In our holiness let there be JOY

TODAY

“You love what is right and hate what is wrong.  Therefore God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”

This was said of Jesus, which suggests to me that the holiest of people should be the most joyful of people.  This is God’s design, but it has not always seemed true in my experience.

The church tradition I grew up in was big on a form of ‘holiness’ that did not often exude joy.  Austerity, conformity, and a forced piety overshadowed our bouts of joyful singing and marching ’round the auditorium.  A long list of taboos kept pleasure in check.  And the saints who testified most loudly to their ‘sanctification’ were some of the least inviting people to be around.  Pride makes poor company.  So it has been a lifetime dawning on me that holiness is truly a BEAUTIFUL attribute.  God is beautiful. His work is beautiful.  His designs for us are beautiful. And He is the essence of HOLY!

… Lift up a present, and come before Him. Bow yourselves to Jehovah, in the beauty of holiness.

The Old Testament, with its intense array of laws governing all of life, might seem to affirm a kill-joy view of holiness.  But David didn’t see it that way! “Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found.”   God’s laws did make His people stand out in territory surrounded by idol worship and lawless paganism, but they were not arbitrary stipulations meant to thwart pleasure.  Rather His commands are more like guardrails on a mountain highway–not for looks, but to prevent a dive over the deadly precipice.  Sin is that precipice. It maims and destroys the design of holiness for which we are intended.  It pulls us away from our source of Joy and sets us off in hot pursuit of dead-ends and cliff edges.   

“If your law hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. I will never forget your commandments, for you have used them to restore my joy and health.

Still, I am surprised when I bump into joy in the Old Testament right in the middle of talk of tithing and law-keeping. Consider God’s instruction to His people regarding the use of their tithe money:

When you arrive, use the money to buy anything you want—an ox, a sheep, some wine, or beer.  Then feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and celebrate with your household.

Sounds like a party to me!

And this was Nehemiah’s counsel to people overwhelmed at their failure to keep God’s laws:

And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared. This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!“

I can only conclude that God means for His people to know JOY, and the closer we get to His ideals for us (holiness), the more we will know that joy.  It won’t be found in buckling down to ‘keep the rules’…

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

But He will produce it in us as we walk by His Spirit in the counsel of His Word.

But the fruit of the Spirit is…joy…

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

Beware of counterfeits. Holiness is beautiful, not odious.  Its by-product will be joy!

For the LORD God is our light and protector.  He gives us grace and glory.  No good thing will the LORD withhold from those who do what is right.  O LORD Almighty happy are those who trust in you.

Heb.1:9 NLT; I Chron.16:29 YLT; Ps.119:35 NLT; Ps.119:92,93 NLT; Deut.14:26 NLT; Neh 8:10 NLT; Rom.14:17 ESV; Gal 5:22 ESV; I Thess.1:6 ESV; Ps.84:11,12 NLT

—LS

But I’m afraid to surrender!

LOVE IT!, TODAY

I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his people, his faithful ones.  But let them not return to their foolish ways—Serve only the LORD your God and fear him alone.  Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him.

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.  But now in these final days, he has spoken to us through His Son— Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light. 

And we are God’s household, if we keep up our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.  That is why the Holy Spirit says, “Today you must listen to His voice. Don’t harden your hearts against Him as Israel did when they rebelled.” 

For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ…there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. For all who enter into God’s rest will find rest from their labours, just as God rested after creating the world. 

Ps.85:8NLT; Deut.13:4NLT; Heb.1:1,2NLT; Matt.11:28,30NLT; Heb.3:6-8NLT; Heb.3:14;4:9,10NLT

 

God speaks peace to His people. He offers an easy yoke.  He calls us to trust Him in everything and so to find rest for our souls.  Do I walk in this rest? Or am I driven by fears and insecurities to grasp for control of as many factors as I can so that I can secure my best life now?  These thoughts challenge me as I put myself in Jeremiah’s shoes.  I’ve been reading through his book at a snail’s pace lately and I find we have this in common–he too found great delight in God’s Words.

But I also see how much he suffered on account of these words!  His delight went beyond the comforting lines to a hard obedience.  He was called to repeat God’s message when noone wanted to hear it and this mission brought him to death’s door.  Chapter thirty-eight of his story finds him sunk in mud at the bottom of a cistern in the middle of a city about to be decimated by war, famine and disease. He knows this judgment to be coming because God has said so.  But there is nothing he can do to preserve his own life; he cannot flee the city or surrender to the Babylonians.  He must rest his own case with God. I see in him a soul rest I find enviable.

Two men walk into the story at this point, demonstrating for us the consequences of trusting or rejecting what God has said, even when we are terrified of what’s going to happen next.

Both hear Jeremiah’s message from God:

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life. They will live!’ Jer.38:2NLT

And both men are terrified at its prospects.  But each responds differently and this makes all the difference in what comes next for each of them.

King Zedekiah, on the one hand, calls a private meeting with Jeremiah to verify what the Lord has to say about his predicament.  He has been appointed king in Jerusalem by the Babylonian king, in exchange for his loyalty.  But he is loathe to surrender without a fight.  Surely God will not let His beloved Jerusalem be sacked by the wicked Babylonians?! Zedekiah listens carefully to God’s words via Jeremiah:

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground.'” Jer.38:17-18

But his pride and his fear cause him to harden his heart against turning to the LORD and following His counsel.  He responds:

“But I am afraid to surrender, for the Babylonians may hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me!” Jer.38:19NLT

His own fears of ‘what if’ make him deaf to God’s promise of life.  He refuses to believe Jeremiah’s reassurance:

You won’t be handed over to them if you choose to obey the LORD.  Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you. Jer.38:20 NLT

Instead, by his own choice, all does NOT go well for him. His life concludes in cruel exile—his eyes gouged out after witnessing the murder of his own sons and nobles. In rejecting God’s Word Zedekiah forfeited the mercies of God extended to him. He trusted in his own stategies for well-being and reaped the results.

But among Zedekiah’s frightened palace officials there was a man who refused to act out of fear. When all the rest of the officials were intent on Jeremiah’s death, Ebed-melech stepped forward and pled for his life.  He personally saw to Jeremiah’s merciful rescue from the Pit of YUCHHK!  Despite his horror at the prospect of Babylon’s onslaught, he honored God’s Word by protecting His servant, risking the king’s wrath being turned on him.

And God sent him this personal message:

“I will do to this city everything I have threatened.  I will send disaster, not prosperity.  You will see its destruction, but I will rescue you from those you fear so much.  Because you trusted me, I will preserve your life and keep you safe.  I, the LORD, have spoken!”

I love that!  God saw Ebed-melech’s fear.  He also saw his brave rescue of Jeremiah.  And for his faithfulness God preserved his life when others were slaughtered.  He showed Himself to be the only King worth fearing, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in whose service we can confidently live all our days, resting our souls with Him.

Incidentally, do you know what happened to Jeremiah when Jerusalem was sacked and its occupants carried off into exile?  Special orders had been given by the King of Babylon to keep an eye out for Jeremiah and to protect his life.  When the Captain of the Gaurd found him chained with the other exiles he let him free and invited him to come along and be well cared for or to stay behind with the poor remnant in Judah, his choice!

“The whole land is before you–go wherever you like.”

David’s testimony could well have been his:

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.  The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.  Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. Ps.116:5-7ESV

Having delighted in God’s word and feared God alone, Jeremiah found rest for his soul in very difficult times.  He had learned the lesson of his predecessor:

“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. Is. 8:12-13 ESV

By God’s grace, I want this to be my testimony, the key to my strength and stability in tough times.  May my delight in God’s Word go beyond comfort to obedience even when fears threaten to dissuade me.  This is my hope and prayer.

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling… Is.30:15 ESV

This I know, that God is for me.  In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me? Ps.56:9-11

–LS

You can read this story of Jeremiah and the fall of Jerusalem for yourself in
Jeremiah 38,39 & 52 and in II Kings 24,25 and II Chronicles 36.

Follow HIS Heart

TODAY

Do not let your heart turn away from the LORD to worship other gods.

There it jumped out at me.  The human heart is not something to follow, but to chaperone!  It can not be trusted to take a person in the right direction, until it has been captured by the greatest of Loves.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And only that Love can keep it in the way of life!

Show love to the LORD your God by walking in his ways and clinging to him.

Admittedly I’m not capable of loving God without His intervention.  We only love Him because He first loved us. But I can come acknowledging my ways are wrong and His right.  He delights to rescue the humble.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. … The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

For His own glory’s sake He rescues us from our duplicitous hearts and grants us hearts bent on loving Him. And as we love Him we delight to obey Him, and as we obey Him we are brought into the life we could never find by ‘following our hearts’.  This is  the everlasting kind of life we were designed to live from before the foundation of the world.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

So the next time you (and I!) are prompted to just ‘follow your heart’, to do what seems best for you, think again.  What might it look like instead to deny yourself, to take up your cross, and to follow God’s heart as He’s shown it in His Word?  This is the challenge I’m considering today.  Thanks for joining me.

–LS

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.

Deut.11:16NLT; Deut.6:5 ESV; Deut.11:22; Ps. 51:9-10, 17 ESV; Ez. 36:25-27 ESV; I Jn.5:3-4 ESV

P.S. I’ve been reading G.K. Chesterton’s ORTHODOXY and considering his thoughts on self-confidence.  This is so closely related to following your heart that you might be interested to read it also at my Book Quotes and Notes site.

G.K. on “The Sin of Self-Confidence”

To His Name belongs all the Glory

TODAY

O God… I am not worthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love you have shown to me, your servant.

Don’t say to yourselves, “The LORD has given us this land because we are so righteous!” No…it is not at all because you are such righteous, upright people that you are about to occupy their land…I will say it again: The LORD your God is not giving you this good land because you are righteous, for you are not–you are a stubborn people.

Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God Almighty. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.

I will cleanse away their sins against me, and I will forgive all their sins of rebellion. Then this city will bring me joy, glory, and honour before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see the good I do for my people and will tremble with awe!—And their motto will be “The LORD is our righteousness!”
And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is my blood, poured out for many, sealing the covenant between God and his people.”—He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right.
Sing praises to God, our strength!—Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness—May He be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever through endless ages. Amen.
Gen.32:10NLT; Deut.9:4,5,6NLT; Ps.80:19NLT; Jer.33:9,16NLT; Mark 14:23,24NLT; Titus 2:14NLT; Ps.81:1NLT; Ps.115:1NLT; Eph.3:21NLT

All we are and all we have and all that we enjoy is from God, not because we are so incredible, but because He is! Lest we mistake ourselves as being the center of the universe, Scripture reminds us from start to finish that all of the credit for anything we have is God’s, for His great glory. This is the tesimony of the church that will bring Him praise through all eternity–God is great and we belong to Him!

A counter-cultural Love

TODAY

“You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times.  For people will love only themselves and their money…scoffing at God”
II Tim.3:1,2 NLT

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this:  ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’  Mark 12:29-31 NLT

It’s not natural, this requirement of loving God and loving others.  It’s not even possible apart from the Spirit’s work in us. Unless we are rooted and grounded in the love of God displayed for us in Christ, it will never seem safe or smart to stop spending our life energies to serve our own interests, amass stuff, and look out for the wrong ‘number one’.

But thanks be to God, He has better intentions for us than we have for ourselves. He knows that when we love Him best and most we will find the Life we were intended to have from the Creation of the world.  And He is willing and able to incline our hearts to that end.

I will never stop doing good for them.  I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. Jer.32:40 NLT

For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God.  Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure….It was simply because the LORD loves you, and because he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors…Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. Deut.7:6,8,9 NLT

Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life… Deut. 30:19-20 NIV

Last night in our women’s Bible study we read and re-read Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers, these ones to whom he longed to make known ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ.’  He prayed that God would grant them an understanding of the unfathomable depths of His love for them so that they might be filled up ‘with all the fullness of God’.

What rationale for self-interest is left with a love like this at work on me?  And as for loving money and all that it can buy me, why?  Being loved by the Supreme Ruler and Owner of everything makes that notion laughable too.

Still, it is difficult to rise above cultural norms and see myself as expendable for God’s purposes without an instinctive self-preservation kicking in. I admire Paul’s testimony: “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.  (Acts 20:24 NKJV)

And though I still cringe to read verses like this, because I see myself as falling so short of their ideals:

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me (Jn.12:25-26 NIV)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (I Jn. 3:16 NIV)

By faith, I keep reading them and trusting that the God who loves me and is committed to my good will do for me far beyond anything I can ask or imagine, including the fulfilling of these verses in my life!

And as He does for you and me what only He can do, our lives will shine with a love that is inexplicable apart from Him.  Our lives will declare His glory.

–LS

Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. (Ps. 143:8 NIV)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  (Eph. 3:20-21 ESV)