Prayer requests

This verse has been in my thoughts lately as I have been praying with a dear friend.

Precious in the sight of the Lord
    is the death of his faithful servants. (Psalm 116:15, NIV)

Here is another translation that helps us:

The Lord cares deeply
    when his loved ones die. (Psalm 116:15, NLT)

God's Word gives us comfort as we face death. Whether our own, or the imminent death of a loved one, we see in this psalm that God cares.....

Our hearts may be breaking. We may be crushed in spirit, but God promises that He will be close to the broken hearted and that we can count on Him to save us when our spirits are crumpled.

His presence and help will be very present; He can be felt tangibly by each one of us. 

We cannot ease the pain of those who grieve, so we approach our Savior. 

We ask that as they walk through the valley of the shades of death, that they would sense they are not alone. He is walking with them as He has promised.

We ask, too, that fear would not take root in their hearts, but instead the peace of Heaven will flood their souls. Help them to "see" in their mind's eye that their loved one is resting in God's arms. 

We can remind our grieving friends that He treasures each tear they shed and that He promises to work out all things for good. That sounds so foreign to us when we are hurting, but it's true and right. Let's pray with our friends that somehow in His wisdom and compassion, God will allow great things to come of the tragedies in our lives. That perhaps others will be drawn to Him and to His love so that they can receive His salvation.

This earth is not all there is; there is an eternity ahead that we can spend with Him and with our loved ones who believe.

Trust Him.

Praise Him.

Experience His peace and His love.

Let's pray.

Lord, what are You thinking?

Recently, I was reading an excerpt from a book by Elizabeth Elliot; she lost her husband Jim when he and several other men were murdered by tribesmen in Ecuador. They had been making contact with them and things seemed to be progressing well, but then their bodies were found, run through by natives' spears. 

The excerpt that I read inspired me, as I was beginning to study Psalm 57 for our posts. Elizabeth Elliott was in Wales, watching a shepherd and his dog work with a flock of sheep. The well-trained pup would herd the sheep, one by one, up a ramp. At the end of the ramp was a tank of antiseptic, and the sheep were pushed in so that the antiseptic would bathe their bodies completely, and protect them from parasites. As soon as they scrambled up out of the tank, the shepherd would grab them and place them back under the antiseptic for a few more seconds. 

The shepherd's wife was standing with Mrs. Elliott, and when Elizabeth asked if the sheep understood what was happening to them, answered, "They haven't got a clue. They probably don't remember that it happened to them last year, and they don't have a clue why it's done."

Elizabeth Elliot said, "I've had some experiences in my life that have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor sheep -- I couldn't figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. And He didn't give me a hint of explanation."

A very honest remark from a woman who rose from her knees beside her husband's grave to serve and tell the gospel message to the very natives who killed him.

If we have been Christians for very long, we've been there. The Shepherd we have trusted has thrown us into some circumstances that are quite difficult. And we don't have a clue as to why, in spite of our prayers and our devotion to doing His will. David had been there, too. Psalm 57 was written to describe that type of experience.

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,
    for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
    until the disaster has passed.

 I cry out to God Most High,
    to God, who vindicates me.
 He sends from heaven and saves me,
    rebuking those who hotly pursue me—[c]
    God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

 I am in the midst of lions;
    I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
    whose tongues are sharp swords.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.

 They spread a net for my feet—
    I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path—
    but they have fallen into it themselves.

 My heart, O God, is steadfast,
    my heart is steadfast;
    I will sing and make music.
 Awake, my soul!
    Awake, harp and lyre!
    I will awaken the dawn.

 I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
    I will sing of you among the peoples.
 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
    let your glory be over all the earth.

We've studied before and remember that when he was a teen, David was anointed as king to replace the moody, disobedient King Saul. He was thrust into the headlines, so to speak, when he slew the giant Goliath -- talk about instant fame! King Saul's jealousy and resentment sent David running for his life, and he spent the better part of his "twenties" dodging those attempts on his life.

The title of the psalm says that he wrote this when "he fled from Saul, in the cave."  I've often wanted to stop when we have traveled through the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. The networks of caves there are renowned for their beauty, and are well lit, to show the interesting formations inside the mountains. But David didn't have electric lights and a tour guide. In fact, he probably felt his way along in the dark - he was hiding.

Personally, if I were "holed up" in a cave and a madman was out there searching for me (with a large army to help him), and God had promised me something that didn't seem to be happening . . .  I'm not certain that I could be sitting in the cave writing praise songs.

But David is! He's singing in the cave! And it's not a sad song; he's praising God! In this study, we will learn how we are to think and act in those times that God's promises don't seem true.

Thanksgiving week, V - Silliness!

 I thought it might be fun to just smile. Matthew West has wonderful songs from the heart -- this one is just for fun!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving week IV

 

Thanksgiving week III

 

Thanksgiving week II

 

Thanksgiving week I

 Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

Before we are sentenced

Many times before a judge sentences a person, he will speak and give his thoughts. Sometimes he is giving calm and reasoned instruction, and other times he sounds very harsh. 

In view of the coming judgment, we must listen to God's final words in Psalm 50:

“Now consider this, you who forget God,
         Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver.

“He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
         And to him who orders his way aright
         I shall show the salvation of God.”(vs 22-23)

God seems to us humans to be "hitting them hard," does He not? But He knows that He must get their attention! My grandpa used to say that his old mule didn't pay attention when he pulled on the rope, slapped his hindquarters, or yelled like a sailor at him. But when he picked up that two by four..... (Just kidding)

God is confronting these people with their sin. He is saying that the door of mercy may not always be standing open -- none of us knows when we may die. 

To those who repent, though, God shows the way to live. Check out verse twenty-three again. By sincerely offering thank offerings, or in our day, by thanking and praising God for His goodness and mercy, we honor Him. We prepare the way in our lives to experience more of His deliverance and grace. Repentance was a problem, though, for these people. Why? Well, the hypocrites forgot all about God. As far as who He was, and what He was like. They substituted their own views of God. 

The ritualists were not much better, because they forgot all about thanking God. From the heart. They probably got to thinking that praise was trivial. Commonplace.

It's not!

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. (Hebrews 13:15)

       I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:13)

And in our psalm for this week:

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, (Psalm 50:14)

Psalm 50 warns us; when we stand before our God, what will matter is not that we have performed religious rituals, but that we have worshiped and obeyed God from grateful hearts.

Adrift - from rituals to hypocrisy

Here's the next section of our psalm:

To the wicked, however, God says,

“What right have you to recite My statutes

and to bear My covenant on your lips?

17For you hate My instruction

and cast My words behind you.

18When you see a thief, you befriend him,

and throw in your lot with adulterers.

19You unleash your mouth for evil

and unharness your tongue for deceit.

20You sit and malign your brother;

you slander your own mother’s son.

21You have done these things, and I kept silent;

you thought I was  just like you.

But now I rebuke you

and accuse you to your face.

We are still in the courtroom, but another group of defendants has been summoned to the stand. God is calling the "wicked" to answer His questions, now. These are the hypocrites, who can quote God's statutes and words and who claim to be pious people - His covenant people - but they are tolerating sin in their lives. We saw that the folks who were stuck on rituals needed to remember that God must be worshiped in spirit and truth. These hypocrites need to be reminded that God is holy and that they must worship Him with obedient hearts.

We can see that the danger of continuing in ritualism, instead of heartfelt worship, is that we can drift into disobedient thinking and living. But in order to keep up appearances, so that no one else will know, we continue with the rituals.  This was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in Jesus' day. For example, they didn't want to "defile" themselves by going into Pilate's courtyard, but at the same time they whipped up a mob and crucified the innocent Lamb of God.  (We can check that out in John 18.)

Let's look back at our psalm for some wisdom to apply to our own lives.

God says in verse seventeen that the wicked people "hate instruction" and that they "cast" His Words behind them. The words "instruction" and "discipline" are often used in Proverbs interchangeably, in the sense of disciplining the mind through wisdom.....correction through instruction. It implies that we as humans need to change. That's never a comfortable thought, right? But it means that when we read God's Word or we hear it preached, we should not shrug it off. We should not look around in pride and think, "That applies to a lot of them, not to me." That would be casting His Word behind us. 
Instead, we need to take His Word to heart and correct anything that is wrong in our thinking, our relationships, and our behavior. We all have "blind spots." God's Word is like a mirror to show us the smudges and smears that we need to clean up -- we should use it often! That way we will not be like the religious people God is talking to here; we will not cast His Word behind us.

In verse eighteen, God tells them (and us) that tolerance of sin in others isn't much different than engaging in sin ourselves. These people may not have engaged in adultery or theft themselves, but they were pleased to nurture relationships with such people, to have them as friends. Then they got puffed up with pride that they were not judgmental; they were tolerant. See how open-minded they were?  

Oy vey.

God knew their hearts. And He knows our hearts. God knows when people secretly enjoy hearing stories of greed or sexual sin. In our day, this would include watching movies with graphic sex scenes. These are not the images that will edify us and inspire us to work for His kingdom.  

In verses nineteen and twenty, we see that the hypocrites also engaged in deception, and even in slander. They had no limits, apparently, even slandering and lying about close family members. (Oh, does this sound familiar to what is happening in our world today? Yep.) It's amazing to see how professing Christians will engage in "sins of the tongue" without a single regret or a twinge of conscience. Oh, yes, they are familiar with the many verses in scripture that forbid gossip, slander, and lying - but that doesn't seem to faze them.

Verse twenty-one is a doozy.  This probably brought many of these hypocrite believers to their knees in repentance. It should give all of us a pause for serious thought . . . .

God says, "You have done these things and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you." BOOM! These people mistook God's patience for His approval of their evil deeds. They must have thought that God was a "good ole boy" just like them . . . since He had not yet judged them, He must not mind a dirty joke or two. He must not be upset if they listened to tales of greed and corruption, and clapped the thieves on the back in approval. He must understand that we all have to tell lies once in a while.  Since their "god" was just like they were, they could go on living in sin, just like they had been doing.

We humans are prone to invent God in our own image - that way we don't have to deal with our sins.  It's safe to say that if our "god" is just like we are, then he is NOT the God of the Bible!!

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
         Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
         So are My ways higher than your ways
         And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)

God is holy. He is patient. And in the close of the psalm, He gives a final appeal to both groups.

Pride or praise, part II

Today, we are continuing our study of worship, and looking at the question of ritualism in worship. We noticed yesterday that rituals tend to make us humans think that we deserve some credit - after all, look at what we've done to deserve a pat on the head!

But Asaph, our songwriter in Psalm 50, says that heartfelt worship involves thanksgiving, faithfulness, and dependence on God. Empty ritualism scoots out the door when we apply verses fourteen and fifteen to our daily lives:

“Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

fulfill your vows to the Most High,

and call on me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (v 14-15)

Asaph is telling us that true worship of our Almighty Father begins with thankfulness and prayer. Thanksgiving acknowledges that God has given us every single blessing BY HIS GRACE. Not because we deserve them!

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10)

To thank Him genuinely, we must be in submission to Him. We must trust Him. Especially if we are thanking Him in the midst of the battlefield. In the midst of trials.

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  (I Peter 1:6)

We also can't call out to Him in prayer if we are hiding sin in our heart. 

My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. (Jeremiah 16:17)

Asaph also writes, "pay your vows to the Most High." There are many examples in our Bible of people who made vows to God. Even today, people will get "between a rock and a hard place," and make a promise to God in an effort to be delivered. If we make a vow, or a promise to God, we need to be faithful to keep it!

Lastly, Asaph reminds the people who have slipped into ritualism that they are dependent upon God. That He will deliver, and that we must honor Him.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—

those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

those he gathered from the lands,

from east and west, from north and south. (Psalm 107:1-3)

We are finished with the first part of this courtroom drama; the Lord has spoken to those who have allowed their ritualistic worship to cool their relationship with Him. Next, we will hear Him speak to the hypocrites . . .

Pride or praise, part I

One of the problems of ritualism is that it inspires pride in ourselves, instead of praise to God. 

I thought it was pretty interesting that when I searched for an image to post for this study, many of the images for "proud" showed people pointing to themselves. That is very appropriate for our study here!

The Hebrews who were on trial here before God were extremely proud of their own generosity. They felt, after all, that they were really good people for offering up their bulls and their goats. God reminds them in this passage that He owns it all!

I have no need for a bull from your stall

or goats from your pens,

for every beast of the forest is Mine—

the cattle on a thousand hills. (Psalm 50:9-10, BSB)

They had forgotten that when they offered something to Him in sacrifice, it was possible because He had first given it to them. 

And He is not like the idols of the peoples who surround them: He doesn't need the offerings to sustain Himself.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof. (v. 12)

He owns the world and all it contains. People of the time who worshiped idols thought that when they offered them food, they appeased their hunger. Maybe the Hebrews were drifting toward this kind of thinking, because of the influence of idolaters around them. But God needs nothing from His creation - He existed in eternity just fine without any of us!

If we find ourselves taking pride in what WE have done, we need to watch out. If we take pride because we follow the biblical form of worship, or because we tithe our income, or because we haven't missed a service or Sunday School in years, then we are guilty of ritualism. Now, before someone gets in a swivet, as my grandma used to say, let me explain.  Certainly, we should seek to be biblical in our worship. We should give generously to God, while we remember and teach others that everything we have belongs to Him. We should be faithful in gathering with other believers if there is a congregation faithful to His Word nearby. But all of these should be done out of a reverent, grateful heart for all of God's grace and blessings. He owes us nothing - we are worthy of judgment - but He shows us mercy. True worship humbles us before God, instead of giving us a sense of pride.

What if we are performing religious rituals from the heart? Isn't that OK? In these verses, God does not condemn their sacrifices. After all, He established the sacrificial system. Instead, He is condemning sacrifices when their hearts were not right before Him.  As long as a person performs religious rituals with reverence, that's ok, right? That's proper?

Well, it's proper if these are rituals prescribed for us in the New Testament. The early church is described in our Bible.  Our New Testament, the new covenant with God, does not (for example) command us to kneel and pray the stations of the cross. It does not command us to light candles for the dead or to pray a rosary. These are traditions. As traditions, they can add reverence and depth to our thoughts and prepare us for worship. But these are, in fact, rituals that have been established by humans. 

Our New Testament DOES command us to be baptized, to observe communion, to read the Bible, pray, and sing - in public and private worship, too.

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

It's easy to allow these things to become empty rituals - and that is sin. It's easy to "go through the motions" instead of truly worshiping our Lord. 

The solution is not to stop doing these things. The solution is to fight against doing them ritualistically and instead, do them from a heart overflowing with gratitude toward God. Instead of the rituals giving us a sense of pride, our worship will humble us before Him.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

"But we've kept the sacrifices!"

Today, we are looking back at Psalm 50 and rejoining the trial which is already in progress.

7“Listen, my people, and I will speak;

I will testify against you, Israel:

I am God, your God.

8I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices

or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

9I have no need of a bull from your stall

or of goats from your pens,

10for every animal of the forest is mine,

and the cattle on a thousand hills.

11I know every bird in the mountains,

and the insects in the fields are mine.

12If I were hungry I would not tell you,

for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

13Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of goats?

14“Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

fulfill your vows to the Most High,

15and call on me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (Psalm 50:7-15)

Religion or relationship? Ritual or reverence?

Let's check this out . . . . . 

God speaks first to the people who had been diligent in keeping the prescribed sacrifices. They had been carefully selecting the correct animals and ensuring that they were blemish-free; they'd been careful to distribute what remained according to the Law. God told them He had no complaint with their outward compliance. On the outside, they were "doing everything right."

But.

Their hearts were not right before Him. They did not express thanks to God. They did not acknowledge His blessings. And they didn't make the connection between their rituals and their daily lives: when they were in trouble, they didn't call out to God in faith. Maybe they thought that God would deliver them because of their sacrifices -- so when He rescued them, they didn't say "thank you" but patted themselves on the back for keeping the rituals!

We humans have a tendency to fall into ritualism rather than maintain a close relationship with God. If our consciences bother us, we tell ourselves, "I did the ritual this week." (I expect that is what the accused in this trial said, too, "We kept the sacrifices!")  Other faiths often point the finger at the Roman Catholic churchgoers who attend Mass and Confession and "do penance," but don't live the rest of the week in a close walk with God. 

But don't all of us fall into our own forms of ritualism? We feel that things are ok between us and God because we've attended church regularly. Or last Sunday, we participated in communion. We may even feel especially spiritual because we were faithful to have our quiet time each day this week, or because we put our tithe plus more in the offering. We may serve on a committee at church or teach Sunday School . . . . things MUST be right between us and God, right? 

But wait.

At the same time, we are tolerating all sorts of sin in our thoughts. Or in our words. Or even in our deeds. So we must fight against our own tendency to fall into ritualism and leave behind our close relationship with God. God may be invisible to us as mortals, but He can be the most trusted, the most reliable, and the most loving reality in our lives!

But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)

Friday slowdown

God looks into our hearts.

He sees and knows us.

And He loves us.

Reverence, ritual, and real worship, Part II

The photo up there is of an earthly courtroom, but our psalm this week is speaking of a heavenly Judge. 

When you were in school, did you use Cliff Notes? I won't tell! Here's a Cliff Notes style summary of our psalm . . . 

In the first few verses of Psalm 50, God enters the courtroom, so to speak, and summons the heavens and the earth to the proceedings. In verses seven through fifteen, He speaks to His covenant people and tells them they have given a higher priority to fulfilling their sacrifices and rituals than they have to their relationship with Him. Next few verses? He speaks to the hypocrites who are violating His commands. In the final verses He speaks to both and gives them some instructions that will help us, too!

Let's dive in!

1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to where it sets.

2 From Zion, perfect in beauty,

God shines forth.

3 Our God comes

and will not be silent;

a fire devours before him,

and around him a tempest rages.

4 He summons the heavens above,

and the earth, that he may judge his people:

5 “Gather to me this consecrated people,

who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

6 And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,

for he is a God of justice.

I guess if we were to put a title on this, we could say, "Everyone will stand before God for judgment."

Wow! That first verse doesn't mess around, does it? We are face to face with our Almighty God. The scholars tell us that those three names for Him are very special and very significant. We see this distinction made in Joshua 22, also. 

"El" speaks of God as mighty. "Elohim" points to His work as the mighty Creator, the Sovereign of the universe. "Yahweh" is His name as the eternal, covenant God. It seems that the songwriter piled up all three names to impress us with the immenseness and the reverence of standing before God as judge.

I've only ever been in court once. I wasn't chosen as a juror and I was allowed to leave. But I can imagine it would be much scarier if I'd been accused of a serious crime! What if we were standing in front of many people and an angel spoke, "God will now hear the case of ____________." (Put your name there!) Where will this court be? The psalmist says "in Zion, the perfection of beauty." And he goes on to say that it's beautiful because God is there, in His shekinah glory -- in His holiness. What a day that will be when we are there!

I'm kinda guessing that the first time this psalm was sung, God's covenant people were probably thinking as they listened, "Yay! Finally God will judge all the wicked pagans!" I think that, because the prayer of verse three is for God to come and not keep silence. Judge those pagans and remove them so they are no longer a thorn in our side . . . . 

I expect they were surprised to hear that God was going to judge His people! He is going to judge them according to what they are supposed to be, "consecrated people." Consecrated means "set apart," and separate - for purity and holiness. God's standard of judgment is the righteousness, the holiness of God Himself. 

As believers, do we think often (or at all) about the fact that one day we will stand before Christ? Some will hear the awful words of Matthew 7:

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:23)

Some will watch in horror as everything they worked for vanishes in smoke:

12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (I Corinthians 3:12-13)

There will be some (and dear reader, I pray that you and I will be among them) who will hear the Lord say:

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Matthew 25:21)

The Bible tells us about the coming judgment; we must live daily in view of it. This coming week we will study more about that judgment and how we can trust the Holy Spirit to prepare us.