Psalm 14

 

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’

They are corrupt, they have done abominable

works, there is none who does good.

 

“The Lord looks down from heaven upon

the children of men, to see if there are any

who understand, who seek God. They all have

turned aside, they have together become corrupt;

there is none who does good, no, not one.

 

“Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,

who eat up my people as they eat bread, and

do not call upon the Lord? There they are in

great fear, for God is with the generation of

the righteous. You shame the counsel of the

poor, but the Lord is his refuge.

 

“Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come

out of Zion! When the Lord brings back

the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice

and Israel be glad.”

     Psalm 14 (NKJV)

 

The Bible says that those who say there is no God are fools. In this context, “fool” does not mean someone of diminished intellectual ability or a jester, but someone who makes a conscious decision to reject God. It is foolish indeed to say there is no God when all have received the general revelation of God’s existence (see Romans 1:20-21, Psalm 19) and all have experienced the grace of God (see Matthew 5:45). 

 

Not only are they fools, wandering and wallowing in their own moral darkness, but they also attack the righteous, God’s people. And yet the foolishness of these wicked men turns to great fear when He comes against them in judgment and they realize, too late, that they were wrong in not acknowledging God.

 

But the Lord is a constant refuge for His people. And this psalm ends on a joyful note, reminding Israel that God has not forgotten them but will fulfill His promises to them in that glorious day when salvation will come out of Zion for Israel.  In Romans (3:12), Paul quotes this psalm and affirms that not one of us does good. Thus, we all (Jew and Gentile alike) need salvation through Jesus Christ. 

 

Do you have any Jewish friends, neighbors or co-workers? I urge you to pray for them, that their eyes would be opened and their hearts would be softened. And pray for boldness and grace to share this good news with them, that they might come to a saving faith in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus Christ, the Messiah).

Thursday Devotional - Fear Again?

 Have you ever had a time in life where it felt like you faced one storm or challenge or hardship after another? I can think of several different times. One of those times was when Joe lost his job several different times during the recession.

 

Well, Paul was no stranger to challenge after challenge. Last week, though, everyone on the ship finally listened to Paul! They took his advice this time, ate and were encouraged. Maybe Paul finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, he was about to face another death sentence!

Acts 27:38-44           ³⁸ When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

³⁹ When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could. ⁴⁰ Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach. ⁴¹ But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.

⁴² The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. ⁴³ But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. ⁴⁴ The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

Safe at last! Paul seemed to have a challenge at every turn. He didn’t worry or give up or blame God. He trusted God’s plans and His Sovereignty, even when it didn’t look like anything good could come of something. God proved trustworthy and accomplished His plans for and through Paul.

We can trust God’s Sovereignty, too. He has plans for each one of us and will accomplish His plans for and through us. I’m nervous about several things right now (mountains of work, kids going back to school, lots of changes to our normal Fall schedule, etc.). It doesn’t help me to stay in a state of fear. I can cast my cares on God. He cared for Paul and He will care for me!

What fear do you need to lay before God?

Alice

Let It Go!

 And forgive us our debts, 

As we forgive our debtors. 

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  Matthew 6:12, 14-15 (NKJV) 

I was at a Leadership Conference this past week.  It taught me several things such as how to better manage my time and building trust in challenging time.  Later in the conference, I listened to a conversation about forgiveness.  It was very humbling.  Strangely, it was not something I thought that I needed work on.  It’s not that I am prideful when I say such a thing. Instead, it was to note that I have dealt with a lot in my life that I too have struggled to forgive.  At times, it comes up when my daughter does something where I find myself battling to find the ability to trust her.  But I have received many lessons on my forgiving others.  A relative who betrayed a trust, a parent who wrongfully accused me, and a friend who stole from me are all situations where I once failed to forgive.  However, I found the strength later to do so.  Yet, it was when I was wrong and forgiven where forgiveness had its greatest impact on me.  When my wife forgave me for doing something hurtful, it was a reminder of my role as a husband to love, honor, and cherish her.  It showed something I could not learn on my own; how God’s forgiveness is so great.  It was an Elsa moment for me.  I ‘let it go.’ 

Forgiveness is an essential part of spiritual growth.  In the Lord’s prayer, it spoke of forgiving as we are forgiven.  It’s but a small piece of the Lord’s Prayer but note one thing about it.  It is the one part that requires our own action.  We ask for God’s forgiveness, but we are to forgive others.  This is not one of those ‘well it would be nice if’ comments.  It is a clear expectation by God that we too are to forgive.  Not as in the future. But in the now.  We cannot have any expectation of His forgiveness if we ourselves cannot model His example.  I was reminded of the sins of David in 2 Samuel 24 where he asked God for forgiveness because of his wrongdoings to help ease the pain of Israel’s plague.  But God’s forgiveness of him was not taken haphazardly.  It was a precious commodity that had immense value, and as a result, David grew closer to God and God to him.  Jesus understood this in teaching the Lord’s Prayer.  Yes, it covers our sinful nature, which needs forgiveness.  But it’s our awareness of the need for forgiveness and heartfelt regret that makes it so much more valuable, and if we understand that value, how great is it to forgive others. 

Additionally, when we forgive, we also give ourselves permission to let it all go.  All the pain, hurt, and resentment that has taken up space in our minds and hearts become open to things that God wants to place there; love, peace, and joy.  Those two sets of things cannot co-exist in the same space.  As such, if we forgive, we also gain greater room for those things that matter most not only to God but also ourselves. 

God’s love for us is multidimensional.  Peace, joy, and abundance are attributes that are gained from it.  None of this is possible had Jesus not paid the ultimate price for our sins.  Yet by claiming Him as Lord of our lives, we are forgiven.  If we truly understand the weight of this, we should understand the impact of forgiving others.  It can not only bring them to the realization of their err of their ways, but more importantly, it frees us from the bondage of our own suffering and pain.  Let us appreciate both God’s gift of forgiveness as well as the freedom of forgiving.  What pain are you holding in today that needs forgiveness?  Who can you show grace in the spirit of forgiveness?  My prayer is we recognize the strength and power of not only God’s forgiveness but also our own, and simply, let it go!  Amen. 

The Hope in the Gospel

After wrestling to come to terms with how the translators of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek used the Greek word, "hope", I'm now turning to how the early church authors of the Christian Scriptures used it. Right out of the gate, I'm surprised. 

Matthew only uses it once, and that's a quote of Isaiah 42:4, the Greek version. Mark doesn't use it at all, and John uses it once in a scary quote of Jesus in John 5:45. That leaves Luke, who uses it 3 times. So, throughout all four Gospels, hope is used a total of 5 times in three of the four books. And yet, we refer to Christianity as a "religion of hope". How can that be when the accounts of our Founder are so devoid of the word itself?

Of course, this is being written and posted to the internet, and therefore must be true (eye-roll). We already know to be skeptical of anything we read on the internet (or should be by now). Anyone can truly say anything, and be posted right alongside trusted sources of news (like Reuters). 

Having said that, I can (but won't) go into the Greek text I chose for my search. I could put you to sleep (if I haven't already) with the methodology I used to sift through the results. Yawn, "show me the money!" But we want results, we want to see it, not just hear about it. Why is Christianity a religion of hope with so little usage of the word in the accounts of Jesus? Because He demonstrated hope.

Paul use the word extensively. It's crazy how often he uses it. Why so much? Because he is explaining the meaning behind what Jesus did and taught. when we examine what Jesus did and taught, we have hope. It's the natural result. Here's an example that lacks the word, but results in the experience of hope:

Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" (John 8:2-5 NASB)

The situation is "hopeless" for the woman caught in adultery. And which of us has not been caught in a sin against our Creator? In a very real sense, our experience in this life is as the woman, dragged out in public, humiliated by our crimes against our Savior. So, we begin with hopelessness, and then comes the hope:

They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:6-7 NASB)

People speculate about what Jesus wrote in the dirt, but I don't think that's the point. I doubt many in the crowd would have been able to see anything other than that Jesus picks that point in time to doodle in the dust. I think it may have been a more dismissive act than anything else. His response bears this out, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." See, the thing is, it's easy to point fingers and accuse. Our enemy, the devil, is named accuser, that's what "Satan" means. But accusing one another misses the hope which underlies the good news of Jesus.

Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." (John 8:8-11 NASB)

Jesus simply waits. The lesson sinks in, and the crowd disperses, a crowd which probably included a man straightening his tunic (where was the man caught in the "very act"?). Jesus now turns to the woman, the one without hope. No one is left to accuse? Then neither does He, but He tells her to change her behavior. Jesus calls out the behavior, but refuses to condemn the woman having behaved that way. We're never told what happened to her, legends speculate, but we're never told. What we're left with, as we see ourselves as the woman, is hope. 

In this account, hope provides the room to change, the space to be different, and the motivation to focus on a new devotion, one to our Savior. The scene, the story, is full of hope, but hope is never mentioned. The good news of Jesus is also full of hope, regardless of whether we use the word.

We can read through any, or all, of the Gospels and use hope as the perspective from which we ask questions, and observe the scenes. "How did this event give hope to the people who experienced it?" "How did the audience of the writer gain hope from this account?" "Where is the hope for me in this account?" It's a progression in meaning, depth, and experience of hope. 

So, where do you gain hope from this account of Jesus? 

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation