When God is Your Whole World

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Friday, October 11, 2019

Praise the Lord!  I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with his godly people.  How amazing are the deeds of the Lord!  All who delight in him should ponder them.  Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty.  His righteousness never fails.  He causes us to remember his wonderful works.  How gracious and merciful is our Lord!  He gives food to those who fear him; he always remembers his covenant.  He has shown his great power to his people by giving them the lands of other nations.  All he does is just and good, and all his commandments are trustworthy.  They are forever true, to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.  He has paid a full ransom for his people.  He has guaranteed his covenant with them forever.  What a holy, awe-inspiring name he has!  Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.  All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.  Praise him forever!  Psalm 111:1-10

The amazement, wonder, awe, and gratitude for and to God flowing from the Psalmist’s pen are a sum of that in which my heart wants to lose itself.  I have lived long enough, and sinned big enough to know the vast difference between who is God and who is not.  And yet, my heart aspires to immerse all of who I am in God’s love, compassion, strength, and wisdom.  In short, I desire to desire Him more than anything.  I want to be (as Charles Wesley wrote), lost in wonder, love, and praise.[2]  Paradoxically, there also exists a side of me that fears to come that close; God is awesome, and His power is without measure.  Should God decide to not receive me with open arms, the mere thought of being in His presence immediately leaps to what terrible fate would become of a poor sinner like me.  (Toasted like a pop tart comes to mind!)

But God’s Word disagrees with that “toast” deduction.  Consider the evidence:

To a wicked culture that only paid lip service to being God’s people he said through the prophet Malachi: 

Return to me, and I will return to you.(Malachi 3:7)

Before David was king he was hounded by Saul, chased into the wilderness, living in caves, an outcast, man without a country.  David considered his experience and wrote: 

Taste and see that the Lord is good Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!(Psalm 34:8)

To His dull-minded disciples who just could never quite get it, Jesus said: 

…those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.(John 6:37)

To crowds listening Jesus offered:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.(Matthew 11:28-29)

And, to anyone who ever did choose to come close, on bended knee, willing to allow God to make Him their whole life, He said:

…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.(Hebrews 13:5 KJV)

For You Today

It’s never smart to approach God casually, as if there is some slight chance that you can take Him or leave Him.  But, when you’ve made up your mind that you’re long overdue in getting things straight between your Creator and you…remember all those invitations to come close; God loves you too much to go back on that word!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Charles Wesley, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling, The United Methodist Hymnal, (1989, UMC Publishing House, Nashville), 384

Rescue!

Friday – September 27, 2013

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.   Matthew 6:13 (KJV)

Writing something fresh every day isn’t as easy as it may seem.  Writing something fresh that can relate to just about anyone’s experience is next to impossible (for me).  What do you do with an empty page at 5am?

Of course you read the Scriptures – I use the Lectionary texts devotionally, and today the Lord’s Prayer spoke anew to me; especially the word “deliver”.  I looked it up and the newer translations’ use of “rescue” works very well.  The word pictures drawing as you would snatch something out of a river.  The act of drawing brings the rescued person rushing towards you like a raging river.  The picture above is Mary Chind’s Pulitzer prize-winning photo of a river rescue.

And so, at 5am I was thinking of the rescues in my life. 

have you ever been rescued?

·        I’ve been rescued Physically just like the river rescue (okay, it was a lake, and the canoe…well…I was a kid).   

·        I’ve been rescued Financially (too often to count). 

·        I’ve been rescued Emotionally (the ups and downs of life presume occasional rescue).

·        And I’ve been rescued Spiritually by the Christ who forgave (and forgives) all my sins.

The truth about spiritual, emotional, financial and even physical rescue is that it’s an ongoing divine project.  Delivering His children from evil (sins, moods, bills and rush hour traffic) fills our God’s Day-Timer™; talk about multi-tasking! 

It’s almost like the Father has all these toddlers running around all over the earth, and just when he rescues this half of the planets’ goofiness, the other side of the world is waking up to all sorts of trouble.  I’ve often thought the prayer would’ve been more accurate if it was deliver us from our “nincompooperies”!

Rescued FROM is always rescued TO

When you’re in the thick of it – problems up to your ears, a dangerous situation, or an unexpected dental bill – it’s easy to picture the rescue “from” that difficulty.  You can see and pray get me away from the evil driver in the other lane.

But what are you being rescued to?  If you believe the toddler image above, that we are rescued from this goof-up, only to rush headlong into another, you’ve got the human side of the equation.  But, from the Father’s side, He doesn’t rescue just so we can turn right back to the water.  The rescue, or “rushing” is towards Him; he rescues us from whatever evil to draw us close to His side.  He loves us that much!

Today – a three-step plan:

1.      Consider the rescues that have happened in your life.

2.      Give thanks.

3.      Repeat!

Part of that involves going to church this Sunday.  

See you at Dad’s house.