I just read a nice little post on "Kingdom-centered prayer." Read it here. Very nice.
A reminder that in our praying, we ought to seek the face and the glory of our God.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Little verses - Big stuff
Pslam 4:4 Be angry, and do not sin;ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
This is one reason why I love the Psalms. There is SOOOO much packed in to these 4 little verses. There are sermons (more than one) packed into each of them.
At the end of the day though, verse 8 here makes for a really good prayer. Especially that "you alone" part. It ties in to Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" devotion for this morning.
Here is a taste "O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that thou hast no ground for it. Whatever thou art, thou hast nothing to make thee proud. The more thou hast, the more thou art in debt to God; and thou shouldst not be proud of that which renders thee a debtor." —CH Spurgeon Morning and Evening
It might seem like a loose tie-in there, but I see my security, my safety, my EVERYTHING as a gift from God alone!
God is good!
5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
This is one reason why I love the Psalms. There is SOOOO much packed in to these 4 little verses. There are sermons (more than one) packed into each of them.
At the end of the day though, verse 8 here makes for a really good prayer. Especially that "you alone" part. It ties in to Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening" devotion for this morning.
Here is a taste "O believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that thou hast no ground for it. Whatever thou art, thou hast nothing to make thee proud. The more thou hast, the more thou art in debt to God; and thou shouldst not be proud of that which renders thee a debtor." —CH Spurgeon Morning and Evening
It might seem like a loose tie-in there, but I see my security, my safety, my EVERYTHING as a gift from God alone!
God is good!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sing and Rejoice and Be Silent
Zech. 2:10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. 12 And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
I read some Zechariah this morning. I really like this passage here for a couple of reasons.
1 - I love that the Lord tells us to Sing and rejoice! I don't know why, but there's something so exciting to me that God wants us to sing and rejoice. It is a natural reaction when a sinner and dead man is forgiven and granted new life. You can't help but to be happy! But - just in case, God tells us to react to his presence with singing and rejoicing.
I just keep picturing a little kid full of excitement after getting something really great from someone who is really prim and proper and old. It's like the kid's automatic response is to get big-eyed, and smile, and jump up and down. But, then immediately sort of restrain those reactions for the sake of being proper in the presence of the gift giver. That's us sometimes right? It is me.
But here - God says, "No, don't restrain that reaction!" "Jump for joy! Sing, dance!" It's just awesome.
2 - I also, for whatever reason, really enjoy knowing that the promise made here in this passage is a promise of something to come in the future - and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. BUT it's our present day reality! God DID come! God does dwell in our midst! Jesus broke into our reality and ushered in the Kingdom of God thus fulfilling this great eschatological hope! And we have the awesome awesome awesome experience of God in our midst - Thank you God!!!!
3 - I love that we are told to be silent before the Lord who has roused himself!
See, we are told to do singing and rejoicing AND silence! And that's cool to me. It means that there are times for us to be exuberant before the Lord with singing and rejoicing AND there are time for us to be silent and reverent before the Almighty God! There absolutely are times when all you can do before the Lord is to be still and in awe of who He is. Silence, tears, outstretched arms, bowing, etc...
Encountering the God of the Universe means more than one thing.
It's not JUST singing and rejoicing. And it's not JUST quiet reverence.
Some Christians act that way though, don't they?
"If you're not dancing and clapping and smiling, then there's something wrong. You must not really be connecting with God here!"
And then there are Christians on the other end of the spectrum. - "If you're doing all that whooping and hollering, you're just being a distraction and a fanatical crazy person!"
Anyhow, God is so good!
And - just in case it needs to be said - so is His church. We sure can get things mixed up sometimes, but Jesus really really loves us! So I'm not church bashing. I'm simply pointing out a passage that I read this morning that really caught my attention.
13 Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
I read some Zechariah this morning. I really like this passage here for a couple of reasons.
1 - I love that the Lord tells us to Sing and rejoice! I don't know why, but there's something so exciting to me that God wants us to sing and rejoice. It is a natural reaction when a sinner and dead man is forgiven and granted new life. You can't help but to be happy! But - just in case, God tells us to react to his presence with singing and rejoicing.
I just keep picturing a little kid full of excitement after getting something really great from someone who is really prim and proper and old. It's like the kid's automatic response is to get big-eyed, and smile, and jump up and down. But, then immediately sort of restrain those reactions for the sake of being proper in the presence of the gift giver. That's us sometimes right? It is me.
But here - God says, "No, don't restrain that reaction!" "Jump for joy! Sing, dance!" It's just awesome.
2 - I also, for whatever reason, really enjoy knowing that the promise made here in this passage is a promise of something to come in the future - and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. BUT it's our present day reality! God DID come! God does dwell in our midst! Jesus broke into our reality and ushered in the Kingdom of God thus fulfilling this great eschatological hope! And we have the awesome awesome awesome experience of God in our midst - Thank you God!!!!
3 - I love that we are told to be silent before the Lord who has roused himself!
See, we are told to do singing and rejoicing AND silence! And that's cool to me. It means that there are times for us to be exuberant before the Lord with singing and rejoicing AND there are time for us to be silent and reverent before the Almighty God! There absolutely are times when all you can do before the Lord is to be still and in awe of who He is. Silence, tears, outstretched arms, bowing, etc...
Encountering the God of the Universe means more than one thing.
It's not JUST singing and rejoicing. And it's not JUST quiet reverence.
Some Christians act that way though, don't they?
"If you're not dancing and clapping and smiling, then there's something wrong. You must not really be connecting with God here!"
And then there are Christians on the other end of the spectrum. - "If you're doing all that whooping and hollering, you're just being a distraction and a fanatical crazy person!"
Anyhow, God is so good!
And - just in case it needs to be said - so is His church. We sure can get things mixed up sometimes, but Jesus really really loves us! So I'm not church bashing. I'm simply pointing out a passage that I read this morning that really caught my attention.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Satisfy me, Lord!
Read a couple of Psalms this morning and came across these gems:
16:5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
17:15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
What a great prayer!
First: the Lord is my portion! Not just is He my portion - He is MY CHOSEN portion. There are plenty of "portion" choices. Especially for us who live in America. PLENTY! But, forsaking all other possible "portions", I CHOOSE God! He is my portion. Not money, not food, not women (or the lust thereafter), not anything else! May God alone be my portion!
Secondly: I shall be satisfied with your likeness! What a thing to say. What a tremendous satisfaction is Jesus!
May I be satisfied in Jesus and seeing His face!
16:5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
17:15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.
What a great prayer!
First: the Lord is my portion! Not just is He my portion - He is MY CHOSEN portion. There are plenty of "portion" choices. Especially for us who live in America. PLENTY! But, forsaking all other possible "portions", I CHOOSE God! He is my portion. Not money, not food, not women (or the lust thereafter), not anything else! May God alone be my portion!
Secondly: I shall be satisfied with your likeness! What a thing to say. What a tremendous satisfaction is Jesus!
May I be satisfied in Jesus and seeing His face!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Jesus - light of the world
John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, est his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
I read this passage this morning (actually, as mentioned below, I've been in John for a few weeks now), and I've been meditating on it since then.
A couple of things hit me here.
- The world stands condemned apart from Jesus. From the first sin on to the end of our lives condemnation is upon us. The bible says that we are born into sin (Rom. 5:12-14). Jesus said that anyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34).
We don't receive condemnation as a result of anything other than being born into sin. Being a sinner. Being us.
So of course God didn't send the Son to condemn the world. Of course the world already stands condemned.
It is for His glory, and by His great mercy that He sent the Son to save the already condemned world!!! Hallelujah!
There's more too, but I'll have to do the rest later.
Peace out.
I read this passage this morning (actually, as mentioned below, I've been in John for a few weeks now), and I've been meditating on it since then.
A couple of things hit me here.
- The world stands condemned apart from Jesus. From the first sin on to the end of our lives condemnation is upon us. The bible says that we are born into sin (Rom. 5:12-14). Jesus said that anyone who sins is a slave to sin (John 8:34).
We don't receive condemnation as a result of anything other than being born into sin. Being a sinner. Being us.
So of course God didn't send the Son to condemn the world. Of course the world already stands condemned.
It is for His glory, and by His great mercy that He sent the Son to save the already condemned world!!! Hallelujah!
There's more too, but I'll have to do the rest later.
Peace out.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
More of the same, only different
Haggai 2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
In addition to reading in John a lot, I've also slowly been going through the minor prophets.
So I was in John 6 yesterday and Haggai this morning.
Haggai talks about God's covenant to restore his people. He tells them to get busy building his house because the time is coming for them to enjoy his presence in a real special way again! In this short prophetic book - we also see that a part of this is the promise to Zerubbabel that the line of David is still important to God. God says that kingdoms will be shaken and overthrown!
It all points to Jesus! God's presence - in a really really special way - with His people!!!!
And Jesus says that none who come to Him will be turned away.
God's desire is for us to be with Him. That is enough to baffle me. God WANTS me to be with Him. He wants me. And the promise is that I won't be turned away!
And it's all for His glory.
The people of God - living in and enjoying Him, and His presence with us - gives Him glory!!!! That's nuts!
Praise Him! Praise Jesus!
In addition to reading in John a lot, I've also slowly been going through the minor prophets.
So I was in John 6 yesterday and Haggai this morning.
Haggai talks about God's covenant to restore his people. He tells them to get busy building his house because the time is coming for them to enjoy his presence in a real special way again! In this short prophetic book - we also see that a part of this is the promise to Zerubbabel that the line of David is still important to God. God says that kingdoms will be shaken and overthrown!
It all points to Jesus! God's presence - in a really really special way - with His people!!!!
And Jesus says that none who come to Him will be turned away.
God's desire is for us to be with Him. That is enough to baffle me. God WANTS me to be with Him. He wants me. And the promise is that I won't be turned away!
And it's all for His glory.
The people of God - living in and enjoying Him, and His presence with us - gives Him glory!!!! That's nuts!
Praise Him! Praise Jesus!
Monday, January 11, 2010
John 6
Book: John.
Chapters: 4 - 6.
Wow! A lot to chew on. I've been here for the last several weeks. It is awesome.
One of today's "wow!" moments is 6:37 - - Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.
This covers a couple different things for me.
One is that Jesus makes it pretty clear that people only come to Him if they've been drawn there by God. This is enough to think about for a long time.
The other this is that Jesus says that no one will be turned away! NEVER! There are a lot of people who I would turn away if they came to me. I am definitely a person who I would turn away. But not Jesus. He's so UN-like me in this regard! And I am so very grateful. Eternally grateful!
Thank You Jesus.
Chapters: 4 - 6.
Wow! A lot to chew on. I've been here for the last several weeks. It is awesome.
One of today's "wow!" moments is 6:37 - - Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away.
This covers a couple different things for me.
One is that Jesus makes it pretty clear that people only come to Him if they've been drawn there by God. This is enough to think about for a long time.
The other this is that Jesus says that no one will be turned away! NEVER! There are a lot of people who I would turn away if they came to me. I am definitely a person who I would turn away. But not Jesus. He's so UN-like me in this regard! And I am so very grateful. Eternally grateful!
Thank You Jesus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
