Old Testament

The Holy Spirit: Affirmation – VOTD.08.21.18

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you” Jeremiah 31:3.

“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.” Hosea 2:16

Words are important to most of us. And when people speak kind, loving words to us, the sentiments behind those words  mean a lot. It even hurts when kind-sounding words are clearly spoken only to manipulate us–but clear words of affirmation grip most people’s hearts. God knows this. In fact, we are made in His image so we can revel in the idea that God is that way, too.

The Lord directs us to look in His face and to enjoy His favor. That is what it means to seek His face (Ps 27:8). There is no Hebrew word for ‘presence’ (i.e., the “presence” of God), only the word ‘face’. That is what it means to have his face “shine upon us” (Num 6:25). It’s His presence and His favor.

God communicates all this to us through His Spirit, alluring us (Hos 2:14), speaking tenderly to us…making our “Valley of Achor (trouble) into a doorway of hope” (v.15), admitting us to new and greater mercies. The door may appear shut, things may seem distressing — but the Holy Spirit brings the key, and will open the door, and introduce us to deliverance at the best moment.

The Spirit takes us into the closest possible union with God, and indulges us with the purest views of His love. He goes on to say, “It shall be, says the Lord, that you shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali” (v.16). (more…)

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Free to Delight in Him – VOTD.06.05.18

How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your delight. Psalms 36:7-8

When we’re full of ourselves, full of other things, other programs and events and people, it’s hard to ‘be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46:10). And sometimes our lives are like that—where the best we do is carve out time to spend in meditating on what God is saying and communing with Him. Sometimes it’s hard to turn our eyes, our focus, our attention, from the things of this life and spend time gazing on Jesus. 

But this isn’t abundant life…this is what Jesus set us free from when He came. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me TO PROCLAIM FREEDOM for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, TO SET THE OPPRESSED FREE, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-19)

The “thing from which you derive the most pleasure is the very thing you worship. For some people it is Prozac, or the NFL… It could be a wicked or a mundane thing. But ask yourself: where do you find the most irresistible pleasure? That is what you worship.

“We must worship and serve God for one reason alone: because we can’t help ourselves. We are entranced. God is that delightful to us.

“Worship is basically adoration, and we adore only what delights us. There is no such thing as sad adoration or unhappy praise. We have a name for those who try to praise when they have no pleasure in the object. We call them hypocrites.”–John Piper (more…)

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Affirming: Confidence and Self-Respect – VOTD.04.09.18

The Lord gives perfect peace to all who trust in him, all whose thoughts are fixed on him! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock. Isaiah 26:3-4

Because all of us live in time and space—we live in relationships and responsibilities—our day-to-day circumstances can have a significant effect on how we feel about ourselves. That means it’s natural for our circumstances to influence how we feel, how we behave. How other people treat us—or not—influences who we feel we are in our lives. A lot of the time, these influences aren’t telling us the truth. Daily affirmations will help us remember the Truth.

Unless we are tied in to Jesus’ affirming love, we can come dangerously close to allowing our circumstances to dictate our worth…  people’s disrespect or disregard will determine our self-respect and confidence… the events in our lives will overshadow His affirming Words in the Bible and in our lives. These temporal circumstances will short-circuit our trust in God’s promises if we don’t stay fixed on Him. (more…)

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Joy in the Wilderness – VOTD.02.06.18

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka (tears), they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength… For the Lord God is their sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from them… Psalm 84:5-11

Jesus is faithful. In fact, His name is “Faithful and True” (Rev 19:11). And He promises to withhold no good thing from us as we walk in communion with Him. For “the lovers of God who chase after righteousness,” Proverbs promises, “find all their dreams come true: an abundant life drenched with favor and a fountain that overflows with satisfaction” (21:2).

…But in the wildernesses of life (pilgrimage), when we’re stuck in the valley of tears (Baka), we can’t see how God will ever bring His promises to pass.  When we aren’t even certain we have a promise in the first place, it can be difficult to rest in Him, and find the joy of the Lord, even in our wilderness.

We all find ourselves in the valley of tears or sorrows. Yet God enables us in those times and place to dig deep springs in our wildernesses; and He fills our efforts with pools of water as we are energized by Him (from strength to strength). We find Him to be the Giver of good gifts (sun-the source of energy and warmth) as well as our shield (protector).

But too often our focus is in the wrong place – when we spin-in on all our troubles, we miss the joy that is in His presence. Maybe we neglect the opportunity to rejoice in Jesus because the atmosphere isn’t very conducive to being joyful. We don’t feel like it. But if keep putting it off until the promise is fulfilled, there’ll be another promise we need fulfilled just around the corner that we will wait for… and the result is that we’ll never find rest and we’ll never be joy-filled.

Joy in the wilderness requires faith in the Lord of the wilderness. Faith will always be needed as long as we live in this world where we face trouble, and we need to know how to be joyful and rest, even in our wildness. That joy and rest come from deeper communion with Jesus, rather than our finding solace in our immediate circumstances… to discover by experience that “in His presence there is fullness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). (more…)

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Clap for Joy – VOTD.12.26.17

Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Psalm 47:1

I hope you had a merry (joyful) Christmas!

Think of a child opening a big brightly-wrapped Christmas present. There’s something inside them that needs to be expressed as they discover what the gift is. You can see it when the young kid claps with glee as they discover the exciting gift inside. That’s the idea behind today’s verse: That spontaneous, joyful response.

Everyone clap your hands, (All people)
Everyone shout to God with loud songs of joy!

It sounds like the Sons of Korah (who wrote this psalm) were familiar with exuberant displays of worship. And part of that exuberant display were loud songs of joy. The biblical concept of clapping to the Lord includes more than keeping time to music. When God’s children drink from the river of His delights (Ps 36:8) or discover the gifts of His grace, we can’t help but respond in joy. (more…)

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Wisdom Brings Trustworthiness – VOTD.12.04.17

“Of all my house, Moses is the one I trust.”  Numbers 12:7 (That’s God speaking.)

Trustworthy: Truthful, dependable, ethical, faithful and authentic. All these words combine to describe what a trustworthy person is like.

Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether God is trustworthy. When we face uncertain times, we wonder where God is; when prayers go unanswered, we question if He’s listening, if He cares.

But today’s verse changes the game appreciably. Perhaps the important question isn’t whether we can trust God… Maybe for those of us who want to live a life that is saturated in Jesus, a better question is: Can God trust any of us? Can God trust you? Can God trust me?

Of course, this is not a question God is trying to figure out. He already knows the answer. Yet, according to Jesus, our relationship with God depends a lot on whether God can trust us. The character representing God in His Parable of the talents says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful (trustworthy) over a few things; I will make You ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Matt 25:21)

The irony of all this, is that the way in which we become trustworthy to God is by trusting Him… that’s one of the key points of the parable. Unconditional trust in God is the only way we can become people who God can trust. Because it is only if all that we have—all that we are—has been relinquished into God’s hands that anyone can be trusted with those things. (more…)

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Wisdom: The Fear of God – VOTD.11.07.17

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 1:7

One biblical definition of wisdom is this: Wisdom is the combination of knowledge and farsightedness which enables a person to make right choices that honor God.

This is because true wisdom, according to the Bible, always begins with God. Today’s verse tells us that the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” From a biblical perspective, if a person doesn’t know God who created everything, then they’re going to be challenged when it comes to understanding how to use the knowledge they have. They’ll base wisdom on what seems fair…or what seems morally right…or what seems best for themselves and those they identify with.

But honoring (fearing) God will not be part of their equation. This means true wisdom will elude them.

This is why we increasingly live in a world where facts don’t matter. Take away God and truth is whatever you want it to be…and we don’t have to look far to find people who will assure us that we are 100% right and everyone who doesn’t see it the way we
do is crazy—or worse. (more…)

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VOTD.10.09.17 Visiting Churches

Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended.  Ecclesiastes 7:9

I’ve been traveling a lot this past summer and this has meant being a visitor in a number of churches. Over the course of visiting many churches I have had great experiences as a guest along with some not-so-great ones. But for the most part my visits to churches, both recently and in the past, have been pleasant, though some are more memorable than others (for good and not-so-good) reasons.

Somewhere along the way I got the idea that it would be fun to do a few meditations on being a good church visitor. That led to another idea: What makes a church one that makes visitors feel welcome. So I offer this as a public service to visitors and churches that want to encourage visitors. Here’s a few ideas…

Churches need to realize that you only have a few minutes to make a first impression, and that usually means that the first impression is not made by the paid staff, it’s made by congregants. It’s made in the parking lot. It’s made by people (if any) at the door or people who people you sit near.

That’s a scary thought to those who want to orchestrate a visitor’s experience at their church. But scarier yet is that a visitor’s impression of the church may be hijacked by some offbeat individual who is friendly, but… unusual (or perhaps not so friendly). Every church seems to have at least one… someone who undoubtedly means well, but lacks social graces or is too full of their own agenda. (more…)

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