Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
23 The [former successive line of] priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were each prevented by death from continuing [perpetually in office]; 24 but, on the other hand, Jesus holds His priesthood permanently and without change, because He lives on forever. 25 Therefore He is able also to save forever (completely, perfectly, for eternity) those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede and intervene on their behalf [with God].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis. Venite Adoremus. Dominum
Gloria. In Excelsis Deo. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Daylight Savings time is here which means Spring is just around the corner.
A time of freshly blooming flowers and the appearance of green leaves on trees.
Which means for those with a taste for something and someplace other than the insides of their homes after a cold winter – a new fresh taste for being outdoors.
During a nature hike, it can be exciting, refreshing and rewarding to follow side trails that veer away from the main trail looking for the signs of the new Spring.
Finding hidden parts of freshly leaved trees and patches of wild flowers, forests or meadows, valley’s, mountains that few have seen before can be exhilarating.
But traveling in unmarked territory can sometimes be dangerous.
Authorities put up boundary signs for good reasons – [Poison Ivy anyone?].
We should obey those signs because they are usually posted to help keep us safe.
Unfortunately, we will sometimes hear about people who were hurt or killed because they ignored warning signs and went into the places of great danger.
Warning signs also exist in our spiritual life.
In particular, Scripture points us to Jesus Christ as “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).
In our reading from Hebrews 7 today we see that through Jesus we have access to God.
He is not any temporary Savior; He continually intercedes for us—that is, He continues to mark a clear and 100% safe trail for us in this life and into the next.
Our pilgrimage as Christians is not simply for a period in this life.
It is a journey that stretches forward into the joys and exciting discoveries God has prepared for us with him in eternity.
Are you walking safely today—that is, with God?
Completely Safe
Hebrews 7:23-25New American Standard Bible
23 [a]The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing; 24 [b]Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is also able to save [c]forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
One of the most amazing truths in the Bible is Jesus is able to save completely, perfectly, to the uttermost because of His resurrection from the dead.
In fact our entire belief system hinges on this truth.
Without the resurrection we would die in our sin, shame and guilt.
Apostle Paul said in Romans 4, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25),
meaning that His resurrection is the positive proof that we have been restored to a state as if we had never sinned in the first place.
The payment for sin was satisfied once for all when Jesus was delivered over to death to make atonement.
Since it was satisfied and all debts forgiven, death no longer had claim on Jesus and had to release him from the grave.
This has incredible implications for us, because through Jesus, the grave has no claim on us either.
Jesus has been appointed by God as our High Priest on oath that He would remain as such eternally.
Before this time, death had been a problem in the Levitical priesthood because it continually interrupted this office.
The position of High Priest was a lifetime position (Numbers 35:25).
So it was like starting over every time a new High Priest was appointed following the death of the previous High Priest.
However, since death has no claim on Jesus (Romans 6:9), His priesthood cannot be interrupted, therefore He is able to complete the work assigned to Him as High Priest.
The High Priest’s job was to make atonement for the people once a year.
He was mankind’s representative before God in all things.
The problem was that he first had to sacrifice for his own sins, disqualifying him from approaching God to make atonement in the first place.
Jesus on the other hand was sinless so His sacrifice for sin, when offering himself as payment, was more than enough to permanently wipe out the debt that sin created.
In fact the writer of Hebrews has stated over and over that our sins are paid for, forgiven and forgotten(Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 9:26, Hebrews 9:28, Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:12, Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 10:18, Hebrews 10:22).
Which means Jesus’ atonement as High Priest worked the first and only time it was given.
And if it worked, then by no means does it need to be made again (Hebrews 10:10-14).
In fact, Jesus now sits at the right hand of God the Father because His work is finished and complete (Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 10:12).
Since this work is finished and death has no claim on Jesus, he resides as High Priest forever.
And if He lives forever with this office, He is also able to save for all time and eternity those who come to Him by faith.
In fact, God promised Jesus on oath this would always be the case which is why he promised Him He would provide a High Priest, not after the Levitical line perpetuated by death, but after Melchizedek who had no such record of death.
(Hebrews 7:1-3 NASB)
Melchizedek’s Priesthood like Christ’s
7 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace. 3 Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.
This is incredible news and very important to know because it assures our hearts before God.
In fact these things have been written to give us insight and confidence in approaching God by faith (John 20:31, 1 John 5:13).
Knowing we have been saved, forgiven and restored to a state where we are justified and righteous before God should give us boldness in approaching Him without the consciousness of sin and resulting guilt (Hebrews 4:16, 10:22 ).
Then knowing Jesus lives forever to assure this relationship, making petitions and intercession on our behalf, should prayerfully usher each and every single one of us into a state of heart peace and empower us to live a life like no other.
These blessed and unyielding truths have been written for our eternal benefit; so that we may all understand all we have access to is only through Christ Jesus.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father in heaven, You made humanity in Your image that we might show forth who You are to the world. Thank You that although we fell into sin and failed in our created calling, You sent Your Son, Jesus, to redeem us as both the once-for-all Sacrifice and the Eternal Priest who offers that great gift. Our lives have been bought with a price – they are Yours, our God – so fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we might live in the fullness of Your power and display the fullness of Your character to the far reaches of this world until the fullness of Your kingdom.
All this we pray, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
2 My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, 2 making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; 3 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, 4 if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Wisdom, Knowledge and Happiness
As a boy, Charles Dickens knew poverty from bitter experience.
He never forgot what he had learned.
Many of his novels deal with the huge gap between wealth and poverty.
Perhaps the most unforgettable is A Christmas Carol.
Its main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is a “grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner” who can squeeze blood out of a stone.
Bob Cratchit, his underpaid bookkeeper, shivers in his unheated corner of the office.
But Bob has learned to be content in his situation.
At the meager Cratchit-family Christmas dinner, Bob proposes a toast: “Merry Christmas to Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast!”
Mrs. Cratchit objects with the scornful words about Scrooge, but Bob, in all humility replies mildly, “My dear, it’s Christmas … and for the children!”
For all his poverty, Cratchit has wisdom and happiness.
But Scrooge, for all his wealth, has a bleak and miserable “business sense” life.
Here is something of the complexity and mystery about wealth and poverty.
Most people think and deeply believe that wealth brings happiness.
But that is not always so.
Happiness and contentment can exist in the midst of scarcity.
What’s more, the rich can be righteous, and they can be a blessing to the poor.
And just the opposite is equally true, the righteous poor can be a humble and humbled and humbling blessing to the rich – all one needs is a bit more wisdom.
Knowledge of God, Understanding of God through study of His Word, Faith in God, Wisdom from God and living by his love are the keys to finding happiness.
The “Keys” to “Finding” Happiness
Have you ever had someone try to sell you something? What’s the typical pattern a salesperson uses? First, they tell you all the amazing benefits of their service or product. “Our miracle product…
…will lower cholesterol…” …will help you burn fat and lose weight…” …will keep your information safe and secure…” …will give you better gas mileage…” …will make you happy and content…”
And then once you’re convinced they show you the price tag…
“For only four payments of $999.99…” “If you only eat Subway for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day…” “If you sign up for our monthly never-ending subscription-based service…” “Your monthly car payment can be as low as…” “If you sign your life and soul over we will…”
The typical pattern is—here’s the benefits and then here’s how you get them.
Today, I want to reverse that pattern.
First, I want to tell you how to get wisdom, then I want to tell you its benefits.
This is the pattern our passage takes and I like it because when I finally tell you the benefits of wisdom you’ll be able to weigh in your own mind if it’s worth it.
So first…
How to get Wisdom
Wisdom is “skill for living”, but living God’s way instead of our own way.
Once again the father-figure in Proverbs is teaching his son (who we can all put ourselves in the place of) how to get wisdom.
He tells him four ways to get wisdom (not four different ways).
You should do them all if you want to get wisdom.
Proverbs 2:1-5New International Version
Moral Benefits of Wisdom
2 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
The first way to get wisdom we find in verse one.
1. BELIEF IN GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)
The father-figure says, “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you…”
The author Solomon is talking about a father’s words found in the book of Proverbs, but he’s also talking about God’s whole Word, the Hebrew Scriptures.
The word for commands (mitzvah) can also mean the laws God gave his people Israel (Genesis 26:5; Exodus 26:28).
So it’s like Solomon or the father-figure is saying, “My son, if you want wisdom, believe in God’s Word.”
Each one of us comes to a turning point in our lives where we have to decide the final rule for our lives.
Is it going to be God’s unchanging perfect words and commands that although they are hard we know they are good, true, and best?
Or are we going to choose our own feelings and intuitions and desires and what the world says is best?
God’s Word offers us a firm-foundation for our lives, a foundation that won’t let us down.
But if we choose anything else we’re choosing something that might say one thing today and a different thing tomorrow.
Eggs are good for you. Eggs are bad for you.
Drink coffee. Coffee is bad for you.
Drink more milk. Drink soy milk. Drink almond milk.
Turn right when we should have turned left or stayed straight and narrow.
Stay with Gasoline Vehicles or “Go Green” with Hybrids and Electric cars.
This career path or that career path
How about with what we understand to be the “serious things” of our lives?
Changing and Shifting winds, sands, and crashing waves “defining” what our “correct” Morals and Ethics are “supposed to be” according to the wisest of the most educated, connected, influential, powerful, wealthy “people” on internet.
How many issues can you think or heard of where 10-20 years ago everyone said one things was seriously averse, now today people say just the opposite?
That is generational shifting sands, that’s stormy waters (James 1:5-8).
How about those who “stay the course on the narrow road” and stay steadfast:
“I only want to build my life on the rock of God’s Word that never changes!”
Resolving the Ceaseless Conflict between belief and unbelief in Christ the Lord.
Does knowledge and understanding the Word of God for His Children and the outpouring of the anointing oils its blessed wisdom still have any relevance?
First, we get wisdom by believing in God’s Word.
2. MEMORIZATION OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 1)
We’re still in verse one. What does it mean to “store up” something?
Did any of you prepare for the Y2K bug?
So kids, a long time ago everyone was worried that when the clocks on our computers turned from December 31st 1999 to January 1st 2000 there was going to be a computer meltdown that would cause world food shortages and financial errors—basically, the apocalypse to end all apocalypses.
So prepare people stored up canned food, powdered food, dried food, and water and drinks that would not go bad.
Our single person household bought whole shelves of Kool-Aid powdered drink.
So by golly if the world failed I am still going to have a storehouse of Kool-Aid.
And when Y2K came and no one but Blockbuster video had problems I still had my Kool-Aid powdered drink, for a while it tasted good, then I got tired of it all.
Wisdom ended up throwing most of it out, to this day wisdom will not drink it.
I “stored up” for the long term to avert disaster.
But so much of what I had stored up for the long term spoiled, went to waste.
Likewise, God calls us to “store up” his Word within us to avert disaster in our lives.
How do we do that?
By memorizing themes and passages weaved in and throughout the Bible.
I want to encourage everyone to “store up” God’s Word in our own hearts because God uses it to strengthen us, give us hope, and teach us how to live.
Outline, underline, color mark foundational verses from the bible – what text speaks to your heart and to your soul and to your life at the moment you read it.
Put it on your mirror or fold it over in your Bible, somewhere you will see it and memorize it.
Read, study, pray and memorize other verses too, one’s that will remind you of the never ending relevance, significance of hope and God’s love and promises.
Second, we get wisdom by memorizing God’s Word.
3. ACCEPTANCE OF GOD’S WORD (VERSE 2)
Proverbs 2:2 says to turn our ears to wisdom and apply our hearts to understanding.
Do you ever get in a disagreement and the person you are fighting with says, “You’re not listening to me!”
Sometimes that’s true.
One person is not paying attention because they’re too busy talking or thinking.
But usually that means “You’re not agreeing with me.”
Proverbs 2:2 is saying to get wisdom we need to hear it with our ears and accept it with our hearts and agree to it with our lives.
We need to open ourselves up and let God’s Words and ways sink deep into who we are.
In Hebrew culture the heart was the core of a person, their true identity.
We do not want God’s Word to go in one ear and out the other, but go in through the ear, through the mind, and down deep into our heart.
When I prepare devotionals that’s one of the things I think about.
I want God’s Word to affect me first but then I want it to affect you all too.
We don’t want to just sit here and hear without listing or agreeing.
The absolute significance of God’s Word and truth is too eternally important.
Third, we get wisdom by accepting God’s Word.
4. ASK GOD FOR IT THROUGH PRAYER (VERSES 3 AND 4)
This is perhaps the simplest way to get wisdom, ask God for it.
Verse 3tells us to “call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding” (NIV).
If you and I want wisdom, pray that God will give us some.
Sometimes prayer is the only step we take.
We ask God for wisdom but we don’t try to memorize and understand his Word.
Prayer goes hand and hand with God’s Word.
It’s like peanut butter and jelly or eggs and bacon or it is like fish and chips.
God’s Word and prayer together make a delicious wisdom platter.
If you and I want wisdom, we have to ask God for it. (1 Kings 3:5-15)
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (NIV)
One of the points Spurgeon makes is that wisdom isn’t just knowing how to “be wise ‘enough’ to make the ‘right decisions’,” but wisdom is a character quality molded, shaped, then reshaped by “interpreting” our experiences.
When you and I pray for wisdom it’s not only that we would make the right choice (it is that) but it’s also praying that God would make us into the kind of people who would make the right choice.
It’s praying God would mold, shape, develop and transform our moral and our ethical character so we choose to do we do it with integrity and discernment.
So how do we get wisdom?
First, by believing in God’s Word.
Second, by studying and memorizing God’s Word.
Third, by accepting God’s Word,
and fourth, by asking God for wisdom through prayer.
Now I’ve told you how to get wisdom, but what are the benefits of wisdom?
What makes it worth doing all those things?
What makes it worth signing up for and sitting inside a classroom for?
The Benefits and Value of Wisdom
The point of these things is not just to do them for the sake of doing them, but for the sake of something greater.
Did you ever watch those old Mastercard commercials?
A man and woman walk into a gas station.
As the gas station attendant rings up their purchases he says:
chips: $3 frozen beverage: $2 gas: $31 starting a new life together: priceless…
But then the woman shakes her head “no” so the gas station attendant tries again.
rekindling a fire that never went out? (she shakes her head again) satisfying a much-needed slushy fix?… Priceless.
So what’s the priceless things we are seeking by pursuing wisdom?
God himself.
Proverbs 2:5-6New International Version
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Verse 5 says if we seek wisdom, “then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.”
The fear of the Lord is believing that God’s “threats are real and his promises are true”.
Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the grave shows us that God’s threats are real—that if we don’t deal with our sins he will put us to death—but his promises are real—that if we put our faith and trust in him he will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It’s as we come to understand who God is through Christ Jesus that we begin to actually know God.
Do you want to know about God or know God?
You might know a lot of things about your favorite celebrity or professional sports athlete, you might know what movies they’re in or their batting average, but that doesn’t mean you know them.
There’s a simple test for if you know them.
Do they know you?
If I were to walk up to Tom Cruise or Tom Brady and if I were to name drop your name what would they say?
“Oh yeah. I know him!” Or more likely … “I am sorry, Who?”
Come with me one step further.
If I were to walk up to God and to name drop your name what would he say?
“Oh yes, I know him/her. I love him/her very much … Or “I am sorry, Who?”
We seek wisdom because we’re seeking God.
We want to know him.
But the next verse tells us this is only possible by God’s grace.
Proverbs 2:6 For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (NIV)
We can only know God if we want to acknowledge God, to know us.
We can only acquire wisdom if God wants to give it to us.
It’s both an “as we seek” and an “as he gives” kind of exchange.
We seek to obey and know God and God gives us a relationship with him.
Or put it in the reverse.
God gives us a relationship with him and so we obey and know God.
What’s the priceless benefit of wisdom? Knowing God himself.
The benefits just keep growing out of this.
If you know God you are part of the family and God protects you.
Proverbs 2:7-8New International Version
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Benefit and Value of God’s Protection (Verses 7-19)
Proverbs 2:7-19 New International Version
7 He holds success in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8 for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
9 Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. 10 For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11 Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.
12 Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, 13 who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, 14 who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, 15 whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.
16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, 17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.[a] 18 Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. 19 None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.
God’s wisdom grants us protection from potential disasters.
I don’t mean natural disasters but rather God’s wisdom protect us from ourselves, from bad things we might do.
God’s wisdom protects us from:
Committing injustice (v9-11) – Sinning against others by treating them unfairly. If God gives us his wisdom we will want to treat others with fairness and equity even at cost to ourselves.
Wicked men (or women) who love sin (v12-15) – “those who take advantage of others for their own gain.” As God grants us wisdom and character like His we won’t be drawn to them but will learn how to recognize them for who they are.
Unfaithful women (or men) who break their marriage promise (v16-19) – Verse 16 says that “Wisdom will save you […] from the wayward woman with her seductive words.” (NIV) Sometimes beauty might cause a break in marriage vows but often it is words, words of affirmation and acceptance. It’s a listening ear. Emotional adultery comes before acting it out. God gives us wisdom so we know how to stay away from relationships that lead to this kind of disaster.
But there’s one more benefit to wisdom.
A FOREVER HOME WITH GOD (VERSES 20 to 22)
Proverbs 2:20-22New International Version
20 Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. 21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it; 22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.
Proverbs 2:21 says, “For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;” (NIV)
It’s an interesting way to close this passage in Proverbs because it’s a reminder to the Israelite people that they get to stay in the promised land if they obey God and keep his commandments (Exodus 20:1-17).
But where’s the promise for us?
The benefits of wisdom are knowing God, protection from mistakes in this life, and an eternal home with God in the life to come.
Hebrews says that the heroes of our faith “were longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).
If that’s you, if you are the one longing for a better home, then pursue wisdom.
Seek God by believing his Word, memorizing it, accepting it, and prayer.
John 14:5-14New International Version
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[a] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Wisdom is a gift, but it’s a gift we help work for.
Knowing God is a gift!
Spending eternity with him is a gift!
His protection is a gift!
But they are gifts we have to choose to seek by choosing to seek His wisdom.
John 14:1-3New International Version
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Let our hearts not be troubled.
Believe in God!
Believe in His Resurrected Son, Jesus!
Believe in God’s Holy Spirit!
Let our Hearts Seek His wisdom and we WILL find our forever home with God!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy God, Word made flesh, let us come to this word open to being surprised. Silence our agendas; banish our assumptions; cast out our casual detachment. Confound our expectations; clear the cobwebs from our ears; penetrate the corners of our hearts with this word. We know that you can, we pray that you will, and we wait with great anticipation. Amen.
Empty us, Great God, of all that prevents us from hearing what you want us to hear. Empty us of our preconceptions, our preoccupations and our prejudices. Empty us that we might be filled with your Spirit and your Word. Empty us that we might be filled for ministry and mission. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.
Calm us now, O Lord, into a quietness that heals and listens. Open wounded hearts to the balm of your Word. Speak to us in clear tones so that we might feel our spirits leap for joy and skip with a living hope as your resurrection witnesses. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
33-40 God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me— my whole life one long, obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway! Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot. Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way. Affirm your promises to me— promises made to all who fear you. Deflect the harsh words of my critics— but what you say is always so good. See how hungry I am for your counsel; preserve my life through your righteous ways!
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
At whatever level of education, there is something truly special about learning from a master teacher: a confident, renowned expert in his or her chosen field.
Many graduate students select their universities based on the opportunity to work with esteemed professors in their desired specialties.
But have you considered that as Christians, at whatever measure of faith we have the singularly unique opportunity and the privilege to learn “life” daily from our Master Teacher, as His Spirit works in our hearts through His word?
His experience of navigating life in all of its facets, is infinitely extensive.
His preparation for navigating life, more thorough than anyone can imagine.
His instruction is comprehensive, and He promises to do the teaching Himself, with His Holy Scriptures as our “textbook” guide.
And even better, He does so as a master instructor who is also a Father, taking a deeply personal, deeply intimate interest in the welfare of each of His children.
God’s instruction for life is vital.
It is vital for beginners in the Christian life.
We begin our journey of Christianity as infants on our knees, unaware of God’s ways, truths and dealings and consequently unaware of truths about ourselves.
But when we are born into life with God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, we become new creations in Him, we cease to take pride in our own opinions, live for ourselves, or to regard Christ from any worldly point of view (2 Corinthians 5:12-17).
Our anointing into His life, the outpouring of His oils upon who we are and who we will become begins, at first drop by ever precious drop, then like a wide river.
As we raise in our faith experiences, understanding truth, from knees to feet, we become ready to hear what God says instead of telling Him what we think.
By grace, we learn to see, learn to live life clearly, through God’s perspective.
God’s instruction is also vital for those who are confused or uncertain.
The Bible tells us we are wayward and foolish, ignorant and arrogant people.
When the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, he sternly warned that among his congregations there would always be those “led astray by various passions, always learning and never quite able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:6-7).
Only through the continuous ministry the Holy Spirit is it possible for us to spiritually mature instead of drifting like children from one idea to another.
His instruction is also vital for the careless and the forgetful—and however long we may have been Christians, we get careless and are easily forgetful!
That’s why the Word of God for His Children tells, teaches us, again and again to remember. Paul urged Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:8).
The man, Rabbi Jesus urged His disciples to “remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), who looked and turned back.
The Teacher, in the wise and ancient words from Ecclesiastes calls out to us, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
Indeed, the ministry of teaching and preaching is essentially a ministry of reminders—and so are our own personal daily personal devotional times.
Charles Spurgeon once said,
“He who has made you his child, He will put you to school, and He will teach you until you shall know the Lord Jesus alone as the way, the truth, the life.”
When we ourselves, enter into our own private “prayer closets,” alone with our God, as we attentively sit at our desks, in “His Classroom,” as we read with Him or listen with Him, to Bible teaching, we are all participating in a divine, sacred time of invaluable dialogue and begin to experience deep-seated heart change.
Somewhere in our core, we know holy instruction is taking place—we are being instructed by the very one who inspired the book whose pages we are studying.
Reality; Living Life on our own terms, we are so helpless apart from the Lord.
Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, it is so very important that we all learn to ask and depend upon God to teach us His decrees and then to follow them.
How can we come to an understanding of “living life” absent of God’s Word?
Again, we must ceaselessly ask Him to help us to understand and obey His law.
Sadly, I think many Christians are weak because they depend upon themselves; they believe they have the onerous ability in themselves to be obedient to God.
Reality is, we are each creatures of this world, creatures of sin, and as such are greatly influenced by those all around us to redefine what it means to do good.
However, only our master Teacher God, through the life, death, resurrection of His Son can show us the truth of His Word and then give us the ability to obey it.
Continually ask Him, plead with Him, to help you humble yourself before Him.
As a Christian, He is your only Lord and Savior, He alone can turn your eyes away from worthless things and preserve your life according to His Word.
What then are the results for the Christian who turns to God for help?
He gives us Kairos, the grace, to be obedient to Him and takes away disgrace.
Not the disgrace of the world, but disgrace before God which comes from deep within the deepest recesses of our disobedient hearts and unrepentant lives.
Then, like the Psalmist we will long for God’s precepts to turn the upside down to the right side up, we will find our lives preserved inside His righteousness.
Do you and I understand that?
Do you and I seriously desire or want to understand that?
Do we severely desire or want to come to even a minimal understanding?
On the surface …. probably …. even most definitely, more decisively NOT!
Deeper down though, where only God can reach us through His Word (Hebrews 4:12), though if we were to actually look eye to eye, face to face, at the deepest desires, needs, desperate wants of our souls, I am of the opinion, our soul wins!
I don’t always try to understand the Words of my Teacher as much as I ought to.
I wonder when I fail in learning His lessons, Why does He even bother with us?
But, praise God, He does –
John 3:16-18 The Message
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
He grants us the true joy in life which can only come from an obedient heart.
Pray, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119 Vs 33-40, God will give you understanding, teachable hearts, then direct you on the path of obedience to Him, to His laws.
This is what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit enables all His servants to do.
What an opportunity, and privilege, it is to open His word, anticipate the work of His Spirit, and pray, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes”! (verse 33)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your Word; and give us grace that we may clearly understand and freely choose the way of your wisdom. God, source of all light and truth, by your Living and Active Word you give light and life to the soul. Pour out upon us the spirit of wisdom and understanding that our hearts and minds may be opened.Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your Word. Silence in us any voices but your own, so we may hear your Word and also do it; through Christ our Lord. Amen
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, And I will [steadfastly] observe it to the end. 34 Give me understanding [a teachable heart and the ability to learn], that I may keep Your law; And observe it with all my heart. 35 Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it. 36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies And not to dishonest gain and envy. 37 Turn my eyes away from vanity [all those worldly, meaningless things that distract—let Your priorities be mine], And restore me [with renewed energy] in Your ways. 38 Establish Your word and confirm Your promise to Your servant, As that which produces [awe-inspired] reverence for You. 39 Turn away my reproach which I dread, For Your ordinances are good. 40 I long for Your precepts; Renew me through Your righteousness.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
The Word of God gives us many insights into the real value of things.
In our reading for today, the psalm writer prays,
“God, Teach Me, Give Me Understanding, Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes [soul] away from worthless things.”
All our earthly possessions will prove 100% worthless on the judgment day.
In contrast, the Word of God gives us the good news, the knowledge of complete forgiveness of sin, of God’s unconditional love and of guaranteed eternal life.
What can be more valuable than that?
Perhaps, a better understanding of God’s perspective through a writers “eyes?”
We need to be continually reminded to envision value from God’s perspective, because worshiping wealth remains a powerful attraction.
Jesus himself warned us, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24), instead, trying to teach us His value to “store up treasures in heaven.”
Using a much familiar and much beloved verse from Psalm 23 ….
Let us try to reach into God’s perspective through David’s eyes and experiences.
Let’s start by inviting God’s Holy Spirit into our minds to recall this promise:
“God Anoints Our Heads With Oil and Our Cups Runneth Over.” Psalm 23:5b
What incredibly deep imagery we are presented with by these poetic words.
But, what of our own understanding the words, their historical context, their connections from their writing, some three thousand years ago unto now?
Breaking down the ancient experiences, those ancient thoughts that ……
We are someway connected to its human writer, David, King and Shepherd?
Examining the Words and the Imagery, what David had envisioned of God?
“POURING OUT” OURSELVES INTO PSALM 23’S IMAGERY
God ceaselessly, continually pours the Oils of His Blessings upon our heads.
So much so that our Cups (How big and how deep are they anyway?) overflow.
They “overflow” and they “saturate” every part of our inner and outer bodies.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left untouched by the oils.
No parts of our hearts or our souls or our minds are left uninfluenced by them.
Allowed to touch us, with our knowledge or without our knowledge, with our permission or without our permission, in clothes, in nakedness, we are touched.
Without exception, this anointing of “oils” reaches into every part of our lives.
This anointing of “oils” is the outpouring of the precepts of the Word of God by God’s Holy Spirit upon the welcoming, unwelcoming, repentant, unrepentant.
In more ways we can count or even allow ourselves to imagine, the “oils” are touching each and everyone of us right in this exact, exacting “God” moment.
A drop here, a drop there …. like an invisible eye dropper held over our heads being slowly and steadily squeezed out or just like standing in a rain storm.
We feel the “drops” or we don’t feel the “drops” – but they are definitely there.
They are absolutely unavoidable, no one can dodge them ….
We “feel” them and we can try to learn and understand them and their purpose.
We are touched by the “oils,” our souls will be unavoidably influenced by them.
Slowly, imperceptibly, subtly, drop by drop, until they become, by the hand of God, a steady flow, then an outpouring and then a flood, then an immersion.
In anticipation of joy or in anger, head scratching certainty or uncertainty, we start to acknowledge the flow, the goodness of it or the convictions behind it.
Our awareness of the “oils of anointing” presence, is kindled like a newly struck match with its inevitable flames, its light and its heat starting to become visible.
God’s “oils of anointing ,” outpouring and spreading, covering, saturating, immersing, overflowing : our knowledge, understanding of the Word of God!
Obediently, we stand in our places, feeling the outpouring, living inside its flow.
Life begins to subtly, perhaps suddenly begins to change ….
Thoughts and perceptions of events subtly, perhaps suddenly, begins to change.
We are either sure we like it or we will surely fight mightily against liking it.
With mounting Certainty or growing and maturing Uncertainty, we stand there.
We may try to run and hide to the furthest remotest places on earth from it.
But we can’t escape its influence upon everything our “life has been all about.”
We get tired so we stop running – and in whatever emotion we are then feeling;
How can we not eventually, subtly, suddenly, inevitably, not respond by praying
“Okay, something or someone has my undivided attention ….”
“No More Running ….”
“No More Hiding ….”
“One way or the Other …. “
“As the Deer Pants for the Waters ….”
“as My [a]soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for ???, as my flesh longs and [my soul] now sighs for [answers] In a dry, weary land where there is no water ….”
Psalm 119:33-40The Message
33-40 God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me— my whole life one long, obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway! Give me an appetite for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot. Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way. Affirm your promises to me— promises made to all who fear you. Deflect the harsh words of my critics— but what you say is always so good. See how hungry I am for your counsel; preserve my life through your righteous ways!
And now, perhaps begins the gradual ascent, by our humbled descent, into what David the Psalmist wrote, an appreciation of, greatest desire for understanding;
Psalm 23Amplified Bible
The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
A Well Considered Word About the Value of God’s Perspective
Isaiah 55:8-11Amplified Bible
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth, Making it bear and sprout, And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me void (useless, without result), Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
When we do not think like God, we are not in His image.
We cannot say as Jesus did,
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
God, in His wisdom, has willed we grow in His image through exercising faith in what He says, buttressed by what He reveals of Himself through His creation.
The fundamental difference between the person of faith and the unbeliever is revealed by the way they judge things.
The unbeliever, of the world, judges things by worldly standards, by his senses, and by looking at his watch, his smartphone screen and by his calendar time.
The person learning to think like God brings God into everything, viewing things from His perspective, by His values.
He ascertains how the activity, event, or thing looks in terms of eternity.
He seriously meditates on God’s sovereignty over all things.
At times, doing this puts the screws to his trust because the Bible says God’s judgments are “unsearchable . . . and his ways past finding out” (Romans 11:33).
Faith holds a person steady.
Because we often do not think like Him, and because we do not have His perfect perspective, we often do not know nor fully understand, what it is God doing.
Only in hindsight do we understand what is occurring in our personal life, to the church, or in the world in the outworking of prophecy.
So we must trust Him, and in the meantime weigh His perspective against what we “perceive” is happening and what we understand is its “possible” outcome.
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
His word shall not fail you he promised Believe him and all will be well Then go to a world that is dying His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and graceHelen Howarth Lemmel (1922)
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy and gracious God, you are the greatest and wisest of all. You are full of wonders and ways that no mere human can ever fully comprehend. Lord, I seek to understand you and your ways better so that I can more rightly live my life according to your commandments. I pray for your divine illumination in my heart and mind. Help me see what you intend for me to see. Help me understand what you intend for me to understand. Open my eyes and my ears to see you and hear your whispers. Amen.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10New International Version
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
In this psalm, we see a beautiful portrait of God as our good and faithful Shepherd Who leads us by still waters and guides us into the way of peace.
He is, indeed, worthy of our worship and praise.
He is the One Who upholds and protects, Who blesses and comforts, Who bountifully provides good things for us in the presence of our enemies.
Enemies, up to and including ourselves as our own worst enemies.
And He is the One Who intercedes for us in heavenly places.
The picture is painted in this well-loved psalm of David, is that of our faithful God, our merciful and gracious Saviour, our good and caring Shepherd Who keeps us, protects us, provides for us through all the changing scenes of life.
Our faithful, and merciful God first identified Himself as Jehovah-Jireh, our gracious Provider, to Abraham when he was halted, by the Lord, from offering up his son, first born son, Isaac, as his sacrifice of abiding love and obedience.
And throughout both testaments, we discover God as the One Who provides rain and sunshine for the earth, nourishment for the flowers and ravens, a father for the fatherless, a righteous judgment for the widow, a friend for the friendless.
Our faithful God is the one who fed the hungry multitude, provides comfort for the broken-hearted, gives succor to the weak, strength to the weary, hope to the afflicted, salvation to all who trust in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, for while we were yet His enemies, grievous unrelenting sinners, God in His grace provided a Kinsman-Redeemer to save His people from their sins.
Our good and loving God supplies all our needs, according to His riches in glory, through Christ Jesus our Savior.
And here in this well-loved and oft-repeated psalm of David, we discover:
“The Lord has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He has anointed our head with oil, our cup of overflows with His goodness and love.”
Though we may be afflicted on all sides… pressured, perplexed, and persecuted for righteousness sake, we are not forgotten nor abandoned by our Heavenly Lord… for Jesus is with us always and forever, even to the end of the age.
He has prepared a table before us, in the presence of those that hate and despise us, He has covered it with all we need and every spiritual blessing – which He Himself had purchased for us through His own life’s blood, on Calvary’s Cross.
Though we live in the combat-zone of this fallen world system, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… and the peace of God which guards our hearts in the midst of an abundantly, severely crooked and perverse generation.
The anointing oil that is being continuously poured over our heads is the soothing ointment of His incomparable never-ending love.
It is a precious promise to all His children, for we have been made kings and priests and prophets of the living God – and have an eternal guarantee that His Word is faithful and true and all of His promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ.
Surely, in the company of all of God’s angels and with David we can proclaim,
“My cup of blessing runneth over,” for His grace is limitless, His love is boundless, His charity and mercy endures from one generation to another.
Why such an inconceivable magnitude of maximum Joy?
Because together, in the presence of our Great Shepherd, we have just seen, and envisioned and witnessed and can now testify to all the prophetic descriptions of heavenly places like green pastures, quiet waters, and paths of righteousness.
By the Word of God for the Children of God, our heads have been anointed with His oil of abundant life and incomprehensible love and now our cups overflow.
We have seen through the Word of God for His Children, the strong, steady hand of the ever vigilant shepherd at work with his shepherd’s rod and staff.
By the Word of God for His Children, We have received the invitation to the table of the Lord which is prepared for his precious flock before our enemies.
And now there is one more activity we need to plumb, to see in this final scene.
“He Anoints My Head With Oil”
This may seem like an odd custom since it is something that never occurs much anymore in our own time and culture, in our faith traditions and in our church.
Maybe this custom of pouring oil over the head needs a little more explanation.
First of all, we are not talking about the kind of oil that comes from petroleum.
The 1st century people in the Bible did not drill any oil out of the ground, they did not even know what petroleum oil was, nor would they have any use for it.
So, please do not think at all about oil in the Bible as anything like we use today.
We are not talking about motor oil; it’s not the 5W-30 synthetic blend you find at the Valvoline shop or any local vehicle repair establishments down the road.
The region around the Mediterranean is perfect climate for growing olive trees.
The most common oil in Israel was olive oil used for cooking.
There were also other plant-based oils used mostly as perfumes and medicines from such sources as myrrh and nard.
It is probably the closest equivalent to what we use today as “Essential Oils” (if you are familiar with the use that term).
Let’s also remember that the people back in Bible times did not all have showers in their homes, and there was no such thing as shampoo and perm in that time.
The use of fragrant oils in their hair was a common way of what people in that day would have considered basic hygiene.
Not that people would do this every day as we might consider hygiene to be part of our regular habits; it was more the mark of a special occasion in their time.
Putting fragrant perfume in hair was considered part of the expectation to be presentable before coming to a party, other type of important social gathering.
That’s the launching point we are taking today in order to consider how this last scene of Psalm 23 applies into our world today.
Jump with me, then, to the Book of Ecclesiastes for another brief glimpse at how this cultural custom of ointment poured in a person’s hair shows up.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 New International Version
7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.
Perhaps it is helpful to explain that anointing with oil had several other uses and meanings in the Bible.
This may help clear up any confusion for people who may be familiar with many of the other places in scripture that anointing with oil occurs.
It shows up as a medicinal practice for healing since they thought that fragrant oils had significantly positive medical benefits.
It also shows up as a symbolic declaration of royalty; kings would be anointed as a part of the Coronation sequence.
It also would take place as part of the burial ritual whenever somebody in those ancient of days and that time passed away.
I do not think the anointing with oil mentioned in Psalm 23 has anything to do with these functions of ointment.
Context of Psalm 23:5 makes it clear anointing with oil is understood as basic hygiene people would do as preparation for joining a special social occasion.
And this is certainly the same function of anointing we see in Ecclesiastes 9:8.
For this devotional today, then, let’s dig into what is happening in these few verses in Ecclesiastes as a way of helping us understand what David means by this scene in which the shepherd is seen anointing his flock of sheep with oil.
Ecclesiastes can be a difficult book of the Bible to contextually understand.
I can see where this passage from chapter 9 might be easily misunderstood.
At eye level the way it comes at us translated into the English language, it might seem like a kind of an off-putting and depressing outlook on our everyday life.
One big proverbial hardcore slap in the face saying “You might as well just go eat your dinner because your meaningless, ridiculous life isn’t going anywhere else.”
Of course, through revelation from the Holy Spirit, there’s definitely something much different going on in this passage; and it is not have a depressing outlook.
The key here is that we cannot get hung up on a few English words which don’t do the best job of conveying to readers all the richness of the Hebrew language.
Let me pull at two examples of difficult Hebrew words in Ecclesiastes, and one Hebrew word from Psalm 23.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, our NIV Bibles repeat the theme of “meaningless” over and over again (an eye popping 33 times) throughout the entire book.
Other English translations use the word “vanity” as the repeated theme.
The Hebrew word is hebel.
It literally comes from the same Hebrew root as “a breath.”
Hebel carries with it the nuance of being incredibly insignificant or extremely momentary.
I would say that in the context of Ecclesiastes, the word “momentary” would be a much better English word to use in order to capture what the wisdom writer is really trying to say about the experience of human life when compared to God.
It is not that life is meaningless in the sense that human life has no purpose.
It is more the point of Ecclesiastes to show human life is so very momentary when placed in comparison and contrast directly next to the eternity of God.
Hang onto that one. we will pull it back in a minute to consider how the brief and limited experience of human life plays into understanding this passage.
The other Hebrew word in Ecclesiastes I want us to consider here is heleq.
The NIV translates this into English as “lot.”
Verse 10 says that our lot in life and in all our toilsome work is simply to enjoy our family and a meal.
I think the word “lot” might just make it sound like a random fate over which we have absolutely no control.
An English dictionary defines lot as fate, predicament, plight, or doom.
It is generally considered a negative thing.
But this is not the meaning of the Hebrew word heleq.
It refers instead to something which we can better be defined as “portion, distribution, allocation, or share.”
The wisdom writer in Ecclesiastes is pointing out that even in this human life which is so very momentary and comparatively brief next to the eternity of God, in grace, Jehovah Jireh still freely, gifts, gives out a portion/share of goodness.
The writer of Ecclesiastes identifies this portion/share of goodness from God coming in the simple little things of life.
Enjoying the blessing of good food and drink in the company of family and friends is the example of goodness to which the writer refers in this chapter.
And about these simple enjoyments, the wisdom writer says in verse 8.
8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
Here again, the wearing of bright clothing and pouring of fragrant ointment in the hair is an expression of a special social occasion.
This kind of celebration didn’t happen every day.
But the point of Ecclesiastes here is to say treat every single day like that.
Life is so very momentary, take each new day as a precious gift from God.
And each new day which we receive from God contains the portion/share of his blessing for us to enjoy.
Treat every single day as a singularly unique, singularly special example of God’s grace, because these unique and special examples of God’s grace show up most often every single day in the simple, most ordinary little things of life.
Look at how Eugene Peterson translates these verses from Ecclesiastes in his Message version of the Bible.
Ecclesiastes 9:7-10The Message
7-10 Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don’t skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it, For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.
This is why verse 10 can go on to say, in a more contemporary sense: “Go ahead! Do not fear! Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might for God.”
“There is only one way to go, in whatever you do for God,
Whatever You Do For God … Just Max it out! Go for the Gusto!
Do not ever underestimate exactly how much God is right there with you even in the small or inconsequential, ordinary or less than ordinary, things of this life.
How frequently do we fail to realize, or do we take for granted the ways in which all of the tiny simple blessings, the miracles of each and every day stack up to be a never ending stream of Jehovah Jireh’s faithful and abiding provision of grace.
But, the often unspoken truth of the matter is we do miss it because so often we will see these things as so tiny and ordinary and insignificant and momentary.
Yet this is exactly the place in our everyday lives where God chooses to meet us.
Even though Ecclesiastes points to this daily provision of blessing as our “lot in life” (our portion/share), it stacks up day after day, week after week, and month after month, year after year becoming an extraordinary gift beyond measure.
Our proper place then is to see each new day as an extension of that gift from God. “Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.”
Always treat each and every new day as a remarkably special gift from God.
Bringing it back to god and Psalm 23 now.
The seventh and final scene is one of embracing the LORD as our shepherd each and every day.
It is a recognition of just how incredibly remarkable it is that the eternal creator of the universe who have existed forever and ever beyond our brief momentary lives, that this God, Jehovah Jireh chooses to make himself our shepherd.
That Jehovah God redeems us in his love which, through grace, portions itself our to us each and every day.
Here’s a secret.
The word anointing never actually shows up in Psalm 23.
Yes, I know we have been focusing this entire last scene on a line from Psalm 23 which says he anoints my head with oil.
It is a much more obscure Hebrew word, dashen, which only shows up eleven times in the entire Bible.
Most of those times it is translated into English as “fatten” or “make fat.” It carries the idea of making something bigger or more abundant.
Do you see what David is actually saying here in Psalm 23?
The LORD is my shepherd who dashen [anoints?] my head with oil.
No; we are to understand that it’s far, far, more deeper than that.
The LORD is my shepherd whodashen [abundantly pours out an excessively lavish amount] of oil upon my head.
Contemplating the depths of David’s heart and soul at its writing, perhaps this is why David chose to finish the verse of Psalm 23:5 with “my cup overflows.”
Let’s find an application by connecting these two passages from Psalm 23 and Ecclesiastes 9.
Perhaps we all find ourselves from time to time stuck waiting for something better.
Like so many of you, I’m waiting right now for a time when we can all have more economic certainty, lower inflation rates, better housing markets.
I would love to be able to fulfill a life long dream of building a log cabin for my retirement from plans my late father drew up when he was preparing to retire.
He never got a chance to fulfill those dreams because he got sick and died.
I would love to fulfill that legacy for my family, but interest rates are too high.
Maybe it’s waiting for our health to stabilize, a job promotion; maybe it is waiting to be done with school; maybe, like me, it’s waiting for retirement.
We can always make a million excuses why we might think the ‘real’ anointing of God’s blessing in our lives has not yet arrived.
We get trapped into thinking the anointing of God’s blessing is some kind of heavenly lottery which at some point is going to just dump upon us because scripture tells us that the blessing of God is extravagantly abundant.
So that’s what we expect: extravagant abundance.
And then real life intrudes and our lives are stuck waiting for it to “unstuck.”
Scripture is not wrong. God’s blessing is extravagantly abundant.
But what we should also see from scripture today is that the blessing of God is portioned out to be exactly what we need for each and every day.
The extravagant abundance of God’s blessing is not something for which you have to wait.
You and I have got it already.
You and I are receiving it right now.
And God constantly weaves his blessing into all the tiny ordinary pieces and places of everyday life.
The poet of Ecclesiastes says,
“whatever your hand find to do, do it with all your might.”
Do not miss the opportunity to treat each and every new day as a miracle gift from God filled with exactly what it is you and I need from God, to live in his will and thrive abundantly as a disciple of His Son and our Savior Jesus.
It may look small and ordinary and insignificant and momentary.
But day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year it piles up into a lifelong testimony which declares:
Psalm 23 Amplified Bible
The Lord, the Psalmist’s Shepherd.
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
The whole Psalm 23:5 experience serves to strengthen our faith, draw us closer to our heavenly Father, and to envision and realize just how faithful He truly is.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, how I praise and thank You for Your Word and the comfort and strength it gives me. Thank You that You are my Shepherd and my Provider. Thank You that You are with me through the darkest days as well as during the sunny times, and thank You that You have provided all that I need, according to Your riches in glory. Thank You that You are my God and Saviour. You have, indeed, prepared an overflowing table before me in the presence of my enemies and have anointed my head with the oil of abundant, eternal gladness. My cup overflows with Your never-ending blessings, for which I give praise and shout “thank You!” In Jesus’ name.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
2 “To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in [a]Ephesus write:
“These are the words of the One who holds [firmly] the seven stars [which are the angels or messengers of the seven churches] in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands (the seven churches):
2 ‘I know [b]your deeds and your toil, and your patient endurance, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles (special messengers, personally chosen representatives, of Christ), and [in fact] are not, and have found them to be liars and impostors; 3 and [I know that] you [who believe] are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and that you have not grown weary [of being faithful to the truth]. 4 But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. 5 So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and remove your lampstand (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent.6 Yet you have this [to your credit], that you hate the works and corrupt teachings of the [c]Nicolaitans [that mislead and delude the people], which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who [d]overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Throughout the first century A.D., Jesus’ followers fanned out across the Roman Empire to spread the good news of God’s salvation in Christ.
They formed communities to support and encourage each other in life, faith, and witness.
Yet by the end of the first century, persecution came to many Christians in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), and they needed support.
The Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved to the utmost, one of the exiled leaders, took the people into his heart, wrote the book of Revelation to them.
It’s filled with words meant to encourage the hearts of men and visions of eternal hope from Jesus to the churches, whom he calls golden lampstands.
What a comfort to know Christ the King walks among the churches he loves.
In the first of seven messages to different churches, Jesus tells the church in Ephesus that he knows their deeds, hard work, and perseverance.
He also directly challenges them, giving compliments before critique.
That’s a pattern we can definitely follow in our families, schools, workplaces, and churches: which is to edify, build each other up before naming challenges.
Church communities are filled with blessing because Jesus walks among us!
Christians which gather together, Koinonia, Fellowship, Care for each other, hear biblical preaching and teaching, Love God, praise God, and pray together.
We host programs, help community causes, and contribute to Local missions causes which demonstrate how much we love God, our neighbors and selves, we serve and respond to natural disasters international relief and World missions.
IDEALLY …. WE LOVE GOD AS MUCH AS WE LOVE NEIGHBORS AND SELVES!
WE ALL CALL THESE CHURCHES ONE’S WE LOOK TO BE CONNECTED WITH!
FIRST, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH GOD!
SECOND, WE SAY THESE CHURCHES ARE INTENSELY IN LOVE WITH PEOPLE!
But ….
And envision this very real possibility ….
Exceedingly and Abundantly and Carefully and Critically and Realistically,
Diligently, Prudently, with 20/20 Hindsight and with Prophetic Foresight,
A church which seems to model exactly the opposite of that Ideal Church?
What About A Church Which Exhibits No Heart, No Love for God?
Love is definitely a many splendored thing or at least the essence of the words and lyrics were popularized into culture by the movie of the same name in 1955.
Crooner Andy Williams and the Four Aces continued to make the song popular.
While love can, and indeed, should absolutely be viewed as a “many splendored thing,” ultimately it’s defined, splendored by what a person does with that love.
Saying one loves another is an important step to building a relationship but love is found and demonstrated in and through our daily actions, not just by words.
Many Splendored Love is an infinitely deeper emotion than just liking a person.
To like another is to share in common pursuits on a casual basis but love is a bond which cements a multitude of hearts into one with steadfast, immovable devotion, deep abiding care, absolute fidelity, commitment, and allegiance.
It is important in marriage to be friends but marriage is deeper when love is at the root of all feelings – which is especially true with our relationship with God.
We so casually say and preach it is easy to like God and to view Him as a friend.
This does not require any commitment or allegiance.
Having a friendship with God likes various aspects of His character but never covenant obligates the individual to a linked mutual commitment of devotion.
Many people are friends of God but never grow to love Him.
Sometimes, relationships blossom with passionate love but wane in time and space to become a “manufactured” vision of 2 people living in the same house.
Love fades into Friendship which gradually, subtly, “takes over” and while the relationship is, remains “civil”, there is little prophetic vision or no true love.
Proverbs 29:18 Amplified Bible
18 Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God].
The growing trouble with many in the church is they are more comfortable being friends of God rather than having a “deeply devoted” love for Him.
What little is known about the church in Ephesus comes from the writings of Luke, Paul, and John.
Dr. Luke describes the history of the church in the Acts of the apostles, Paul writes a wonderful letter to the saints at Ephesus and Apostle John’s revelation reveals the church in Ephesus had gone through many changes over the years.
The beginning of the Ephesian church was filled with great promise and hope.
Paul spent three years working with the people of God in this great city and there were many saved through the preaching of the gospel.
The letter of Ephesians is a treatise on the majesty of the church and character, testimony and witness of the Church there and witness of its kingdom citizens.
In the final book of the Bible, Jesus commends the saints in Ephesus for their work, their diligent labor, and patience in defending the cause of Savior Christ.
They had preserved through difficult times and were to be commended.
However, the church had lost something over the years that threatened its existence – The church at Ephesus had fallen out of love with the Lord God.
There is no doubt the church was doing all the right things in the right way.
It was evident they were a working group, laboring mightily in the work of the kingdom and withstanding all those who would oppose the teachings of Christ.
While these were indeed very commendable traits, what they lacked was the love they once had – The Lord challenged them because of their lack of love.
Sometimes in marriage, love will decline and grow tired.
Two people live together in the same place but have little or no interest in the needs, the hopes, the dreams, the wants, the deep requirements of the other.
This can likewise happen to the Children of God.
They can like God and obey His commandments but have no real love for Him.
Their hearts are filled with the socio-cultural, socio-economic, socio-political world and they have a deeper, greater interest in worldly matters than spiritual.
Love, as a “many splendored thing” must absolutely, be cultivated daily.
Steadfast, Immovable Devotion for the Lord does not come by simple osmosis but a very constant, hardcore, effort to learn more, grow more and love more.
It must be continually built upon through a heart of seeking the love of God.
Revelation 2:4-7 The Message
4-5 “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall!
“Turn back! Recover your dear early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.
6 “You do have this to your credit: You hate the Nicolaitan business. I hate it, too.
7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
It is easy to fall out of love with the Lord when the spiritual becomes routine.
A church leaving their first love is forgetting the grace of God and His mercy.
Regaining the first full measure of God’s first love comes from committing our spirit once again to knowing, understanding, longing to be drawn closer to God.
Jesus knows each church community and each person in it.
He knows every single one of our strengths.
He knows every single one of our faults, failures, failings and weaknesses.
The community of believers at Ephesus received praise from Jesus for their persevering in the truth.
Yet there was a definite character flaw needing their immediate attention.
They had lost their first love.
This is a powerful revelation.
Church communities can be faithful defenders of God’s truth, but their first love for God can become clouded with cultural minutiae can also grow cold.
“God Splendored” Love is what happens when the amazing grace, mercy, and love of God wash over us, cleansing us, flooding our souls, and making us new.
It seems incredible, almost impossible to wrap our hearts and souls around, but God absolutely loves us without limit, though we do not deserve any of his love.
Every church community and every member of it needs to labor in the utmost, linger to the outermost tolerance and live in the wonder of God’s gracious love.
We need to always strive to envision new ways to remember and celebrate this “God splendored” love in our studies, the songs we sing, the prayers we raise, the stories we share, the sacraments we celebrate, the care we give to others.
Jesus uses a word in this letter that brings us back to the way he started his public ministry: “repent.”
This is a call to turn around, change direction, and get back on course.
For church communities to be Spirit-filled, “golden lampstands,” the passion of God’s very first love for each of us needs to be pulsing throughout our veins.
The more “many splendored” deposits of God’s first love for us, made into the divine love bank, the greater the eternal dividends received from our Lord God.
It takes much labor and even greater sacrifices to make a marriage “work,” to never let our “first love” diminish, never allow “splendored” love to grow stale.
It is unacceptable to leave behind the first love experienced in the family of God.
Let us pray to the Holy Spirit, to revive our first vision of our first love for God!
Let our first love for God grow more and more, draw closer unto God every day.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God who is Love,Lord of All, life is a journey full of stumbling blocks and challenges. With each hurdle, there is growth. With each setback, a valuable lesson. Lord, I ask that You give us the wisdom and presence of mind to learn from our mistakes and pitfalls. by thy Holy Spirit, Remind me and Your Church of our very first love for You, Help us to approach these things with maturity, so that we can live closer to You.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
13 1-2 Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
David the psalmist had feelings of God-forgottenness.
He had a multitude of times of being surrounding by enemies.
This was no brief time, these were extended periods of time – weeks, months and perhaps even a short number of years.
He wrote of the consistent continuous feeling of aloneness one can feel when it seems God has turned His face away and the enemy is forever at the gate of life.
Does it seem as if right now that David’s thoughts are now seeping into your soul becoming your thoughts, leaking like a sieve, from a heart which is fast becoming a stranger to the feelings of love, to the desire for feeling any love?
What if we and our heart and our soul are at the point where we are simply tired of believing and hearing from men, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need.”
We are at or nearing the “breaking point” where those encouraging words “God is Love” is very fast becoming utter nonsense, wildly clashing cymbals, gongs.
We will hear no more of “God’s Love” – “do not dare to step on my last nerve!”
Do we dare to believe that our current measure of our alleged forever “unfailing love” for the Lord our God can even .01% fail and falter under the worst of tests?
Do we dare to believe such a notion our “unfailing faith, steadfast hope and our immovable love for God are miles and miles from the very precipice of failure?
Do we dare to allow ourselves to believe we are so iron clad strong in ourselves?
Do we dare to allow ourselves to believe that any failure of our faith, any failure of our hope in our future, any failure of our Love for God is 100% inconceivable?
If David had dared to have those thoughts, failure was inconceivable, that he should throw God out of his life we would not now have the words of Psalm 23.
What of our fleeting thoughts, feelings about God’s 100% Love?
Dare we to ask ourselves, our “Sermon in Shoes” Christianity, the question:
ARE WE FALLING OUT OF LOVE WITH GOD, OUR SAVIOR JESUS?
Never say Never …. We are not God, our Savior Jesus or the Holy Spirit!
Failure is always a meal that has been prepared for our feasting on our tables!
Failure is always waiting to be served, to be placed in some corner of our plate.
We can in no way escape failure …. it will forever be before us.
Despite the unceasing fervency of our prayers ….
God will not remove failure from our DNA!
Jesus, the Logos, will not remove the word failure from the Holy Scriptures.
The Holy Spirit will not remove our self will nor keep us from failure, failing.
Failure is always an option – it is absolutely inescapable!
But then again, even though we may have lost or given up “that loving feeling,” our God who is love, has not lost or minimally given up on that “loving feeling.”
God is still speaking directly to us even though we refuse to listen any longer.
The face of God is still facing us, the Words of God still mouthing these words as if we are always directly looking at each other – face to face and eye to eye:
1 Corinthians 13:1-10 The Message
The Way of (GOD’S) Love
13 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
I have been a Christian for a long time – just over 21 years.
The weirdest thing to me about being a Christian is how often I will forget the miracle of God’s love.
I forget the power of it.
I will take it for granted at every opportunity I get.
I forget how wonderful it is that a holy God should pursue me.
It stops being such a big deal.
It stops feeling so amazing.
I fall out of love with him a bit.
For a long time, whenever I’d hear the phrase “God loves us,” I pictured a kind, doting, grandpa.
But you know what?
Grandpa love is not the kind of love you get with God.
God is a lot more like a spouse.
God’s Love for me is Sometimes Uncomfortable
God pursues us with this wonderful, miraculous love.
Then He moves in, begins turning everything upside-down and inside out.
He wants us to share everything with him.
He wants us to talk to him.
He wants us to consult him about all our decisions.
He’s always there, aware of everything.
And he wants us to give him our all.
That kind of love love – true love – isn’t all that comfortable.
It doesn’t always feel miraculous.
It doesn’t always feel easy or cozy or even based in reality.
In fact, the love of God doesn’t feel all that miraculous when I am busy living in my faults, failures and failings, because God is busy rearranging my entire life.
Even when the Prodigal Son angrily left the home of his Father, Love remained in the home, love waited for the Prodigal to return, love waited to welcome him.
Do We Get too Used to God’s Love?
God’s love isn’t very comfortable, but even so, over time we get used to it.
That happens sometimes with love.
I was single for so long; at first, then met my wife, and the sudden, subtle prospect of one day, every day of being with my wife felt like a great gift.
Fast-forward a 12 1/2 years and I’ve gotten used to her.
She’s always around.
I can hardly remember what it felt like to be single.
I hardly want to remember what it felt like to be dedicated to my singleness.
This happens with God’s love too — especially for those of us who grew up in the church.
We can hardly remember a time when we didn’t know God’s love.
We get used to it.
We might even get “too” used to it.
We start to take Him and all He is and forever will be, for granted a little.
Acknowledge that Sometimes God’s Love Hurts
Sometimes we will fail God and we will struggle greatly to hold on to any kind of truth that God still loves us because God lets us suffer.
We hear the words, “God loves you and He has a wonderful plan for your life,” but then we look around, and maybe our life’s not all that wonderful.
We ask “How can a loving God, an all-powerful God, let this bad stuff happen?”
How, Why, do we keep trusting in the love of God when we are so disappointed?
I try to remember that God is not me and I am not Him.
And sometimes that is a rather tough one for my belief system to sort out.
He’s mysterious and big.
He’s complicated.
His ways are not my ways, and his thoughts are not my thoughts.
When I do not want to, I still need to keep giving God the benefit of the doubt.
I need to keep believing in God’s good intentions for me, in the fact that he never allows pain unless it has a purpose.
He loves me.
The best thing I can do when I am hard at work distancing myself from God is not distance myself so far from God’s face or give him the silent treatment.
That just makes me more miserable.
His love is the source of all comfort.
The prophet Jeremiah understood this.
In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah is crying out to God. He’s devastated — and with good reason.
He weeps.
He yells at God.
But then he says this:
Though the Lord brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to any human being (Lamentations 3:32).
He also says this:
Because of the LORD’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
This is what we have to hold on to.
The LORD is our portion — his love might not make perfect sense to us.
But it’s also what keeps us from falling apart.
It’s the only thing, really, that ultimately brings us from utter sadness to joy.
We Will Have to Contemplate Falling in Love Again!
So what do we do when the excitement of God’s love seems to wear off?
When I start to get irritated with my wife, when I start to think it’s no big deal I am married to this woman, I work very hard at thinking back to the beginning.
I take some time to remember our early days.
I call to mind all the reasons I can recall I fell in love with her in the first place.
We can do this with God too.
We should do it.
In fact, it’s why God gave us the ritual of communion (the Lord’s Supper).
The bread broken for us, the blood spilled for us — it’s the labored discipline of remembering over and over again how wonderful it is Jesus gave himself for us.
By reading, studying the Word of God, meditating on the cross, we can go back.
The other thing I do is I ask myself, “What would life be like without him?”
I imagine how life would look if my wife did not love me.
Imagine what life would be if God didn’t love me.
Imagine if my Savior Jesus had not died for me.
Being a faithful human being, I will get angry and I will sin mightily ….
I cannot help myself.
I cannot help being myself …. Romans 7:13-25
It’s all too easy to take God’s love for granted.
It is all too easy being all too human – and turn my face and walk away.
But it’s also easy to be bowled over by God’s love all over again.
Psalm 13The Message
13 1-2 Long enough, God— you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me.
3-4 Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, So no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face.
5-6 I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms— I’m celebrating your rescue. I’m singing at the top of my lungs, I’m so full of answered prayers.
Dare Yourself – To Fall in Love with God AGAIN!
If God feels far away, go back to the beginning, back to the cross, and labor to remember what God has done for you.
Read the accounts of Jesus’ sacrifice each day for the next week.
Meditate on them, asking God to show you the depth of his love for you.
If your life is in turmoil, give God the benefit of the doubt.
If you have been giving him the silent treatment, you can return to him right now, knowing God will hear your prayer.
Commit to an extended time of prayer each day for a week.
Start your prayer time by listing out the qualities of God.
Focus on who God is and who you ARE NOT.
No matter the ceaseless fervency, motivation of, or behind our prayers,
We can never pray ourselves into actually becoming God.
God will not answer that prayer as we prayed it – it is not in His will.
Acknowledge and Remember – We ARE NEVER stronger than GOD!
Bring your concerns to God and then take time to listen to him.
Dare to ask thyself; Where Am I in my own relationship with God?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
His word shall not fail you he promised Believe him and all will be well Then go to a world that is dying His perfect salvation to tell
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
O soul are you weary and troubled No light in the darkness you see There’s light for a look at the Savior And life more abundant and free
Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
23 The Lord is my Shepherd [to feed, to guide and to shield me], I shall not want. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still and quiet waters. 3 He refreshes and restores my soul (life); He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Most everyone has heard of the 23rd Psalm even if they can’t quote it correctly.
It’s a poem with no peer and has been called the sweetest psalm ever written.
Abraham Lincoln read it to cure his blues, and President George W. Bush read it publicly to calm our nation’s fears after 9-11.
We could very easily and simply call it the psalm that calms the savaged soul.
Since this psalm is so familiar, we are in danger of missing the depth of its meaning.
Because its setting is in the world of sheep and shepherds, many of us can slide right past its richness.
Are you aware the Bible refers to us as sheep nearly two hundred times?
This is not usually a compliment because sheep are smelly, stubborn, and prone to wander.
One commentary explains that this passage is a hymn of resting confidently in the Lords care.
It uses two images: the first is the Lord as a shepherd who cares for the sheep.
We see this in verses 1 through four.
The Lord is my shepherd – He makes me lie down in green pastures, do you know what green pastures in Israel looked like?
They are not the image that may come to your mind of rolling meadows and hills of green with alfalfa waist high but they are rather more like this:
The regions in Israel where shepherds live are predominantly wilderness areas.
They have two seasons:
First is the rainy season from November through March (when even the desert becomes green), and then the dry season from April through October when the landscape is brown.
Even during the rainy season, the wilderness grasses remain short.
Blades of grass grow in the shade of rocks, where moisture is trapped.
At first glance, the “green pastures” of Israel look like a barren, rocky wasteland.
But each day, a few blades of grass grow and there is enough to nourish the flocks for another day
The Lord providing and giving provision for the sheep (or for us) is not giving us more than we will ever need but rather providing our needs for the moment.
The shepherd will take care of his flock, and the sheep are not worried about tomorrow,
They are not worried about an hour from now, they are definitely not worried about the current circumstance for they are taken care of by the Shepherd.
The truth is that the Good Shepherd will lead you in green pastures and by the still waters.
This psalm paints the peaceful picture of the Lord’s care for his children.
Ask the Lord to refresh your soul and guide you along righteous paths of healing and restoration.
Experiencing this rest requires submission to the shepherd
Louie Giglio writes in his book, Don’t give the enemy a seat at your table,
“You may be surrounded by pressures and troubles and uncertainties and misunderstandings, but God has set a table for you in the middle of all this. God’s got your back. He is the Lord of all creation. All strength and power and authority belong to Him. He’s king of the universe. When God is walking you through the valley, you can stop worrying about managing all the outcomes. You can stop looking over your shoulder.”
Which leads us into the second image in verses 5 and 6.
Where we see the Lord as Host who cares for his guest.
These two images are familiar experiences in David’s life but they also elicit and evoke other ideas which were common in the ancient Near East, with the chief deity as shepherd of his people and also the deity as chief host of the meal.
In worship, the faithful celebrate God’s greatness and majesty; and when they sing this psalm, they see the magnitude of His majesty in the way he personally attends to each and every one of his covenant lambs.
A single flock can have as few as 10 animals or as much as hundreds of them.
A good Shepherd knows each and every sheep in the flock regardless of how big the numbers could be, (John 10:3-5).
“To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.””
Likewise, David when he uses the metaphor of the Shepherd to describe God, talks not just about a designation or a name for the Lord, but the relationship between God and his covenant children.
He is the shepherd for Israel as a whole; and in being such, He is the shepherd for each faithful Israelite as well.
Verse 4 says, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
The shadow of death itself may be the shadow that death casts or it may be what scholars say is “deep darkness”.
In Job 10:21-22 it’s written, before I go–never to return–to a land of darkness and gloom, to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”
In the ESV Study Bible that the shadow of death is perhaps the idea that in a valley in the desert in Judah one can encounter deep shadows, and cannot know for sure who (whether bandits) or what (animals, flash floods) lurks in them.
Even in such periods of suspense and danger, the faithful find assurance that God is with them, and thus they need not fear.
Greg Morse, staff writer from DesiringGod writes this,
“We do not often consider who leads us into the valley. This path of deathly shadows was not self-chosen. The sheep, sheepish as they are, do not walk willingly into unlit places. They aren’t a lion to be so careless; dark paths are where sheep die. So how did David end up walking there of all places? His Shepherd led him. Christ, the good Shepherd, lays us down in green pastures, leads beside still waters, and guides us through dark valleys.”
How important to realize this?
When life overwhelms us, we are tempted to believe that — if we were truly his — we would never travel into such places.
But David thinks otherwise.
When he writes, “I shall fear no evil for you are with me,” David does not see a Shepherd scratching his head wondering where they took a wrong turn.
David trusts that his Shepherd meant for him to pass this way!
Even though there are challenges in life,
God goes before us into and through all the blind bends and corners.
God is with us in all the North, East, South, West twists and turns.
God is 100% reliable, faithful and just and trustworthy and true.
God is worth thanking in highs and lows.
This looks different for everyone, but we see in scripture that the Lord fulfills his promises and his faithfulness is certain.
We see that Even though Abraham and Sarah were far beyond childbearing age, God gave them a child to fulfill His promise. (Genesis 18:13-14, 21:1-2)
a. God declared his name Abraham, which means “Father of many nations” and yet at the age of 99 he had never had a single child with his wife Sarah who was 90 years old at the time – no heirs to legitimately carry on the family lineage.
They were visited by three men and one of them told Abraham that Sarah would bear a child in the next year.
Despite laughing, Sarah soon became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham, at the very moment which had been predicted.
Abraham, then a hundred years old, named the child “Isaac.”
Isaac would go on to become a crucial character in the biblical narrative, fathering Jacob the eventual Patriarch of Twelve Tribes of the Israelites.
God used this to test Abraham and Sarah but used them mightily through their trust and His faithfulness. When you are tempted to give up while you wait, look at the examples in scripture of God’s faithfulness to deliver, even when the circumstance seems to point otherwise.
Or how about this? Even though building an ark seemed odd, it saved Noah’s family and God’s faithfulness was revealed. (Genesis 6:11-14; 7:22, 6-7)
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,[a] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.[b] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
The Lord was bringing destruction to the Earth yet he was faithful in his promise to Noah.
Noah endured and in the end God was right about the flood He was bringing, and He saved Noah and his family just like He promised.
Even though all of Job’s possessions and health were taken, he stayed faithful to God. (Job 1:13-22)
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the heavens and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and made off with them. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.[a]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job was faithful to God and served Him.
Even so, he greatly suffered. Job knew though that his suffering was not worth comparing to the blessing of not cursing God but continue following God.
What an affirmation of faith, what an incredible example this is, to serve and stand firm in our faith in Jesus Christ no matter the circumstance or suffering.
Let’s look back at Psalm 23 verse 4 again,
5. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”(Psalm 23:4)
This verse reminds me of another long forgotten message — now blessedly, thanks be to God for Holy Spirit, gratefully recalled to the forefront of my soul:
I appreciated the insight of another pastor who once preached to me one Lenten Season,
“Moses teaches us how to thank God for giving us a whole myriad of blessings.”
Let me say that again,
“Moses teaches us how to thank God for giving us a whole myriad of blessings.”
Deuteronomy 8:1-10Amplified Bible
God’s Gracious Dealings
8 “Every commandment that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, so that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore [to give] to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember [always] all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart (mind), whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 He humbled you and allowed you to be hungry and fed you with manna, [a substance] which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, so that He might make you understand [by personal experience] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your feet swell these forty years. 5 Therefore, know in your heart (be fully cognizant) that the Lord your God disciplines and instructs you just as a man disciplines and instructs his son. 6 Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in His ways and fear [and worship] Him [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect]. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land where you will eat bread without shortage, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are satisfied, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
He then continues by saying, “David comes along and teaches us how to thank God not just for the myriad and myriads of blessings but also “even though….”
Psalm 23:4-5
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
This remembered pastor wrote,
“This is a graduated form of gratitude. This is the remedial level. Again, Moses taught us to Thank God “ for the” blessing . But this is the place where you learn to praise God even through every single “even though” we can think of.”
This is where you could have everything of the very worst kind of mess breaking loose in one area of your life, but say,
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear …
— it is well with my soul when peace like a river which attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll,
— even though my heart is broken,
it is still well well with my soul.
— even though you and I are in the direst straights, grieving the loss of a job, grieving the loss of our health and wellness, or grieving the loss of loved ones,
it is yet an still well with our souls.
— even though I’m going through ____,
it is now and forever well with my soul and God is still forever and ever, faithful
“EVEN THOUGH.”
This is the table where you learn to thank God for what you can see.
This is the table where you learn to trust God with what you cannot.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley.
We see the “Even though ___, God is faithful theme” continue throughout scripture.
John 6:1-14Amplified Bible
Five Thousand Fed
6 After this, Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or [a]Sea of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd was following Him because they had seen the signs (attesting miracles) which He continually performed on those who were sick. 3 And Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down there with His disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was approaching. 5 Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward Him, and He said to Philip, “Where will we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 But He said this to test Philip, because He knew what He was about to do. 7 Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii (200 days’ wages) worth of bread is not enough for each one to receive even a little.” 8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, 9 “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are these for so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down [to eat].” Now [the ground] there was [covered with] an abundance of grass, so the men sat down, about [b]5,000 in number. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated; the same also with the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they had eaten enough, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces so that nothing will be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and they filled twelve large baskets with pieces from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign (attesting miracle) that He had done, they began saying, “This is without a doubt the promised Prophet who is to come into the world!”
6. John Chapter 6:1-14 gives the picture of how 5,000 men and their families ate and ate and ate until they were full with food leftover …..
EVEN THOUGH there were only five loaves of bread and two fish!
An author describes John chapter 6:1-14 like this,
When the disciples saw the crowds and their lack of resources, they were each overwhelmed and knew there was an unsolvable problem.
But when they looked to Jesus, the problem was solved and the Lord provided.
There is never too large of a lack that God cannot provide.
But similar to before, God will be glorified whether that means He provides, or He doesn’t intervene.
If He doesn’t intervene, it doesn’t mean that he can’t, but that it’s not in line with his will.
Know that He is able. He is infinite in resources, while we are finite in ours.
7. Even though Jesus was put to death, He was raised from the dead. (Matthew 28:6)
God’s power is able to do the unthinkable—raise the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah from the dead to fulfill His ultimate plan from before the foundation of the world.
8. Even though Paul was a persecutor of Jesus and the church, his heart was turned and God saved him. (Acts 9:1-19)
God can change any heart, even the hardest stone heart that you know of.
The beauty of the Gospel is that Jesus is the only savior of sinners and He is all-powerful, not incapable to save because the coldness of one’s heart.
His power is able to turn the greatest wretch into a radical lover of Jesus.
9. Even though Peter was in chains and bound by guards, he miraculously escaped from the prison. (Acts 12:5-19)
And possibly the biggest one,
10. Even though we are sinners, God came to save us. (Romans 5:8)
Many people miss the truth implied by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
The chronology is important. Christ did not wait for us to “clean up our act”; He sacrificed Himself even though we were still actively, vigorously opposed to Him
Salvation does not depend on our meeting God halfway, on our all keeping the commandments, or trying to be as good as we can.
No, God completed the work of our salvation even though we were in a state of open rebellion against Him.
That’s grace.
Even though Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace, God delivered them from it,
You see this is the even though….
God is faithful, for each and every single depth of faith that we want to have.
Let me give some context on this passage from Daniel 3,
Three young men named Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego were taken from their homes in Israel when they were children.
They, along with Daniel, became important men in Babylon.
The king of Babylon had created a huge statue as an idol.
This was to be used for people to worship the king.
He had made a law that said that all who did not bow down and worship the idol would be thrown into a furnace of fire.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had become governors in the kingdom.
But they did not allow their position to keep them from obeying God.
They refused to bow down to the idol. As a result they were put into the fiery furnace.
However, they did not burn up and die.
In fact, the Bible says they were walking around in the furnace.
And, there was a fourth person in the fire with them.
The king said that it appeared to be the Son of God!
The fire is extinguished.
They were brought out of the furnace and the king repented of his pride and worshiped God.
Their faith inflated and they said to the kind, “even though we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.
But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Whether or not they were rescued, the faith that they showed is the depth that we want. Even though, stayed faithful to God regardless of the circumstances.
What is the commonality in all these things?
The power of God.
And, God works through our obedience: our obedience to trust him within the most impossible circumstances,
the obedience to rely on him even in tough times, and the obedience to worship him even when the most unexplainable things happen to us.
In all these “EVEN THOUGH” things, we can trust in him and we can faithfully say that He is 100% faithful.
Look at the ending verses of the book of God’s Prophet Habakkuk,
Habakkuk 3:16-19Amplified Bible
16 I heard and my whole inner self trembled; My lips quivered at the sound. Decay and rottenness enter my bones, And I tremble in my place. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade and attack us. 17 Though the fig tree does not blossom And there is no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive fails And the fields produce no food, Though the flock is cut off from the fold And there are no cattle in the stalls, 18 Yet I will [choose to] rejoice in the Lord; I will [choose to] shout in exultation in the [victorious] God of my salvation! 19 The Lord God is my strength [my source of courage, my invincible army]; He has made my feet [steady and sure] like hinds’ feet And makes me walk [forward with spiritual confidence] on my [a]high places [of challenge and responsibility].
For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.
The phrases we see in Habakkuk’s prayer lay out a strong cause and effect relationship for us as an example to follow.
Even though bad things happen, I will still praise the Lord.
Even though bad things happen, I will not let my mind be lost to the enemy and even though _______, God is faithful.
This past Veterans Day, I heard an Iraqi War veteran say ….
Even Though I cannot walk, and I am confined to a wheelchair;
Even Though half my face is paralyzed, and I cannot even smile;
Even Though I am extremely impaired, and I cannot take care of my kids;
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my savior!
He finishes by saying;
“This is not the faith of a Christian who “believes” in God only when the sun shines. This is not a faith that easily wilts under pressure. This faith flourishes even though the pressure is on. This faith says, Even though bad things are still happening, and they will continue until the day I die, I will still forever praise the Lord.”
Like this veteran, how might we personalize Habakkuk’s prayer?
Even thoughI am under intense (_________) pressure….
Even though my body walks through the valley of the shadow of (_____)
Even though my spirit wanders through the valley of the shadow of (_____)
Even though ______
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord
I will be joyful in God my Savior
Brothers and sisters, Fix your eyes on the good shepherd today.
No matter what circumstances, tell yourself
Even though I am Blessed and Highly Favored and Successful ….
Even though failure seems to define every single move that I make ….
“Even though … I will choose to obey God”
What is your blank space you are dealing with that even in the midst of these circumstances, you are choosing to say yes to God, surrender your life to him.
What act of obedience is God calling you to do in regards to that circumstance?
Is he asking you to Trust or wait or go?
Could God be asking you to worship or seek Him or give to Him all of those “even though” moments or how about even submitting each of them to Him?
Seek God today through His Word and in prayer, and wait upon him for
He. Is. Faithful.
He. Is. True.
He. Is. Life.
He is the Lord, who is our Shepherd and we have all that we will ever need!
EVEN THOUGH ….
EVEN THROUGH ….
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Thank You Father that You are the faithful, good and righteous God. You are the Lord who always keeps Your promises.
You are gracious and merciful in salvation.
We thank You for Your faithfulness throughout the centuries, throughout all the millennia; You have always kept Your promises, Your plans for our salvation have been unwavering.
We thank You Father that You are the God who makes promises out of a character of love and grace, and keeps those promiseswith all faithfulnesseven though we will all continue to sin mightily against you.
We thank you for all that you are continually doing in our homes, in our lives, in our communities, in our church. God, we are abundantly blessed by your faithfulness and your continuous goodness to us. We ask that this devotional message be impactful for us as we inspect ourselves and find the blank space that we need to surrender to you. God, we fervently seek after you in prayer, in your word and we now wait upon you.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 [a]Because narrow is the gate and [b]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Every child of God walks by “faith,” each and every step that we take reveals to God’s neighborhood, to all God’s neighbors, the visible measure of our “faith.”
Our Christianity is our most visible part and we must have the willingness to hear, a doubtless heart to believe, godly sorrow to repent, be unashamed to confess, the obedience to be baptized, the moral strength to endure till the end.
When we are willing to take up our cross and follow after Christ, we are taking the right steps on the straight and narrow path that leads to life everlasting.
At one time or another, I can practically guarantee that every Christian has heard another person tell them – (truth be told – this was my favorite line.)
“I do not need God, I do not need Jesus, I do not need church, I don’t really need anyone’s religion; I just try to be that good person and live by the Golden Rule.”
It’s not uncommon to hear people talk like this, usually they are trying to say “not interested” “go away” minimize God’s demand for how we should “live.”
As long as our visible “lifestyle” communicates to everyone around us, that we innately treat others as we want to be treated, God should accept us—right?
And usually this is enough to dissuade us from furthering the conversation.
We may never even start that conversation because we have assured ourselves beforehand that that is exactly the “automatic” response we will each receive.
The Question then becomes, If our Rabbi Jesus were to turn around in the exact moment we had that thought, looked us straight and narrowly into our eyes,
What would those soul piercing eyes immediately, not so subtly communicate?
Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Jesus calls upon you, to spread the gospel news, (1) So walk it, and talk it, a sermon in shoes. (2) Live it, and give it, a sermon in shoes. (3) Teach it, and preach it, a sermon in shoes. (4) Know it, and show it, a sermon in shoes. (Ruth Harms Calkin)
Rabbi Jesus most likely wore very simple sandals ….
So, without Rabbi Jesus ever using any words, can we hear his eyes tell us ….
“Do you know, Oh Christian, I am a sermon in very simple sandals ….?”
“Do you know, Oh Christian, I am a sermon in very simple sandals ….?”
“I am calling upon you, to spread the gospel news ….“
“(1) So I walk it, and talk it, a sermon in very simple sandals ….”
“(2) So I live it an give it, a sermon in very simple sandals ….”
“(3) So I teach it, and preach it, a sermon in very simple sandals ….”
“(4) Because I know it, therefore I show it, a sermon in very simple sandals ….”
Matthew 7:13-14 The Message
Being and Doing
13-14 “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.
Have we ever stopped to consider how demanding Jesus’ words truly are?
How challenging is it to meet the needs of others with the same creativity, the same energy, the spontaneity, the same devotion that we want from others?
No wonder the man Rabbi Jesus describes this way of life as narrow and small.
The man Rabbi Jesus poignantly points out only a few are walking on this road.
When we are walking down any paved or gravel or well trod path through the middle of a forest – we will probably see signs everywhere along the way which sternly tell us to “stay on the path, protect our forests and protect our wildlife.”
We definitely want to see the forest through the trees so we walk the pathway which is before us, prepared by somebody before us that we might enjoy it all.
We want to keep the rest of the forest pristine for those who are coming after us, that they too may enjoy the enormous beauty God has placed before them.
We do not want to be the one person who ruins someone else’s experience.
We make every effort we can to stay on the pathway someone else prepared.
As tempting as it is to wander through forest glades, through flowing streams.
Christianity is like that …. staying on the moral and ethical path Jesus gave us by his giving up quite literally everything of “value” to him (Philippians 2:5-11).
Romans 5:6-8The Message
6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
Despite all of the opposition he would receive, despite all the plots against his life, all the violence, humiliations he had to endure from both friend and foe, to walking out the straight and narrow pathway leading to a place called Golgotha.
To Communicate, for our “attentive(?)” listening ears the Immortal Words …
“Father, forgive them – for they know not what they do ….” Luke 23:33-35
“It is Finished….” John 19:28-30
After His resurrection … to receive the motivation of all motivations ….
John 21:15-17Amplified Bible
The Love Motivation
15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [others do—with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I [a]love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My lambs.” 16 Again He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with a deep, personal affection for Me, as for a close friend]?” Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you [really] [b]love Me [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend]?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
Are you and I willing to receive, to immerse ourselves into such a motivation, prepared to love, say, your overbearing employer with kindness and courtesy?
Are you and I willing to sacrificially meet the needs of your spouse, children, and neighbors even if your needs aren’t the ones which not about to be met?
Will you and I care for the least lovely persons around us without expecting anything in return?
Psalm 23:4-6Amplified Bible
4 Even though I walk through the [sunless] [a]valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with [b]oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.
How about those who are truly difficult to love – like your own “enemies?”
Preparing a table before them ….
with the prospect of “anointing and refreshing their heads with oil ….
extending the invitation to God’s “goodness and mercy and unfailing love” which will absolutely follow them for all of the remaining days of their lives ….”
to dwell forever, throughout all their remaining days, in the house and in the presence of the Lord – who could, on confession, be their everlasting salvation.
When we are being transformed by the enormity of the love of Jesus, who is our Savior, we can definitely, but with difficulty, walk on this narrowed way of life.
Rabbi Jesus alone lived and loved this way….
Rabbi Jesus alone live and loved and died for us this way ….
Jesus walked the narrow way out his sealed tomb,
Peter, John and Mary Magdalene walked the narrow way down and through the narrow opening of the tomb – witnessed and testified to its eternal emptiness.
Jesus is Resurrected, Jesus is ALIVE!
He calls us to follow, the narrow path, serving not in our own strength but in his.
How will his love empower you to walk, love others with his kindness today?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son to us that we may come to know Your greater and ever more wiser and eternal ways, that through His teachings we may experience the only meaningful pathway to everlasting life, that in Christ Jesus, my Savior, I have been saved by grace and have an eternal inheritance kept for me in heaven. I pray that I may be disciplined enough to die daily to all that is of self and live every day of my life for Christ. Help me to choose to enter the narrow gate of disciplined, dedicated discipleship, which leads to an abundant life here on earth.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
3 However, brothers and sisters, I could not talk to you as to spiritual people, but [only] as to [a]worldly people [dominated by human nature], mere infants [in the new life] in Christ! 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Even now you are still not ready. 3 You are still [b]worldly [controlled by ordinary impulses, the sinful capacity]. For as long as there is jealousy and strife and discord among you, are you not [c]unspiritual, and are you not walking like ordinary men [unchanged by faith]? 4 For when one of you says, “I am [a disciple] of Paul,” and another, “I am [a disciple] of Apollos,” are you not [proving yourselves unchanged, just] ordinary people?
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
I remember very vividly those moments in my young life when Mama standing in front of me, her hands poised on her hips, her eyes glaring with hot coals of fire and saying in no nonsense tones, “Just what is the big idea, young man?”
Instinctively I definitely knew that my mother was not asking me an abstract question about any theory outside of her own regarding right versus wrong.
Her question was not a question at all—it was a thinly veiled, soul piercing, “wait until your father gets home” accusation.
Her words were easily translated to mean,
“Why are you doing what you are doing?”
She was challenging me to justify my behavior with a valid idea.
Obviously, I had none – and knew better than to even try and offer one.
Some years ago, several “friends” asked myself and a whole “likeminded” group of “interested Christian’s” – in all earnestness – essentially the exact same question with the same exact intensity and purpose of the stare.
It was just the beginning of the New Year ….
They asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life anyway?”
They were interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life.
To answer his question,
In my lay person’s mind, several thoughts came to the forefront as I just “watched” this group of people espouse their individual thoughts and those of their friends and their Pastors.
I fell back onto the theologian’s prerogative and gave them a Latin term I had just encountered, but not yet began to understand, in my own personal studies.
I said, to myself and to “them” as I read the Facebook conversation unfold:
From my own “youthful” Christian experience, I commented back to them;
“The big idea of the Christian life is Coram Deo – Life in our Savior Christ Jesus.
Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”
It was not long before that group of “like-minded Christians” had me banned entirely from commenting or posting any further – clearly, I got someone mad.
Clearly, I got a whole bunch of somebodies mad, offended a whole lot of souls.
In all likelihood, I offended people with what they perceived as “my hypocrisy.”
Clearly they were not going to give me any chance of redemption, were not the least bit interested in offering me mercy or forgiveness so to God be the Glory!
Over the intervening years of independent study of the scriptures and also the writing of these devotions, and an abundantly fervent effort at my prayer life,
I have since learned more about “Coram Deo”
It is nowhere near a thorough understanding because it is such a broad term.
It will mean different things to different people based on their experiences.
If you are reading this and you have been academically trained, and educated through Seminary or Schools of Theology and also have your degrees and your ordinations in hand – you will obviously have a higher understanding than I do.
Please feel free to enlighten me further on my “understanding” of this matter if my own “uninformed” and “uneducated” efforts at explaining it here fall a bit short.
What I have “discovered” is briefly this ….
This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God.
To live Coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.
To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are all acting under the all judging gaze of God.
God is omnipresent.
There is no place so remote, so invisible to the naked eye of human kind, that we can escape His penetrating gaze. (Psalm 139:1-13)
To be aware of the presence of God is also to be acutely aware of His complete sovereignty.
The uniform experience of the saints is to recognize that if God is God, then He is indeed sovereign.
When Saul was suddenly confronted by the full refulgent glory of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, his immediate question, “Who Are You, Lord?”
He wasn’t the least bit sure who was suddenly speaking to him, but he knew that whomever it was, was abundantly and certainly far sovereign over him.
Our Living under divine sovereignty involves more than a reluctant submission to sheer sovereignty which is suddenly motivated out of a fear of punishment.
It involves recognizing that there is no higher goal than offering honor to God.
Our lives, in that very instant of being in the Presence of our Savior are to be, become living sacrifices, oblations offered in a spirit of adoration and gratitude.
To live all of life Coram Deo is to live a life of integrity.
It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God.
A fragmented life is a life of disintegration.
It is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, division, divisiveness, disunity, confusion, conflict, contradiction, spiritual immaturity, hypocrisy and chaos.
The Christian who compartmentalizes his or her life into two sections of the religious and the nonreligious has failed to grasp the big idea.
The big idea is that either all of our life is religious or none of life is religious.
To divide life between the religious and the nonreligious is itself a sacrilege.
I believe this means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a steelmaker, attorney, or laborer or homemaker Coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as religiously as a soul-winning evangelist who lives to fulfill his vocation.
It means that David was as religious when he obeyed God’s call to be a shepherd and Warrior as he was when he was anointed with the special grace of kingship.
It means that Jesus was every bit as religious when He worked in His father’s carpenter shop, ministered to people, as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
There is much truth in our making the statement that integrity and maturity is found where men and women try to live their lives in a pattern of consistency.
It is a pattern that functions the same basic way in church and out of church.
It is a life that is open before God.
It is a life in which all that is done is done as “unto the Lord.”
It is a life lived by principle, not personality or expediency; by humility before God, obedience to the covenant precepts of God not prideful, blatant defiance.
A life lived under the tutelage of conscience, imprisoned by the Word of God.
Coram Deo. . . before the face of God. That’s the big idea. Next to this idea our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.
Life lived fully, completely, abundantly in the presence of Savior Jesus Christ!
We are each “Sermons in Our Shoes” ….
Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Do you know, Oh Christian, you’re a sermon in shoes? Jesus calls upon you, to spread the gospel news, (1) So walk it, and talk it, a sermon in shoes. (2) Live it, and give it, a sermon in shoes. (3) Teach it, and preach it, a sermon in shoes. (4) Know it, and show it, a sermon in shoes. (Ruth Harms Calkin)
A “Coram Deo” reminder courtesy of the Holy Spirit, that where ever a Christian walks, whenever he or she talks, is expected to share the Gospel news to others.
Whether it be by one’s actions, attitudes, or personal testimony,
Coram Deo – by their baptism, a Christian is always “A Sermon In Shoes.”
Again and again as it is necessary in our immaturity to repeat it It goes along with something American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) once said:
“The preaching that this world most needs most is the sermons in shoes that are walking and talking with Jesus Christ.”
Coram Deo . . . in the presence and under the max authority of Jehovah God ….
Coram Deo … looking square into His eyes and lived before the face of God.
That’s the big idea.
Next to this idea all of our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.
So, from within your own life experiences what is your understanding of;
“Coram Deo ….”
Is it what you “thought it was?”
Is it where you believed it was?
Be it RESOLVED then, this is what needs to be addressed to make it RIGHT …
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
THE COVENANT PRAYER IN THE WESLEYAN TRADITION ….
“I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 