Exploding Heart

On April 19, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 145: 1

I will exalt You, my God, the King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever.

How nice. Then again, how dry, tamed and devoid of emotion. Per usual, I took the verse from the New American Standard Bible. Now, see it from one of my other favorite translations, the God’s Word Translation, “I will highly praise you, my God, the king. I will bless your name forever and ever.” That is a bit better, I would say, but when you know more context for this psalm you might still question the uninspired choice of words. This psalm is a “Song of Praise by David.” It sure does not sound like David. Now, allow me to share the Passion Translation’s rendering of this verse, “My heart explodes with praise to you! Now and forever my heart bows in worship to you, my King and my God!” There you go! That’s better. Those words sound like David.

The NASB is my preferred version, but I use many Bible translations in order to get at the fullness of meaning. Today’s verse is one of those times when the NASB needs some help. It shows our stoic, rather constrained, British Biblical heritage. David wasn’t a western thinker though. He was a man who poured out his heart to God in hundreds of songs. He praised God with his entire being, singing and dancing with abandon. I think David would make me a bit uncomfortable. I quite like the restrained nature of some church’s worship. I must ask, though, is it really worship and can it qualify for praise. I find, too, as time goes by, I find myself less satisfied with it and will even admit it feels a bit stifling. Don’t get me wrong, I am not ready to dance like David, but I do find myself wishing I could.

Many of us would criticize people who praise like David. They make us uncomfortable. We used to condemn them as “too emotional.” I have begun to question myself in this regard because we are discussing praise to an entity who describes Himself as what we would define as an emotion, Love. Maybe Yahweh is emotional. Maybe Jesus is. We seem to have made this verse over in our image. We praise God with our hands in our pockets while David danced so energetically that he danced his clothes off. I am certainly not ready for that, but I bear in mind that God called David a man after His own heart. Then I think about how David praised God and sang love songs to Him. Thus, I begin to question my style. Maybe Father would like for my face to look more like there is feeling behind my words.

David could not refrain from shouting and singing. He couldn’t hold still because his heart was bursting with his love of God. There is no way I can criticize him for that, even if I am secretly glad he isn’t standing right next to me in church. Maybe someday, I will praise like David. Maybe someday the whole church will lose its inhibitions. Then perhaps we will all shout and sing our praises to God!

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Released to Grace

On April 16, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 6: 37

Do not judge.

Do you want to move from law and condemnation to grace and mercy? I can help you with that and I want to because being the keeper of the law is burdensome. Judgement exacts a price. It taxes your spirit, but it is also dangerous to your physical health so let’s set you free!

Spiritual Law – You cannot give away what you cannot receive.

People who judge others tend to be people who are hard themselves. If a person has difficulty receiving grace from God for themselves, they will tend to be rough on others. Though they may be nice people, lovers of God, their lives have a tinge of bitterness. You will often see a harsh edge to them. It seems to come from nowhere but there is a source, and it is self-loathing. They expect near perfection of themselves and transfer that rigidity to others. Now, the funny part about it is that they don’t always seem to be super self-critical. They sometimes give the impression of being self-impressed. None the less, what is needed is the fullness of grace and, indeed, it is the thing we all need.

I have noticed that some of the most critical people are the folks who seem to have their stuff together. The people who know they are a mess or have come from messy situations are so grateful for the grace of God that they tend to be a little less critical of others. They have a self-awareness that remembers the messy condition they were in before Jesus touched them. Those “Holier than Thou” people have cleaned up well, perhaps better than the rest of us. The strain of their judgments, though, is killing them and they deserve to be free. The critical spirit is a cruel task master.

We can become so wedded to the law that we fail to move in love. Our judgments precede us, rather than the love of God. As I wrote earlier in the year, it is easy to be judgmental because people are fallible. We are all one step away from doing or saying something stupid. So, when we look around us, opportunities abound for judgment. Here is the thing though, it is a crippling of our own spirit. Were we to actually forgive and accept ourselves, we would find ourselves less likely to judge others. If we will accept the grace and forgiveness the Father offers us, then we gain the ability to extend the same to others. It is our own self-condemnation that makes us so judgmental. If we will love ourselves and let the Father love us, if we will accept the love He has for us, then we can love others despite their shortcomings.

Our place is not to judge. We learned that from Jesus. What we may not have understood is that he gave us that advice to protect us, not others. It is our spirits which he was concerned about. He and Father want to share all their love with us, to hold us in their arms letting us know that we are accepted. When we allow them to fully love us, we will have love enough for our fellow human beings.

Grace and blessing to you in the beloved name of Jesus!

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Grace & Judgment

On April 15, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 3: 17

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

Many of us know John 3: 16, but Jesus went further with his declaration of purpose. This idea goes along with the pronouncement that grace and truth are realized in Jesus. Judgment is an anchor around our necks, one which Jesus is here to free us of. Being judged is no fun but being the one with a judgmental spirit is just painful.

Grace means you are free to move from laws to principles. You are free to accept people  even when someone sets a foot awry. The law is very strict and it is judgmental. Law tends to be black and white. It is not gracious and kind. It takes people to add that gentility and forgiveness. Forgiveness and grace flow from the Father. Acceptance and understanding are beyond law concepts. That is not to say that we should pay no heed to the laws of the land or God’s laws. It is to say that grace is the ability to see beyond the law to the greater principle of serving one another in love. Grace does not mean lawlessness. It represents a higher degree of behavioral deportment. The law did not require Jesus to heal anyone. In fact, the law forbade him healing on the Sabbath. Grace, truth, mercy and the love of God required Jesus to show compassion.

Judgement was, and is, easy. The Pharisees did not need to lift a finger to condemn the sick or criticize Jesus.  The law required nothing of them.  Strict adherence to the letter of law would have left the sick in pain and torment.  It also condemned Jesus. The Pharisees were so stuck in their judgments that they could neither receive nor administer grace. Law and judgment are evil twins. If we, as a body of believers, lean towards law, then we will also find ourselves quick to judge. When we, on the other hand, are full of the grace of the Lord, we find it easier to minister forgiveness and understanding.

Tomorrow – part 3 of Moses’ Law and Jesus’ grace.

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Law & Grace

On April 14, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 1: 17

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Jesus told the Pharisees that they would be judged by the law they served. He was trying to show them a paradigm of grace. Jesus not only represents a changed paradigm but also, he ushered in salvation by grace. The Apostle John opens his book making this distinction about Christ. He understood that Jesus caused a shift in the way we were to think and to live. As I pondered this verse I began to question, what does this shift mean us? How does the church of grace and truth differ from a church of law. We don’t deny the law Moses brought down from the mountain, do we? So, what does Jesus’ ministry do to alter our spiritual and ecclesiastical experience. Ultimately the question would seem to be, “What does a life, and a church, of grace and truth look like?” The follow up question is, how are we doing with that?

I am a lawyer by training. I like my rules. They tell us where to step and where not to step. However, we have all experienced times where the rules frustrate other purposes. This points out an important concept. The laws are made according to guiding principles. When the rules, or law, run afoul of the principles we have a problem. That is what Jesus encountered. The Pharisees criticized him for breaking the rules, but he was fulfilling God’s guiding principles. When is the appropriate time to heal? Jesus’ coming was a fulfillment of the law. He actually ushered us back to a time before the law, when we were supposed to be led by the Spirit rather than by codified rules.

Tomorrow, I will carry this a bit further as we all attempt to picture what a church of grace and truth is.

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Fingerprints

On April 13, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 28: 6

“Blessed will you be when you come in, and blessed will you be when you go out.”

An apt description of what this verse means in practical terms is that you see Jesus’ fingerprints on the fabric of your life. Or perhaps you like footprints running across the landscape of life. Whichever metaphor you choose, the effect is Jesus’ influence all over one’s life; little drops here, little touches there. Of course, there are the tidal waves of blessing too, but it is the dew drops on every leaf of life that have caught my attention. They could easily be ignored but when you lift your eyes, you see that Jesus is very gently watering every corner of your life. So many of life’s daily matters are simply taken care of, things about which one has not even prayed, things we would not even think to pray about are simply taken care of. It is like the most beautiful of spring days when you open your eyes to find flowers have bloomed where you did not plant.

I have been overwhelmed recently by the sheer number of details Jesus and Father have taken care of for me. It is humbling because these golden touches have nothing to do with my prayer or anything else I have done right. All glory to God, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. Father, in His goodness, knows issues which need attention, and He has been taking care of these things Himself. When I recently lifted my head, I saw Jesus fingerprints were all over my life. He has been busy blessing me. Some of the “little” touches have been nothing less than miraculous. Beyond Yahweh’s kindness is His attentiveness and I praise Him that He is paying attention to the details of my life.

The other side of this is the sorrow that people who don’t have Jesus don’t know how much they are missing. When I see all the little things Father does for me, I realize how barren their lives are. How does one explain the blessing on one’s life? How do we convey the love that Father pours out in even the smallest details? There is such a release of stress, stress we might not even realize we are holding when Father takes these things off our plate. You look around and find matters have just been handled, even matters which haven’t made it to your to do list yet. Problems are resolved before you realize there was an imminent issue. I wish that for everyone. I hope others will see the beautiful grace of Jesus upon our lives and join the club.

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Who Are You?

On April 12, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 144: 3     GW

O Lord, what are humans that you should care about them? What are mere mortals that you should think about them?

Do you ever wonder this too? I do. Sometimes when I see how we behave and how messed up humans are I am amazed that the God who created the universe would stoop so low as to call us His own. God be blessed in the heavens and earth for His kindness, charity and love. Pause and think of this. If you were the great creator, do you imagine wanting to create something better than us?

God knows us better than we and praise Him for that. He knows the end of the story and how we shall be when we are glorified with Jesus. I am so very grateful that He looks down upon me and sees someone of value because when I look in the mirror, I know that it is only His son within me that makes the image bearable. And when I finally do something right, God’s pride beams like the sun at noon. He is so happy with me.

One day, you and I will be perfect, and God will get the family He has always wanted, the family He deserves. We will be like Him, full of love and charity. We will care for one another, for all the animals He has entrusted to our care, and we will be smart enough to live on planets without consuming them. We will grow Gardens of Eden everywhere we trod.

God sees us now as we will be, and we must endeavor to do the same. If we look at humanity in its ugliest form, we will become discouraged and depressed. God does not dwell on the brokenness. He does not dwell on the fact that humans crucified His son. He meditates on the glory of Christ which is within us and sees how beautiful we will be when our intertwining with Jesus brings about the full transformation of grace. Glory to God. I will be beautiful then. The sun, and the son, will shine from my face like the first ray of morning. I know I don’t look like that to you now but that is how my Father sees me now. Most importantly, that is how He sees you. Not only that, He sees the rest of the world, even the most hideous of us as they can be. You know that person who just looks evil to you? Father knows that Jesus can make that person beautiful too and Father sees the beauty within.

So, who is man that God should take note of us? You might say we are no one worthy of even a moment of His time. I couldn’t disagree but . . . we are His greatest creation, His greatest desire, His greatest hope. God has taken that which was worthless and created children of His own glory. Hallelujah!

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Keep the Faith

On April 9, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 21: 4

Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

One of the observations that stood out to me in writing this week’s devotionals, was the faith and patience of the people we know as our Biblical ancestors. In yesterday’s passage from Genesis 12 we learned that Abraham was seventy-five years old when the Lord told him He was going to make a great nation of him and bless him. Then He told Abraham to pack up and go to Canaan. Twenty-five years later, God gave Abraham and Sarah the child of promise. How hard was it for them to stay in faith for twenty-five years awaiting a son when Sarah was barren anyway and they were already old? Moses waited forty years for his ministry to come to fruition.

In the book of Jeremiah, God told us that He has a good plan for us. Yea! But here is the rub, sometimes there is a gap between the revelation of the plan and its fulfillment. I wish it wasn’t so, but it sometimes is. When God gives us a vision or His plan for us, we expect the world to shake right now. When it doesn’t, there are two likely repercussions. The first if obvious – we lose our faith. We stop believing God spoke to us. Maybe we were deceived. Maybe we made it up with our own minds. That is dangerous thinking and leads to failure. We stop believing in God’s plan and make up reasons why it has not come to pass.

The other likely outcome when we do not see God’s plan unfolding right away is that we begin to help God. Abraham, Sarah and Moses all fell into that trap. They attempted to fulfill God’s plan through their own strength. This always leads to trouble. When we try to do God’s part through our own wisdom and strength, we end up with an Ishmael.

The good news is that although each of these Biblical heroes faltered, they hung in there with God and believed Him. Ultimately, they all changed the course of human history. You don’t have to be perfect. Just stick with it. Find out God’s good plan and then stay in faith praying that goal into being. Keep on praying and seeking God until you receive the promise. It may take longer than you think, but don’t give up on God because He most certainly is not giving up on you.

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