His Word Over the World

 

Thursday, March 4, 2021

The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul. 
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  
The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. 
The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.  They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold.  They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.  They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?  Cleanse me from these hidden faults.  Keep your servant from deliberate sins!  Don’t let them control me.  Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  Psalm 19:7-14

Like layers of blessing, the instructions, decrees, commandments, commands, and law of the Lord, bring reviving of the soul, wisdom, joy, and insight in daily living that is lasting, sweet, and a great reward for accepting them in word and deed, in heart and hand. 

God’s Word is the key to a life of blessing.  By contrast, disregarding God’s Word is a foolproof method for destroying a life.  Solomon, son of King David, author of this Psalm, spent a lifetime checking out this formula.  He tried virtually everything that promised happiness, fulfillment, and joy, apart from what God had decreed in His Word, and found every bit of it “vanity” or emptiness.

Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.  Ecclesiastes 1:8

Oddly, and sadly, despite a mountain of experience to the contrary, the world’s culture manages to convince itself that mankind knows better than God.  The result is chasing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.  In typical human arrogance we imagine there is some new way that will be better than obeying God’s ways.

It would be impossible in the space of this five-minute devotional to recount even a sampling of our incredible miscalculations in trying to make God and His Word obsolete, obscure, and unprofitable, but here are two front-burner examples:

Sexuality

God’s Word, decrees, laws, and just plain common, mathematical, logical, way is heterosexuality, within the relationship of marital fidelity.  When a Biblical approach to life[1], family, and sexuality are upheld, life is more on the joyful side than painful.  Read that:  less drama, more fulfillment.   

In contrast, the world’s way is anything goes, with sexual promiscuity and libido   (sexual desire) as the only judge of what is good or healthy.  To cut to the chase in the “results” department…the end of such is pretty much just plain heartbreak.

Politics

Of late, but not new, humans experiment with how to socially engineer community to create the next great world order.  In America that experiment occurs every 2 to 4 years; we call it democratic elections.  We choose who will govern us.  Truth be told we vacillate, wildly-so, between extremes.  In 2016 we elected Donald Trump; in 2020 it was Joe Biden.  Extremes between the left and right, both with enough personal baggage and agenda to keep the pundits happy and employed until the next go-round.

Cutting to the blunt and sane decree, command of God, our political flags ought to be run up this pole:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8

For You Today

This culture’s ways, or God’s ways…you just can’t have both.

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

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] A “Biblical approach” is not the media and atheistic caricatured version; it is marriage and family life which mutually undergirds the principles of love, with accountability to God.

Weaning - Maturity 101

 

Friday, July 10, 2020

Psalm 131:1-3

Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty.  I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp.  Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.  Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—now and always.

The simplicity of calmness is something less practiced than wished for.  And we are our own worst enemy in this more than not.  Today’s culture teaches us to be action junkies, with TV cameras unable to stay focused on a single view longer than 1 or 2 seconds, jumping here and there.  There is more Adult Attention Deficit Disorder than calmness, because excitement is, well, more exciting than calmness.  From roller coasters to sky diving, we want the next biggest rush, an app that promises a better game, a more shiny bauble, or most fun relationship.  When it comes to the entertainment industry, action movies, or anything fast-paced is much more likely to be a box office hit, than a documentary on the mating habits of snails.  Is it any wonder our heroes are more apt to be professional athletes, movie stars, or those who produce the glitter? 

It even invades the church.  A friend, who was pastor of a large church in Florida once confided that his main goal as this prominent church’s leader was to put a roof over their 19 acres.  If bigger was better, it was go large, fast, higher and wider, or go home.  It almost cost him his family and his health by the time he realized that his push for the top was digging the health of his body and soul into a pit.

A day hardly passes where I am free from the thought of how those involved in the push for higher, more, faster, riskier, or stronger, are rarely satisfied with anything.  And the end of it is, as Solomon found out, empty!

Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.  Ecclesiastes 1:8

When is it that we ever learn how to be quiet and calm…weaned off hype, mature?

The answer to that question is what the Psalmist found out; we are able to be content when our trust is in God, and we have agreed to be weaned, just like a child finally comes to peace with starting to eat on his own, rather than nurse.  It is the opposite direction from the Peter Pan syndrome, I won’t grow up, not me, no sir!

So, can you really do it…live in 2020, unplugged, unhurried, uncharged, and not unhinged by the hype?  I believe that is possible; it is possible only with an intentional step of faith, similar to the teamwork exercise, where one person stands in front of another, arms crossed, and then falls backward, trusting the other person to catch him.  

Truth be told, that feels like suicide, jumping off a cliff.  But it is one way to develop trust between peers (that is, IF the person behind does his job…otherwise, back to trusting only self).  In the calmess of soul we seek, no other human can provide that…it is only when we fall into the arms of God that real calmness of soul happens.

It’s called weaning off the hype of activity, by choosing to fall into the health of God’s loving embrace.  It really is a leap of faith.

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, if there is one thing every soul craves, it isn’t a higher high, or more dizzying ride, glitz, glamor, or gold…that is all the stuff our carnal nature craves.  As spiritual children, we need to be weaned from that.  What mature believers really crave is calmness within.  Help us to fall into Your arms, away from the drive for more stuff that is fading and empty.

For You Today

Sometimes…no….always, people who are reaching for that next brass ring, must fall flat on their face in their push for more.  It is part of the weaning process. 

If you, or someone you love, is being weaned, go on and hurt for them, pray for them, and trust for them, that God has this…maturity doesn’t come with time, it comes when we learn to fall into God’s arms when there’s nowhere else to fall.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Psalm 131 see Peter Pan Was Not a Christian