalm with words of repentance and humility. “Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh! Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over your work.” Isn’t this the cry of every humble human heart who strives to please God, to walk worthy of the love and grace so freely given, to be that good and faithful servant?

Impact on Me

I hear in this psalm the wonder, the awe, the gratitude, the humility, the meekness that fired David’s worship. It is one I revisit often. It is full of awe and wonder over the love, wisdom, beauty, majesty, perfection of God Who, for some unimaginable reason, hears me, out of all the voices, and responds with love, grace and mercy to “scrub me clean of the grime of sin” again. The more amazing thing is that He finds joy in the scrubbing! It is better for me to listen to Him and avoid falling into the grimy pit, committing “stupid sins, from thinking I can take over Your work.” However, when I do muck myself up again and sincerely repent, putting my stupid pride on the “morning altar,” and committing to listen and obey more faithfully, He “cleans the slate…so we can start the day afresh”. Surely these things should fire my daily worship with the same wonder, awe, gratitude, humility, and meekness that fired David’s worship!

The question is, “Does it?” Do I take time to marvel at the wonder of God’s love and care for me? Do I put more value on worshipping Him than on seeking praise for what I have done? Am I ever grateful for God’s readiness to clean the slate when I come again to repent for rushing off to take over? Am I humble enough to expose my hidden faults, my stupid sins to repent and free Him to forgive? Do I want to make the David-like choices, sometimes hard, difficult, humiliating, or terrifying, to become one after God’s own heart? Again, I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill me with the courage and strength to do so.

Prayer

God of mercy and grace, You are endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, You do not ignore sin (Ex 34 MSG). Lord God, I pray that You will give me the insight, wisdom and strength to be totally transparent before You, allowing Your Holy Spirit to expose my hidden faults/stupid sins and that I might be humble enough to repent for them. Rekindle the fire in me that will restore that awe and wonder in my worship, whether in a group or all alone. May others come to know Christ because they meet Him in me. Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Forsaken

Psalm 22:1-5, 22-24 NIV ¹My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? ²My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. ³Yet You are enthroned as the Holy One; You are the one Israel praises. ⁴In You our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and You delivered them. ⁵To You they cried out and were saved; in You they trusted and were not put to shame…²²I will declare Your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise You. ²³You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor Him! Revere Him, all you descendants of Israel! ²⁴For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

Matthew 27:45-46 NIV ⁴⁵From noon until three in the afternoon darkness^(B) came over all the land. ⁴⁶About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,^[a] lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

Observation

I have heard many speculations about what these words of Jesus on the Cross mean. These words cannot mean that God turned away or separated Himself from Jesus because a holy God cannot look on sin because He looks on sin and sinners every day. “²⁴For He has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; He has not hidden His face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” If God cannot look on sin, how did Satan, the embodiment of evil, stand in God’s presence when they discussed Job (Job 2:1-2 NKJV). What the Word does tell us that God cannot look favorably upon sin. If “forsaken” means that the rest of the Trinity has severed relationship with Jesus, then the Cross was meaningless because Jesus was just a man at that point and unable to pay the price. The Word tells us that Jesus was fully man and fully God (Colossians 2:8-10 NIV). That never changed. “Forsaken” in the psalms generally means that God has allowed one to fall into the control of the enemy. This certainly fits here.

The most astounding part of this redemptive sacrifice is that God, in the person of His Son Who was fully God and fully Man, put Himself on the Cross to pay the required price and suffer the wrath for the sake of all sinners to have the choice to be rescued, restored, redeemed. Jesus endured unspeakable anguish and agony as He absorbed God’s judgmental wrath (in God’s presence) so that we would never have to absorb the wrath we deserve in His presence. This mystery of the triune God – 3 persons in one – must mean that the Father and the Holy Spirit participated in this sacrifice, fully present with Jesus on the Cross and in the Resurrection to come.

Impact on Me

I still had questions as to why Jesus cried out that He was forsaken. I have learned that Psalm 22, 23 and 24 are called the “Shepherd Psalms” and are memorized by Jewish boys for their Bar Mitzvah. When Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1, it was like me saying, “Our Father in heaven, holy is Your name….” I know what follows those words; you probably do, too! The religious leaders certainly knew what Jesus meant. I started reading the 3 psalms together as one piece and found that they are about God’s care for His creatures and Jesus’ victory, not defeat or abandonment. This just reminded me about the critical importance of context, of seeking to understand cultural customs and idioms, those unspoken you-understood phrases and actions that are foreign to me but fully understood by those of Jesus’ time.

I came to understand that God, Who is Love and the Creator of us all, Who promised to never leave or forsake us, poured out His wrath upon Himself so that I can avoid His wrath and choose grace by embracing Christ as Savior. This is the most remarkable offer and would be too good to be true if God was not the One making it. I don’t know why the Cross was the price but I am grateful that my God was willing to pay it.

Prayer

Lord God Almighty, Father, Son and Spirit, I bow to Your plan and purpose for my life even when the circumstances seem to scream “DEFEAT!” I know that You are not the author of war, famine, pain, sickness and all the other evils of this world AND I know that You are working all things together for good regardless of what I think. I would not have put Jesus on the Cross as a way to salvation and victory, and yet it is the pivot point of history, providing me with a choice between life and death when the only choice before was death. Search me and know me, guide me and lead me in righteousness. I submit to Your plan. In Jesus’ name, make it so.

On Who Would Have Thought

Isaiah 53:1-12 MSG Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.  There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.  He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.  One look at him and people turned away.  We looked down on him, thought he was scum.  
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.  But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole.  Through his bruises we get healed.  
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.  We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.  And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

^7-9He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

¹⁰Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

^11-12Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Observation

“Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?…it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed…He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people…Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true. Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.”

The popular image of Messiah in Jesus’ time was a warrior king who would set His people free from the oppression of Roman rule. This chapter was obviously ignored and/or misunderstood. How often do we do the same thing? We look for scripture passages that reinforce our fix for the circumstances we deem need to be changed, telling God how we think He should move in a situation, and ignore the ones we don’t understand, don’t fit our plan or might be taxing emotionally or physically. I am sure the followers of Jesus would not have understood or agreed with the Savior-On-A-Cross plan as a way to salvation and deliverance. Because their insight, like ours, is limited (temporal, short-sighted by eternal standards), they (and we) often forget that God has an eternal perspective and a plan that is not shaken or adjusted or challenged by circumstances or what people might think.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross was the pivot point of history. How difficult it must have been for His disciples to be faced with the enigma of a crucified Savior, something so incongruous, so mutually exclusive. Yet, this was and continues to be God’s one and only plan carried out to perfection.

Impact on Me

Good Friday, the day we commemorate the sacrifice in this chapter of Isaiah, is such a holy day for me. I am so grateful, forever grateful, that God made a way to restore the relationship He established in the Garden of Eden through paying a price none of us could pay. I am overwhelmed by the love, the undeserved grace and mercy available because of Jesus’ willingness to suffer and die for all those who embrace this sacrifice!

It is so astounding to me that God’s plan made Jesus the sacrifice – the innocent dying for the guilty. My mind cannot fathom the depth of that kind of mercy. Then, to add to the staggering nature of His grace, He adopts me as His child rather than holding me as His servant until I could pay the price of my freedom. All for free because Jesus took the redemption price on Him, on Him. Will I be asked to sacrifice, to change, to leave my sin habits behind, to walk by faith into unknown places with unknown consequences, YES, but I will also know that Jesus goes with me always.

I know that you cannot separate the Crucifixion from the Resurrection, the crucified from the risen Savior, because both are key to God’s plan to redeem, restore and reconcile humankind to Him. However, if you are looking for me, go to the Cross. I want to embrace the Cross in such a way that I become bloody so that when I hug someone else, they become bloody, too. I want them to be changed and redeemed, forever grateful as am I.

Prayer

Father God, You are so merciful, so wise, so loving, so gracious. How many times I have questioned Your ways, Your response in desperate and destructive situations, Your seeming slowness to respond! Forgive me for thinking that I can fix anyone or any situation without getting in sync with Your plan first. Help me to understand and surrender to Your will and Your purpose for me so that You can use me as an instrument of redemption. Thank You for the Cross and the Resurrection. May I always be grateful and respond in kind with Your mercy and love. Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

On Remembering

Deuteronomy 24:18-22 (MSG) 18 Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there. I command you: Do what I’m telling you. ^19-22When you harvest your grain and forget a sheaf back in the field, don’t go back and get it; leave it for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow so that God, your God, will bless you in all your work. When you shake the olives off your trees, don’t go back over the branches and strip them bare—what’s left is for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. And when you cut the grapes in your vineyard, don’t take every last grape—leave a few for the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow. Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in Egypt. I command you: Do what I’m telling you.

Observation

“Don’t ever forget that you were once slaves in Egypt and God, your God, got you out of there.” In Scripture, Egypt is representative of the life of sin. The Promised Land is meant to be like our life in Christ. God is commanding His people to remember when they have plenty that they were delivered from slavery and bondage so they will have grace and mercy on those who are not yet free or have suffered loss. He wants the foreigner, the widow and the orphan to be blessed by the generosity of His people so that they will find rest, sustenance and, hopefully, belonging.

Their is a tendency for us to forget what our lives were like before embracing Christ. We like to think that we weren’t that bad, just a little lost, slightly wandering, but basically good people. Lost is lost regardless of whether we are a rule follower or a rule breaker. We were all born in Egypt. We were all foreigners, fatherless and orphaned. Some choose to live all their lives in slavery and bondage, chasing after the wind of knowledge, pleasure or accomplishment. Then there are those who brave the wilderness to find the Promised Land, finding grace, redemption, healing, peace and blessing – because “God got you out of there.” He wants them to remember t what was freely received should be freely given.

Impact on Me

I overheard a conversation by two young men while I was sitting in a public place. They were talking about the best bars for partying. What was of so much interest to them was completely foreign to me. I realized that these young men were culturally different from me in so many ways, like foreigners in my land. I then thought about those who are aware that God exists and are willing to talk with me about Him, but have really surrendered nothing into His care; to me, these, too, are foreigners in my land, sojourners just traveling through, leaving nothing, taking nothing.

I have a Father God and, as a member of His body, am the bride of Christ. To me, the fatherless and widows of this passage are those who travel through or live in my land, but have not yet understood and fully embraced the riches available to them in Christ. They are those who need love, support and comfort, those overwhelmed by circumstances, symptoms or loss. Now that I have come into the land promised to me and been blessed, adopted and married to the Lord, I am commanded to remember to be generous to all of these because I was once a slave in Egypt (sin) and came to my land as a foreigner or sojourner, fatherless, a widow and orphan. I survived because of the generous grace extended to me. Should I not do the same for these others?

Jesus commands me to remember that His body was broken and His blood shed so that I could possess the land promised to me, an inheritance so rich that I can never spend it all. He reminds me that I should not hoard those riches or greedily gather them, not judge who is worthy to glean after my harvest, not count the cost or fence my fields; rather, He commands me to leave behind – be willing to share from my abundance – enough for those who may not be much like me now, but so like me before this became my land of promise – the strangers, sojourners, fatherless, widows and orphans who do not yet understand or embrace the One Who desires to bless them in the same way as He has blessed me. If I truly love Him, truly trust Him, truly remember where I was before He brought me into this land, truly live like He is my source, my provider, my redeemer, I will leave a more generous portion behind so that they can eat their fill and know that the Lord is good.

Prayer

Father God, the One Who delivers and redeems us because You love us so, I want to be ever grateful for my freedom from my Egypt and careful to share Your goodness and grace with others who may not yet be free or are not yet experiencing the fullness of Your grace, mercy and peace. Break my heart with what breaks Yours! Give me compassion and grace for those who are so unlike me now but so like me before I knew Jesus and embraced Him. I ask this all in Jesus’ name. Make it so.