Favor and Light

On January 14, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 44:3

For by their own sword they did not possess the land, and their own arm did not save them, but Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, for You favored them.

Here is a good example of partnership with God and I hope you find it encouraging because the favor of God was sufficient weaponry to possess the land.

What land are you trying to take? Is it a new job, financial security, a big project? How about raising kids? Whatever your big goals, you don’t have to do it in the power of your might. We kind of know that but we often know it intellectually rather than experientially. I find that I can have very strong theology when we sit and chat but that in the moment of everyday happenings, my inner self does not always act out those intellectual beliefs. I may even hold to those beliefs very strongly and would argue adamantly about them but still not instinctively employ them in day to day life. This partnership with God theology is one of the largest ideals I write about. However, the practical application can be somewhat enigmatic. How do we actually allow God to be our strong right hand? How do we come to own Canaan if not by our own sword? Is our Puritan work ethic a hindrance to walking by faith or is it what makes for quality individuals? Better still, do we misuse our work ethic?

I believe in setting goals, determining what is required in order to reach them and then setting realistic activity goals. If one wants X, what will be required in order to attain X? Secondarily, am I willing to do what is required? However much I admire this approach I must recognize that it is still a worldly process. That is not to say that I recommend rejecting it, it just means that it is only the beginning of the method. The more important step is taking all of this to God, talking with Him about it and then, more importantly, listening to Him. If we seek the goals He has for us then we will start off on the right track. Second, once we have God’s vision for our future, then we should enquire of the course. What would He have us do? He will tell us our part if we listen. Then we don’t run off half-cocked making a mess of big dreams.

I want God to win the goal for me. That sounds infinitely better than toiling. God will hand Canaan into our hands if we will follow Him. Most interesting of all, today’s verse reveals that His presence was the key to obtaining the goal. We have only to walk in the shadow of His glory, follow along in the footsteps He leaves as He leads and the next thing we know will be the Promised Land.

What do you want? What do you really, really want? Is there a goal out there that is almost too big to even dream? Maybe your dream is even too big to talk about but the light of His presence can bring it to pass. This takes some meditation. Today’s verse is really poignant, and I hope you will ponder it. When we learn to walk with God such that His hand delivers the victory then all things shall be possible. Remember, the Israelites defeated a city by walking around it. God’s way is not usually our way but we can learn to hear Him and follow His direction instead of launching out in the power of our might and when we do, even those biggest of dreams will be yours!

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Quickly Defeated Foe

On December 17, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm: 11 – 14          God’s Word

But my people did not listen to me. Israel wanted nothing to do with me. So I let them go their own stubborn ways and follow their own advice. If only my people would listen to me! If only Israel would follow me! I would quickly defeat their enemies. I would turn my power against their foes.

What do you hear when you read this passage? Do you see God’s sentiments towards the ancient Israelites? Perhaps you see His message to modern Jews? Perhaps it sounds like a reprimand to the body of Christians or even to each of us individually. All of those are legitimate views but I see good news when I read this.

I do view it with modern eyes. This passage has to do with us both collectively and individually. I see it as good news because even if we have not followed His counsel perfectly in the past, there is His promise that if we will listen to Him, He will quickly defeat our enemies. He will turn His power on all of our foes.

Who are your foes? Perhaps your greatest enemy is a busy schedule. Maybe the foe you have been battling is your personal finances. Or, maybe your business looks more like an oppressor than a blessing. It doesn’t matter what your challenge, God is ready and able to take up the fight for you. For most of us, our foes are less tangible than a personal nemesis. Our battles are with our weight, and hence, our diet, our work life, our schedule, unfulfilled dreams, etc. The first thing we must do is to identify what we really fight against in our lives. Is it depression? Relationship issues? Perhaps you are still carrying around scars from your childhood. Spend some time with the great counselor to figure out what inhibits your healthy, happy life most. Then receive His counsel. He has said if we will abandon our advice in favor of His counsel, He will defeat our foes for us. In 2 Chronicles 20 He showed the Jews that they need not fight their own battles. He is happy to turn His power against our adversaries.

If we will lean on God rather than our own understanding, our own advice He calls it, then He will be the God of our lives and the God that we pray for. As long as we are stubborn and listen to our own “wise counsel” we will remain locked in battle. It would be better that He take charge and rout the enemies in our life. Let’s practice listening to Him. Let’s wind up our engines right now for the new year. Get ready New Year – we are charging in with God leading the charge. Hoorah!

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Structural Integrity

On September 23, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 69: 31 – 33

For I know, Yahweh, that my praises mean more to you than all my gifts and sacrifices. All who seek you will see God do this for them, and they’ll overflow with gladness. Let this revive your hearts, all you lovers of God! For Yahweh does listen to the poor and needy and will not abandon his prisoners of love.

There is a lot of good news in this passage. David was tormented when he wrote this psalm, but he resolved into praise and praise boosted his confidence that Yahweh would, indeed, rescue him from his then present peril.

No matter how troublesome our present we, too, can have confidence that our God will never abandon us for we are bound to Him by His love for us. Though we may feel alone and that our prayers fall upon deaf ears, David confirms that Yahweh listens to us. Father hears our every whisper, every cry. His heart hears our prayers.

However, there is an important lesson we can learn from David. David might spend some time whining and even more complaining but when you read his psalm you discover that he never remains in the moaning stage. His victory is found in praise. He reminds himself of God’s love and might. When one combines the love of God with the power of God the only possible outcome is victory.

Our problem is that the construction of our prayers often fails to follow David’s. Sometimes you need to complain and grumble a little just to expunge your soul of despair. That is fine but it is not final. Eventually prayer needs to move to stage 2. Praise, then stage 3 confident statements about God’s grace for every situation.

I would encourage you to read this entire psalm and see for yourself the transition from despair to confidence. God continually showed up in David’s life and I believe his prayer composition is, at least, part of the reason why. Praise and confident expressions in the faith and loyalty of our God bring out the victory that is laying still within us.

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Death and Taxes

On August 8, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 1: 2 – 3

[U]ntil the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

There was a period of forty days between when Jesus was resurrected and when He ascended to heaven when He made several appearances to his disciples. He had his body and was alive. He ate with them and they touched His body. This is the period of time when Thomas, whom we like to call doubting Thomas, pressed his finger into the wound in Jesus’ side. When Mary, who was the first to encounter the risen Jesus, pressed into Him, He told her not to “cling” to Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father.

It is interesting to note that there was this period of forty days when Jesus appeared to his disciples. He had arisen from the dead with his body but He had not yet ascended to heaven. He used this time to minister to his disciples and to teach and instruct them. I imagine that this was very special time to the disciples. From this we get an understanding of resurrection and that Jesus’ body did not just evaporate in that tomb but that it was raised up. We gain insight into our own day of resurrection and that we also will be alive just as Jesus is now alive. He is alive and this message was truly born in that forty-day period between the resurrection and Jesus’ ascension to His Father when the disciples saw Him, spoke with Him and touched Him. Their experiences with Him during that period strongly influence our message today. He is alive! And we will live with Him for all eternity and the power and glory of His victory. He is most assuredly alive. He lives. And it is for us that He lives. Truly this is a message worth shouting from the rooftops. Our Jesus defeated the bonds of death. He overcame a world of destruction and decay so that we all might live and not die. He conquered death and taxes, the two things that we think cannot be overcome. He had fish paying His tax for Him after all. When we get a real deep revelation of His victory over the things that seem impossibilities to us then we are going to gain our own freedom. We will be truly alive, then, in him.

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Literal Truth

On March 11, 2019   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 44: 3

Our forefathers didn’t win these battles by their own strength or their own skill or strategy. But it was through the shining forth of your radiant presence and the display of your mighty power. You loved to give them victory, for you took great delight in them.

The writer of this psalm seems confident in his statement that their forefathers’ victories were not the result of their own strength, skill or battle strategy. The triumph was not the result of their own wisdom, experience or knowledge. Instead, the psalmist would have us believe that victory came through God’s presence and might. Can we believe this? And, if their victory really was the result of Father’s presence can we enjoy the same kind of outcomes?

This is a little hard to believe, isn’t it? I mean, at a philosophical level, no. It is easy to accept philosophically. We can rationalize that it is God’s strength within us which leads to victory. It is the gift of wisdom which He gave us that results in triumph. The psalmist seems to differentiate from this analytical conclusion though. Is it possible that when he wrote this psalm he was being literal? The psalms are songs. Might he have written these lines in celebration of a literal truth?

I believe the answers to these questions can challenge us at a very deep, almost primal level. If we believe the psalmist meant for us to take these words at face value rather than as a poetic nuance of real events, then it presents for us a dilemma of faith and trust. If it really was the presence of God which carried the day, then we need to understand and appreciate this kind of faith walk. Most of us don’t have enemies shooting at us, or armies bearing down on us but we have challenges pertinent and relevant to our day and time. However, let us not forget that while most of us are safe, we do have sisters and brothers who actually are in danger for their lives and some of them, like the ancient Israelites, specifically in danger because of their faith. Selah – pause here and consider and maybe even offer a prayer of safety for them.

One might conjecture that we are better equipped to walk in the power of God’s grace, mercy and power on this side of the cross than our faith forefathers. We have the testimony of Christ and his example of a life lived in the manifested wisdom of God. We also are on this side of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit is the power of God. We are better positioned to live in his power than the generations which went before. Jesus ushered in a new way of living with God. Have we, though, actually learned what this means and found how this life is lived? Are we still stumbling in Old Testament theology unversed in the revelation of Christ?

I fear this is the case. It seems to me that we live a hermetically sealed life where our reach is stunted. Nothing seeps into our box and we do not extend ourselves in exuberant faith, risk or trust. We live safe lives but not passionate lives. We live within limited boundaries so that we do not have to extend ourselves. We are not forced to trust God because we take life in this limited capacity. We don’t listen to the voice of God within us because he may ask us to do something that is risky. We don’t believe the Bible and don’t take it at face value because we may have to face some uncomfortable truths. Best if we rationalize away these uncomfortable passages, relegating them into the province of fantasy.

We should be living above the miracles of the Old Testament. We should be experiencing works beyond what Christ did. That’s what he said anyway (John 14: 12). We should be a people unlike the world has ever seen. The mighty hand of God ought to be evident in our lives and infecting all we come in contact with. I want this life. I want to know what the life Jesus anticipated for us looks like. I want to be a Christ disciple and actually walk as he did and live according to his faith in me. The life Jesus died to give us must be grander than the life most of us Christians live today. What is necessary for us to live our destiny? Our God is so much bigger than our lives. His plan for us is full of His faith.

Our Father, be our mighty warrior; be our strength and wisdom today as we turn to you. Teach us to walk in faith and trust. Lead us in your ways and create us to be a people who bring you glory.

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Trusting Heart

On December 13, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 28: 6 – 7                  God’s Word

Thank the Lord! He has heard my prayer for mercy! The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted him, so I received help. My heart is triumphant; I give thanks to him with my song.

These two verses capture David’s relationship with God. Praise is on David’s lips. Our Lord heard his prayer and answered from His mountain. David doesn’t stop with praise though, he declares the greatness of the Lord, extolling His strength and protection. God is a shield about us and He is our strength. If you are tired or feeling weak, no need to worry. The Lord supplies us with strength, giving us His own might to fuel our days.

I really love the part about trust. Day after day as I read these psalms, I see David writing about trust. Trust was an integral part of his bond with Yahweh. It was an important tie between them. David tells us in this psalm that the reason he received the help he needed was because he first trusted God. David vocalized his trust. It isn’t just something he thinks about. It isn’t restricted to a hopeful heart. He boldly declares to all the world that his trust is in the Lord. There is a secret in there for those who have ears to hear. The bold declaration precedes the help. David followed the answered prayer with thanksgiving and song.

You might not have liked David if you knew him. He was over the top in love with God and from what I can see from his writings, he really didn’t care who knew it. He danced before the Lord without a care for what anyone would think. I would have probably thought he was a bit of a freak but now that I have the benefit of history, I can see that his outrageous proclamations of love and trust were the recipe for success. Now, I want to be more like David. I want to lose my inhibitions and boldly declare that my God is the king and the love of my life. I want to stop hedging in my exaltation of his greatness. You might not enjoy being around me either because if my Christmas wish comes true, I am going to be a lot more like David.

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Blessed Refuge

On October 10, 2018   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 5: 11 – 12

Let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them sing with joy forever. Protect them, and let those who love your name triumph in you. You bless righteous people, O Lord. Like a large shield, you surround them with your favor.

I hope you are enjoying this sojourn through the psalms. David reminds us, today, that there is blessing, success, victory, protection, joy and favor for those who take refuge in the Lord.

David found his respite in the Lord.  He had a way of intertwining his existence with that of God and that was an uncommon space for the Old Testament believer. I love reading David for this reason. He had an enviable relationship with the Lord. We get to peer into this relationship through the songs written by David. Can’t you almost hear his heart soar as he sings, “Let them sing with joy forever.” As he wrote these words, I believe he was basking in the presence of the Lord. You can hear the praise and reverence in David’s lyrics but you also sense the deep intimacy he had with Yahweh.

As you read this psalm, you hear about the favor of God surrounding you. You may even rejoice at the simple acceptance that God blesses us, His righteousness. Most of all, though, today I hope that you will not only hear the substance of David’s song but even more so the tone of his conversation with the Lord. I hope that through these words, you will glimpse the heart and passion of David seeing the inspiration of his affection for the Lord. I think if we will take our time with these words, we will find our own hearts stirred. Maybe we will raise our voices or pen a beautiful lyric of our own. Maybe you can write a love song to the Lord. If you do, I hope you will share it with the rest of us.

Have a blessed day in the Lord. Rejoice in Him.

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