"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting." Psalm 118:1 (NASB)
As we draw closer to Thanksgiving I always think about this verse. One of the reasons this keeps coming to me is life experience. As a child it is easy to be thankful when things go the way that we want. When we get the things that we asked for on our Christmas list for example, it is easy to say thank you. But I remember the great grandmother I had who always gave me a pair of socks. It was harder to be thankful for that. Now as an adult looking back and knowing that she made a pair of socks for each of her kids , their kids, and their kids as a close to 90 year old woman I can appreciate more the work and sacrifice. I do not know, but it is quite possible she had arthritis and making these socks was a labor of love, but I did not process all of that as a child. I only noticed how I did not really want socks and wished she would give me money instead.
The problem with this type of thinking is not just childish because we as adults tend to think this way as well. The real problem here is that thanksgiving becomes dependent on circumstance. When things happen in a good way I will give thanks, but when they do not I will struggle. And into this circumstantial thanksgiving drops this truth from Psalm 118. I am to give thanks to God because He is good.
Notice that it does not say that we are to give thanks to God because everything we experience we would call good. In fact the Scriptures are clear that we will have trouble and turmoil and trials. And yet in the good and the bad in our experience, in our circumstance, in all of it - GOD IS GOOD. And that is enough for us to give thanks.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Psalm 117
Psalm 117 is a comparatively short psalm. It is only 2 verses and really only two complete sentences. And yet it contains an essential truth. It call us to praise the Lord because his mercy is great toward us. And His truth endures forever. There are essentially two elements for which we are to praise God:
1. We praise God because He has shown us mercy.
Every day that we live apart from Him he has shown us the mercy of seeing a new day. When He redeems us, it is by His mercy, and each day we live in grace following our transformation into the image of His Son, we live by the mercy of God. I remember the song that quoted the Scriptures that His mercies are new every morning.
One problem that we have is a faulty view of merit. We think that because of our greatness that we somehow have earned the mercy of God. After all, I read my Bible today. I did not commit murder today. I even tried to do something nice for my co-worker. Therefore I must be on God's good list and I deserve His favor. This is faulty because none of us deserve the favor of God because we are simply not worthy of it. We are NOT good enough. We are NOT smart enough. We are NOT worthy. We lack holiness and righteousness and goodness and justice apart from His mercy. And that is why we praise Him for it.
2. We praise God because His truth endures forever.
Truth in our culture is so fleeting and nebulous. Truth in our God does not change and is accessible through the Word. This too is reason to praise God.
So, have you obeyed Psalm 117 today? If not, will you praise the Lord with me?
1. We praise God because He has shown us mercy.
Every day that we live apart from Him he has shown us the mercy of seeing a new day. When He redeems us, it is by His mercy, and each day we live in grace following our transformation into the image of His Son, we live by the mercy of God. I remember the song that quoted the Scriptures that His mercies are new every morning.
One problem that we have is a faulty view of merit. We think that because of our greatness that we somehow have earned the mercy of God. After all, I read my Bible today. I did not commit murder today. I even tried to do something nice for my co-worker. Therefore I must be on God's good list and I deserve His favor. This is faulty because none of us deserve the favor of God because we are simply not worthy of it. We are NOT good enough. We are NOT smart enough. We are NOT worthy. We lack holiness and righteousness and goodness and justice apart from His mercy. And that is why we praise Him for it.
2. We praise God because His truth endures forever.
Truth in our culture is so fleeting and nebulous. Truth in our God does not change and is accessible through the Word. This too is reason to praise God.
So, have you obeyed Psalm 117 today? If not, will you praise the Lord with me?
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
A test
This is a test for how worthwhile taking the time to do this blog is. If you read this, please let me know in some way. I enjoy writing these blogs, but it is showing that no one is reading them. Therefore I want to test to see if anyone out there is actually reading these blogs. Thank you.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
2 Timothy 2:15
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15, NASB)
I cited this passage in my sermon this past Sunday and it has come up in my recent study with our youth group. There are three words in this text that I want to focus on today.
Diligent - The command to open the verse is a command that requires us to exist in a state of diligence. When I think of diligent, I think of attention to detail and in the case of the context, we are to pay attention to how we are presenting ourselves before God. And the second word gives us a concept of how we are to present ourselves to God
Workman- Specifically, this workman that we are to be is to be a workman that does not need to be ashamed. This implies that there are workmen (and women) that will present themselves to God and be ashamed. This concept of shame is a difficult one for us to understand sometimes. We are to present ourselves to God in a way that is free from shame. And the third word tells us how we can do this.
Accurately - The way to be unashamed before God is to accurately handle the word of truth that has been entrusted to us. We are to accurately handle the Word. We are to accurately handle the Gospel truth that has been given to us. Again this implies that there are inaccurate ways to handle the Word given to us. And so we are to work hard to make sure that we are understanding and using the Word of God correctly.
I think that if we use this in reverse and understand that our accurate presentation of the Word of God is how we present ourselves to God without shame it would put a fire in our Bible Study. It would mean we do not simply read to mark a checklist off, but desire to understand and dive deep into what His Word is teaching us. And we would do so with a diligence that is unmatched!
To God be the glory!
I cited this passage in my sermon this past Sunday and it has come up in my recent study with our youth group. There are three words in this text that I want to focus on today.
Diligent - The command to open the verse is a command that requires us to exist in a state of diligence. When I think of diligent, I think of attention to detail and in the case of the context, we are to pay attention to how we are presenting ourselves before God. And the second word gives us a concept of how we are to present ourselves to God
Workman- Specifically, this workman that we are to be is to be a workman that does not need to be ashamed. This implies that there are workmen (and women) that will present themselves to God and be ashamed. This concept of shame is a difficult one for us to understand sometimes. We are to present ourselves to God in a way that is free from shame. And the third word tells us how we can do this.
Accurately - The way to be unashamed before God is to accurately handle the word of truth that has been entrusted to us. We are to accurately handle the Word. We are to accurately handle the Gospel truth that has been given to us. Again this implies that there are inaccurate ways to handle the Word given to us. And so we are to work hard to make sure that we are understanding and using the Word of God correctly.
I think that if we use this in reverse and understand that our accurate presentation of the Word of God is how we present ourselves to God without shame it would put a fire in our Bible Study. It would mean we do not simply read to mark a checklist off, but desire to understand and dive deep into what His Word is teaching us. And we would do so with a diligence that is unmatched!
To God be the glory!
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
The Power of Listening
This weekend at our church we had a special guest missionary for our 2nd Missions Emphasis Sunday of the year. While speaking on Acts 8 and the story of Philip and the Ethiopian, he pointed out that one of the things that we need to do as we engage our world is to listen and ask questions. The more I thought about this the more I thought about how profound it truly is. As the weekend ended with a concert in Las Vegas that did not go as expected and many people were injured and lost their life, what struck me when I turned on the news was how nobody seemed to be listening. Everyone was pontificating and sharing their opinions. They interviewed the shooters brother and he stated his opinion of his brother. The newscasters and politicians use the situation to get the best angle on the story and the best way to spin the story to make it fit within the agenda of whatever political party happened to be speaking. In all of this, no one was listening.
We have a crisis in our world that we need to listen to. It is called Sin. It is something that we should have listened to the Scriptures about. And its answer is not to reduce the number of guns used to commit sin any more than it would be to remove the eyes that commit lust. It is not to consider the factors that led someone to commit sin. THE ANSWER is to consider the remedy to sin provided by the Lord Jesus Christ and recognize Him as Savior and Lord. Nothing else will ultimately fix anyone.
So perhaps we need to encourage people to read the Scriptures so that we can ask, "Do you understand what you are reading?" Or just ask them, "Do you understand what you are seeing" as we address cultural issues. And this applies to more than just the devastating events in Las Vegas. We need to be willing to listen to the Word of God and allow Him to change us from the inside out. We need to be much better listeners.
We have a crisis in our world that we need to listen to. It is called Sin. It is something that we should have listened to the Scriptures about. And its answer is not to reduce the number of guns used to commit sin any more than it would be to remove the eyes that commit lust. It is not to consider the factors that led someone to commit sin. THE ANSWER is to consider the remedy to sin provided by the Lord Jesus Christ and recognize Him as Savior and Lord. Nothing else will ultimately fix anyone.
So perhaps we need to encourage people to read the Scriptures so that we can ask, "Do you understand what you are reading?" Or just ask them, "Do you understand what you are seeing" as we address cultural issues. And this applies to more than just the devastating events in Las Vegas. We need to be willing to listen to the Word of God and allow Him to change us from the inside out. We need to be much better listeners.
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