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I Delight to Do Your Will
Monday, October 09, 2023“I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart” Psalm 40:8. I just had a great contractor and friend from up north ask me to write a reference letter for him. Knowing this man’s incredible character and the work and volunteer efforts he has done in the over-twenty years that I have known him, I was happy to recommend him. When a company is looking to hire, they rely on a candidate’s resume, and it’s truthfulness is checked by the references that are listed. In this psalm, David paints a picture of a God who has helped him in the past and another of God helping him in the present. Because of God’s reliability, David can count on Him to help him going forward. That’s faith. God has preserved His resume in the pages of His Word, and many living today can also attest to His faithfulness in their lives. So, when we see that because of our unfaithfulness to Him that Christ is the One who fills this gap by coming to do His Father’s will, we can be sanctified by His sacrifice once and for all. Verses 6-8, which speak of another stepping fulfilling our faithful-ness, are fulfilled in Jesus’ work on the cross in Hebrews 10. Our victory is in the One who restores us to Him.
Make Me Know My End
Monday, October 02, 2023“O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” Psalm 39:4. Growing up just down the dirt road that ran past my grandfather’s farm, I watched him kill all kinds of varmints but especially snakes, and so I was surprised in my 20s to see him watch one slither away as he said that perhaps it will eat some mice. I think the older someone gets and the more experiences he has the more reflective he becomes about the fleeting nature of life, the prosperity of the wicked, and the seeming purposelessness of human life. I know I have over thirty years since my grandpa let one live. This seems to be where David is in this psalm. Younger people often don’t contemplate their mortality. My teenage son thought he was invincible until he sledded face-first into a tree. Yet, it is often the young who obey the gospel. David dwells on these things and recognizes that a healthy confrontation with his mortality draws him closer to God, in Whom he hopes. He wants to know the end of his days, understanding himself to be a sojourner in this life and that his time before he departs is best spent for God. Are you wise to know the measure of your days?
The Disciples Were First Called Christians
Monday, October 02, 2023“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians” Acts 11:26. It was no coincidence that God had opened the door for the gentiles at the same time that the Christians, scattered from Jerusalem because of the great persecution, preached the gospel wherever they went. This was all part of God’s plan to let all of mankind know that there was hope in overcoming sin and death. It was also part of His plan that the one largely responsible for the great persecution would also become the apostle to the gentiles and the one Barnabas would seek out and, with him, teach “a great many people” for a whole year at Antioch, where followers of Christ would go from being a sect of Judaism to their own brand, before being sent off on their first missionary journey. When we take a step back, we can see God’s plan at work, but He’s still in control today in His church and in the lives of His children. It may not have seemed that way to the persecuted Christians, and the future of the Lord’s church may seem bleak right now to us. But His plan is still unfolding.
Because I Follow After Good
Monday, September 25, 2023“But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good” Psalm 38:19-20. I grew up with Wile E. Coyote never ceasing his pursuit of Road Runner. Falling off cliffs or having the latest ACME order blow up in his face were not reasons for the predator to desist. Evil is relentless. This is David’s experience … and perhaps yours as well. As the Road Runners in this dark world, we look out at the Coyotes’ reckless hate that never stops and question how we can go on. But, if you remember from the cartoon, the Road Runner was never focused on he was the target. He just lived and survived, but instead of happenstance, followers of Christ survive because we trust in a good God’s intervention. Yes, the world will hate you just because you “follow after good,” but we are wise to adopt a Road Runner perspective in the way we allow the wickedness around us to affect us. To add in other animals to this illustration—we must be as shrewd about evil as serpents (not purposely walking into the traps like Road Runner often did) while being innocent as doves!
Can Anyone Withhold Water?
Monday, September 25, 2023“Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Acts 10:47. First, Peter had to be convinced to even go to the home of a gentile—even one that was as devout as Cornelius. God’s people had always been just the Jews. But even Jesus, knowing that the kingdom would soon be open to all by faith, was willing to go to another centurion’s house in Mark 8 but was kept from it by that soldier’s great faith. How the believers with Peter must have marvelled as the apostle shared the gospel with Cornelius and his household—and were even more surprised when the Spirit allowed them to speak in tongues and extol God! Already having used the keys of the kingdom to open the door of the church to the Jews in Acts 2, Peter now used them to admit the first gentiles eight chapters later, even remarking that they had received the Spirit of God “just as we have.” Notice, though, that this was only the second time that God chose to give His Spirit before baptism (stated here as the way in!). What about all the many conversions between Acts 2 and 10 who had only received the gift of the Holy Spirit when they were baptized?