short but sweet

In its entirety, Psalm 117 reads,

Praise the Lord, all nations!

Extol him, all peoples!

For great is his steadfast love towards us,

And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

At first glance it simply seems like a song of praise to God, which it is. Upon closer look, it reveals a good deal about God in only four sentences.

Today, God's name is praised by all nations. No, nations as a whole are not declaring His praise, but representatives from all nations are. Through Christ, God opened the doors of salvation to all nations. And we can travel to India, Africa, China, Iraq, and everywhere else to find all nations praising Him.

Today, God is being extolled by all peoples. No, all people are not extolling Him, and God's Word never suggests all people will in a saving means (but all will bow eventually when they see Him). But just like the nations, every people group is represented in praising God's name. Every race and ethnicity extol Him because in Christ these things don't matter. He burst through those doors declaring God's salvation open to all who come to Him through Christ.

God's steadfast love refers to His covenant love for His people. And it is great! His covenant love resides with Christ who lived as a man, died on the cross, and rose again. He lived the perfect life making Him the perfect sacrifice. His death on the cross satisfied the wrath of God, paying the penalty of sin, therefore enabling us to be reconciled to the Father. His resurrection gives us new life now to live for Him by the power of the Spirit, while giving us hope of the life to come. This love does not end nor is it based on our performance. Its rests in God's grace poured out on us.

God's faithfulness endured generations before (see Israel) and will continue in the generations ahead. He declared salvation for all coming through the Jews thousands of years before Christ came. When Israel seemed to fail again and again, God remained faithful to His promise. In God's perfect timing, Christ came demonstrating the unwavering faithfulness of God. In Christ we share in the same faithfulness. Though we fail again and again, God's promises hold true. We receive forgiveness, mercy, and grace because He is faithful. He will never leave or forsake. In his timing, He will bring those in Christ to Himself to dwell with Him for all eternity.

Praise the Lord!

adequacy

From J.I. Packer in Knowing God,

In other words, the first commandment God told Israel to serve him exclusively, not only because they owed it to him, but also because he was worthy of their entire and exclusive trust. They were to bow to his absolute authority over them on the basis of confidence in his complete adequacy for them. And, clearly, these two things needed to go together; for they could hardly have been wholehearted in serving him to the exclusion of other gods if they had doubted his all sufficiency to provide whatever they might need... (p. 268, emphasis mine).

...We are afraid of the consequences of going the whole way into the Christian life. We shrink from accepting burdens of responsibility for others because we fear we should not have the strength to bear them. We shrink from accepting a way of life in which we forfeit material security because we are afraid of being left stranded. We shrink from being meek because we are afraid that if we do not stand up for ourselves we shall be trodden down and victimized, and end up among life's casualties and failures. We shrink from breaking with social conventions in order to serve Christ because we fear that if we did, the established structure of our life would collapse all around us, leaving us without footing anywhere.

It is these half-conscious fears, this dread of insecurity, rather than any deliberate refusal to face the cost of following Christ, which makes us hold back. We feel that the risks of out-and-out discipleship are too great for us to take. In other words, we are not persuaded of the adequacy of God to provide for all the needs of those who launch out wholeheartedly on the deep sea of unconventional living in obedience to the call of Christ. Therefore, we feel obliged to break the first commandment just a little, by withdrawing a certain amount of our time and energy from serving God in order to serve mammon. This, at bottom, seems to be what is wrong with us. We are afraid to go all the way in accepting the authority of God, because of our secret uncertainty as to his adequacy to look after us if we do.

Now let us call a spade a spade. The name of the game we are playing is unbelief (pp.269-270, emphasis mine).

none but Jesus

In the quiet in the stillness

I know that You are God

In the secret of Your presence

I know there I am restored

When You call I won't refuse

Each new day again I'll choose

There is no one else for me

None but Jesus

Crucified to set me free

Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos and confusion

I know You're sovereign still

In the moment of my weakness

You give me grace to do Your will

So when You call I won't delay

This my song through all my days

There is no one else for me

None but Jesus

Crucified to set me free

Now I live to bring Him praise

All my delight is in You, Lord

All of my hope, all of my strength

All my delight is in You, Lord, forevermore

There is no one else for me

None but Jesus

Crucified to set me free

Now I live to bring Him praise

~None But Jesus, Hillsong

come

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;

And he who has no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,

and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;

and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

~Isaiah 55:1-3

normal

Our church is hosting an event from the 22nd-25th. It is called The Thirst Conference. Each evening we will gather together for worship, teaching, and drinking richly from God's Spirit. The purpose of the conference is to expose the many things we hunger and thirst after instead of God. We like to convince ourselves we're aren't as bad off as we actually are. In general, we take ourselves way too seriously while not taking God seriously enough. We put God wherever we can fit Him on our priority list. We run to all sorts of broken cisterns (Jeremiah 2:13) hoping they will satisfy our longings and desires when they repeatedly fail to hold anything. We mar the beauty of the gospel in our attempts to use God for our glory. We do enough of what we think we should (read, pray, attend church, serve, etc.) thinking it somehow obligates God to bless us. We are Israel thousands of years later.

I struggled with this mightily upon my return from India. Eventually it subsided as I allowed myself to be swept away in the current of the mundane. Recently God has been showing me my drifting back into the land of the sleeping and/or dead. With all my heart, I want to be as far from that place as possible. And I believe God's Word shows us the only way to avoid it is to hunger and thirst after God alone.

My sister's blog is called Fig Tree Freedom. She altered her design a bit recently, and I reread her original purpose for the blog. As she says, Jesus came to curse the normal. My life is normal. I am as much distracted by the drifting currents of this world as any unbeliever. I am a fig tree not producing figs in the off-season. My goals echo the goals of every other human being, except I claim a hope when all is said and done. That is not my calling. We are not called to live like every one else, but be different from everyone else because of the hope we have in Christ. Christ saved me from the world in order to live against the world for the sake of the world.

If you are in the area over the course of next week I encourage you to come out to the conference. Join a local gathering of God's people desperate for His Spirit to pull us out of normality and into transformed living for the glory of His name.

I am going to use this week to allow God's Word to flood me with truths about my need to thirst and long for Him. I should be doing it each and every day, and I pray it will take root in my heart.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

~Psalm 84:1-2, 10

Now what is normal about that?

healing faith (take 2)

I originally wrote something like this last week, but the blogger system went done for the evening leaving my work unsaved. I thought about putting off my re-post until another time, but the morning's service convinced me otherwise. The time of worship showed me my need of more and more healing for the many ailments facing me, all of them my own doing.

While some sort of physical healing is a need for many (even I am still working through a significant ankle sprain nearly 4 weeks ago), true healing is needed in the heart. And this is the target God has been aiming His Word at in recent weeks. It hasn't been wonderfully sweet or welcomed either. I have been feeling bombarded and overwhelmed by the light of His truth shining into the deep recesses of my own heart. It's been uncomfortable to watch unknown sins rise to the surface. It's been far more humiliating to see the ones I know full well are present hanging around and making a home. I acknowledge I am a wretched man (Romans 7:24) and the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15) as I look into the idol factory that is my heart. It gets distracted by so many trivial things exalting them to places where God alone should be.

Surprisingly God has not been using directly corrective verses and/or passages to work over my heart. It's actually been stories of healing which have weighed heavily on my heart. They tell of God's goodness as well as my lacking faith to receive His healing. God has been continually bringing me back to the book of Mark.

I studied the book a few months back, and I am learning it wasn't an accident. Like most of the gospels, it is littered with stories of Christ's healing power. However, Mark seems to say a lot more about those seeking healing than the other gospels do. And these accounts are what God is using to restore me. Look at how many times the following phrases and/or concepts are spoken by/about those in need of healing:

• came to Him (1:40; 2:3; 3:8; 5:22, 27, 33; 6:55; 7:25, 32; 8:22; 9:15; 10:13, 50; 14:3)
• cried out/save/help/heal (1:40; 5:23, 33; 7:26; 8:22; 9:22, 24; 10:47, 48, 51)
• your faith has healed you/because of your faith/saw their faith/believe (2:5; 5:34, 36; 7:29; 9:23-24; 10:52)
• Bartimaeus, the blind man, in 10:46-52 is especially noteworthy. This man hears Jesus passing by, cries out, gets rebuked by the crowd, cries out even louder, sprints to Jesus, pleads for mercy and healing, receives what he desires, and is commended by Jesus for his faith.

In nearly each case of healing, the focus is on the actions of the sick and needy. They didn't sit around and wait for something to happen. They sought after, asked for, and had faith in the healing power of Christ. Their actions can easily be summed up by saying they knew who they believed in. By seeking Christ, they declared their faith in the One who could heal. By asking Christ, they declared their faith in His mercy and compassion for them. All this culminated in Christ healing them. He was glorified in their requests and even more glorified by healing them.

I tend to treat healing like surgery. I want God to put me under, do the work, and wake me up when everything is all finished. The wonderful folks in Mark demonstrate healing does not come by lying on my back, but by going and doing. I need to be seeking after God through His Word and prayer. I need to swallow my pride and ask for the healing I need instead of waiting for God to show it to me. I need to have faith that with God all things truly are possible. Clearly He is the only One who can heal, but am I willing to believe it and act upon my belief?

Hillsong sings a song called Healer which God has used as complimentary material for my healing. It declares God to be the One who heals and our need to believe in His ability to do so. I've listened to it hundreds of times, but just recently started listening to what it says.

[Chorus] I believe You're my healer

I believe You are all I need

I believe You're my portion

I believe You're more than enough for me

Jesus, You all I need

[Interlude] For nothing is impossible for You

Nothing is impossible

Nothing is impossible for You

You hold my world in Your hands

Friday the 13th

Yesterday I wrote a post centered on healing. Like all human beings, I am in desperate need of it. My nature is sick and twisted, and I have no power within myself to do anything about it. Christ is my only hope and means of healing. Unfortunately, the blogger crashed (or something similar) taking my post with it. I may rehash it at some point, but not today.

People like to make a big deal about Friday and the 13th day of the month meeting together. The sixth graders I have been subbing for over the past few weeks were no exception. They came in making all the jokes about what might possibly happen given the nature of the day. I found it a good time to remind them, and myself, what God says about how luck holds up against Him.

So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45:8

"Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Genesis 50:19-20

There is no such thing as bad luck. If anyone could have declared it to exist, Joseph would the man. He was beat up by his brothers, sold into slavery, seduced and then accused of adultery by his master's wife, falsely imprisoned, and forgotten about for two years. Our culture would say he was "unlucky." Instead, Joseph understood his seeming misfortune as God's means of bringing about blessing. God was allowing all these things to happen for His will to be done. And Joseph knew God's will desired the glory of His name and the good of His people.

God has not changed from then to now. He still allows things such as calamity and chaos to affect our lives. He designs these to bring about His purposes. We don't have to play around with silly myths and practices to keep off the "bad luck." For whatever God has planned with come to fruition. But we can rest assured, His glory will come about as a result, and we will be blessed.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:16-17

Likewise, there is no such things as good luck. All the good we experience in our lives is a gift from God, whether we realize it or not. Both believers and unbelievers experience the goodness of God every day of their lives. It doesn't come down to karma, luck, or whatever else we may try to give the credit to. It's all because the God of the universe is a gracious God who pours out blessings on all His creation regardless of whether or not they deserve it.

Therefore we can rejoice in this day. It is just like every other day: created by God for His glory. Everything will happen according to His will, which His Word tells us is good, perfect, and pleasing.