The Hiding Place

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!  Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!  When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.  Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.  My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.                     Interlude  

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt.  I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”  And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.           Interlude  

Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time, that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.  For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble.  You surround me with songs of victory.       Interlude                                                                       Psalm 32:1-7[1]

The whole focus of the Lenten Season is confession and absolution.  The hinge pin on the door of forgiveness is a matter of willingness to confess our sins; without that, there is no hiding place for our sins. 

King David understood this fully.  As ruler over the most powerful nation on earth one would imagine David’s life was filled with parties, songs, and splendor; on the contrary, the king’s life was overrun with guilt and despair.  His vigor and appetite for life were evaporating like water in the summer heat.         

It is said that one of President Ronald Reagan’s favorite cartoons was the picture of a cowboy searching through a considerable pile of horse manure.  The caption has the cowboy thinking, there must be a pony in here somewhere.  To be sure, that places positive thinking on a whole new level of optimism.  But it is also a microcosm of a culture that seeks happiness anywhere, and in anything, but the source of all happiness and joy.  Life, as King David discovered, becomes a manure pile without hope of a pony when lived apart from a right relationship with God. 

The movie The Hiding Place chronicled the heroic effort of Corrie ten Boom and her family hiding Jews in the wall of their home in Germany during WWII.  This was a conscience-driven attempt to save their powerless, endangered neighbors. 

King David sought a hiding place for his sins by attempting to forget himself.  He covered his sins with lies and conspiracy.  In the end it was a manure pile of an existence.  His true hiding place was found in confession, laying out his sinful, dark ways before God in prayer.  When he finally confessed his sins, David found forgiveness.

For You Today

You don’t have to be a murderer, sexual predator, or bank robber to need forgiveness.  It can be as simple as stealing a paper clip, or a harsh word spoken.  God’s Word says we all need to confess our sins.

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

Title Image:  via Wikimedia Commons  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

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[1] For more posts on Psalm 32 see Better Than Guilt  and Oh, What Joy and Waiting in Pain and Old Brooms

Holding Tightly This Promise

[i][ii]

Monday, April 8, 2019

And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.  By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.  And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him.  For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.  Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.  Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.  And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.  Hebrews 10:19-25

As we move towards what I consider the most blessed time of the year, Holy Week, the passion of Christ, His triumphal entry, Good Friday, and culminating in Easter’s resurrection glory, we focus during this season of Lenten preparation on the blood of Christ, his sacrificial offering for the cleansing of our sins.

In Exodus 40 we read the elaborate instructions God gave to Moses for setting-up the tabernacle in the wilderness.  This detailed process was not to be varied, because each movement, and each article placed in the tent of meeting spoke a piece of God’s forgiveness, and His relationship with His special people.  In the ancient “temple mode” a consecrated priest would enter the most holy place and offer the sacrifice for sin once a year…every year!

In writing this letter to the Hebrews the author picks up this imagery and reminds us of the hope to which all disciples of Jesus Christ hold.  Once Jesus finished his work on the cross, it was he, the Lamb sacrificed from the beginning of the world, who would bring the sacrifice into the perfect Holy place, Heaven’s throne.  There, the forgiveness for sin was made complete forever.

The writer, having outlined God’s marvelous plan of redemption, the purging of sin and cleansing of our souls, then proceeds to tell us what to do with it, namely we are to embrace it…tightly!

Corrie ten Boom’s tragic life is chronicled in The Hiding Place.  Her family heroically protected Jewish people during WWII’s Hitler regime, only to wind up in concentration camps themselves.  This family held to their Christian faith seriously, laying everything on the line for the cause of protecting innocent lives.  In an interview I watched in the 1970’s Corrie talked about material things, as opposed to God’s spiritual promises.  I will never forget what she said:

I learned to hold material things loosely in my hands; if you hold them too tightly it hurts when God pries them out of your fingers.

These words are a wonderful reminder that the blood of Christ was not shed so we could possess money, power, or prestige.  Those are but passing wildflowers, bloom today – faded memories tomorrow.  That is also the case with sorrows, poverty, and shame – the world’s cruelty passes as quickly as its pleasures.

Holding tightly to something is reserved for that which is precious, vital for eternity.  There are many things in life to hold loosely, but there are also a few things to which we should refuse to let go, even with our life hanging in the balance…truth and fidelity are among these, and the chief reason is the promise of God, His love and care, displayed in sacrifice and resurrection.  The writer of Hebrews told us to keep meeting together in worship, focusing on this gift of Christ, encouraging one another with its’ meaning, provoking one another to good works in Christ’s name. 

For You Today

To what (or Whom) have you been holding tightly?

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

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[i] Title Image:   Pixabay.com

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©