Joy and Perseverance

You know the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11 – 12:15 (here @ BibleGateway)).  There is no need to rehash the particulars here.  Among other things that resulted from this incident was David’s response to Nathan’s rebuke, Psalm 51 (here @ BibleGateway).

I want to focus on Psalm 51:12, 17 (here @ BibleGateway).  It is apparent based on 2 Samuel that David truly repented of his actions.  Is response to Nathan was immediate and complete.  One of the things that David had to face was the death of the child that was a result of his and Bathsheba’s affair.  David humbled himself before the Lord on the child’s behalf.  However, the Lord took the child as He promised David that He would.

David was dealing with real and deep sorrow.  He had sinned against His Lord and he had lost a child that he loved, that loss also would have pained his now wife, Bathsheba, greatly.  He was not in a joyful place in his life and relationship with God.  He could have become bitter and angry with what had transpired, many in his circumstances do.  But he did not.

There was nothing that he could do to restore the joy he had with the Lord.  Look at his request in 51:12 (here @ BibleGateway), “restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me wit a willing spirit…”  David knew that the joy of his salvation, his relationship with God, was not something which he could manufacture, it was a gift, grace if you will.  He knew that he was completely dependent on the Lord for the joy that he knew in their relationship.  Thus, his prayer.  Further, and this raises an interesting question, David then prays to be sustained with a willing spirit.  The question is did he learn that he needed that sustaining because of this failure?

Regardless, what was true for David is for us as well.  We are dependent on Him, completely dependent on Him, both for the joy we have in our relationship with Him as well as our perseverance in a willing spirit to follow Him. 

Perhaps, like David, that reality should inform our prayer.

It’s Broken

This is a difficult time.  Not just in the US but in several places overseas.  I just read a Facebook post from an acquaintance that shared an article from an independent organization named after a major denomination.  It was a one-sided piece that was presented as a reasoned examination of pastors losing their ministries because of politics.  To suggest that the country is divided, would be an epic understatement, polarized may be more accurate.

I meet weekly with Christian leaders in Morocco, Cameroon, and Ethiopia – more accurately I am scheduled to do so.  In Morocco, while weekly I hear of new believers, the underground churches are meeting, knowing that they could be arrested for doing so.  In Cameroon, a country that has the potential to be both an economic and spiritual gateway to both the French speaking and English-speaking countries in the area since the country is bilingual, one language group is attempting to overrun the other, thus destroying one of their greatest advantages.  In Ethiopia the government controls access to the internet shutting it down to keep people from communicating.  Thus, my comment about being scheduled to meet with a leader there.

It seems that regardless of one’s political leaning today, everyone is either frustrated or angry.  Larry Crabb always said that frustration was the result of a blocked goal, and that anger was the result of a continually blocked goal.  The corollary was that Biblical goals could not be blocked.  As I have pondered that over the years and rubbed his thought against the Scriptural data I believe he is correct.

So, what do we do with all of this?  There are several passages that come to mind that may be of help, consider:

• Psalm 46:2 – 3 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Hebrews 13:8 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Psalm 118:8 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Jeremiah 17:7 (here @ BibleGateway)
• Matthew 6:33 (here @ BibleGateway)

Regardless of what is happening in the country or the world, the Lord does not change.  The Lord can be trusted.  The world cannot be trusted.  It is broken.  All its systems are as well.  Our charge is to cleave to Him and invite others to do so as well.

Hors Catégorie

Pain.  For the past few days I have experienced the most physical pain in the span of years the Lord has allowed me to be here.  Had a cortisone shot between L4 and L5.  The end result is supposed to be good, but the day after the shot was not much fun.

Laying down – which was all that I could do – the pain level was 4 or 5.  If I moved, tried to turn over or, stand up, the pain in my left leg immediately spiked to a hard 10.  Things have settled down.  My left leg is really weak, but that is supposed to clear up in week or so.

This experience got me thinking.  We are looking at Easter.  Good Friday is in six days.  One of the things that Jesus says on the cross in Matthew 27:46 (here @ Bible Gateway), was “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When we consider what the Bible says about Christ, the pain evident in these nine words emerges.  Christ was unified, one with the Father and the Spirit.  That reality permeates the Gospels especially the Gospel of John (here @ Bible Gateway).  During His time on the cross Christ was separated, ripped away from that relationship.

I am a fan of the Tour de France.  The climbs are rated 1 – 4 with the largest rated HC or Hors Catégorie, “beyond categorization.”  We are asked to measure pain on a scale of 1 – 10, ten being described as “unspeakable.”  It occurs to me that what Christ suffered was Hors Catégorie, beyond categorization.  He did that so that we could be restored to a relationship with His Father from whom He was separated, which caused that Hors Catégorie pain.  He did that voluntarily.  He did that for you and me.

We should probably respond.

Mercy

If you have ever wondered about a good definition of mercy, may I suggest Psalm 103:10 (here @ Bible Gateway)?

Personally, I rejoice in that verse.

So Grateful

We celebrated Christ’s resurrection yesterday.  I am so glad.

My reading plan has had me in Leviticus (here @ Bible Gateway) for the past several days.  Chapter 5 (here @ Bible Gateway) was today’s reading.

This time through I have been struck by how grateful I am that I live on this side of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension.  The amount of work that had to take place – the detail of that work.  In order to come before the Lord to ask for His forgiveness is nearly beyond my comprehension.

I am, you are, able, because of Christ’s sacrifice, to come immediately into His presence with our confession, worship, requests, and intercession.  There is no separating veil.  There is no mediating high priest.  I do not have to look through the catalog of appropriate sacrifices to determine what I have to bring to the tabernacle or temple.  Knowing me, I would mess that process up somehow.

No, I do not need to go anywhere to be with Him.  He is in me and I am in Him.  I just begin to pray.  No preamble, no sprinkled blood – His took care of that requirement.

The most amazing thing is that I can do it myself.  It is personal.  I can know Him.  I can talk to Him.  He hears.  He responds.  I do not have to depend on some consecrated mediator.

This is so much better.

Know any Liars

Take a look at these passages:

• 1 John 1:10
• 1 John 2:4
• 1 John 2:22
• 1 John 4:20
• 1 John 5:10

What is repeated?  Right, “liar”.
John tells us that a liar is one who:

• Says he has come to know Christ but doesn’t keep Christ’s commandments.
• Denies Jesus is the Christ
• Says, “I love God!”  Yet hates his brother.
• Does not believe God (the passage says that we make God a liar, which is, a lie).
• Says he has not sinned.

That is a large, fine meshed net.  At one time or other, I have said or thought at least one of those.  My suspicion is that I am not alone in that reality.

The good news is that God is in the business and habit of redeeming liars.  All I have to do to wipe the slate clean is ask (1 John 1:9).

Certainty of Forgiveness

Take a look at 2 Chronicles 6:36 – 39, note the requirements for forgiveness.

Now look at 1 John 1:8 – 10.  What is similar?  What is different?

The contrast is stark.  Under the law there are more requirements.  Under grace we acknowledge our sin and are forgiven.

Why?

The Law demands a sacrifice for sin.  Christ paid that sacrifice.  Once for all.  Earlier this week I was talking to one of my friends and he shared his amazement with the atonement.  On the cross and in the tomb Christ suffered hell for all of us.  Think of that, he suffered as all of the people that have been born such that they will not have to spend eternity in hell.  Billions of eternities of suffering in three days.

Thus, we can acknowledge our sin and He can righteously forgive.

Last week one of my Uber drivers was Muslim.  We got into a long conversation about forgiveness.  He shared that he had to pray over and over and over and over etc., and hope that god would hear.  He will not know until he dies whether he has been forgiven or not.

I shared with him the completed work of Christ for his forgiveness, which he summarily rejected.  Perhaps the seeds will sprout.

The grace given to us, bought with a horrendously high price by Christ, gives us the unimaginable access to our Lord personally and a certainty of forgiveness before him that no religious system offers.

Be thankful.

Hard Painful Lessons

Some time ago I was nearly praying constantly for a group of people.  They were facing a difficult situation, decision, and I was deeply concerned about their choices and welfare.

In the process of working through this with them I approached some of the members of the group for an update on their progress toward a solution.  The people I asked questioned my motives for asking.  It seemed that they thought I was going to use that information against the group.

Their response both shocked and hurt, hurt deeply.

I found my zeal to pray for the group and the difficulties they were facing impacted.  It was if the air had been let out of my passion to pray for them.  When I turned to pray for them the questioning of my motives laid like a pall over my halting intercession.

A few months later I was reminded of Christ’s interaction with His disciples in John 13:1 – 4.  The context and reality of what Jesus was facing there is stunning.  He knows what is about to transpire.  He knows that those whose feet He is about to wash are going to betray and abandon Him.  With that certain knowledge He gets up, girds Himself, and engages in menial service to those who in a few short hours will fail Him.

I was filleted.

The desperate weakness of my heart was in full display.  The group was not responding to me in any form that would even remotely compare to the disciples abandonment and betrayal of Christ, yet my feeble prayers for them were hindered.  I was and still am ashamed of the shallowness of heart revealed.

I would love to report that I have fully repented of the weakness of both my faith and the practice thereof, but that would be disingenuous.  My prayer increased.  But there were still vestiges of my poor reaction to their rebuff.

I am so grateful, so completely overcome with gratitude that our Lord does not respond to us the way I respond to others attitudes and actions toward me.  It has become one of my prayers that I become more like Him.  Like John said in John 3:30, it is a must for me, He must increase, I must decrease.  My only hope is for His life to fill and overwhelm mine.

Grace in the Midst

Exodus 9:14 – 16 is just after the sixth plague that God sends on Egypt.  It wasn’t a good time to be an Egyptian.  Reading through this section at some level it was like reading Revelation 6 – 11 and 16.  God is raining significant difficulty down on His creation.

Why?

In the midst of Exodus 9:14 – 16 there is purpose given that is stunning:

“…in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.”

One purpose of the plagues, the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls is to reveal God.  It is to draw people to Him, to demonstrate His power and nature.

Man is stubborn.  Committed to disobedience.  In Genesis 7, God wiped out the world and started over.  He promises in Genesis 8:21 He will never do that again until He creates the new heaven and the new earth, 2 Peter 3:10 – 16.

In the meantime, when He sends difficulty, the purpose is to demonstrate to us, this stubborn people, that it is He who is in control.  It is, as Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3:15, a call to us to accept His grace.  To acknowledge our rebellion and come to Him and have our relationship restored.

Lessons from the Road

This week I was working on a summary of Acts.  Typically, when I study a book, I do an overview, study the parts, and then do a summary – the movement is from the whole to the parts and back to the whole…

I was going back over my study looking at some of the things I wrote in response to the text.  Acts 9 was one of the places that the Lord really spoke to me.

Look at Acts 9:1 – 19, it is the account of Paul’s conversion through his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus and the subsequent visit by Ananias.  I thought through what those men might have learned from those events.

Paul’s learning:

• The call of God for redemption is through the Body of Christ.  Individual believers are instrumental in the propagation of the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:14ff.
• Forgiveness is not dependent on the heinous nature of an offense, 1 Timothy 1:15.
• God will sometimes intervene and stop persecution, thus if He allows it, it is part of His plan and has purpose.  (see further note below)

What was the lesson for Ananias?

• He was useful to the Lord.
• The Lord’s assignments do not align always with logic.
• He cannot prejudge a person’s usefulness to the Lord.
• God allows us to question Him without retaliation, He is gracious.

But the most important part of any study is what can I apply…

• A person’s known behavior past or present is not an indication of their value to the Lord in the administration of His Kingdom.
• I can know that even in the midst of a group of very bad people God may have His hand on someone.
• God is sovereign over the events in my life.

The Lord Loved

We read in Acts13:22 and 1 Samuel 13:14 that David was a man after God’s own heart.  We have already seen that he was a man of prayer.  But he was far from perfect.

Read the Psalms that David wrote (David is specifically noted as the author of Psalms 3 to 9, 11 to 32, 34 to 41, 68 to 70, 51 to 65, 101, 86, 103, 108 to 110, 124, 122, 133, 131 and 138 to 145.  He is also credited with Psalms for which he is not specifically noted as the author, chief among these is Psalm 119).  You will note that in many cases David seems angry with God and tells Him so.  But then halfway through the psalm David begins to praise God.  There is a lesson there.

But David was a man.  He took more wives than he should have.  He murdered Uriah to cover up his adulterous affair with Bathsheba.  You may have done some stuff of which you are ashamed but I would bet David has you beat in the sin department.  The result of the affair with Bathsheba was a son whom the Lord took.

But then we read one of the more amazing passages in the Word of God, 2 Samuel 12:21.  David and Bathsheba have another son, and the Lord loved him.  Think of all of the mess that David made.  Based on what Christ said in Matthew 5:31 – 32, this is technically still an adulterous relationship, but God loved the son that was born out of this sin.  So much that He had Nathan tell David to name the boy, Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord.

David, the man who is described as one after the heart of God, a flawed human.  God, one who loves those who are flawed.  This is a great story in which we get to participate.