July 18, 2009

"Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength; we will sing and praise your might." Psalm 21:13

I once had a sofa bed that I needed to move up to a third-floor apartment. There was no elevator. Fortunately I had a friend named Jack who was a power-lifter. His strength and might helped me get the job done.

When I was 14 and too young to get a real job, I got hired on to bale hay. At the crack of dawn I was on duty and the work began. I will never forget the loading the first few bales onto the wagon wondering how I would have the strength to do this for the next twelve hours. I did it for twelve hours for the next three days. I had more strength than I thought. This new found strength gave me confidence.

Not that long ago, I could wrestle with my boys and win. Now they are stronger than I am. They could crush me like a soda can except they love me too much.

One of the things that make the Virginia Tech Hokies a perennial power in football is that they have one of the best strength and conditioning programs in the country. They take strong heathy young men and make them much stronger. When the ball is snapped at the line of scrimmage, strength matters!

We honor strength in our culture. In fact, our world is governed by the aggressive use of force. The nation with the strongest values, and the strongest economy, and the strongest will, and the strongest military will win. It is a fact of life. History bears it out.

As I was reading this Psalm this morning it dawned on me that I worship God for His holiness and for His love and for His grace and for His goodness and His mercy, but the Psalmist here exalts Him for His strength.

Meditating on that I realized he is right! If it were not for the strength and power and might of our God, none of these other virtues would matter. God can manifest all of His goodness and righteousness because He has the power to execute it! If He were unable to overcome evil, His holiness would be of no consequence.

Remember when you were a child boasting that your dad could beat up their dad? The Psalmist is essentially doing that. He is exalting in the fact that His God is greater than all other gods. God is more powerful than evil, more powerful than time, more powerful than nations, more powerful than death, and always will be!

There is only one thing that God can't overpower - your will. He wants you to surrender that to His strength. Like the Psalmist, God wants you to "sing and praise His might".

If you sing about salvation - praise Him for His might. If you sing about deliverance - praise Him for His might! If you praise Him for healing - praise Him for His might! If you praise Him for provision - praise Him for His might! If you praise Him for protection - praise Him for His might!

Martin Luther had it right - "A Mighty Fortress IS Our God!"

July 17, 2009

"The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward." Psalms 19:7-11

My son-in-law is on the road a lot because he drive a truck for Coca Cola. For the most part he goes to the same places during the week, but occasionally he will be assigned another route. For those days when he draws an unfamiliar route, he has a GPS device to help him find his way. It has never led him astray!

The Psalmist is celebrating the fact that God has given him a spiritual GPS system. What is that system? The law of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commands of the Lord, and the ordinances of the Lord.

Of course, "GPS" are initials that stand for "global positioning system". However, in reference to this Psalm "GPS" means "God's positioning system". David wanted to be where God wanted him to be so he recognized his need to be positioned by God.

When David wrote these verses he was on the run from King Saul. He had to figure out how to stay alive, how to protect his men, how to honor God and at the same time respect the King who was hunting him down. Not unlike the challenges and pressures you face each day.

Life is difficult to navigate on a good day. David was not having many good days. He needed the guidance of God's positioning system. How does that work?

God's law. Every positioning system ever devised from the ancient sextant to the modern satellite guided ones depended on a fixed point of reference. Whether it be the sun during the day or the North star at night, accurate guidance depends on a fixed point. God's law flows from God's character and that ain't changin'!

God's statutes. A statute helps with the application of the law. It gives it definition. The law gives you the true north but the statute aims you five degrees to the right or left. Face it, your internal guidance system is flawed. When you follow it you end up lost. You need God's law and statutes to guide you through the complicated directions of relationships and obligations.

God's precepts. A precept gives you moral guidance. For example, you can get the right directions but if you exceed the speed limit or run stop signs while heading in that direction, you will not succeed in your journey. You are morally bankrupt, you have little natural regard for laws. Unless you are guided by His precepts you will be arrested in your journey. The precepts are like traffic signs posted along the way.

God's commands. Sometimes you travel unfamiliar roads that are narrow and winding. You worry about staying on the road and keeping in your lane. God's commands are like the guard rails one either side of your road. They are there to protect you. They are like the white lines and the yellow lines on the highway that mark your lane and define the other lane. The lines tell you when you are free to pass and when you must stay in your lane.

God's ordinances. An ordinance refers to something that is done regularly for your benefit. In a spiritual sense, Communion is an ordinance. As you navigate through the complications of life, relationships, responsibilites and obligations, you need some "routine maintenance" to stay in good condition. If you don't stop to check God's road map occasionally, you will veer off course. If you don't pray regularly, your attitude will drift. When you don't worship on a continual basis you will forget why you are on the journey.

Life is a complicated journey. It was for the Psalmist and it is for you. There is no time to make wrong turns or get off course. David successfully navigated his course. He honored God, respected the King, cared for his men, and eventually arrived at God's destination for his life - the throne of Israel. He was able to steer God's nation because he had learned to follow his "GPS".

Do you have a "GPS" - God's positioning system? Is it turned on? Are you commited to His laws, statutes, precepts, commands and ordinances? If not, no wonder you're lost!

July 16, 2009

"On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted. " Acts 20:7-12

This morning I read in the Psalms and continued reading in Acts. Of course, I found a number of inspiring verses. But, this amazing incident caught my attention for two reasons: because it IS amazing how Paul raised this young man from the dead, but also, I found it encouraging that as great as Paul was, someone actually fell asleep on him when he was speaking. Maybe you have to be a preacher to appreciate that!

Pardon me for indulging myself in this moment, but there is a much greater point to be made in all of this. God's power is made perfect in the weaknesses of our humanity. Maybe Paul had this incident in mind when he wrote:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." II Cor. 4:7

Paul was in the midst of a gruelling travel schedule and the hour was late. He had been teaching intensely for hours. No one can be at their best under those conditions. Our bodies and minds get tired. And Eutychus had been sitting and listening for hours, now the hour was late. He dozed off. It is not a good idea to doze off when you are sitting in a third-story window. So, when he fell asleep he FELL - ASLEEP. The fall killed him.

Needless to say, that killed the meeting. When Paul received word of what had happened, he switched from preaching the Word to practicing it. Undeterred by the gravity of the situation, Paul simply called on God to revive this young man. God did!

Wow! It is one thing to put people asleep when you preach - it is quite another to raise them from the dead!

Here's the big message in the midst of these ramblings, GOD'S STRENGTH AND POWER ARE GREATER THAN YOUR WEAKNESSES! When you are doing your best to serve Him, He will be His best for you. Don't hide your weakness. Don't apologize for it. Praise God for revealing Himself through your limitations.

Have you surrender to God - weaknesses and all?

July 14, 2009

"For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring." Acts 17:28

The Apostle Paul was preaching in Athens and noticed that they were very religious but did not know the One true God or His Son Jesus. In their shrines they had many idols to many idols and to make sure they did not miss a god or offend a diety they built an idol to "the unknown god".

Paul saw an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel and began to tell them about this God Who was knowable, Who wanted to be known, and Who "was not far from them."

What Paul told them about God, we could stand to hear. Let's examine it more closely:

The Centrality of God - "In Him....."

God will not settle for being "a" god. He must be "the" God. There is no god like our God. He is beyond compare. He created you for Himself. He put within you a "God-shaped" void that nothing else can satisfy. You were never designed to be happy or fulfilled without having God squarely in the center of His will.

The Vitality of God - "....we live and move......

When God identifies Himself as the "Alpha and Omega", the beginning and the end, He is acknowledging that all life begins and ends with Him. Since that glorious and ancient day when He commanded, "Let there be....", life has flourished on this beautiful planet. And He personalized life when He sent His only Son, Jesus, so that His life could flourish within us.

The Identity With God - "....and have our being."

Paul was speaking to men who were very religious and somewhat superstitious. They wanted to make sure that they covered their bases spiritually. If there was a god they needed to know - they wanted to know him. It was important for them to be right with their gods. I imagine that the Great Apostle was moved by their sincere desire to be right with a God they had yet to know. So he sweetens the deal by promising that this unknown God, his God, is One Who knows you, can be known by you, and wants to dwell in you. This God is so vast and so good that you can lose yourself in Him - and only when you lose yourself in Him do you find yourself! Some of them did!

Have you?

July 13, 2009

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Psalm 1

One more thought before we move on from Psalm 1. I have talked about three things you should NOT do if you want to be blessed and two things you SHOULD do if you want to be blessed.

Here is what the blessing looks like:

1) "He is like a tree planted by streams of water that brings forth fruit in its season and whose leaf does not wither...." The first aspect the of the blessing is stability. Few things are more stable than a healthy tree. My neighbor had one that send out roots and one of the roots ran under my blacktop. That is not a good combination. But in the case of a tree planted by the water, that is a best case scenario. One of the blessings that God wants to pour into your life is stability. Will you put down roots into His love and grace?

2) "Whatever he does prospers" A second aspect of the blessing is success. One of the reasons that you will be blessed with success is that you will be meditating on His law. When you know His law and obey it, you will accomplish God's will. For the believer, God's will = success. Another reason for enjoying success is the stability you have from planting your roots in the grace of God. Stability leads to success. I have a dear friend in ministry who has been at his church since 1973. When he went there it was a struggling congregation of 25 people barely clinging to life. Nowadays, they enjoy nearly 3,000 people on two campuses plus a Spanish-speaking congregation. Lucky? I don't think so.

3) "The Lord watches over the way of the righteous....." Another blessing of the blessing is safety. I remember as a child seeing a commercial on TV (which was a new invention back then) and the tag line for the commercial was, "Sleep well tonight, your Air Force is on guard." That made me feel safe because I knew our Air Force was stronger and better than any other air force that might threaten us. We need to feel safe. God wired us that way. And the safety we need is the safety of knowing that even though the Air Force is on duty, God is watching over me and He is way bigger and stronger than any enemy that would threaten us. It is good to know that He watches over the Air Force, too!

It is good to desire blessings. It is good to pursue them. But the way to know blessing in your life is to know the Blesser! Don't do the three things that Psalm 1 speaks of. Do the two things it prescribes, and you will be able to know God and enjoy His blessings of stability, success, and safety!

I don't know how that sounds to you, but I think it is TREEMENDOUS!

July 12, 2009

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Psalm 1

I probably coined a word in my last post. I'm not sure that "blessable" is a word, but how else can I express the desire to be blessed? So, we will go with that word.

In my previous post I mentioned three things the Psalmist says you should NOT do if you desire to be "blessable".

This morning I want to focus on two things he says you SHOULD do.

First, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord...." - If you want to be "blessable" love what is blessed. What is more blessed than the law of the Lord? What is the law of the Lord? Does the number 10 give you a clue? God's Commandments are His law. Jesus distilled them into two: Love God with all you heart and love your neighbor as yourself. 

So, in short, the law of the Lord is love. If you want a blessing and if you want to be a blessing, delight yourself in loving God and delight in letting Him love others through you.

Second, "...on the law he meditates day and night..." - "Blessable" people seek God's blessing 24/7 and 365. God blesses consistency. He is not looking for people who show up at church and put on their happy face. He is not impressed with people who shout and praise for an hour on Sunday and live like the world the rest of the week. To be "blessable" start your day focused on the love of God - His love for you, your love for Him, and His love for others. Let Him love you. Receive His love by faith. Fill your mind with His Word. Fill your spirit with His love. Ask Him to live in you and love through you. At night as you wrap up your day, celebrate His love. Thank Him for loving you. Thank Him for touching others with His love through you. Lay your head on your pillow assured of His love through the night. Find joy in knowing that His love will await you in the morning.

What delights you? 

What is on your mind in the morning? 

What guides your behavior during the day? 

What are you last thoughts in the night?

There are two things "blessable" people delight in - His love for them and their love for Him. They dwell on His love. They dwell in His love. Delightful!

July 11, 2009

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." Psalm 1

Everyone I know wants to be blessed. In fact, many of them have formed "bless me" clubs. What's a "bless me" club? It is a group of people who chase around looking for the next blessing. They flock to this seminar, or that concert, or the next miracle rally in pursuit of "the blessing". Actually, I am not entirely sure what it is they are seeking, but they seem to think that a blessing is something quite elusive and it is an accomplishment to catch one. It must be worth it when they do.

So, Brad, are you saying you do want to be blessed?

I am not saying that at all. But my Bible reading has me in Psalms 1 this morning and it focuses squarely on the topic of blessings. "Blessed is the man" is how it starts out. As meditated on this short but powerful little chapter, I learned a few things about blessings. If you want to be blessed you need to be "blessable". I thought I would share with you how that happened and you can let me know what you think:

1) "Blessed is....." - A blessing is not something you seek or possess, it is something you are. "Blessed" means "happy". If you only know happiness in fleeting moments that are captured and then lost, you are missing what God intends for you - happiness as a way of life.

2) "who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked...." - If you want to be a blessing and live in contentment and joy, don't listen to people who aren't. One of the marvels of our modern age is that there is now more bad advice that ever, but it can be made available instantly through a variety of sources! You can get it on the Internet, TV, radio, or hanging out with the wrong people.

3) "or stand in the way of sinners..." - If you want to be blessed you act like it. God can't bless sin and sin separates you from the source of blessing. So, if your closest friends are sinners and you continually expose yourself to sinful people and their sinful thoughts and ideas and behaviors - guess what?!

4) "or sit in the seat of mockers." - Blessed people aren't critics or Monday morning quarterbacks. It seems there are more of that sort of person than there used to be. Maybe it is a result of the electronic media and the reality genre that puts you in the role of spectator and judge without actually being involved. It is much easier to sit and pronounce judgments on others that it is to do, the things that make you "blessable". Or, rather than become blessable why not try to drag down others to you unblessable level?

Being "blessable" is something all of us can do. The Psalmist recommends it and shows the way. Becoming "blessable" consists in two parts, what you don't do and what you do. This morning I focused on the don'ts. I'll have more to say tomorrow.

Is there something or someone that is preventing you from being "blessable" right now?