THE GREATEST WEDDING EVER

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.

Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility and justice; let your right hand achieve awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad. Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house. Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. The city of Tyre will come with a gift, people of wealth will seek your favor. All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions follow her — those brought to be with her. Led in with joy and gladness, they enter the palace of the king.

Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land.

I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

Psalm 45

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As you read through the psalms, there are only a few that aren’t attributed to David. The 45th Psalm is one of them.  

Instead of regarding David, the psalm is described as this:

For the director of music. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of the Sons of Korah. A maskil. A wedding song.

At its core, the psalm is a wedding song, a song of celebration for a king and his new bride. Let’s look at the passage:

My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

You are the most excellent of men and your lips have been anointed with grace, since God has blessed you forever.

Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility and justice; let your right hand achieve awesome deeds. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies; let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad. Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

Listen, daughter, and pay careful attention: Forget your people and your father’s house. Let the king be enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. The city of Tyre will come with a gift, people of wealth will seek your favor. All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions follow her — those brought to be with her. Led in with joy and gladness, they enter the palace of the king.

Your sons will take the place of your fathers; you will make them princes throughout the land.

I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

The first part of the psalm is a celebration of the king. What do we know about him? Consider the following:

1. He is the most excellent of men.

2. His lips are anointed with grace.

3. He is blessed by God forever.

4. His throne, the throne established by God, will last forever.

5. God has set him above his companions and anointed him.

The king had everything going for him with God ever by his side and so the people exhorted him to:

1. Clothe himself with splendor and majesty.

2. Ride forth victoriously in the cause of truth, humility, and justice.

3. Achieve awesome deeds, pierce the hearts of the enemy with arrows, and defeat the nations placing them under his feet.

Truly, the king was revered and respected by his subjects. So was the bride as the psalm goes on to sing her praises. She is viewed as:

1. Beautiful.

2. Glorious within her chamber.

She enters into the palace with joy and gladness, adorned in a gown interwoven with gold. And the children she bears with the king will carry on the throne in the family name. Truly, the bride was blessed but she was no greater than the bridegroom. Nonetheless, the wedding was a time of great celebration as a new life began for king and his new queen.

Yes, we can visualize this wedding and see its splendor. But it will pale in comparison to a wedding yet to come, a wedding day that will be the greatest ever. Like this psalm, there will be a king as the bridegroom marrying his bride but the king in the greatest marriage ever will be no ordinary king. He will be the King of kings, Jesus the Christ.

And all those who place their faith and trust in Him will be His bride. Consider these words from the Gospel of John:

You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’

The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:28-30

The person speaking in this passage is none other than John the Baptist who is assuring the people that he is not the bridegroom. You’ll recall that people were coming to John as he was in the Jordan River, confessing their sins and receiving baptism (Matthew 3). But John wanted to make it clear then and he makes it clear here that he is not greater than Jesus, the predicted coming Messiah. In Matthew, John asserted that Jesus would come and baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire. From the passage above, John testifies that he is not the Messiah who is the bridegroom. Instead, he is the friend of the bridegroom, or the best man, who is sent ahead to prepare things for the wedding to come, the greatest wedding of all when Jesus the bridegroom takes all of His believers as His bride.

Imagine this for a moment. Those who have accepted Christ Jesus as their Savior have entered into an engagement with Jesus for a future wedding when there will never be bad times, only good. There will never be sickness, only health. There will be no poverty as we are lavished by the riches of the Kingdom. And unlike conventional weddings, where spouses are together until death they do part, this wedding will have no worry of life ending for we will live with our bridegroom Jesus forever and ever.

Are you going to be a part of this wedding? Have you accepted your invitation from Jesus and accepted His engagement offer?

If not, it’s not too late but don’t delay. Christ may return at any time and you don’t want to miss the greatest wedding ever. I hope to see you there.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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A BIPOLAR FAITH

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago. With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; You crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.

You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes. I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.

But now You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go out with our armies. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten You; we had not been false to Your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from Your path. But You crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; You covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord! Why do You sleep? Rouse Yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of Your unfailing love.

Psalm 44

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Are you bipolar in your faith?

I think we all are at one time or another.

By definition, the word bipolar means to be marked by two diametrically opposed natures. Applied to faith, it could simply mean that at times we have a faith that is strong and at other times, have no faith at all.

As I said, if we’re honest about ourselves and our lives, I think we can all relate to inconsistencies in our faith walk.

As we look at the 44th Psalm, we see the people of Israel struggling with a bipolar approach to their faith as well. Let’s see this in action and then consider what God has to say to us about His expectations concerning our faith in Him. Look at the words of this psalm:

We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago. With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; You crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.

You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes. I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.

But now You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go out with our armies. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten You; we had not been false to Your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from Your path. But You crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; You covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord! Why do You sleep? Rouse Yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of Your unfailing love.

The psalm starts out with a real feel-good attitude about it.

The people are proclaiming the good works of the Lord throughout the generations. Every victory gained by Israel was because of God’s might and power with them, not any action of man. It was God who rescued them from their foes out of His deep love for them. And the Israelites realized that the same God who had delivered and rescued the Israelite’s ancestors was the same God who was with them, helping them to victory and putting their enemies to shame.

If you only read the opening verses, you would think all was perfect for Israel. They even professed to boasting about the Lord all day long and vowed to praise His name forever.

But then an odd shift happens in the faith of the Israelites. They seem to lose it as powerfully as they once had it.

For right after they speak of how good God has been, not only to them but to their ancestors as well, we find the Israelites questioning God, whether He was even present in their circumstances and whether He was bringing judgment on them without justification. It constituted a radical shift in faith attitude and placed a spotlight on the bipolar nature of their trust in the Lord.

The God who had brought them to victory before when times were better was now the God who was rejecting and humbling them now, abandoning them in battle and giving them over to their enemies. The once mighty Israelites were relegated to being a “byword among the nations” who now sought to have their way with the people of God who looked helpless under the disgrace and shame they felt in defeat.

Why was all this happening to them? We sense the Israelites seeking answers. They viewed themselves as above reproach and yet saw their misfortune as an indication of God’s judgment upon them, a judgment they couldn’t understand. You could almost hear the people pleading, “God make yourself known to us again and help us? Can’t you see your people are in need? Where are you God?”

Maybe you have been in the same place as the people of Israel. Maybe you’re there today.

Perhaps you have lived in times of plenty in your life, times where you could see God moving in everything that was happening, abundantly blessed and highly favored. And perhaps you also have gone through times where God seemed absent and you wondered if He had deserted you when you needed Him the most.

The truth of the matter when we’re talking about faith is that it’s easy to be faithful when all is going well. Anyone can be faithful then. But what about when times are difficult? Isn’t it more challenging to maintain our trust in God when life’s difficulties are pressing down on us?

Friends, we must understand that the true refining of our faith comes when we must wait for God to act on our behalf, even if that means we endure some suffering in life. God never promised us that our lives would be trouble-free or that every day would be full of sunshine. Some days will be hard and trying. Sometimes we’ll find ourselves in darkness. It happens in life but we seem to be taken by surprise when it does instead of seeking the Lord and trusting Him even more when we’re going through tribulations, knowing and believing He is just as much with us then as He is when everything is going well. We need to learn to persevere through challenges by faith in the One who will always come to our rescue. Remember that Jesus suffered in the worst possible way for us and so to live the full Christian experience, to experience the things of Jesus, we need to expect that some suffering will be a part of that package.

And we can’t assume hardship falls on us just because we have wronged in some way. None of us are perfectly righteous so we fully deserve God’s wrath because of our sinful nature but God can send us into difficulty even if we were innocent. Sending us into trial to test and refine our faith doesn’t always indicate punitive measures. Often, it’s meant to be instructive as the Lord seeks to more fully grow the fruits of the Spirit within us.

A bipolar faith runs hot and cold. This isn’t the kind of faith God expects from us. Not even close. We simply cannot forget that the God who has been victorious over the ages on behalf of His people will continue to be victorious forever. Nothing or no one can ever triumph over Him. No circumstances are too great for Him to overcome but we must remember that God delivers us in His perfect time which typically is different from our expectations and longings.

It’s little wonder why the scriptures exhort us over and over again to wait on the Lord. We should embrace that call in faith and trust in the God who can and will do all things for us, the God who is with us, the God who loves and cares for us more than we’ll ever know.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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WHAT WE NEED IN THE DARKNESS

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked.

You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

Send me Your light and Your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise You with the lyre, O God, my God.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been left in the dark?

It can be tough as we try to find our way around with no light. We find ourselves unable to see, unable to safely get from one point to another, and unable to read anything. Ever try reading in a dark place? It doesn’t work too well.

Yes, being left in the dark isn’t fun. We don’t know how much we rely on light until it is gone. And once in the dark, we find ourselves longing for the light to return so we can see again and get things back to normal.

Up to this point, I have been talking about light from a physical perspective. But we can also find ourselves in the dark spiritually as well. Life has a way of bringing difficulties upon us that can seem to thrust us into dark places, places where we find it difficult to see light if we can even see it at all. Maybe you have been or are currently in one of these dark places in life. I know I have.

I remember well when my first marriage ended. I had been deceived and abandoned, left alone and without a family. All that I had in my life short of my career was gone. I was hurt beyond belief and the emotional pain I had to endure every day was maddening. It seemed like there was no light in my life. Only a deep darkness I couldn’t escape from.

I think David could relate to what I was feeling. He wasn’t faced with divorce but he certainly was up against plenty of terrible adversity in the way of opponents to his throne who wished him dead. We get a sense of David’s state of mind in the 43rd Psalm as he wrote:

Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked.

You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

Send me Your light and Your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise You with the lyre, O God, my God.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.

David was up against the deceitful and wicked who threatened him to the point of oppressing his spirit. In a state of mourning, David’s soul was downcast and disturbed. Everything was dark in his life.

But thanks be to God that David realized what he needed and shared it with us. He just didn’t cry out to God from his darkness and leave it at that. No, he asked God for light, not just any light but God’s light, the light that David knew could deliver him from his darkness and into God’s faithful care, to the place where God dwelled, to a place where David would praise and worship God.

Friends, we will find ourselves in dark times in life. It will happen. We’ll be oppressed by our circumstances and yearn for deliverance as David did.

And when we find ourselves there, we should follow David’s lead in this psalm and ask for the Lord to send us what we need most in the midst of our darkness. We should ask for Him to send us His light, the light that illuminates the path to His care - and to the rest and peace and comfort we can only find in His arms.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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GOOD QUESTION

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:3-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we think about life, we have to think about the God who made it all possible, the God who always does the impossible. This God made all that we know including every one of us. And this God loved us, the people He created, so much that He sacrificed His only Son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins and then offered us a chance to have eternal life. All we had to do was believe and trust in Jesus as our Savior.  

So with this, with knowing we have an omnipotent God on our side and a future eternal life ahead because of our belief in Jesus, why would we ever feel depressed about anything?

Good question.

But it happens doesn’t it? Maybe it has happened to you.

People know what they have in God and Christ and yet you could never tell there was an ounce of hope within them based on their attitude and life outlook. Often when this happens, you can’t tell the Christian from those who are truly hopeless, those who have decided to not accept the salvation invitation Jesus offers. It can and will happen to anyone if they’re not careful.

Look at David’s words in the 42nd Psalm. David was touted as a man after God’s own heart, thus was his faith and trust in his Maker. And yet look at these verses:

My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

David is fully opening up his heart and spilling out his feelings to his readers. And as we read what he wrote, we can see that he is confused as to why he is feeling the way he is. Do you not sense that? I mean, it was pretty obvious as he pondered:

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?”

Indeed, why was his soul downcast and disturbed?

Good question.

Why would he ever wonder if God had forgotten him?

Good question.

God had delivered David through so much and yet David questioned whether God had lost interest in him. He forgot that God had promised to never leave nor forsake His faithful ones. David forgot that God had worked greater miracles, much greater, than fixing the problems he was going through. He had lost faith in the only source of hope he had, in the Lord who directed His love to David every day and placed His song in David’s heart each night.

Yes, David allowed his life circumstances to take his focus away from the One who had been his help, was still his help, and would always be his help. And we are guilty of the same thing.

For although we know how much we have going for us, how abundantly blessed we are in the Lord, we opt to act as if we don’t have any hope when through Christ Jesus we have the perfect hope, a hope that will never fade or perish. We have everything going for us. And yet, we allow ourselves to be spiritually depressed like David. It makes me wonder:

Why we, like David, sometimes allow our tears to be our food day and night?

Why we, like David, sometimes find our souls downtrodden?

Why we, like David, feel forgotten or forsaken?

Good question.

Why do we end up like this? Because we lose sight of the Lord in our lives, the Lord who never turns away from us even though we might turn from Him. We forget, as the scriptures remind us, that the Lord directs His love to us during the day and places His song in our hearts at night. We forget that He never turns away from us, even when we turn away from Him.  

So how do we break out of the spiritual and emotional funk we can find ourselves in? How do we tear down the veil of despair that can cover our hearts and bring darkness where there once was light?

Good questions - and God has the answer in our scripture passage. Consider this exhortation:

“Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

The way out of our spiritual depression is as close to us as the noses on the fronts of our faces. It’s too easy.

For we need to only refocus on God and put our hope back in Him, the only One who is hope in our lives, the only One who can do all things for us, the One who has already blessed us in abundance.

Friends, something awesome happens when we do this. We find our way back to an attitude of praise, praise to our Savior and our God, the source of our hope, the source of everything we are, everything we have, and everything that will be in our future.

God is good all the time. His steadfast love for us endures forever. And a day is yet to come when all who placed their faith and trust in Jesus will find themselves living in the presence of God and Jesus forever, free from hurt, free from pain, free from sin, and free from despair and depression. We will be truly free to live and love forever. We can’t ever forget this.

For with this knowledge, why wouldn’t we live every day in joy?

Good question.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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A THIRSTY LONGING

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Psalm 42:1-2

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we go through life, we get to know a lot about our bodies, don’t we?

There’s almost like a language spoken, a different kind of “body language”, as we receive cues that indicate things that might be going wrong or things your body might need.

Try not eating for awhile. What happens? Doesn’t your stomach start to growl, sending a message to you to feed it? Mine does.

Or maybe your nose starts to run, you start to sneeze, and develop a slight cough. Does that not signal a cold coming on?

You stay up late at night watching something on television. You still have to be up early to go to work. As you wake up, you have a lot of trouble. You are groggy and yawning, something that continues through the work day as you increasingly feel more exhausted. Your body is trying to tell you that it needs more rest.

There are any number of other cues we get. I’m sure you could tell me of many more that could be added to this list. I’ll give you one more, one that I experience a lot.

For I don’t drink enough fluids sometimes. Most nutritionists would recommend we drink eight glasses of water a day. I don’t think I get there often enough. And when I work out, which I do regularly, it doesn’t take much for me to start to feel dehydrated, especially when I run three or four miles. My body is thirsting for the life sustaining quality of the water it needs to function.

Indeed, our bodies can’t survive without water anymore than our souls can survive without the Lord. As our bodies crave water, so too do our souls thirst for the Lord.

David emphasized this point as the 42nd Psalm opens. Look at his words:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

When a deer pants, they are feeling a desperate need for a drink. Their tongues will hang out and they will literally pant, gasping air. Such is the depth of their thirst.

David used this analogy, of a deer deeply craving a drink from a stream, to describe his soul’s yearning for the Lord, for the living God. In fact, his desire was so deep that he craved the day when he could not just thirst for the Lord but meet with Him.

These opening verses of the psalm challenge us. They cause us to consider how much we crave the Lord in our lives. Do we find our souls aching for the living God who sustains and saves us? Or do we take Him for granted, our souls hungering more for the world’s offerings than for the Lord’s?

Where do you stand today?

Fortunately, this isn’t the first place where we find the Bible talking about thirsting for the Lord or having our thirst quenched by living water from the lining God.

As Jesus provided His first public teaching during the Sermon on the Mount, He offered this as one of what is known as the Beatitudes (or as I refer to them, the “Be-Attitudes”, the ways that Jesus wants is to be):

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6

We hunger and thirst for the Lord because we long for His Spirit to live and abide within us. And so we seek His wisdom and guidance through His word and our prayers, and in return, we receive instruction as to how to live like Jesus, instruction on how to live in righteousness. Jesus said that He was the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6) and as we live more and more like He did, we will find ourselves living ever more in righteousness, filled to overflow by the Holy Spirit, the promised Counselor sent to us by Jesus.  Indeed, when we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, He will fill us and provide what we thirst for.

Jesus had more to say about the living water only He could bring. Look at this passage as He met a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well:

Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The woman thought at first Jesus was talking about water that sustained the body. She had no idea she was speaking to the only One she could be saved by, the gift of God, not just to her but to all mankind.

Jesus realized she did not know Him for who He was for she would have been talking about more than just mere water if she had.

And so Jesus made sure she understood who He was and what she could gain from coming into a personal relationship with Him. For the water that she and others drank out of Jacob’s well would only last until the body used it for its sustenance and then more water would be needed. One would have to continue to go back to the well time and time again to continue to have their thirst quenched. But when it came to the spiritual well being of those people, they needed more than just regular well water. They needed the living water that would well up into a spring that led to eternal life. Jesus didn’t just quench the thirst of those who sought righteousness. He saved them into eternal life.

Friends, have you had your thirsty longing quenched yet? Have you found the only true Fount of perpetual satisfaction, the only One who can satisfy the panting of our souls?

If so, then you daily enjoy the spiritual spring that Jesus provides within you, a spring that is ever running toward a life forever with Jesus, a spring that always quenches our deepest thirst for righteousness.

If you don’t have Jesus in your life, if you find yourself empty and spiritually dehydrated, know that today you can make the choice the Samaritan woman made and ask Jesus to give you His living water so that you might never need to draw water from any other source to satisfy your soul.

My prayer is that you will receive Him and never thirst again.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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WHO ARE THE WEAK?

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them — they are counted among the blessed in the land — He does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.

I said, “Have mercy on me, Lord; heal me, for I have sinned against You.” My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?” When one of them comes to see me, he speaks falsely, while his heart gathers slander; then he goes out and spreads it around.

All my enemies whisper together against me; they imagine the worst for me, saying, “A vile disease has afflicted him; he will never get up from the place where he lies.” Even my close friend, someone I trusted,
one who shared my bread, has turned against me.

But may you have mercy on me, Lord; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that You are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. Because of my integrity You uphold me and set me in Your presence forever.

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

Psalm 41

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As the 41st Psalm opens, we find David making the following assertion:

“Blessed are those who have regard for the weak.”

The message is clear. If you and I have regard for, that is if we have consideration and compassion for, the weak then we will be blessed by the Lord with benefits that include the following:

1. Deliverance from trouble.

“The Lord delivers them in times of trouble.”

2. Protection and preservation.

“The Lord protects and preserves them.” “He does not give them over to the desire of their foes.”

3. Viewed as being in the Lord’s favor.

“They are counted among the blessed in the land.”

4. Healing.

“The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.”

With all this from the truth of God’s word, we know that we have a lot to gain from caring from the weak. But God doesn’t want us to do good to those who are weak simply to receive His blessings. No, He wants us to regard the weak because He does and He wants us to shape our lives and attitudes to conform to His. We can do that when we allow Jesus Christ to live and abide in our hearts, the very Jesus who told us that when we do unto the least of those on earth, it was as if we were doing it unto Him (Matthew 25:35-40). Through Jesus, we will always be led to help the weak.

But who are the weak? Who do you view as weak?

Is it the person who is afflicted with a disease that has left them without strength to do what they used to do?

Is it the homeless person who lives an isolated life, sleeping wherever an open space allows and relying on handouts to eat and have the clothes on their backs?

Is it the smoker or alcoholic or drug addict who can’t seem to give up a bad habit?

Who is the weak? Everyone might have their own definition if asked. I can tell you mine.

For we all compose the weak. We‘re frail and fragile. We easily fall into sin and temptation. None of us can stand against the things of this world on our own strength. The Apostle Paul discovered the way to be content in any and all circumstances because he got this. He found out that the only way He could do all things was through Christ who strengthened him (Philippians 4:11-13) and delivered him from his weakness, the same Jesus Christ who has done and will continue to do likewise for the weak today.

Yes, we’re all weak. No one is immune from weakness and we all need care.

Thanks be to God that we have Him in our lives, our Great Caregiver who loves and nurtures us like no other. He is our very present help in times of trouble, our stronghold and protection through life’s storms, and our power when we feel powerless.

Yes, blessed are those who have regard for the weak but as we see in this devotion, the weak (i.e. all of us) are also blessed by the care they receive from the Lord.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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SEEING OURSELVES FOR WHO WE ARE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.

May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”, be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in You; may those who long for Your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; You are my God, do not delay.

Psalm 40:11-17

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Maybe one of the hardest things for a person to do is to give an honest opinion about themselves. There just seems to be something hard about reflecting and looking deep within, critiquing who we are.

Maybe this is because of pride. We are too proud to admit we are failing in some facet of life.

Maybe this is because we are insecure. We don’t want to analyze ourselves in truth because we’re too apprehensive about what that analysis might show.

Or maybe we just don’t care about the way we are. We are who we are and so what’s the sense of dwelling on it. It’s just a waste of time and counterproductive.

There could be any number of reasons why we don’t examine ourselves more closely but I’ll give you one main reason why we should do it, no matter how many reasons we might come up with for not doing so.

For when we honestly assess ourselves and truly see who we are, we see that we can’t possibly be the people God wants us to be without Him.

In other words, if we’re ever going to hope to be the people the Lord created us to be, we have to see ourselves as we are, helpless and hopeless without Him first and foremost leading our lives.

David had this all figured out. We see so as we read the verses from today’s passage. Look at what David writes:

Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.

May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”, be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in You; may those who long for Your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; You are my God, do not delay.

  

David saw himself for who he truly was before God Almighty and his words should be words that any of us would write as well. How did David view himself?

1. As a sinner.

“My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.”

David saw himself as falling well short of the Lord’s mercy, grace, and love because of His sinfulness. This is why he asks this of God:

“Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me.”

By seeing who he was, David saw he was in dire need of the Lord’s faithful mercy, love, and protection.

2. As poor and needy.

“But as for me, I am poor and needy.”

David was the king of Israel. How could he be poor and needy?

Obviously, David was speaking about his spiritual condition. All the worldly power he possessed on the throne could not make him spiritually wealthy. He could only start to find riches there by trusting and believing in the Lord Almighty who David asked to think of him.

So what came from this, from David seeing himself for who he was? What resulted from David humbly acknowledging his state, a state that was sinful and poor and needy?

He realized his dependence on a God who could do all things for him. Instead of self reliance, David learned a full dependence on the God who placed him on the throne in the first place, the God who David professed as his Protector, his Help, His Deliverer, and His Savior.

Yes, David had a great appreciation for all God was to him but to get there, he had to first see himself as who he truly was.

How about you today?

Have you stepped back from your pride and egotism to constructively evaluate who you really are?

If so, I can say with full confidence that you will be left convicted and feeling like David, feeling poor and needy and unworthy of God’s favor. It’s not a pleasant feeling but one we have to have so we can best appreciate all we receive from the Lord who always stands ready to give us all we need and everything we could ever hope for in accordance with His will and way.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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WHAT WE SHOULD DESIRE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You; were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire — but my ears You have opened — burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

I proclaim Your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as You know. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your faithfulness and Your saving help. I do not conceal Your love and Your faithfulness from the great assembly.

Psalm 40:4-10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

What are your desires in life?

We all have them.

Maybe your desire is to have a good job with long term security and an opportunity to make a lot of money. Maybe you long to go to college and get an education that might help you land that great job. Maybe you hope to meet that special someone you can spend the rest of your life with in joy and happiness. And maybe a further desire would be to start a family and have children you can raise into a bright, productive future life of their own, a life full of their own desires.

Indeed, there is no shortage of desires we might embrace. This world provides a buffet table of choices we could pick from.

But do we desire the right thing or things? Do we even stop to consider what God desires for our life?

The scripture today from the 40th Psalm convicts and challenges us to consider this question. Look at the words of David:

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You; were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire — but my ears You have opened — burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

I proclaim Your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as You know. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your faithfulness and Your saving help. I do not conceal Your love and Your faithfulness from the great assembly.

Look at the middle paragraph. There we find that God didn’t desire the physical sacrifices and offerings David might bring Him. Yes, these sacrifices were commanded to be brought to atone for sins committed but God wanted more than just a demonstration of obedience. He wanted obedience of the heart, obedience to His will, obedience from the inside out.

To draw us to His desires, God opens our ears and imparts His guidance to us through His words and by His Spirit, who illuminates and directs us in accordance with God’s will and way. When He did so with David, how did he respond? Look at his words:

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

As David opened his heart and mind to God (remember he was acclaimed as being a man after God’s heart), he found his desires becoming God’s. In other words, David’s full desire was to do God’s will and he offered himself as a living sacrifice for God to use as He saw fit.

So what happens when we open our ears and our hearts and our minds and our souls to fully receive and then carry out the desires of God, fully obedient to His will and way? Two key things happen. Go back to the scripture:

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You; were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

The first thing that happens is we find ourselves happy. When we place our full trust in the Lord, making His desires our desires, we experience a relationship with Him that is of the highest magnitude. All that we are becomes all that He wants us to be as we become good and faithful servants of the Lord Most High and experience the joy that comes from being in His good favor.

We also receive a sense of happiness from knowing we have one almighty, perfect Source of wisdom and knowledge and guidance. We need not worry about what to do or how to handle any circumstances. And we don’t need to go to anyone else for advice either because the Lord will always tell us what to do. All the pressure is off any man or woman who places their trust in God for we have learned we need only Him in life as we discover that He is going to see us through whatever we go though, every time and in His perfect time.

This leads to the second thing we gain. For as we gain a deeper reliance and trust in God, we also gain a greater appreciation for Him.

David fully acknowledged this truth in his words by showing admiration toward God for all the many wonders He had done. When we’re focused on God and His desires, we more acutely realize how He has worked and continued to work in our lives and in the lives around us. We gain a greater appreciation for our world and marvel at the way God created everything we experience. We recognize and make known that no one or nothing can compare with our God.

Yes, when we are living under God’s desires and not our own, we experience the fullest relationship possible with Him short of living with Him forever, a possibility that will become a reality some day for all those who accept the salvation promise given by God in love, placing their faith and trust in His Son Jesus. We find ourselves blessed and fully grateful for all He has done. And we also find ourselves wanting to tell others about Him, to share how living out God’s desires has changed our lives in a special way.

Let’s take one last look at these words from the psalm:

I proclaim Your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as You know. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart; I speak of Your faithfulness and Your saving help. I do not conceal Your love and Your faithfulness from the great assembly.

David couldn’t contain the joy in His heart from being fully obedient to the Lord. We won’t be able to either. For like David, we will want to proclaim God’s saving acts and the goodness found in His deliverance. We will want to speak boldly of God’s great faithfulness to us. And we will want to show everyone the love and righteousness He has placed in our hearts.

Friends, is there any better life we could hope for than a life fully committed to the God who is fully committed to us?

Frankly, it’s what everyone should desire.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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