Open Journal

Continued Elsewhere

2009-06-27T16:50:00.000-04:00

Continued at link above.

Away from Desk

2008-08-06T07:16:00.000-04:00

Open Journal will return in September
JK

Power and Grace

2008-07-30T07:06:00.002-04:00

Psalm 62

Two things the Psalmist has heard, that the Lord is strong, and that the Lord is loving (verses 11-12). His power would only be terrible without grace. His grace would be ineffective without his power. With him this is a unique and necessary combination. I witnessed a sort of worldly power and grace combined the other day, in a way that I admit rather impressed me.

With some time on our hands older son (12) and I on Monday were strolling along Front Street in Toronto east of the downtown core. There be a Porsche dealership there. So we sort of dusted ourselves off and entered. “Please do not touch,” a sign said. We didn’t. I was rather surprised how many models were on display. We had actually looked around for some time before a very nice lady smiled at us and asked, “May I help you, or are you just looking?” I think she knew the answer. One thought: Porsche = power and gracefulness.

Fast forward a few hours to later in the day. This time Melissa and I are with younger son (10) while older son is occupied (long busy day in the city, won’t bore you with the details). In the waiting area there was a mom dealing, but not really, with 2 boys a little younger than ours who proved to be quite unmanageable, loud, fighting, oblivious to everyone else around – a handful of us in the room trying find somewhere else to put our attention. Reaction of younger son was especially interesting – stunned silence; even he was embarrassed for them (or maybe thinking, “at least I’m/we’re not that bad.”

No evidence of power and grace there in that room then. But then that’s precisely the kind of setting in which God’s power and grace are most to be found.

If you do get yourself a Porsche, the power and grace are ready at hand. But what does it really amount to? (Well, OK, I wouldn’t mind finding out.) It is intriguing that we tend to use this profoundly powerful word, grace, sometimes just for what is stylish, sleek, classy. We also combine the two in athleticism.

But it is where power and grace are least evident or obvious where real power and grace potentially may be found.

Consider:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8);

or

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The world can mislead us concerning what is real power, and what is full of grace, and how those are combined most powerfully. Thanks to God that he places the combination within us through his Son.

Prayer:
May I glorify you this day and every day, Lord, as the one who is both all power and all love, and completely and perfectly both, for our great blessing, and your own greater glory. Through Christ. Amen.

ECE

2008-07-25T12:55:00.000-04:00

Psalm 61

Until I read this Psalm out loud to myself, I had passed over the phrase “higher than I” in verse 2. The Psalm’s thought-journey begins with a sense of need. The journey is able to go beyond that beginning because of the acknowledgment of a “rock that is higher than I.” The Psalmist is then able to connect not only with the rock who is the Rock, but with the faith history and community of those others who have turned to him. The combination of trust in God and connection with faith community is combined in verse 5. But there is a third component to the Psalmist’s network of support and strength: the king. The people look to a faithful leader who is himself faithful, and whose role works for the integrity of the life of the people, so they may live and worship as one.

Personal experience of a higher rock, a community memory and celebration (testimony) of his working in the life of people, and a leadership lovingly and personally committed to those two things and to growth in them: this Psalm provides a simple outline of sound Bible-based community and leadership: Experience,
Celebration, Encouragement.

Prayer:
Lord, help me live up to what I call my job on my Facebook profile: Chief Encourager. Through Christ. Amen.

The Enemy

2008-07-22T08:20:00.002-04:00

Psalm 60

There is familiar territory, like your back yard, where the only danger might be insufficient sunscreen applied. There may be a stretch of road you travel so much you know every bend, every clump of trees, every sign. And yet we know that serious accidents happen at home, and vehicle collisions are most likely to happen where we travel most. (I like the guy who heard that most accidents happen with five blocks of home, so he moved.)

Then there are places that obviously are dangerous, but which most of us don’t have to experience, like Afghanistan and Iraq.

In this Psalm, the people have experienced danger, and defeat, in familiar territory. People in that part of the world still do. Funny, we think and pray – as of course well we should – of people from ‘our’ part of the world serving in danger zones, be we (or maybe I should speak for myself) tend to ignore what it must be like for people who live with constant danger right where they live.

The way we use the Psalms in devotion and worship might lead us actually to miss the kind of environment from which they come, which was often brutal. In this psalm the poet reflects on a defeat or severe trial his people have known (verses 1-3). He also reflects on the sovereignty of the land in which they have this experience: it belongs to the Lord. Words from the Lord compare parts of the land to familiar belongings. Towns and valleys and such are as familir to the Lord as it is as familiar to him as would the washbasin or sandals of the poet be to him.

So, the poet sees the answer for dealing with life in this land as putting his trust in the one who knows it, oversees it, even made it – and promised it to the Psalmist’s people. This gives rise to the kind of confident expression found in verses 4 and 5.

Still, actual experience leads to some hesitation on the poet’s part – in the form of the kind of “what if” question even the most faithful of us sometimes ask (see verse 10): What if God isn’t really for me? Having got the question out there, however, he moves right on, as should we. What other hope is there but in the one who is in charge of all things? You might see this as a bit lame – it’s not much of a faith that trusts in a deity because there is basically no alternative. This is to underestimate the dynamics of faith that is real faith – that genuinely trusts. Even Jesus, who knew exactly what was what, had an immense struggle in his trial of trials.

In the end, this Psalm may be about trampling down the enemy (verse 12b) of doubt. Move forward today not saying, “OK, God, if you’re there I hope you’ll help me,” but rather, “With God I (we) will gain the victory” (verse 12a).

Prayer:
Lord, I look forward to the victory you have in mind for me today, for your sake. Amen.

Raising the Bar

2008-07-17T23:30:00.001-04:00

Psalm 59

What does God do with our prayers that request things that are not part of his character, or his will for us? The last three words of this Psalm seem out of sync with much of the rest of the content. Our prayers may be confused, but God is not, and neither are his answers.

I rather think that, like a good teacher, God builds on what he finds in our requests that are in keeping with his character and will. Meanwhile, part of our prayer could itself be to ask him to purify our thoughts, so that we will give him more to build on, and less to overcome.

Prayer:
Thank you, God, that I can be honest, like the Psalmist, in what I express to you. But I would also look to you to raise the bar a bit all the time, so that what is honest is also more faithful. Through Christ. Amen.

Before You Shove It Aside

2008-07-10T22:48:00.001-04:00

Psalm 58

If you had the privilege of starting someone on reading the Bible, you probably would not start them with reading this Psalm, and particularly not verse 10. It’s there. It’s in Scripture. We can’t just shove it aside. But there is no need to start with it.

What it says, in its graphic Old Testament way, is that God really does deal with evil. What it says is that God give it to us to be part of his good, but judgment on evil is up to him. The community of the faithful benefit from this. That’s the take-it-with-you message you can filter out of the graphic content here. The faithful can continue and grow in their mission in the Lord, confident that those power against them will be dealt with.

Prayer:
Thanks that you do work justice through the chaos of this world. Show us and lead us in our part, since there is the chaos of conflicting and confused will everywhere. Through Christ. Amen.

Alive

2008-07-07T20:26:00.002-04:00

Psalm 57

Many of us seem to go through our days in a daze. I’ve noticed people walking across parking lots without paying any attention to the traffic around them. Others walk backwards in malls or downtown on the sidewalk, talking to someone, and if you’re coming the other way you just have to stop and wait to see where they’re going! And that’s without any electronics plugged into them. I contribute my own share of inattentiveness and doziness to the course of any given day.

“Awake, my soul!” the Psalmist cries. What does it mean to call to your soul to become awake? ‘Soul’ in the Bible is not some hidden part of you, a part that floats away when you die. I understand ‘soul’ in the Bible to be something like what we would call our “being” – it’s the totality of what we are. Awakening the soul would be about being truly and fully alive, being attentive to the things of the day and then some, and then some indeed.

For the Psalmist, a whole sequence of things went with this. Musical instruments are called to life; the one who is fully alive, it seems, can call to the dawn to wake up – a sense of being in tune with all God’s creation, I take it. There is praise to all peoples, a sense of soaring in the heavens. Who needs drugs?

And all of this came out of resolve to remain ‘steadfast’ in the midst of the now-familiar onslaught of enemies.

What one thing keeps most of us from being truly alive? Fear. We’re afraid to be joyful because something will take it away. We’re afraid to trust because someone will hurt us. We’re afraid because we’re afraid we’ll be afraid and look stupid. So we cling to a lot of stuff that gives no security; and find comfort, excitement - and release from boredom, worry, rejection and hopelessness in addictive behaviours.

“Soul” rather than, say, “being” or “personhood” or something suggests to me a Lord; there is a greater spiritual connotation with the word, especially in the context in which we find it here. There is one who makes us truly alive. There is one who leads us, as Steven Curtis Chapman sings, to The Great Adventure. He breathed life into dirt and made the dirt a ‘living being’ (Genesis 2:7). A living being from dirt; what can he do with my day, my life, if truly I release it to him?

Then there is a whole mission that awaits, to the dazed.

Prayer:
Awake, my soul, Lord. Through Christ. Amen.

Tears in a Bottle

2008-07-03T13:59:00.003-04:00

Psalm 56

It’s an image to stop you in your tracks – in a good way: God collecting our tears (verse 8). He either records them on his scroll, or collects them in his wineskin, depending on the translation. The latter image makes more sense. How striking to consider that God totally forgets our sins when we ask forgiveness, but records all our sorrows, or even collects them. This is compassion.

When trouble or grief comes, we are surrounded by comfort, for a while. Eventually life is assumed to get back to ‘normal’ (whatever that is), but we are left with the reality that has come.

God doesn’t forget.

Prayer:
God, help us set aside our preoccupation with the sins of others, and replace it with being attuned to one another’s sorrows. Through Christ. Amen.

God Disturbers

2008-06-30T09:02:00.001-04:00

Psalm 55

Our peace seems always precarious – both in the world and within. What is particularly troubling to the Psalmist is that one with whom he had enjoyed special friendship has become an enemy. And he already had enemies. It’s too much. He is overwhelmed, and basically just lashes out at everyone. Even his own thoughts trouble him (verse 2).

Being troubled at his thoughts may be the beginning of hope – that, along with the content of verse 22, which appears as a little oasis of true spiritual longing in the midst of this sea of bitterness. Even the final sentence, expressing trust in the Lord, leaves things unsettled, when you know there is still this angst in his heart. I mean, he expresses trust in contrast to what others do (verse 23). In the light of Christ, your expression of trust in God would not be complete without going right back to dealing with what is unsettled in relationship with others – in the Psalmist’s case, particularly that former friend.

This is not a piece of Scripture that you would read before bedtime for peace of mind before falling blissfully asleep. Like so much of God’s Word, it disturbs. I am working on an outline for a message series in the fall on the God who disturbs, and Christians as a disturbing force. It will be dangerous, and probably disturbing. There will be those who will tell me it is the wrong kind of message to appeal to people. It will need lots of different elements and media, and it will take a team to do well. But then that is in keeping with God’s disturbing and cinematically (what rating?) powerful Word to the world, and to our minds and hearts.

Prayer:
Lord, I am often disturbed at my thoughts. Thank for for not making me complacent about what is in my heart and mind. There is much yet to be redeemed in me. This world is of course far from redemption, even though it is so close at hand. Help me do my little bitty part to close the gap, starting with me. Through Christ. Amen.

Honestly

2008-06-24T19:55:00.002-04:00

Psalm 54

Psalm 53 is almost identical to Psalm 14.

We might not regard Psalm 54 as one of the noblest of expressions in Scripture. But then, we are in the Psalms, and they are full of raw honesty. What point is there in being otherwise before the Lord?

That honesty is combined with a sense of being part of a community and its history with God. It comes with the very calling upon the power of ‘the name’ (verse 1). Within the apparent selfishness of verse 5, there may be the recollection that God is a God of justice and has shown that in the history of his people. Even in the prayer of recoiling of evil on his enemies, there may at least be the recognition of a God who is not far off, but who intervenes and acts in the midst of history and our personal stories.

Prayer:
Lord, in the light of your Son’s revelation, I might question the Psalmist’s prayer concerning his enemies. But am I so different? Thank you that your Son showed a higher way, a generosity of spirit that becomes possible with the gift of your Holy Spirit. Refining my view of others, give me something of the Psalmist’s sense of expectancy of your intervention in everyday life. Through Christ. Amen.

Flow

2008-06-19T21:28:00.001-04:00

Psalm 52

There are two forms of strength, as we would discern here.

One form is self-generated strength of will. In this, strength itself is the thing that matters most. If the point is strength, any expression of strength will do, and will be considered the desired good. So, in the psalm, there is even boasting of malice (1,7). There is no morality here. The only sin is weakness.

The second form of strength is that which flows through the individual, or group of individuals. There is inexhaustible power that comes from the Lord, flowing through those who surrender to him. Compare John 3:8. Strength and love are equated in the beautiful word-picture of verse 8. True strength flows; it is not possessed.

Prayer:
Lord, pare me down to what you can really use. Through Christ. Amen.

Fill In the Blank

2008-06-13T11:02:00.000-04:00

Psalm 51

It is wonderful beyond words to know that we can have sin blotted out. But God doesn’t stop at that. He goes a couple of stages beyond it. Not only does he readily act on a request to “blot out all my iniquity” (verse 9), he brings purity and a new spirit (verse 10), also at our request. In other words, he doesn’t leave us blank. The vacuum could readily be filled up with the same old stuff. Jesus would say that to follow him means daily to take up our cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). Every day a bit of our old self should die and be filled with what God want to fill us with.

Even more, we have mission beyond ourselves to those other ‘transgressors’ (verse 13) with whom we share a common need, and opportunity.

Prayer:
What shall I get rid of, Lord, maybe today, so you can fill me with something better? Through Christ. Amen.

Why Your Heart Beats

2008-06-04T10:12:00.002-04:00

Psalm 50

For those who identify themselves as part of God’s family, outward religious observance can be a way of avoiding personal encounter. Ritual is emotionally safe. Verses 7-15 address the religious. The beginning of God’s covenant with Israel was signaled by sacrifice (verse 5), but what God desires of his people is that they would be open to his powerful, empowering, life-changing presence (let the power of verses 1-5 soak in). To depend on outward sacrifices for the expression of life as God’s people is a sad mockery of God’s power. The essence of life with God is relationship, encounter. God deems to make his presence known and felt to us. That’s astounding. How do we respond to that? In any way he makes possible for us: worship from the heart, actively loving those with whom we share this life and this planet, drawing others to him, deepening bonds with other believers … the possibilities are endless. To tend to some religious observance and be satisfied, with that, that we are right with God is so sad.

Tremble for those who actively mock God with a pretense of faith while doing the opposite of his will (verses 16-22). Actively working for their rescue (the basic meaning of ‘salvation’) will fuel all the more the energy of our life beyond mere religion.

Prayer:
How amazing that you choose to reveal yourself to us, God! Your Psalmist has expressed something of your power and might that would no doubt just obliterate us if we were fully exposed to you – whatever that might mean - in our earthly state. Yet you have chosen to make your power and purpose known to people – like to Moses as well as to Pharaoh in order to bring about a people to love and work with and through to the world. In time you sent your Son the Way we could know you in a fully human way even while you remain fully God. How can we ignore this? How can the world ignore this? How can anyone mock this? How dare we reduce this to ritual? Show us how to make the most of your revelation, as a matter of our very life’s breath and knowing it is why our hearts beat. Through Christ. Amen.

In the Twinkling of an Eye

2008-05-28T22:11:00.004-04:00

Psalm 49

The Psalmist is troubled at the prosperity of those who “boast of their great riches” (verse 6).

There is more here than just wrestling with his own lack of riches. There is honest spiritual reflection here on what an eternal perspective on relative material wealth should be.

The reflection hinges on the trust factor. Those who trust in their riches will find they have put all their eggs in the wrong basket. Rich and poor alike die. But then that’s not quite the issue. Being rich is not wrong. Trusting in riches is. By the same token, poverty itself is not a virtue. On the contrary, it is an urgent aspect of ministry and mission. The spiritual poverty that Jesus would later commend (Matthew 5:3) means we know our strength lies in someone other than ourselves. That attitude of need may be more elusive for those who feel themselves to be self-sufficient. The Biblical perspective is that this is a danger more for the materially rich than the materially poor.

A further thought, one that doesn’t come directly out of this text, but is prompted by it: Why is it when we speak of heaven we tend to think of its delights as being extensions or fulfillments of earthly enjoyments? You know, the golf course to end all golf courses, and when you play it your slice is gone - that kind of thing. All we really know is that we will be with God and enjoy complete union with him and all those who have trusted in him. It’s about an indestructible relationship, in and through his Son Jesus Christ (Romans 8:38-39). As for what we will be like, Scripture focuses on the complete change in us, rather than any sort of continuation of what we now know (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:35-53).

There is a truth in this Psalm that is a commonplace observation: Death is the great leveler. But Scriptural faith goes beyond that to something more powerful. We are made for eternity. What kind of eternity that will be depends in no way on the values we get from life in this world. That’s a hard lesson for the rich of experience, the rich of knowledge, the rich of wisdom accumulated through life. For the mature of faith, all those things are tools of service, perhaps means of edification and enjoyment in life. They count for nothing for eternity (see Philippians 3:7-9). We all depend on one thing and one thing only: belief in the risen Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9).

Prayer:
God, give me a right perspective on, and enjoyment of, the things of this world. Through Christ. Amen.

What's a Meta Phor?

2008-05-21T10:23:00.001-04:00

Psalm 48

When trying to express the inexpressible, we make use of what is available. When trying to convey some big reality, I fumble around for an “It’s like” – otherwise known as a metaphor. I find myself doing that in trying to explain something my sons ask me (although I find more and more they are helping me understand at lot!).

There is a concern within this Psalm to pass on what is most valuable to the next generation and beyond. What is most valuable is to know the Lord. After a celebration of the Lord’s power in history and over against the world’s mightiest rulers, the scene focuses in on Jerusalem and the temple, where the people gather to experience God together. This gathering together has always been vital to the Judeo-Christian community. In early years of the church, Christians gathered in homes, or wherever they could, for teaching, communion, and empowerment. But the apostles still went to the temple. This was at this point still a part of Judaism. But it became just as important for those little groups with their own worshiping lives and learning and serving to come together for the celebration of worship together as it was in Old Testament times. Christians might say there was even more to be called together to celebrate. The traditional Presbyterian worship service begins with a “Call to Worship” – and we still need to acknowledge somehow that we are called together in this way.

Anyway, having that kind of experience in the temple and looking around at its impressive features, this became the “It’s like” for the older worshipers instructing the younger ones. It was intended to point to the limitless power of the God acting on earth. And even in the pre-resurrection faith expressed here, it hints at the eternal life we are intended for with Him (verse 14).

Prayer:
Great God, expand my perception of you in the multitude of ways you reveal yourself. You make the impossible happen by allowing us to see and experience in tangible ways what is your glory. Help us develop ways of celebrating you and sharing you with whatever means that can help. About the worst sin your church could commit, apart from outright heresy and hypocrisy, would be to be boring. Let us do our utmost to give expression to the wonder of you in this generation, and for the next. Through Christ. Amen.

Dig This Whole

2008-05-15T23:19:00.002-04:00

Psalm 47

So at certain times the people would have this big celebration like they were putting God on his throne. Only they knew they weren’t really doing this, and couldn’t. This was one time to say, “It’s about me.” By ‘putting’ God on his throne they were putting themselves in their place: “He’s God and we’re not.” Also it would serve as a way of putting together the two parts of their national life. Israel was, after all, both a religious and political entity.

So by ‘putting’ God on the throne of my own life, by this gesture of submission I also necessarily have to look at the various parts of my life to try to make sure they are parts in function only, and not compartments of varying subjection to God’s oversight and will. That can be ethically convenient, but disastrous to living.

In personalizing this song, though, I should not overlook the call to the nations to clap their hands. Even a s figure of speech, it’s tantalizing to conjure up what that would look and sound like: All peoples, all leaders, putting hands together to praise rather than to strike or to grab (as in grabbing supplies meant for cyclone victims).

For you, me, and for all peoples, the key to integrity is acknowledging who has charge of life as whole.

Prayer:
God, have I made you the Lord over my whole life, so that my life will be therefore whole? In Christ. Amen.

He Who Is Closer than Chaos

2008-05-09T23:45:00.002-04:00

Psalm 46

It’s like there are three stanzas here, with a refrain appearing in verses 7 and 11 – once also after verse 3 but lost through handing down?

The first stanza of this song (verses 1-3) celebrates resistance against the one-step-away-from-disaster sense about life. You know, one more unexpected bill and you’re done; one more fight between the kids and you’re going to really lose it. Or maybe every time you hear about an illness you think you’ve got it or will get it. Or every time your spouse commutes to work you think of the last crazy driver you encountered or heard about. Chaos is ready to pounce on your life with just one little opening.

No, the Psalmist says, we don’t give in to those fears, however real they may be. Why? Because

The Lord almighty is with us (read ‘me’ if you like);
The God of Jacob is our/my fortress.

The God who held back the watery chaos to make a place for creation to flourish (Genesis 1) intended life for us from the beginning, and he’s not about to give up that purpose and desire for us. Trouble may come, but chaos and darkness will not overtake us.

Similarly, (verses 4-7); the rage of the world can assault the center of our faith (in this case seen as Jerusalem, the City of God), but the powerful forces of nations and history cannot prevail against a people who trust in the Lord and his purose and destiny for them. Try reading verses 4-5, substituting “my heart” for “city of God.” This doesn’t speak of a geographical river anyway. So try it, yes now … “There is a river that makes glad my heart …”

And, for a people embattled by spiritual warfare and the struggle of their basic humanity rising up within their redeemed life …

The Lord almighty is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.

And then (verses 8-11), there is this great summation, anticipating the living of life now in the character of the life to be brought by the coming Lord, the effect of kingdom life lived in the midst of the chaotic world: Yes, it is living hope. Why? Because of our unrealized potential? Because we haven’t yet used what is within us? Because there is a basic goodness we just have to let loose from within us? No. It can be realized because

The Lord almighty is with us;
The God of Jacob is our fortress.

And throughout cyberspace God’s people say,
“Amen.”

With the Caring of the Lord

2008-05-07T10:58:00.005-04:00

Psalm 45

The psalm celebrates a king who is divinely appointed and fulfills his role in such a way that he can been seen as a representative of Lord, with the Lord’s own care and love for the people. God gave humanity this kind of care over the life of the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). This is a more specific kind of stewardship of a people.

It would now seem sexist, if not also an example of nationalistic chauvinism, that the king’s foreign bride is told to forget her own people and dedicate herself totally to her husband and her new setting (verses 10-11). In the context, it is a sign of the worthiness of the king. The ancient church saw this marriage as a sign of the submission of the church to the authority and purpose of Christ as King over the church and the world.

The kind of genuine care for people in modern government seems only to be evident in a time of tragedy. The ruling generals of Myanmar (or Burma, whatever it is most properly called), hardly fit the description of kingship in the psalm. We can help, through, among other avenues:
The Presbyterian Church in Canada
Red Cross
World Vision

On another plane, in times of such a monumental tragedy, there is the “why” or “why them or us” type of question. With some discomfort at being overly reflective in the midst of down-to-earth human misery, I recall something I wrote after the Asian Tsunami, which came to mind again in thinking of all the thousands devastated by this cyclone.

Each beating heart got its start from You,
There’s no life apart from Your power and your cue,
But this is one cry through a sudden wave’s wall:
Why them, not I; do You love us all?

Some suffer more from the powers of earth,
What is this for, are there some of lesser worth?
How do you choose who will get the call,
Are some meant to lose, or do You truly love us all?

There’s your Child, arms spread out so wide
So defiled, His tears a mercy tide
Swept along in His wave heavens’ tall,
I join the throngs You will save as You love us all.

Your power can move in any latitude,
Show us your grace of greater magnitude.
By loving mighty fire and your reign installed
May no one need inquire, or ever doubt, if You love us all.

‘Cause there’s your Child, arms spread out so wide
So defiled, His tears a mercy tide
Swept along in His wave heavens’ tall,
I join the throngs You will save as You love us all.

Though the earth will quake, skies will be torn,
Our bond will not break with a new world that’s born

‘Cause there’s your Child, arms spread out so wide
So defiled, His tears a mercy tide
Swept along in His wave heavens’ tall,
I join the throngs You will save as you love us all.

As You Love Us All, Copyright © 2006 James Kitson

Prayer:
God, thank you that you hear the cries of your children throughout the earth. You are the unchanging God, but you are not unaffected or unmoved by the circumstances of people, when they call out to you, or others call to you on their behalf. Thank you for those who care; speed the efforts of those seeking to help people now undergoing disaster. Through Christ. Amen.

The Only Power Over You

2008-05-06T09:23:00.001-04:00

Psalm 44

The Psalmist reflects that in times of victory, the real power was the Lord’s, fulfilling his purpose. Things have turned sour in the context of writing. There’s been some sort of national defeat. The intensity of the anguish involves seeing the Lord in this turn of things (verse 9). He protests that the nation has not turned on or away from the Lord.

The hope in this comes at the point of the most pain. This situation might be easier to wrestle with if it were not seen as the hand of the Lord. But where would that leave him? Where would it leave us if the attacks in life were things the Lord were completely separated from? It would mean those things would be what have power over us. As it is, he at least is acknowledging God’s control over things. If there is to be any hope in circumstances beyond our control, where is strength, help and hope going to come from? From the circumstances? From us? What/Who does that leave? Exactly.

The reason for trials is usually and frustratingly impervious to our perception. We yet have the Lord. Even if he has had a hand in our trials, the maturity of faith knows that that ultimately can only be good.

Prayer:
Grow me up Lord, to trust in your workings, and to begin to see even the outline of your shape in my life. Through Christ. Amen.

until the answer comes

2008-04-29T21:18:00.003-04:00

Psalm 43

In Psalm 42, from a setting of exile, the psalmist has poured out his longing to experience God in the Temple. Now he prays that God would deal with those circumstances that prevent him from being present at the Temple. He commits to praising him there as the joy of his life. Then the last verse of Psalm 42 is repeated (43:5). In these lines the psalmist addresses himself (“my soul”). But, with what builds within the psalmist in these few verses, it seems to me that the note of hope at the end now comes with more power than when the verse appeared before (42:11). The dialogue of longing bears fruit with the gift of inner assurance and even quiet joy. This inner transformation happens independently of external circumstances, even while he prays for change in those circumstances.

The lesson I take in this is that if we converse honestly with our Lord, he will, even before our outward circumstances change, give us inner encouragement and strength to persist until the outcome he has in mind is fulfilled. I love the term blogger Kim Heinecke of Edmond, Oklahoma, has adopted: deliberate hope. That’s what earnest dialogue with the Lord brings within us.

Prayer:
Lord, I pray for … , who I know is struggling with a long-time problem. The resolution is visible, but seems very far away. Give … your encouragement. May your Holy Spirit prompt a conversation with you to bear fruit in hope. Through Christ. Amen.

Longing

2008-04-26T00:40:00.004-04:00

Psalm 42

The consensus among Bible scholars seems to be that Psalms 42 and 43 are one composition. But for some reason they are in Scripture as Psalms in their own right so we will treat them as such.

In the dry season, the deer longs for flowing streams. That’s how the psalmist longs for God in the temple, an experience denied him due to a condition of exile. Note that he is not without God. He’s conversing with God (verse 8). But he longs for experience of God in the Temple. I would make this comparison: You play an musical instrument, you sing, just for the joy of it – in the shower maybe (well, not with your guitar, I hope). Or you sing to yourself when you’re out gardening. You pick up your oboe and play a Mozart melody. Or you’re pretty good at shooting hoops, or picking a top corner of hockey net with a tennis ball in the driveway. You can do this on your own.

But then you just long all the more to use that guitar in a band, to blend your voice with a couple of others in a vocal team, to sit down with your oboe in a chamber ensemble – and to experience the merging of the love of music, on the part of individuals, into a unified sound – all the more glorious in its unity for the variety within it. There’s something even mystic about it; on rare occasions you become like one in mind and spirit as you no longer play the music, but rather the music plays you, or through you: an appropriate and fitting use of the word medium.

Or you take that love of the feel of the hard surface of the basketball briefly touching and releasing as it presses into your hand, the roll of the ball off your fingers; and you add to that the sound of the ball on the gym floor, the squeak of your shoes joining others, the sweat building, the back and forth, the reaching for rebounds …. so much more than shooting hoops in your driveway.

Or you take that hockey stick and your bag and … well, you get the idea.

The Psalmist knows God. But he longs for something more than picking or singing or pressing his lips to that double-reed on his own. He longs to merge his voice and heart in a setting where God has been experienced as meeting and joining people together as one in him. But it’s about so much more, or less, than just looking for an experience, or “The Feeling,” as some call it. It’s not about what you get, but what you bring. That’s what so much worship strategizing misses: Everyone longs to give what they have to give. Most of us are tired of the whole ‘getting’ thing, I think, whether we consciously identify it or not. We sense that our real dignity is in giving, in offering, in losing ourselves in some way. Our worship needs to work to give people the opportunity to do that.

Maybe a part of the problem is that a lot of us who are already Christians have lost the longing. That’s sad. But I say all this by way of confession. When I read the following recently, it convicted me:

“Did it ever strike you odd that in contemporary Christian jargon, it’s the pre-Christians who are called seekers? Where does that leave the Christians? Shouldn’t Christian leaders be the lead seekers?” - Brian D. McLaren, in Adventures in Missing the Point, by Brian D. McLaren and Tony Campolo

Prayer:
God, I acknowledge with humility and relief that our knowing of each other is not an equal matter. Forgive me when I forget that. Every week I read about you, I study you, I analyze you, but I don’t know you at all, except as you choose to reveal yourself to me, through conversation that you allow. But whatever you choose to reveal is more than enough for me. And so I go on both knowing you and longing for you. In this is life. Through Christ. Amen.

In Big Letters

2008-04-23T11:06:00.004-04:00

Galatians 6:11-18

Paul writes this last part in his own writing and with big letters, like he's saying, get this. We’ll conclude our walk through this letter by focusing on what Paul says counts: “What counts is a new creation” (verse 15b). What does not count? “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything” (verse 15a).

The new creation in Christ is a personal experience, but it is not an individual experience, at least not only an individual experience; it belongs to, is experienced in, and lived out in, a community of faith. So variety of humanity is wonderful; divisive distinctions are intolerable. The circumcision controversy was not about just one ritual among many, a tradition as other traditions can be difficult to leave behind.. This was a particular matter of identity. But the new identity is with Christ. Along with identity goes commitment in love and service to others.

I’m in a church that has, in the past, been big on tradition and not so much on personal encounter. It has been good, in more recent times, to have an emphasis on the latter. But we should not be absorbed in an individualistic approach to faith – as some songs get caught up in - as if it’s just about “me and Jesus” and the rest of the world can go where it’s going.

God’s fervent desire is for all to be saved. The witness together of the faith community, focusing on Christ alone as its head, can and will bring real hope to all with ears to hear and eyes to see.

Prayer:
Thanks, God, for this honest outpouring of Paul to people he loved but was not happy with. Let your church today speak the truth in love, wherever needed. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

Next in Open Journal: We'll continue the Psalms, with Book II.

The Practice Field

2008-04-21T21:27:00.001-04:00

Galatians 6:1-10

Paul’s urging to “do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (verse 10) is not so much a ‘charity begins at home’ kind of thing, as an antidote to the dynamics of competition that can and do happen in the family of believers. The emphasis is on doing good to all. We need to keep in mind that in the background is a churning power and control struggle, and, specifically, the controversy over the attempted imposition of certain rituals. Genuine caring for one another is a sign of faith life that is a free and joyful response to God’s grace in Christ, rather than a matter of adhering to rituals, or getting one’s way. The faith community has to get that right, or the mission to do good to all is jeopardized before it begins. We also take the context seriously if we see the last bit of advice as being connected to the concern about restoring one another in the faith community with gentleness and caring (verse 1). That is, at the time of writing, evidently, a pressing issue, and a very practical and important example of what it means to do good within the family of believers.

Prayer:
Wonderful God, of all the things that can wear me down, it is good to know that I can never be worn down by doing good. Thanks. Through Jesus. Amen.

Choose

2008-04-17T23:03:00.002-04:00

Galatians 5:16-26

You have been called to be free, Paul has just been saying. There is a picture of what that freedom looks like. It’s called service, to God and other people.

Now Paul gets to the power behind that freedom and service: the Holy Spirit.

This power is not an “it” but “he”. This power is so personal, so powerful. he has an enemy. That’s what happens when you are on to something that is really of God: you attract opposition, resentment, jealousy. Paul calls the enemy ‘the flesh’ – variously translated also as sinful nature, selfishness, selfish desires. It is just the world’s usual standard and way of doing things (flesh > physical > of the world). It can seem innocuous, even good. But the way of the Spirit and the way of the world are so opposed, that if we live only according to the physical nature, the outcome is not just less than what it could be, but rather it is actually and actively opposed to God’s purposes. That leads to the list of unsavoury things (verse 19-21) that are the ultimate fruit of this approach to life.

My take? This calls for daily immersion in the Spirit. We are so easily caught up in the standards of the everyday. We need to be aware that there is a daily battle going on over our loyalty. The Spirit and the ‘flesh’ are not components of human nature, but they are cosmic realities that use human lives as their battleground, and seek us as their trophies. The question is – for the church as for individuals – are we going to live according to the Spirit, and be fully open to his engaging, dynamic, impossible-to-fail power; or are we going to base our decisions, direction, and lines of authority according to the ‘realities’ of the ‘real’ world – a world which, in case you didn’t notice, is passing away.

What will you choose? What will you choose, church?

Prayer:
Purify my mind, heart and spirit in your Holy Spirit, Lord. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Free to Serve

2008-04-16T10:36:00.003-04:00

Galatians 5:7-15

Back when we went through Exodus in Open Journal, we found that when God directed Moses to speak to Pharaoh, the Lord said,

"Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me" (Exodus 9:1). Other versions say, “… that they may serve me.” I guess we catch the double meaning when we talk about the worship service, or serving God by worshiping God in our lives.

The connection here is really important, and runs against the grain of the way much of the world thinks and operates. Freedom is connected with service, particularly serving/worshiping God and serving others. This runs naturally into Paul’s quotation in verse 14 of our present passage.

Freedom is not, as it seems some thought, liberty to act without responsibility, but to have a direction in life that is focused on the Lord, since he knows what is best for us, and works for our true fulfillment in the life that he has loaned us to share with others.

I’m going to make a point of serving someone today in some intentional way, and experience the freedom of God.

Prayer:
Lord, give me discernment to see, and the love to act on, someone’s need today, not just so I can experience the freedom that is connected with service, but so that they ultimately will find that freedom as well. Through Christ. Amen.

Knit It But Then Live It

2008-04-09T22:22:00.001-04:00

Galatians 5:1-6

It is good to be reminded at this point that the Law certainly has its role. Christians revere the 10 Commandments as God’s certain will for us (not the 10 Suggestions). The danger of the law is as a means of salvation. The Law can’t save. And the more precise point here is that any rite that would lead to a religion based on law is to be shunned. But now there is a new, positively expressed note in this theme: “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Gal. 5:6). This is the freedom Christians have been set free for (verse 1). In other words, because of Christ, we do freely what the law would have compelled us to do! Jesus himself said the greatest command – the sum of the law and the prophets - is to love God above all and my neighbour as myself (Matthew 22:34-40). The “new command” John records is to love one another (John 13:34-35). The gracious effect of following love as a command is that we keep loving with sacrificial love, putting others ahead of ourselves, even when we don’t feel like it. In fact it is all the more love then. So much for love as mere emotion or sentiment. The worst thing that could happen with verse 6 is for it to be put into needlepoint (speaking for myself, of course, with apologies to all the crafty types!).

Prayer:
Lord, let my faith be expressed in love that puts others first. Through Christ. Amen.

Love and Leadership

2008-04-08T15:42:00.002-04:00

Galatians 4:21-31

Paul's analysis from history serves as background to a pressing leadership issue at Galatia: what to do about those who insisted on ritual under the law for all Christians?

His history lesson draws puts the natural birth of Ishmael to the slave woman, Hagar, in association with Mount Sinai (where the law was given) and the earthly Jerusalem. On the other hand is Isaac, born by the promise of God to Sarah in old age. He is associated with the Jerusalem “that is above” (see Revelation 21:1-2). The implication is that those who align themselves with the new covenant of promise are both free and part of the larger family of God. The Sinai/earthly Jerusalem tradition is connected with one people; the heavenly Jerusalem with all those who trust in Jesus on the basis of grace.

All this is background Paul sets out as he deals with a leadership issue: what to do with those who are taking away from the purity of the Gospel and its inclusiveness in the local setting? The painful conclusion is that it is better for them to be put out of the church than contaminate the whole. That’s the point of the reference in verse 30. It should be clear, however, that the contamination is in their thinking, not in their persons. This may be one of the first instances where church leadership had to act in a difficult way in recognition that members of the church are to be held accountable for their beliefs and place and conduct in the Body of Christ. In our marketing-oriented world, it is good to remember that church members are just that: members, not customers. We love and serve one another and our Lord as servants of God – first God - and one another.

Prayer:
Lord, let us serve one another in your church on the basis you provide: on the basis of love. We may find Paul’s thinking odd at times, Lord, but we thank you for his example in seeking a Biblical basis in all things. Let us be diligent in shaping life and practice according to Scripture and not the other way around. Through Christ. Amen.

Will Return

2008-04-04T08:51:00.002-04:00

In case anyone is wondering, posts to Open Journal will return next week.
JK

A Pastor's Motive

2008-03-27T11:44:00.001-04:00

Galatians 4:12-20

Paul recalls how his first visit to Galatia had been due to a physical illness that had come on him. It is not clear that this is the same as the “thorn in the flesh” referred to in 2 Corinthians 12:7, although it could be. Apparently, whatever it was, it had the potential to be off-putting to the Galatians; either as unsightly or infectious. Still, they welcomed him as a messenger from heaven.

What has happened to that spirit of welcome toward him, Paul wants to know. The answer to that may come within the warning that follows. Paul goes on to warn them against the designs of those who are seeking to influence them, and who already have (verses 17-18). The suggestion is that they are more interested in adding to their sphere of influence than they are in the well-being of the Galatians.

He asks if he must go through something like childbirth in order to renew their life relying only on the grace of God in Christ. The comment about wishing he could be with them and change his tone reveals something of the extent of Paul’s exasperation. But I don’t get that this is personal in the sense of offense at his time and energy with them having to be repeated and doubled in order to get them back to where there were. No, it is clearly a concern for their own well-being in holding to a true path in Christ, and that, as shepherd-pastor, he is watching out for danger to the spiritual well-being of this flock.

Prayer:
God, preserve my leadership from being about making what I do – or any of us do - bear fruit so we see the results of our labours, and be all about faithfulness in our walk together in Way who is Christ. Amen.

What Manner of Friends

2008-03-24T09:57:00.004-04:00

Galatians 4:1-11

It’s a little gutsy to ask someone to be your friend. It was gutsy in the schoolyard, and it’s gutsy on Facebook. Paul is celebrating that God sought to expand his friends list, reach beyond Israel. God took the initiative.

The Jewish community lived under a Law that could not be fulfilled. The rest of the world has lived under the equivalent of the Law for them: elemental spirits, the movement of the stars, self-actualization – whatever way of organizing life and priorities that has been consciously or unconsciously assumed.

God offers to take all from a state of inevitable frustration – from slavery – to being his children. He is God, after all, while we are not. In relation to him we become children (John 1:12), not buddies. Still, Jesus, in fellowship with his disciples, said he would call them ‘friends’ because he was sharing his plans with them (John 15:15).

I think the sum of Biblical teaching in this area is that we get to call God ‘abba’ (Dad), because his action through his Son and the Holy Spirit is that we have the opportunity to be the adopted sisters and brothers of his Son (who is his ‘one and only’ or ‘only begotten’ Son depending on the translation of John 3:16).

However we understand these things, I think it must hurt God when we reject or ignore him.

Question: How do you understand John 1:12 and the ‘one and only’ of John 3:16 to relate to each other?

Prayer:
God, I accept your invitation. Thank you that I am your child through Christ my brother, who is yet my master. Amen.

Promise and Law

2008-03-18T11:10:00.003-04:00

Galatians 3:15-29

Paul argues that the promise to Abraham is prior to the Law. In the context of the writing of this letter, this is especially important in providing for inclusiveness for those who have not lived under the Law as a way of life. The promise to Abraham is fulfilled in Christ, Paul argues, so that all those who follow Christ are the true children of Abraham.

What function, then is there for the Law? Paul points out that the Law serves to point to the Gospel in that we realize our need for the grace of the Gospel through our inability to fulfill the Law. There is a more ‘positive’ function for the Law (although it is not expressed so much at this point in the letter) in that the Law certainly does express God’s will and command. It is hardly to be shoved aside! As God’s will and command it expresses what life lived under the Promise of God looks like.

Prayer:
God, thank you for sure direction, and for making clear to us that there is right and wrong in this world. We do find, though, Lord, that in specific situations what is right is not always clear. At such times help us to spend even more time with you in prayer, seek the counsel of trusted Christian friends, read and re-read your Word, and trust that the answers will come. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Uncomplicated

2008-03-13T11:55:00.002-04:00

Galatians 3:6-14

Christianity began as a sect of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. The disciples were Jews. The roots of the faith are in Judaism. Christ’s coming was foretold as part of Jewish prophecy. Controversy began when non-Jews were welcomed into the sect. This was the first big church conflict: Can non-Jews be Christians? How did it get flipped around so that now it is more likely today for it to be considered odd for a Jew to be a Christian? Some scholars say the big turning point was at the end of the first century, when a school of rabbis effectively excommunicated the Christians from Judaism. Christianity was in a way a reform movement that grew out of its original context. Consider, then, what history calls The Reformation. The “Reformers” (do we forget what that word means – the intent of Luther et al was not a new church, but a reformed one?) attempted to change the existing church and ended up ‘starting’ the Protestant church.

History repeats. How many instances do you know of (there is an example here locally) where there is an attempt to bring something new and vibrant within the existing church, but the church as it is can’t handle it, so a ‘new’ church is the result? The good side is that the mosaic of the Body of Christ increases so that there is increased opportunity for people to know Jesus and grow in him. The down side is that something of the unity of our adventure for the kingdom together is lost.

Paul’s dream – and what everyone seemed to have started with – was that all could be part of this new venture. Jews could be Jews and keep whatever practices were important to them. Gentiles would not be obliged to be part of that. Jews would not be offended at that. Gentiles would not be offended at what Jews felt important for them. The power of the Spirit initially overcame all class and ethnic distinctions.

The part of Paul’s letter to the Galatians we are at addresses the question of the role of the Law given to Moses in the church as it began, given that the church included people without the background that included the Law (an instructive question for a church, and especially preachers, attempting to communicate with people with no background in any of this!). Paul reasons that God considered Abraham righteous by faith (Genesis 15:4-6). Abraham’s family are those who also follow the Lord through faith, and not by heritage or by following the Law, which is impossible to do completely anyway. The Law is even a ‘curse’ if considered the means of salvation, since it is impossible for anyone to fulfill.

Next (Galatians 3:15-29): So what role does the biblical Law have?’

Prayer:
What a wonderful plan you have for us, Lord! Why do we work so hard at making complicated what you have made so simple? Help me un-complicate my life; help people in high places un-complicate their lives; and let us live in the simplicity of trusting you. Through Christ. Amen.

Receive the Spirit

2008-03-11T22:30:00.004-04:00

Galatians 3:1-5

Here Paul turns to (on?) the people, not just certain leaders. He holds the entire community accountable. Why? Why not just say, “This is a leadership problem.” In a way it is. It is a problem for Paul as their leader, since he cares about them, so he’s addressing the problem in the hearts and lives of the people. So, to get back to the question I started with, he holds the people accountable because it is the people who received the Spirit! The Spirit, in Old Testament times, is described sometimes as coming to certain people for certain purposes, but even then God was pointing people to something different (see Joel 2:28-29). At Pentecost, the Spirit did not come just to Peter, but to all the assembled disciples. The Spirit today should not be understood as coming to the pastor, elders, staff, congregational power-brokers, or whoever, who then have the responsibility of sharing the life of the church outwardly to the rest. No, no, no. The Spirit, the personal power of the age-to-come-made-present, is a gift bestowed upon the whole people who will receive him, with various gifts to the people who are to then be the ministers of Christ. Those of us who lead? We should always be aiming to be as transparent as possible, do nothing that someone else can do, always put others forward where possible. We steer the overall direction of the ship and endeavour to stay on a Christ-centered course; and empower others, meaning not that we have any power to give, but rather let people realize the power that is bestowed on them - answering our call so that (as our church says in the preamble to ordination of elders/ministers) “the church may be renewed and nurtured for ministry” (emphasis mine).

Prayer:
Lord, I pray for a new bestowal of your Holy Spirit on your people, that we would receive him, that we would be so overwhelmed by his power awakening your new age and your new order of things, that we would put behind us all notions, categories, practices and habits that belong to the old age and the ways of the world that we ought to know better than to cling to. Through Jesus. Amen.

No Advantage

2008-03-10T17:20:00.001-04:00

Galatians 2:11-21

I have been part of the church as long as I have lived. I went to Sunday School, youth group, played in the band for a youth musical that toured around Ontario, studied, and studied, and studied, for ordained ministry, having attained the requisite bachelor’s degree (in music, since I thought I was going to be a music teacher until I got that God had other plans), I have served on countless committees, commissions, investigative teams, as convener of this and that, as Clerk of one Presbytery, and as Moderator of another, been interim-moderator for other churches I don’t know how many times, and I’ve been to five Presbyterian Church General Assemblies (that’s got to count for something!). I might say I’ve done a lot for God.

So let’s say someone comes along who has done nothing for God, or anyone. Not even thought about it. Lived entirely for himself. Until one day he looks deep into his emptiness, gets tired of dead-end everything. Accidentally, he listens to a Christian radio station and hears Chris Tomlin singing his version of Amazing Grace, and he’s convicted, done for, zapped, slain, dead and awakened all at once. Somehow he remembers some guy in a suit at a funeral for a friend say to get Jesus and a whole new indestructible worthwhile forever life, all you have to do is tell him you believe in him and you want him to take over. So he does. And this is pretty heavy for him because he knows he’s done some bad stuff, done and dealt some drugs, maybe, OK certainly, responsible for a death or more, who knows. He’s lived a side of life most people only get a glimpse of without even knowing what they’re seeing.

Who has the advantage before God, him or me?

Yes, it’s a trick question. The answer is neither. Well maybe him in a way because he may have, after all this, a more vibrant, personally shared faith than me.

How can there be any advantage, any distinction, any anything between us before the Jesus who went through what he went through for your sake and mine, and all of us together? How dare I even contemplate the question? There is one thing necessary for life. When was I saved? When was this guy saved? Over 2,000 years ago. We just have to claim it. Paul is careful always to talk about grace through faith, not because of faith or on account of faith because not even our faith is any kind of accomplishment.

I don’t know if anyone really understands what got into Peter, but somehow these visitors from Jerusalem got him off getting all of that. The richness of his heritage was really rich, really great, but was no advantage. It was even an obstacle if anyone thought of it that way, or required it in any way of anyone. There can be no thought of any advantage or anything that even seems like it.

One thing is necessary. Thank God.

Prayer:
Thank you, God, that you are not fair as we would understand that. Through Christ. Amen.

no one size for all

2008-03-06T23:25:00.002-05:00

Galatians 2:1-10

Here is an example of good conflict. I mean it was good in that the approach that prevailed out of it was that one could follow certain former practices, such as circumcision, or not. But, as observed in this forum before, no such practice should be considered necessary. Paul was concerned to have the support of the Jerusalem ‘pillar’ Christians for his focus on Gentiles. One would suspect he would have been undeterred anyway. This is because of the one power and authority in whom all distinctions fall away – except for the distinctions that just make for a variety of humanity. Even more, the solution meant that leaders were mandated to go to those they were most likely to be able to connect with.

Prayer:
Lord, may we acknowledge and work with our differences as strengths. As a community of faith, each of us who is part of that community can do our part to touch a life in the unique way we were conceived in the mind of God, born, nurtured, and encouraged to do so. In Christ. Amen.

Credibility Factor

2008-03-03T12:03:00.002-05:00

Galatians 1:11-24

With his apostleship under attack, Paul relates the revelation to him of the Gospel in all its power. He does not claim any knowledge that no one else has. A testimony would be egocentric if it claimed some sort of special knowledge. Paul makes no such claim. That would have made him a cult leader. What he has had is a special experience of the person, truth and power who is Jesus Christ.

There is no boasting here except for the power of Christ himself (compare 1 Corinthians 1:26-31). It is fitting and important to share this experience as an example of the power of the Gospel to change lives.

Prayer:
Lord, is my speech made suspect by who is speaking? May what I say point to the Truth who is beyond me, and be made credible by that same Truth acting in me. Through Christ himself. Amen.

Whom to Please

2008-02-28T09:26:00.003-05:00

Galatians 1:8-10

The issue going on behind the scenes here was that some were insisting that you had to be a Jew to be a Christian. Of course one can be, the problem comes in insisting on any sort of rites as being necessary. Our church doesn’t even hold baptism to be necessary for salvation, just what it represents. One should be baptized upon coming to faith, but that’s another post or more.

The parallel concern here is one of authority in the church. There is one authority – “Christ our only King and head”, as my church acknowledges. But would an observer really get that? Do those of us in the thick of things really get that? It means the Gospel of Christ, not just about Christ, has its own authority, its own power, its own direction. We strategize and analyze and market and target – which is fine and good and it may help us zero in on real situations and real human needs and how to communicate with those who desperately need the liberation of that Gospel’s power in their/our bondage to this dying order of things – but sometimes it seems as if God is required to act through the filter of our strategies.

Meanwhile, authority is a huge issue in the church. What to do and how and who has the say about it all is an ongoing, often perplexing, dynamic. We bring more human baggage to that process than we ever perceive, even though it’s easy enough to perceive a lot of it. Somehow, amazingly but not so amazingly when you consider what power is at work, God gets enough of a piece of our hearts and minds enough of the time that we go forward – as long as we keep reminding ourselves and one another that our goal is to please God. And one with particular responsibility for proclaiming the Gospel lives under the impending curse that will most certainly fall on him (verses 8-9) if he fails to be faithful to the task.

Prayer:
Lord, keep me true to the one authority I need be concerned with. Through the grace of Christ. Amen.

responding

2008-02-27T12:06:00.003-05:00

Galatians 1:1-7

There is blunt message in the salutation. Every other letter of Paul has, within the opening greeting, words of commendation to the people to whom he is writing. Not here. He is ticked. The reason is to be found in verses 6-7. There are those in the Galatian churches who have abandoned the teaching Paul brought them, and have challenged his authority as an apostle.

Although the attack on him is personal, the issue Paul confronts them with concerns the essence of the Gospel message. They have, as we shall see in the letter, watered down the grace of the Gospel, in favour of reliance on various works. Their attack on his apostleship is just part of that. Paul is ticked because they are missing the point of the Gospel. When they discredit him, they discredit the message he brings. A person was only considered an apostle if they had direct experience of the risen Lord. He had such experience (see Acts 9).

It is by Christ’s sacrifice alone, not by human works, that anyone can experience the power and blessing of the Gospel. The benefit is to be delivered from the power of an order of things that is not of the Lord (verse 4). So Paul desires that the Galatians would experience for themselves the ‘grace’ (the means) and ‘peace’ (eternal blessedness experienced in the present) that the true Gospel brings.

Prayer:
Lord God, it is so easy to slip into old patterns. I don’t need to look to others for examples of that. The message of salvation is so simple that it is hard to believe it is so simple – simple but not easy, because it is hard to accept what is totally a gift: where are the strings? I want to see myself in things that work, and my part in it. Thank you that you give us more than enough to do by way of joyful response. Life is full, responding. Thank you. Through Christ. Amen.

Spiritual Economics 101

2008-02-26T09:52:00.003-05:00

Psalm 41

We easily could look back on this psalm from a couple of New Testament vantage points. One is a part of the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, to which the opening verses of Psalm 41 are similar ...

Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
- Matthew 5:7

The other is Jesus’ comment, recorded in John 13:18, “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'”

These two references highlight for me that it is a special witness to God’s grace when his people can be merciful when they are not experiencing such treatment themselves. It is great to be kind-hearted when things are going well. I rarely snap at anyone when I’m feeling things are good. The unredeemed part of me comes more into play when I’m feeling put upon in some way. They I need God’s special grace.

I’m going to take a break from the Psalms at this point, as we have reached the end of Book I. For an article on the Psalms that includes discussion of their arrangement into ‘books’ (under heading, “Collection, Arrangement and Date”), go to
http://www.ibs.org/niv/studybible/psalms.php

Next: The Letter to the Galatians

Prayer:
Lord, this psalm reminds me how much I need daily infusions of your own mercy – and discipline - that I would be merciful to others. Thank you for the honesty of these psalms, and for the vitality of your Word reaching into everyday life and living. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.

He works in the tension

2008-02-22T10:13:00.002-05:00

Psalm 40

There is tension in this psalm that it is not necessary to explain by saying it is actually two different psalms put together. That’s what some say. The power of the psalm comes from that very tension, and the completeness of the psalm as one outpouring is shown in the return at the end to the plea of the beginning.

What is the tension? There is praise of God, expressing confidence in him, but the psalmist also pleads for help, even vindication (14). It’s my situation: celebrating faith and trust in God even while I need assurance of his presence and help. The vindication is as much that the God will be shown to be in charge as much as it has a motive of self-interest. It is so that the faithfulness of God to those who trust in him will be evident. And this time – unlike some other times when we’ve read of plea to destroy enemies – he asks that enemies be put to shame and confusion, turned back. That leaves in play the possibility that they would be included in the prayer of verse 16. OK, there’s nothing that exactly points to that, but it seems to me that to include the possibility is in the spirit of humility in the concluding verse.

We use the word “inclusive” sometimes as if we invented the concern it represents. Meanwhile, it is hard for us – OK, me – sometimes to get my mind and heart around the fact that God really wants me to be part of his concern to offer rescue from destruction to everyone.

Prayer:
Lord, I celebrate that you do not approach invitations as we people do: thinking who is useful to us, considering whom it is in our interest to please, and who has done something for us lately. Let your Spirit bring expansiveness to my view of my fellow humanity, as I too am poor and needy. In Christ. Amen.

Not from Within

2008-02-19T14:33:00.002-05:00

Psalm 39

This psalm sounds rather bleak. At the end there is no apparent revelation of light and hope. As with the previous Psalm, it is in the context of illness and oppression from enemies. The concluding verse asks God to turn away from him, because he senses the Lord’s punishment. That’s because, again as with the previous psalm, the writer acknowledges his own role in what has come on him.

The irony here is that what may seem to be lacking is actually a sign of how deep the Psalmist’s trust in God is. The part that might seem lacking to us is a belief in an experience of God beyond this present life. How much of our expression of faith – from a New Testament perspective, that is – is grounded in our belief in the Resurrection? Paul the Apostle bases pretty much everything on this! Think about this: the psalmist is lacking in that aspect of faith Christians would consider the ground of everything, and yet he trusts in God, with the same trust as his ancestors – in the Lord who journeys with those who look to him.

When you first read this Psalm, you might wonder what is of hope, because the psalmist’s background is not the same as ours. But hope does not come from what we bring. Hope comes only from the Lord, not from anything within us. That’s why it is real hope, and not mere optimism.

Prayer:
God of surprises, I am so relieved and grateful that the hope you give me does not depend on anything in me – except a willingness to receive, and even that comes from you. Your grace is total. What a God you are! Through Christ I pray. Amen.

What's at Stake

2008-02-15T10:01:00.003-05:00

Psalm 38

David here acknowledges his own role in what has come on him (verses 1-4), but the withdrawal of his friends and the opportunism of his enemies goes beyond what might be considered deserved. He realizes, because his situation is so overwhelming, that his only hope is in God. So really his predicament is no different than that of you or I, or anyone.

At one level of the parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11-32), humanity is the child who wanted to go his/her own way. God is the loving Father out on the road watching for us to turn to him in the depth of our need. He and all of heaven (Luke 15:7) celebrate when one comes to him. Those already belonging to him would only celebrate, too, and not resent it like the older brother in the parable.

Here’s the thing: There is no hope without him; there is all hope with him. Psalm 107 celebrates that whatever predicament or wretchedness we get ourselves into, God is ready to deliver us at one cry from us.

Why is that churches with a large proportion of new Christians are so vibrant? Because their memory of the change is recent and alive for them. We all need to recapture some of that: the sense that all hope is found in God and there is – as the psalmist found in our current reading – there is no other way. Without him we are all “feeble and utterly crushed” (verse 8). Does God hold this over us? No. Does he say, “I told you so”? No. He does come quickly (verse 22) and then celebrates. Our worship is a reverberation of God’s – and heaven’s – own celebration.

Prayer:
O LORD, do not forsake me;
be not far from me, O my God.
Come quickly to help me,
O Lord my Savior.
– Psalm 38:21-22

Fretless Instrument

2008-02-12T11:43:00.000-05:00

Psalm 37

It is pointed out that this psalm is not so much a psalm – in the sense of other psalms – but a collection of wisdom sayings, or proverbs. From a literary standpoint, the thoughts of the psalm are loosely connected, because of the nature of the poem’s formation – verses beginning with subsequent letters of the alphabet.

The general theme seems to be encouragement for the ‘godly’ who suffer because of their faith. What strikes me most powerfully comes in verses 14-15, observing that any plot against the godly (are we to assume in godly endeavours?) carries within it the seed of its own destruction. This in itself is helpful in following the instruction the psalm starts with, not to fret over evildoers, since such a preoccupation can damage your spiritual well-being. There are just better things to focus on, after all. And don’t you start to take on the qualities of that you dwell on, or I might say, get obsessed with?

Prayer:
Lord, remind me that I am made in your image, as part of a community of those who strive to be like you. When I am tempted to dwell on something I perceive as ill-motivated or even mean, turn my head and my heart back to your Son. If anyone had a reason to dwell on injustice against him, well, it sure could have been him, but he just kept turning to you, spending time with you, focusing on your will and your purpose. After the manner of his praying for those who would come after him, I pray that I may be one with him, as he showed himself to be with you. Through Christ I pray. Amen.

Lost: The Continuing Series

2008-02-05T13:11:00.000-05:00

Psalm 36

An ‘oracle in the heart’ (verse 1) sounds painful. It is spiritually so, because of the poet’s sensitivity to the lost life of the “wicked.” I say “lost” not as a synonym for “wicked”, but rather noting the poet’s observation that the person whose state he laments has ceased to be wise and good, implying that something has indeed been lost.

The contrast given to such a life is not some exemplary human life, but the Lord himself, whose love and faithfulness he describes in the most expansive terms he can.

Given the beauty, power and hope with which the section on the Lord is drenched, and given that “the wicked” person who has caused the poet distress apparently has not always been so, I don’t think we can get away with just saying “Isn’t that too bad,” when we read the very last verse:

See how the evildoers lie fallen—
thrown down, not able to rise!

It can be taken as a warning, certainly, but should we not also take it as a challenge, an opportunity to witness just how powerful God's love is? I would take it as a challenge to any sort of, “I’m good with the Lord; isn’t it a shame about those other people” mindset. Yes, praise the Lord, the Lord will continue in his love to those who know him (verse 10), but should not the vastness of the Lord’s love and faithfulness – toward the “high and low among men” (verse 7) and even the beasts! (verse 6) - mean there is hope for anyone?

I believe the community of faith should take the concluding verse of this psalm not as a conclusion, but as a starting point, for which the previous eleven verses lay the groundwork.

Prayer (paraphrase of Romans 15:13):
God of hope, fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in you, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Britney Too

2008-01-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

Psalm 35

Well at least he is looking for God to make a difference in real life. Yes, I know he’s on this enemy kick again, but that’s what he had to deal with. For you and me it might – I hope – be something different.

What’s also very real about this for me is that he is really up and down in his connection with the Lord. He gets kind of in a praise sort of groove in verses 9 and 10, not only looking to God to make a difference in his life and circumstances, but relating to others and their needs. This is good.

Then, wham, he’s right back with being what you might find kind of ‘negative’ and going on about all who oppress him. I guest that's why this is called a lament. But he is, after all, taking it to the Lord. And isn’t it just the way, that you think you are on track, spiritually or otherwise, and then you find it doesn’t take much to ruin your nice thoughts and good intentions. Or am I the only one.

So good for him to persist, and he does end up sharing in praise. When someone is praising God, you don’t question what got them to that point. Maybe it wasn’t all that noble, in our judgment. When a 12 year old hockey player give thanks as part of table grace that he dished out some good hits in the game that day, I’ll take it. At least he talking to God. If he persists in the conversation, God will know what to do with him. Let’s, like the Psalmist, just keep talking.

Prayer:
God, thank you for listening to me. You are never bored, never too tired, and amazingly are not deterred from listening to me even while you are crying God-tears over Kenya, Gaza, and Britney Spears. Yes you love her too. And me. Through Christ. Amen.

Taste and See

2008-01-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

Psalm 34

What is the connection between instruction in the faith, and personal experience? Here the poet commends the ways of the Lord to his community of faith, as a consequence of his experience. Teaching that arises from real experience is going to more compelling than expounding of doctrine.

But how do we keep teaching that comes from experience from being too subjective? I mean, do we not hold to certain truths that are absolute, or, with every new sharing of personal experience, we could be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).

I think part of the answer to this could be explained in familiar modern terms: the greater the sample the more accurate the result. With some notable exceptions, say, the Law given to Moses and the Revelation given directly to John, the teaching in the Bible arises from personal experience in which a people gain understanding of the God who has been dealing with them. It is this record against which we compare and validate personal experience. The Bible’s teaching on God’s redemptive (purchase from slavery) purpose comes from the experience of a people being delivered from slavery, and then from experience of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. In other words, even our doctrine will be more alive to us if we understand it to have arisen from the experience of people with God in their midst. Even a direct revelation like the Ten Commandments came in the context of journey.

Worship in this psalm celebrates in Spirit what is understood about the Lord as a consequence of experience shared in faithful fellowship:

“Taste and see that the Lord is good” (verse 8a).

Prayer:
God, thank you that seeing is not believing. Who of us could see, truly see, without believing? With you, tasting is believing. Through Christ. Amen.

Creation Now

2008-01-25T09:49:00.000-05:00

Psalm 33

This is one of a number of psalms that bring together the work of God in creation (verses 6-9) and active in history (starting at verse 10) through his Word. Creation was made good, complete. Creation is dynamic, but everything necessary was provided.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:38a

Creation is complete. But the pattern of creation is repeated daily in the lives of those who trust God. God’s Word in creation spoke into chaos and darkness and formed beauty, order, and room for life, not just to survive but to thrive. He can do that with us daily if we let him speak his creative Word into our life. Do I put him on the throne of my life daily? Do I let him address those chaotic and dark places in my heart and in my circumstances, or do I think “I can handle it,” or I might just rather complain about certain outward circumstances and use them as excuses for other things, or maybe it’s just easier to coast. That’s to invite further chaos. Better by far:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

And

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

1. Creation is complete.
2. God’s creative, redemptive work can be invited and experienced in our daily life.
3. And God’s creative work is at work in human history, the psalmist celebrates. That’s harder to see, because it is not complete. Are we on the verge of a world recession unlike anything we have experienced? Is there about to be as terrorism wildfire, as the Afghan president has warned? Are we already at a tipping point in the world’s climate? We are hardly to be complacent about those things any more than we are to say “whatever” to our personal circumstances. On the contrary, those and other problems will worsen as long as we as a race and as leaders among us see ourselves as gods unto ourselves. All world events are part of the chaos in which God’s eternal creative Word is presently active toward bringing about a new creation in its fullness, already begun with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With gracious, loving power, it is now growing toward its fulfillment in and through Christ’s Body in the world, the church. What form does that take? It starts very simply:

Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:19-20

What is the end of all this?

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
- Ephesians 1:9-10

Prayer:
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
- Psalm 51:10 The Message

Naked

2008-01-23T11:20:00.000-05:00

Psalm 32

Forgiveness is the invention of God. Our sin grieves him. It disappoints him, but it does not turn him against us. So think what it must mean to him when we actually, willingly, turn to him, trust him, confide in him, even though he knows what we are going to say, what we must say, if we are to be truthful before him.

This Psalm is all about being truthful, before the one who knows what we must say anyway. It leads to a recognition that we are really only who we are when we stand honestly before God. That’s not just because he made us to begin with, but even more because he remakes us. He knows what we are to be, what he has in mind for us. Only he can shape us toward that vision – imagine: God has a vision for you – and we do our part by being spiritually naked before him.

Prayer:
God, I am so grateful that I can utterly trust you with my inmost being. I don’t have to be guarded, I don’t have to worry about what I share with you, because you know it all anyway, even better than I do. Help us move toward that kind of trusting honesty with one another. Through Christ. Amen.

A Sign of Relief

2008-01-15T14:11:00.000-05:00

Psalm 31

He feels like a hunted animal, but for one thing: He has a retreat position that gives him a position of strength (verses 2-3), a refuge in the Lord. When he commends his spirit to the Lord, it is not a sign of resignation, but a sigh of relief, that whatever his battle, he is not on his own. Verse 5 is precious to many Christians because of the same words our Lord uttered on the cross. Even more are these words then not a sign of defeat, but of victory in the midst of circumstances that normally would be seen as defeat.

His prayer goes on (verses 9-13) to have the effect of alleviating the loneliness of his affliction (what can we not handle as long we know we are not alone?), and to see his situation more from God’s perspective (verses 14-24). That means his loneliness is turned to greater fellowship with God and his fellow worshippers, since he has had the freedom to give outward expression to his inner turmoil.

Prayer:
God, I let out now a long, slow breath that carries with it my burdens of the moment. With them I release to you whatever I call mine, including my very life, so that you can make it yours. Through Christ. Amen.

that my heart may sing to you

2008-01-08T22:14:00.000-05:00

Psalm 30

There is an aspect of this psalm that is of critical importance for any worshiping community. The writer has had an important experience at the hand of the Lord – brought back from the brink of death, and from the added insult of having certain people rejoice in his demise. So he invites his fellow worshipers to join in his thanksgiving and praise. So what’s their answer? Sorry, we don’t have time to write it into the Powerpoint? Hardly. What is part of the community’s expression of universal truth begins as a very personal experience on the part of one of the members of the community. That’s worth pondering deeply. How does today’s worshiping community allow the Spirit to work through individual’s experience into and through the larger life?

My answer is, I think, it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long we find some way to let it happen. One way is to grow the opportunity for worship as part of small group experience – letting it happen at the church’s cellular level and growing it from there.

For the writer of the psalm, the very value of his continuing earthly existence was all about the opportunity to bear witness to the grace of God that he had experienced. That’s behind the striking argument he makes to the Lord that if he died now and went to the realm of the dead (this is before the revelation of praise in heaven), the Lord would be denied his praise! The argument is a sign of his sense of urgency, his sense of life-purpose in sharing what he had experienced of the Lord.

Prayer:
Lord, let the psalmist’s experience impress on us the importance of our personal experience as the basis for inspiring and encouraging others. The experience, the sharing, the building of community and larger witness – it’s all your doing; just let us provide the appropriate channels. Through Christ. Amen.

Glory!

2008-01-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

Psalm 29

You really have to read this out loud. Try half shouting it some place you feel comfortable doing that (Just don’t try reading it while you’re driving!). But don’t just shout it. Try putting the emphasis on different syllables; maybe, in your mind, hear a drum or tambourine sounding on various words. This psalm just has so much energy to it. It all builds to a climax with the communal cry of “Glory!” (verse 9). It is a call to know and give honour to the power of the voice of God over the earth, with the various ways of portraying that here piling up an audio-visual impression in our minds and hearts that in some way resonates with the Word of God from all time and space continuing to call out in the universe – the same Word known to us in a personal way in Jesus.

Prayer:
Glory, glory, glory to you, Lord God whose voice calls with loving, urgent insistence. Let your voice and purposes resonate in me and spill out from me. Through Jesus. Amen.

The Standard

2008-01-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

Psalm 28

It seems 2007 was a year of more than the usual number of awkward episodes in the lives of famous people. Many of those episodes were less embarrassing than the amount of attention given them. I find it especially curious how CBC in a famous meltdowns feature lumps together famous people of completely different fields. It all seems to come under entertainment, whether it’s a former prime minister (Brian Mulroney), a businessman (Conrad Black), football player (Michael Vick), a singer, actress, or person who is just famous for being famous (Spears, Lohan, Hilton), it all comes under famous people in some kind of trouble or at least under some kind of cloud (Nothing has been proved against Mulroney).

I guess it (a) helps some of us feel better about our own little messes, and/or (b) just goes to show none of us is immune from trouble. My guess is that at least some of the persons included in such a list do not appreciate being lumped together with the others. (The report linked to above seems to have overlooked Dog the Bounty Hunter, the guy who prays for the people he’s seeking and then, sometimes, calls them utterly foul names when he has them).

In Psalm 28, there are people the psalmist doesn’t particularly want to be lumped together, or swept away with:

Do not drag me away with the wicked,
with those who do evil,
who speak cordially with their neighbors
but harbor malice in their hearts.

In this case he protests innocence, but the real basis of his appeal is not his own character, but the Lord’s. He appeals to the Lord’s mercy (verses 2, 6). It is by God’s strength and mercy we are not swept away in a tide of decadence, amorality, and, um, whatever the opposite of integrity is.

Prayer:
Lord, let my standard not be not to be like certain others, but to be more like Jesus. Amen.

In the Land of the Living

2008-01-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

Psalm 27

Another year has passed – and a very difficult one, from my perspective. I can read this psalm very personally, just because of the striking contrasts of trouble and blessing it contains. For that matter, this is another psalm said to have two distinct portions (verses 1-6 and 7-14). Whatever experiences come together in this writing, they reflect the experience any of us may have. That is that in surrendering our life, and the past, to the Lord, we can experience that surrendered life as a purposeful unity of seemingly unrelated contrasts. Jesus himself went through amazing highs and horrible lows. What sustained him was his reliance on the Father and his holding to the purpose for which he was sent.

Prayer:
Lord, I can’t make sense of it all. I begin this year by re-surrendering everything to you. I pray for those who have no sense of purpose, for whom everything is just a day-to-day struggle with nothing to hold it together, at least nothing that lasts or doesn’t lead to more chaos. Whatever spot we may be in our relationship to you, raise the level, bring us closer to you, and to one another in this journey, in which we will see your goodness.

One Person

2007-12-28T10:23:00.000-05:00

Psalm 26

After the startling claim of blamelessness (verse 1), the Psalmist proceeds to describe it. It then appears to be less a matter of moral perfection, which no one can claim, as of integrity, which is achievable. As in other psalms, this asking to be examined in the context of the temple is probably in response to a specific accusation from some enemy or enemies. He is blameless not in comparison to the perfection of the Lord. The claim is rather that his whole life speaks of innocence concerning whatever sort of accusation is made against him. He conducts himself in a consistent manner concerning the company he keeps and the influence others might have on him (verses 4-5), his specifically religious activities (verses 6-8), and in keeping from such immoral practices as are all around him (verse 9-11). Verse 11 underlines that by blameless he cannot mean moral perfection, since he also asks the Lord to redeem him and be merciful to him, words which suggest to me more than just rescue from immediate circumstances of accusation. His feet stand on level ground because he can claim a life of integrity; one part is consistent with another.

Likewise, we cannot claim moral perfection. Integrity, however, is achievable. I ought to be the same person with my wife and boys as I am with a colleague, the person at the drive-through at Tim’s, with a person I’m visiting in the hospital, or the service manager presenting me a bill for work on my vehicle. It is possible, though not always true, that I look back at the end of the day and say that I have been ‘blameless’ in my dealings with all people.

Today I will strive for that.

Prayer:
Lord, may I be as bold as the psalmist to invite your examination, and may you find that I am honourable in every kind of dealing, in every relationship encounter through the day. Through Christ. Amen.

Put Together

2007-12-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

Psalm 25

This Psalm is structured in such a way that each verse begins with a succeeding letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Maybe because of the self-imposed constraint of the structure, the thought does not proceed all that neatly. Or maybe we should see what happens as having its own meaning. By that I mean there is this seeming disorder of thought – here a plea, then abruptly an expression of confidence in the Lord. But that is often the condition of our heart isn’t it? And aren’t we supposed to be able to bring to the Lord whatever honestly is there? The God who brought beauty and order out of chaos and darkness to begin with can surely do that in our lives.

If this time is hectic, stressful and chaotic for you, remember to bring it all to the Lord. It’s amazing what even a moment or two spent with him can do for your calmness of spirit.

Prayer:
Keep watch over me and keep me out of trouble;
Don't let me down when I run to you.
Use all your skill to put me together;
I wait to see your finished product.
Psalm 25:20-21 (The Message)

Who may stand?

2007-12-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

Psalm 24

We might prefer that the worshiper be seen as growing beyond whatever state his/her heart is in at the time of approaching worship, but this seems to require something more for entry into the temple (verses 3-4). Maybe we should see it, however, as something more personal than mere membership in a larger group. The worshiper is expected to examine his/her own heart, rather than being just part of a collective religious culture.

The occasion may be a procession to the temple with the Ark of the Covenant – which would explain what is meant by the entrance of the Lord into the Temple (verse 9). The overall effect that comes through to me is that a chunk of what worship is about is that we fully anticipate experiencing the presence of the Lord, and that cannot leave us the same.

Prayer:
I praise you, God, that what you require of me you empower me to do. You give me strength and support for how you direct me to live. Purify us all in heart, mind and bodily life, as we approach the celebration of your Son’s birth. In His name. Amen.

Overflow

2007-12-13T10:30:00.000-05:00

Psalm 23

“Abundance” is not a word in normal use these days, at least not that I hear (or use). If we think of the concept of abundance, or “plenty”, it often has to do with ‘negatives’ – an abundance of bills, plenty of worries, lots of ice on the roads, etc.

This psalm celebrates the God of abundance. With him, there is nothing I shall want. I lack nothing. Both the shepherd language of verses 1-4 and the royal court language after that exude abundance. The Lord is our provider, guardian, and supplier of all needs, to overflowing. It all fits with the life of David, to whom the psalm is ascribed. What David would have found, through deprivation while on the run from Saul, through confronting giants, and through his own rebellion and sin, was that what the Lord provides above all, in abundance, is grace (see the opening of Psalm 51 and its superscription – the sort of sub-heading before verse 1).

Prayer:
Lord, let me dwell a lot more on what you supply in abundance, and a lot less on what I think I lack. Through Christ. Amen.

New Order

2007-12-12T12:17:00.000-05:00

Psalm 22

This Psalm is especially precious to Christians because Jesus used on the cross the same words with which the Psalm opens.

We don’t detect the specific event or condition that leads to the outpouring of the Psalmist, but it seems it is not so much the physical suffering itself, however great, that has brought the psalmist to such depths, as the anguish of mind and heart caused by it. That anguish has at its heart a spiritual questioning concerning the presence and care of God.

There are two distinct parts. There is the prayer of lament (verses 1-21) with all its emotional turmoil and highly charged, sensory language; and a section of thanksgiving (verses 22-31) with a more ordered feel to what is now an outpouring of joy. Apparently there has been an answer to the prayer of the first part spoken into the heart of the psalmist, and so the last part is a response to that answering of prayer.

Prayer:
God, thank you that I don’t need to put my thoughts together in flowery language to come to you, that instead I can just pour out my heart, even confronting you with thoughts about you! Lead me then to new insight, assurance, reverence and strength, so that I too may bring some peace and order to any confusion in my life, and praise you to others. Through Christ. Amen.

The King's Blessing

2007-12-11T14:29:00.000-05:00

Psalm 21

Behind this Psalm is the recognition that the king rules only by permission of the Lord. The people recognize this connection in the moment of the king’s coronation (verse 3). The next verses describe the implications of the blessing involved in that coronation, for the life of the land and for the king personally. The sense is actually that the life of the land is happy because of the the Lord’s blessing on the king. This kind of assumption would have made things very awkward for kings who presided over hard times!

The reality is probably a mixture of the two. I mean, I’m not going to contradict the inherent theology here which assumes the spilling over of personal blessing on the king. But subsequent Scripture gives us warrant to believe what we would suspect: that it is not that simple. We don’t have to travel to the New Testament to find challenged the simple assumption that the righteous prosper and the evil suffer. On the contrary there is a good deal of faithful angst over why the opposite happens, even within the psalms.

It is too easy to fall into the assumption that things go well for a person/leader/ruler- whatever, because s/he has the ‘blessing of God’ – while, I guess, those who struggle do not. This is just so wrong. We have no idea what is going in the spiritual realm affecting our endeavours: when troubles are sign of wrong direction or sin somewhere, or is it a test of some kind, evil forces attempting to thwart the Lord’s work, etc, etc. We are just incapable of discerning all this. So what do we do?

1. We don’t presume to judge anyone’s degree of blessing from the Lord, especially our own.
2. We pursue what we prayerfully together discern to be the Lord’s will, to the best of the ability he gives us to do the mission he commands, praying constantly.
3. Trust God for the results.

For whatever you pursue in faith, you can take these words as being directly for you:

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
- Deuteronomy 31:8

Prayer:
Lord, let my constant concern be to do your will, for you alone are my God. In Christ. Amen.

More Prayer, Less Griping

2007-12-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

Psalm 20

In the seventies my father had sign on the back of his truck that said, “Don’t blame me – I voted Conservative.” When we are in our grumbling mode, as often we are, we Canadians like to think of voting as our right to complain. Maybe if we prayed more for our leaders, we wouldn’t feel the need to claim that right, or we would at least see and engage in the whole process more positively.

One might feel uncomfortable with the militarism of Psalm 20 (and many others), but what I do find quite moving is the prayer bond that exists between people and ruler. So how often do we pray for our leaders? How much do we pray for the character of our national life, even while we complain about the exclusion of Christ from Christmas, Christianity in the schools, etc. (real concerns) – my current concern is to engage in conversation with my sons’ principle about a planned school excursion to see The Golden Compass (see Christianity Today article).

Anyway, today’s little thought is to pray, and be engaged in things more, and gripe less. And that’s first of all a note to self.

Prayer (I know there are international readers of Open Journal, so please substitute names/offices as fitting):

Lord, sustain and bless Prime Minister Harper, and his cabinet. Watch over and encourage our federal representative, Bruce Stanton. Guide them according to your wisdom in framing the law and character of our life, that those laws and our life together will reflect your law, kingdom, justice and love. May we pray for, work for, engage together in the ‘shalom’ that is peace that is more than absence of strife. Guide the work of Premier McGuinty, the provincial cabinet, Garfield Dunlop and other MPPs. Thank you Mayor Downer and other town council members. Prompt me to show appreciation to any and all who represent us and lead, and commit to ongoing prayer for them. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

to whom surrender joyfully is due

2007-12-04T10:31:00.000-05:00

Psalm 19

It is universally observed that Psalm 19 has two distinct parts. Verses 1-6 praise God perceived in the natural world. The theme of verses 7-14 is the Law of the Lord. Together they celebrate that the God of the universe also acts in the human story.

In the first part the sun has special mention. The language is often observed as being similar to that of Babylonian or Egyptian hymns to the sun. But there is a very important difference here in that the sun is not a deity but part of the created order.

In the second part, the theme changes, and also the name used for God. We have moved from referring to God as "God" (El), a name giving emphasis to divine power; to “the Lord” (See Exodus 3 and post on the giving of The Name). The latter name is connected with the giving of the Law and the presence of the Lord in historical acts. “The Law” has a number of connotations: It is instruction for God’s people; it is testimony to God’s character and will; and, with all the things it is, it instills respect and reverence for the one who gives it.

All this praise leads the psalmist to humble self-awareness. He knows that he cannot live up to God’s standards. And yet, with God, he attains to a life of high expectations, counting on God to cover even sins he himself does not discern.

Preachers sometimes use the concluding request (verse 14) as prayer before preaching. He addresses God as his rock, acknowledging his power; and as his redeemer, the one by whom his imperfect but surrendered life can make a difference in this world.

Prayer:
Given your wonder and glory, your awesome power and your extravagant, redeeming love, what is my life to be, Lord, but a matter of complete surrender to you? I give it all up to you this day. Through Christ. Amen.

Praise Among the Peoples

2007-12-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

Psalm 18

This psalm is also found in 2 Samuel 22. It is introduced there as a song David sang in response to deliverance from enemies. There is general thought that it was used by subsequent kings in temple worship, in grateful response to victories.

Verse 7 begins a section with the Lord’s own response to David’s thanksgiving. It is described in terms of supernatural appearance, in images associated with the Lord’s coming in judgment.

Toward the end, the grateful king states that he will praise the Lord among the nations (verse 49). Paul quotes this at Romans 15:9 as he celebrates God’s design to reach beyond Israel to all peoples. The essence of this vision is already in the Old Testament – and so Paul is building on something already present – since the rulers believed to have used this psalm were considered ‘messiahs,’ or ‘anointed ones,’ from would come a greater messiah who would summon all people to accept his reign a part of a whole new order of things.

This psalm that starts as a king’s response to victory becomes a reminder for us that the one whose coming we celebrate brings something far beyond the usual sentiment and nostalgia of the season we are now coming into.

Prayer:
Thank you for the old carols, Lord. Just don’t allow me to let their familiarity get in the way of the message, and its power, they are supposed to point to. Through Christ. Amen.

Choosing How to Respond

2007-11-27T07:00:00.000-05:00

Psalm 17

The poet begins here with an expression of innocence that is not simply self-righteousness before God but an honest plea of innocence in the face of slanderous attack from others. His language intensifies and accelerates in pace as he is caught up in the emotion of this, through a description of his enemies, to the point of rashly calling on God to strike them down. But then he seems to get himself together at verse 14, and seeks to identify his cause with that of the Lord himself, who upholds the right and brings justice that rectifies imbalances (verse 14b).

Whatever has happened, God’s purpose through the poet’s circumstances perhaps emerges in the very last verse. The psalmist seeks God’s “face” – the experience of his presence. This is no momentary devotional time, but we leave him at the end of the psalm as he is about to enter into a night of presence with God – either by entrusting the night to him to work in his heart, having spilled everything out to him – or, more likely and more precisely, by spending the night in the temple in anticipation of some special experience of divine presence, a theophany, a vision if you like. This means, further, that he has got past only blaming external factors for his condition, but taking ownership (as we say now) of that experience, and seeing it as a matter to be dealt with in his heart.

Great wisdom is brought out at the end: It is not necessary, or wise, for him simply to bury the external issues and internalize everything; but there is also the recognition that he can never have peace unless he chooses how to respond to the crap (as also we would say now) in his life, with God’s help.

Prayer:
Lord, there are always things beyond our direct control that weigh on us and on how things go for us. Help us deal with them responsibly and without recrimination against those we may see as part of that. Even more, may we deal with the stuff of life after your own pattern, taking it all and shaping it for your purposes. Through it all may we recognize that you are seeking to grow us and make us more truly yours. Through Christ. Amen.

No Good Thing?

2007-11-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

Psalm 16

Is this poetic exaggeration?
“You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing” (emphasis mine)?

Nothing? Is there really no good thing apart from the Lord? I think we have to say this is not exaggeration, not for people who know the Lord. Once you believe and place the Lord on the throne of your life, you are like Paul the Apostle, who counted everything as trash for the sake of knowing Jesus (Philippians 3:8). Paul was an educated, cultured guy. He had a lot going for him. And yet, compared to Christ, everything else was garbage.

That’s the key. We can’t expect the world apart from Christ to get this. And I want to remind myself that there is a lot that is good in the world and in people, from a human point of view. There are lots of people without faith who do good in this world. As I noted in this forum before, I am not better than another because of my relationship with Jesus. I am better than I would be without him. Only God is good. But his goodness is so great that it spills over onto all who will accept him and his goodness, and he has more than enough goodness for all of us.

The rest of the psalm celebrates that, trusting in God alone, we can count on him for absolutely everything.

Prayer:
God, thanks that I can put all my trust in you. I will lack nothing by trusting in you. I cannot fail as I commit to your purposes. You will reward me in this world and eternally even though the reward is not deserved and is a result of your own goodness beyond any measure I can even dream of. Thank you. In Jesus. Amen.

Be Prepared for Worship

2007-11-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

Psalm 15

The psalm reflects the observation made throughout Scripture that unethical behaviour with other people is inconsistent with worshiping the Lord. How can we profess to love the Lord while we slander our neighbour or harbour ill thoughts about that person? We can’t.

The question the psalm raises for me concerns the order of things. The psalm would suggest we have to have everything ethically peachy first. The psalm seems to be talking about priests or others who live and work in the temple (verse 1). But we would make no distinction now, if ever, between standards of behaviour on the part of Christians and their leaders in the church, would we? Leaders are under special scrutiny, and are held to account to a greater degree than others, but is the actual behaviour of committed Christians to be any less responsible? I hardly think so. So my question is, do any of us – speaking of the order of things – ever come together in our faith community worship and activities with our walk “blameless” (verse 2)? No.

Where does that leave us? I think it leaves us looking honestly at the direction of our hearts. When I come to God in prayer, either on my own or physically together with other believers (we should never think of prayer being entirely private – we always pray as part of a community), we include prayer for that person who bugs us – and not just that they will shape up! We ask God to examine our hearts (Psalm 139), we ask in his presence if we are growing in him. If all believers then approached their worship together having made that kind of preparation, I submit that it would make a noticeable difference in the spirit of our coming together and in our observable worship, assuming also that everyone who has responsibility for what happens strives for excellence in their part and their leadership: preaching, music, drama, earnestness of prayer, whatever. That would increase our honouring of the Lord, help to tend to our need for growth in him, and provide a more compelling witness to those who come into our presence seeking the Lord without even maybe knowing what or whom they are seeking. They will get a sense of him because of the love and honour directed toward him, and shared amongst those who so honour him.

Prayer:
Lord, I do lots of preparation for preaching and leading worship. What kind of preparation do I model for just worshipping? Surely those of us who presume to lead can do so only out of our own worshipping. Help us all to consider how we can better prepare for worship together. In Christ. Amen.

The Fool

2007-11-13T09:48:00.000-05:00

Psalm 14

The understanding of fools here are the tyrants, those in power who ‘devour my people’ (verse 4). They use their power for self-elevating purposes, at the expense of those whose well-being is entrusted to them. At their own peril they ignore the power and authority of the Lord, even that there is a Lord over them (verse 1).

It is imperative to note that this is not a slap at people who just don’t believe in God. There is no room for arrogance on the part of the believer because of his or her belief. Believers are not better people than others. Believers are better people than they would be if they were not believers.

Meanwhile there are lots of fools in today’s world, in the meaning that is meant in this psalm. They need our prayers, as do the people who suffer because of them.

Prayer:
As I pray for others, Lord, make me mind my own path, lest I stumble. In Christ. Amen.

In Your Face

2007-11-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

Psalm 13

Do you find there to be a kind of quiet distress when you have trouble picturing the face of someone from whom you are apart, or who has passed from this world for some time? There is something about being able to see a loved one’s face that is very reassuring. You may have the photograph(s) of (a) loved one(s) within sight from where you are right now.

In his state of feeling put-upon by a combination of inner tensions and external pressures (verse 2), the poet in Psalm 13 experiences the absence of the face of God (verse 1). So he asks the Lord to ‘look on’ him, and give light to his eyes (verse 3). In other words, he can’t see the Lord directly, but he prays for assurance that the Lord is looking on him. He evidently receives this assurance and concludes in praise.

The thought is reminiscent of the ‘Aaronic blessing’, which the Lord gave to Moses, to give to Aaron, with which to bless the people:

The LORD bless you
and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.
Numbers 6:24-26

Prayer:
Lord, I cannot see your face. I don’t know if that even makes sense. But you see me and look upon me with your grace-eyes, and I may know that grace because of Jesus. Let it be enough for me that you see me, especially like that. In Jesus. Amen.

The Stewardship of Words

2007-11-07T07:28:00.000-05:00

Psalm 12

You could have a lively debate on what starts revolutions. Is it despotism? Unrest? Ideas? Education? Somewhere along the line words are critical.

Powerful leaders, for good or for ill, are great with words. The right word at the right time could actually save someone’s life, or just make their day. The wrong words in the wrong spirit can cause damage between people that is irreparable for years, if ever.

The curious phrase the psalmist quotes as from lying enemies – “We own our lips” – made me think how just the opposite is true. Language is a part of the created order and, as such, is a matter of stewardship. According to Genesis, language has a role in connecting us with the rest of the created order:

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. – Genesis 2:19-20a.

Isn’t it interesting that the first use of human language was to give names to other creatures? What a trust! And then think that one of the worst things we can do with that trust is to call someone ‘a name’ – which serves to break apart any connectedness.

After calling out to the Lord about the self-elevating, abusive language he finds in the world, the Psalmist celebrates that the Word from the Lord is of a very different character, and it is that Word that will prevail. The Lord will not tolerate forever the language of the world that brings “the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy” (verse 5).

The Word of God brings light and life and endures forever (Isaiah 40:8). And I am reminded to take great care with the stewardship of words.

Prayer:
God, thank you so much for the gift of speech. It’s one of things I take for granted, and use thoughtlessly so often. Let my language reflect the character of your Word, to bring light and life, and to celebrate what is worthy and endures. Through Christ. Amen.

Neither Helpless Nor Hopeless

2007-11-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

Psalm 11

This psalm anticipates the New Testament picture of the Lord as both the one who reigns from on high (verse 4), and yet is present in the midst of our earthly lives, in this case protecting the psalmist from enemies. This latter part may seem contradictory to what we might anticipate in the New Testament and its teaching concerning our attitude toward others (e.g. “From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” 2 Corinthians 5:16).

I think what we are to take from the stark language of verse 6 considering the Lord’s action against certain people, is the contrast between the Lord’s power – he who reigns from on high – to those on the merely earthly plane who work evil. In other words, God uses his awesome power for the working of good. That is a source of encouragement for those who daily seek to align themselves with his will.

Prayer:
Lord, there is so much that seems beyond our control. Yet we are not helpless, because you are powerful, you are present, and you are for us. With those three realities working together, I have only to open myself to your control and your gracious will for me. You don’t want us to feel helpless, because we’re not. In Jesus. Amen.

That Many May Terrify No More

2007-10-27T08:28:00.000-04:00

Psalm 10

Why do some people seem to get away with causing misery for others? This is what the psalmist starts out asking, actually, for thirteen verses. Then, as we’ve seen before in the psalms, there is an abrupt change: “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it and take it in hand” (verse 14).

I’m wondering, how do the oppressed get to experience this? Maybe it’s like when we pray, “Thy will be done on earth …” It can’t then be, “And all the best with that, Lord.” When we pray it, we become partners with God (although lesser ones) in seeing it happen. It’s still his doing, but we place ourselves in his hands to be his hands. So maybe African refugees or mothers with AIDS wondering what’s going to happen to their children are touched by a love army of Christian volunteer missionaries who do what they can for their physical needs, for their children, and whisper prayers of God whose own heart is crushed by their experience but who also has a place for them because of Jesus who descended into our mess.

What if every Christian on earth prayed to move the hearts of pompous leaders whose prideful warring creates many of the conditions that lead to the suffering of their own people, or prevents others from helping them? What if we all pray for Russian President Putin and American President Bush as we hear President Putin speak of a Cuban missile situation in reverse, due to the presne of a missile shield system in Europe? What scares me is that often big powerful men are still little boys inside who, once fighting talk starts, find it very hard to back down.

Our confidence, our hope, our basis for what God entrusts to us to do and to pray, all comes from this, which may also be our prayer:

You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
Psalm 10:17-18

A House within a House

2007-10-23T11:17:00.000-04:00

Psalm 9

I had occasion recently to walk through a movie set under construction (for a Mike Myers flick called The Love Guru, I was told). Already there was what appeared to be a complete house, built inside the set. I thought of that house-within-a-house setup in reading this Psalm.

The larger set is nothing less than God’s universal plan, history, time and space, the whole thing; and God’s working through it. For much of the Psalm, the poet celebrates this ‘holy history’ (as some call it), recounting the great deeds of God (verses 4-12), in which he brings both salvation and judgment to bear upon the real circumstances of this world, from his heavenly throne (verse 7).

The house within this spectacular set is the psalmist’s life and predicament. The Psalmist experiences God entering his life and setting, in this smaller, more personal scale, in the same way in which he acts in the larger scene. His response to this experience doesn’t just praise God for that particular action, but leads him, throughout the Psalm, to praise the God who acts for others in the same way as God has acted for him, and throughout history. There is no neat delineation here; his perception of God in history makes him think of his own circumstances, and his experience of God in his life-setting leads him to the expanded view. What a vibrant faith!

Prayer:
Lord give me a sense of connectedness of my life and circumstances to your larger scene, that I may fulfill my purpose within your great story, however small my role may seem. It is significant to you, and I thank you. Through Christ. Amen.

A hole in the water

2007-10-18T11:16:00.000-04:00

Psalm 8

I had a boss in a secular job years ago who reveled in telling us this on a regular basis:

“You want to know how important you are? Go get a bucket of water and fill it. Stick your hands in. Pull your hands out. The hole that’s left in the water is a measure of how important you are around here.”

The thing is, he was right. If you looked just at what I did, and what others around me did (as if human value were only about function), we could have dropped out of the picture one day and someone else would be doing it the same or better the next day.

How much less significant would I seem to myself in the context of the whole of creation, instead of in just one company! But what God says is, ‘Not only do I consider you to have displacement value in that bucket of water, I will lift up what seems most insignificant and give it importance.’

When we acknowledge before God that we feel insignificant in comparison to his glory, and the vastness of all he has created, he points out to us that he has made us for glory, not because of anything intrinsic in us, but because he chooses to love us and to lend us his own goodness and love to share.

Note how the psalm begins and ends: “How majestic is your name.” When, in verses 5-6, the psalm speaks of humans and the great significance we do have in the scheme of things, who is the subject?

Prayer:
Lord, atune me to see that in what seem the most insignificant events, you may be working most powerfully; and in those who feel beaten down and very small, you may be working your most powerful witness in the world. Through Christ. Amen.

Beast Slayer

2007-10-16T05:58:00.000-04:00

Psalm 7

The psalmist takes to the Lord his plight of being wrongly accused, apparently by the leader of a group of people, given that there is mention of “my enemy” in verse 5 and “my enemies” in verse 6. The intensity and aloneness of the experience of being wrongly accused or – more often for most of us, probably, just being misunderstood – evokes the image of a beast (verse 2). There are, naturally, intense feelings in such an experience.

The beast image is a trigger to be on guard against how we allow such an experience to work inside us. This can be extremely difficult. I can’t imagine, for example, what must go on in the heart of someone who spends years in prison, wrongly accused of something, especially if there is someone on the outside who set it all up. Yet the psalmist, undergoing something like this, ends up expressing that those who are responsible for willful false accusation against him will have their evil come back on them without any doing on his part (verse 16).

The lesson in this is critical. It’s not, in what we would say, ‘so there,' but rather, ‘Even in this obvious injustice against me I must leave the judging to God.’ Or from another angle, ‘What I have responsibility for is my own feelings, and to see that this does not cause the beast in me to rise up to destroy me from within.’

Well OK, I’m doing a lot of paraphrasing. I invite you to find your own way of inserting yourself in the kind of setting the psalmist is experiencing, because we all face it, maybe even today.

Prayer:
God, when I say, ‘take charge of my life,’ let me not hold back what I relinquish to you. It’s tempting to hold on to things to hold against someone. Let me recognize that when I think that something is unfair, I am in danger of taking your role as judge for myself, and I may already have done so in thinking it. Renew me in the grace of your Son. Amen.

Surprising God

2007-10-11T13:14:00.000-04:00

Psalm 6

A funny thing happened on the way to verse 8. There is an abrupt change in mood here. For seven verses there is deep sorrow, even on the verge of death. He even argues with God for deliverance on the basis of not being able to praise him after he is dead – a pre-Christian sentiment that involves no heavenly praising of God.

We are not told of anything happening; the psalmist shares no sudden insight of something different, nor are we told of a counselor entering his space to show him hope in some way. Evidently he just finds God in his outpouring. He has confidence – knows – that his prayers have been heard and the effects are in motion. We don’t need to see gloating in the last verse, just more confidence that the answering of his prayer will have in effect in the here and now – and that’s the encouragement we would take from his witness.

Prayer:
God, thanks for being both dependable and unpredictable. I know you will answer my prayers; I just never know when or how. Keep surprising me. Through Christ. Amen.

Investing Your Heart

2007-10-09T12:15:00.000-04:00

Psalm 5

In order to connect with God’s heart, it seems the psalmist feels he must pour out his own, with complete honesty. That leads him to say things that aren’t very nice, particularly about others. But let’s cut him some slack. If you’re going to be completely honest with God – and there’s no point in doing anything else – you can’t edit your thoughts as you pour them out. You can do that with God; you might want to be careful what fellow humans you do that with!

Note, also, that the comments are addressed to “my King and my God,” which implies (a) that he knows God will know what to do with what he pours out to him, and (b), that the psalmist will follow whatever direction God gives him in response, knowing that the Lord will never let down those who trust in him (verse 12).

Prayer:
Lord, you are holy and awesome, and also tender toward those who trust you. Let anyone today with a heavy burden give his/her whole heart to you, trusting that you can do what no human counselor alone can: make us truly new. Through Christ. Amen.

Who can show us any good?

2007-10-06T09:49:00.000-04:00

Psalm 4

This psalm starts out sounding like the psalmist is focused on “me” and setting out to blame others around him for his problems. But it becomes evident with the second part of verse 2 that any defensiveness here is on behalf of the Lord. This is related to the previous psalm, in that he is experiencing attack on his faith. He responds with genuine concern for the well being of the attackers. He wants them to know the Lord as he has come to know him. Verses 4-5 suggest that it is the weakness of their faith that leads them to be so critical, so the psalmist – in a way we would well emulate – focuses on the faith issue more than any personal issues (verse 5). They even ask what we would call today a “seeker” question (verse 6): “Who can show us any good?”

The psalmist does his part to show true good, and experiences great blessing (verses 7-8) as he follows where the Lord is leading.

Prayer:
Lord, as I encounter others today, let me see through anything that seems personally critical to any deeper issues behind the words, at the same time I pay attention to what I may need to hear. Through Christ. Amen.

The Bestower of Glory

2007-10-04T10:49:00.000-04:00

Psalm 3

So you’re excited about your new-found faith or renewed faith in God. Cynicism has fallen away. A vision of life in God’s community - of lives transformed from darkness and hopelessness to light and ever deepening knowledge of the Lord and growth in Him - actually feels like a personal experience and you have hope that this will be a reality that spreads around you, even as it deepens within you.

At first you enjoy debate over this with your friends with whom you share everything but this church thing you've gone weird with. But now not only do the people you expect to mock your faith and your church revel in it, but people you love and respect point out, with uncomfortable accuracy, the serious flaws in the history of the church in general and the all-too-human character of your church friends and the church itself. “Well I know so and so from such and such and if he thinks he’s better ‘cause he’s an elder in your church well I’ve got news for you.” And so on. And, “I’ve seen that pastor talk to his kids,” or “I’ve heard the way the leaders run down the pastor,” and on and on and on. There's so much that's just negative; this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. We’ve got this slogan about lives being changed but I don’t really know what it means, and I don’t see that much of it whatever it is. Where is God in this?

The words in Psalm 3 are those of a poet-king, but they may ring all too true for some:

O LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
"God will not deliver him."

Well, maybe not even people foes, but just everything that seems to work against the happiness of the one who wants to do his/her part for the Lord and for people with what God has given him/her to work with. It should be simple, why is it so complicated?

I love what the turning point is for the poet-king who feels beaten down: Sleep. Months ago when this blog went through Genesis, we saw Jacob, on the run, on his way to see his wronged brother again and to face who-knows-what.

http://jameskitson.blogspot.com/2006/12/with-us.html

In the letting-go vulnerability of sleep, Jacob has a dream, a vision, of traffic between heaven and earth. I noted at the time that the most significant direction of the traffic is from above – heaven has more interest in earth than earth has in heaven. The Christian message is about God with us (Emmanuel).

We need to do whatever we need to do to let the voice of the Lord come through to us. People may fail us, organizations may falter, but the Lord will never let you down. Sabbath isn’t just a day of the week, it’s a principle.

But then the coolest thing is that the beleaguered Psalmist, refreshed by his renewed contact with the Lord, is able to bring all of this experience back into the community of faith! Think about it: what we’re reading here is the praise and worship book of Israel. So he’s been able to bring all of this experience back into the community of faith to help to strengthen others by sharing his experience, which is ultimately of renewal in the Lord, and he makes it part of the renewal of the community. We have this Psalm because he made it part of worship. It’s a praise of God working through imperfect human experience – a testimony.

What’s yours?

Prayer:
3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

Ever-Increasing Glory

2007-10-02T19:21:00.000-04:00

Psalm 2

The Hebrew praise team leader did not shrink from writing songs for worship that used very human language for the Lord. Check out verse 4, with the one enthroned in heaven laughing and scoffing. Pretty human language. What is he laughing and scoffing at? The objects of derision are human powers who think they can challenge his authority. The backdrop is the thing that happened in those days when a big ruler died. The people of the subjugated states under his rule saw it as an opportunity to rise up. The first thing the new ruler had to do was to put down the uprisings, and it was rarely a positive experience.

The psalmist dreams of a day when a king of David’s line would have the kind of rule in the earth that would put down all opposition, not for his own sake, but as the one through whom the Lord reigned on earth. Well, that never happened. Or did it?

A song quoted in Paul’s Letter to the Philippians celebrates Jesus as the one to whom every knee shall bow (Philippians 2:9-11). It’s hard to see the reign of Christ in the outward world today, when Iran thumbs its nose at the world, a nightmare is unfolding in Myanmar, and [fill in any world tragedy here].

I’ve reflected before in these posts that I believe there is Scriptural warrant for earthly authorities to fend of the effects of evil, so there is certainly a need for police and military that is legitimately based and has peace as its goal. The reality is, however, war in its various and increasingly insidious forms is likely to increase as the world as we know it moves toward its divinely appointed end. What goes on with the Christian’s life in the face of this? I believe the focus of our hope and activity comes in this:

“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

What can and needs to be also evident in the world is the increasing strength of our relationship in and with Jesus Christ. As the world goes its way, the Christ’s church will be ever stronger – and indeed the church in the world is exploding, as are local churches that truly are resolved to go where the Lord is leading. Of course we should pray earnestly for specific world situations and do whatever, individually and collectively, we can to alleviate suffering and promote peace. But our first response as Christians is to grow in our relationship with Christ, and with one another in Him. As the world goes its way, our worship together should be growing in fervour and excellence, our groups should be growing in their atmosphere of mutual caring, in ever-deepening knowledge of the Lord, and in opportunities for service and evangelism.

We are far from helpless. The kingdoms may rage and rulers plot in their vanity, but we have a purpose and destiny that leads us to grow in strength, peace and even joy.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you said that as the Father sent you, you send your followers, whom you even called your friends, because you have shared your plans with us. Let us not take that lightly. Amen.

The Way of Nourishment

2007-09-26T15:01:00.000-04:00

Psalm 1

At the centre of this psalm is the image of the tree that is fulfilling its purpose in life, by taking in water, growing foliage and bearing fruit. Its purpose, in other words, is not just to be ‘productive’ but to be nurtured, be clothed in beauty, and bear fruit as a consequence of other aspects of its purpose. Like the tree, we will prosper in the way the Lord has in mind for us as we are rooted and clothed with him and his law – most generally understood as the design and purpose he has in mind for us.

Then we will not succumb to the progression of meaninglessness described in the opening part of the psalm: listening to the ungodly, getting caught up in their ways, and finally becoming one with the scoffers, who are really lost as the set themselves up in judgment of the Lord and those who find life in Him.

The conclusion of the psalm basically points out the obvious, but what should be underlined anyway: whatever we are rooted in now will have its inevitable consequence. Grace means, however, as we’ll discover in our journey through the Psalms, that a course can be changed.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for this amazing worship book of Israel. Guide our journey through its outpourings, that we may be filled with you. In Christ. Amen.

Yet to See God

2007-09-21T10:15:00.000-04:00

3 John

The main theme of this letter to an individual is hospitality. I suspect that hospitality was, then, not just a matter of courtesy but a matter of provision. It was an issue of providing food and shelter to those who were undertaking the work of the Lord. It also became, then, sadly, a means of showing approval or not for persons in the ministry.

This leads to an urging to imitate what is good – no matter how people treat you, we might add. But the most intriguing comment here, for me, comes next. John observes that anyone who does good is from God, but then notes that anyone who does what is evil has not seen God (verse 11). What a healthy phrase to remember when, in our perception, we see people doing evil! They are not to be written off, or assumed to be of the devil or some such thing. They just haven’t had enough experience of God!

That puts the onus back on those of us who have seen him, and who have our experience of God reinforced in talking “face to face” (verse 14), and greeting one another “by name” (verse 14).

Next in Open Journal: The Book of Psalms

Prayer:
Thank you for your servant, John, for the life of his words now, and for your living Word seeking to have your Way in and through me. Make it my concern for you to be visible to even one person in a new way through my life, and my fellowship with others. In Christ. Amen.

Useable

2007-09-19T06:35:00.000-04:00

2 John

Useful information. Data. Intelligence. Truth you can use – I even hear that as advice to preachers concerning what they should provide people. Everybody seems to be looking for what amounts to information ammunition: What data can I gather to further my goals, put so-and-so in his/her place, advance my position, justify what I’ve done? The evil one just loves all this. This is part of the deception he works in the world through supposedly clever people.

This little letter to “the chosen lady and her children” (probably a circular letter to a number of churches) underlines the theme of truth we found through 1 John. What does it mean to be in the truth, to walk in the truth (verses 1, 4). Practically, it means truly loving one another (verse 5), but that, in turn, comes back to obeying God’s commands (verse 6).

For the Christian, truth is turned around from the direction it has in most of the world’s dealings. We don’t use truth; truth uses us. Truth shapes us. Truth determines our daily agenda and our lifetime plan. If we are in Christ and he in us, it is his truth, and the truth that he is, that shapes us and give us what used to be called character (now it’s all about personality).

Let’s get truth going in the right direction, which keeps truth true.

Prayer:
Lord, let me love, seek, do and be your truth today. In Christ. Amen.

True Knowing

2007-09-14T09:29:00.000-04:00

1 John 5:13-21

John has been addressing people who were proud of what they considered their special knowledge of spiritual things. They were above considering the divine and human to be one in the Jesus who walked this earth. John, therefore, has emphasized the real-life knowledge that he and others with him had actually experienced of Jesus, both as he walked this earth, and in the living relationship they now had with him (at the time of writing).

Because of this certainty, the Christian can be confident in prayer; this will lead to further experience of his action and presence in ways that are best for us. The sin of willfully rejecting him is considered especially serious, and John concludes this letter with a warning against idols. Idols epitomize falseness, the opposite and enemy of the truth that is known in Jesus Christ.

Prayer:
Thank you, God, that in Jesus head knowledge, heart knowledge, and practical living are all one. Keep us working at this together. In Him. Amen.

Convincing Spirit

2007-09-13T06:44:00.000-04:00

1 John 5:5-12

If you find some of this a bit confusing or obscure, you are not alone. How do water, blood and the Spirit testify together (verses 7-8)? Some clarification may come in remembering who John is addressing: people who challenged the belief that the earthly Jesus and the Son of God were one. Verse 6 emphasizes the down-to-earthness of Jesus’ life and experience, and the Spirit of truth testifies to the believer of the oneness of Jesus of Nazareth with the Father and the Spirit. Without the fullness of that belief, the world has not been overcome through His sacrifice. On the contrary, the same Spirit who testifies to the truth of Jesus works in us to make us strong in faith in the midst of the world. He states it strongly in the negative by saying that not accepting God’s own testimony concerning himself, and what he has done and now is in Jesus, is to make God out to be a liar.

The faith that is certain of victory over the world (1 John 5:4) is not some spirit of optimism or that things have a way of working out, but rather is the faith, specifically, “that Jesus is the Son of God” (verse 5).

Prayer:
Some of us long for certainty, Lord. May your Holy Spirit work in us powerfully to believe, overcome all doubt, and overwhelm any negativity that can poison the joy in believing we are meant to have together. In Christ. Amen.

overcoming the world

2007-09-11T13:10:00.000-04:00

1 John 4:19-5:4

Somber anniversary today, and wasn’t it a Tuesday? Yesterday’s notes on being free of fear of judgment come against the hard reality of fear in the world, from one another, fueled by a personal power of evil bent on wreaking havoc in God’s creation. We walk the balance of not wanting our children to live in fear, and yet we need to warn, prepare, equip them to deal with the real dangers of the world. Moreover, Scripture provides warrant, I believe, for legitimate authority to limit the effects of evil in the world. So we have police and military to do what’s necessary to try to keep utter chaos at bay. The tricky question (that gets more political than I care to here) is “What’s necessary (without making things even worse)?”

Whatever measures are necessary on the worldly plane, Christians know the basic and ultimate answer. “Everyone born of God overcomes the world,” John says. How can this be? Because there can only be love for one another in this world because of the prior gift of God’s love. That gift can only be realized as it is believed, confessed, and shared. Love of God is realized in love for one another. True love for one another, however, is conditional upon love for God, because it comes from him in the first place. We love one another truly because we love God and those others God loves. So then our love for one another becomes part of God’s love for others.

When that is realized, it is a great victory over the ways of the world. And we can be so certain of the victory that Christ won at the cross, and that will be made plain when he comes, that we can speak of victory over the world already having been won. I know, that doesn’t help the immediate circumstances of millions of people, but without the certainty of God’s power over evil there is no hope at all. But we can state it more positively than that, because Scripture does, as here. There is immediate hope because we are so certain of God’s reality and purpose that living the faith right now has an effect that nothing else can. Our hope and love must be grounded in something other than ourselves, this world, and its circumstances – and it is, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Prayer:
Thy will done on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.

source of confidence

2007-09-10T20:01:00.000-04:00

1 John 4:16-18

How often do we think of God wanting us to know his love so that we will be confident? We want our family members to be confident of our love; we want to be confident of the love of others. We think of building up ability, experience, and self-esteem as sources of confidence, but love? God’s love?

There is a specific context for this confidence: “so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment,” and then, “because in this world we are like him.” Like him in what? In his love. This is possible because we can “know and rely on the love God has for us” (verse 16). It’s because of God’s prior will for us and action toward us.

“There is no fear in love” (verse 18). What a beautiful sentence! And then there is the explanation that fear has to do with punishment. God’s perfect love means he has provided for any punishment we have coming to us by pouring it all on his own Son. The one who judges has died for us, and even intercedes for us (Romans 8:34).

Prayer:
Thank you that I can be confident of your love, Lord, not because of anything about me, but because you are love. Let this confidence translate into faithful living. In Christ. Amen.

Spirit and Love

2007-09-07T09:54:00.000-04:00

1 John 4:13-15

I am concerned when we in the church speak as if fellowship is a condition for the work of the Spirit. Scripture indicates that our love for one another is a consequence of our receiving of the Spirit. And that means being led by the Spirit to follow the purpose and do the work God in Christ has given us. The work God has given us is belief (John 6:26-29). We can do nothing else as we are meant to do it unless and until we are first totally focused on simply reaching people for Christ, and then everything else must be specifically and clearly done as a part of that primary purpose. Authentic Christian fellowship and love comes in relentlessly pursuing that purpose, empowered by the Spirit in both energy and discernment.

We tend to seek a spirit of unity, whereas the Bible refers to unity of the Spirit (see Ephesians 4:1-6).

Prayer:
Let us continually seek life and renewal in your Spirit, Lord. Amen.

God Is

2007-09-05T00:24:00.000-04:00

1 John 4:7-12

To say that God is love is not the same as saying that love is God. Nor is the statement that God is love an all-encompassing definition of God. God is love; he is also light. The descriptions creatively play off against one another. In other words, God’s love is characterized by light (seeing things for what they are and being equipped to act on that perception), and God’s light is characterized by love (not mere knowledge but action for the other). Any attempt to describe or characterize God can only be a matter of doxology (praise), more than philosophy or head knowledge. Theology, best understood, is a matter of testimony: How, after all, do we actually experience God? As light and as love, at least.

Prayer:
God, no words can contain you. Our language, our praise, our study, even our actions, are, at best, approximations of your stupendous reality. Have patience us as we grapple with your awesomeness, and as we allow you to infiltrate our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Testing Our Spirit

2007-09-01T11:45:00.000-04:00

1 John 4:1-6

A spirit doesn’t just influence you; a spirit moves you, takes hold of you, infuses you, carries you. There is an increasing polarity of spiritual influence that accompanies the time approaching Christ’s return. It is critical what influences we even give attention to, because they can be instruments of the one who against Christ, and therefore also those who would be his. John gives us to understand that there are two tests of whether something is of the Spirit of God: There is acknowledgement of the person of Jesus as the Christ (anointed one) of God; and the one from whom the influence comes has a life that matches the teaching. There is, therefore, credibility, as there was in the leadership of which John was part (verse 6).

Verse 4 of this passage points to a kind of ‘spirit’ in the more general sense, which the world would then detect in those who are of God’s Spirit. It is a spirit of victory, a spirit of there being nothing that can stand in our way, a confidence that has not to do with ourselves but the one who is in us. Enough of hand wringing or glancing over the shoulder of any individual, family, or body of believers who purport to be of Christ! The victory is won! We have only to believe, live, and proclaim it. It is a mission to the world around us that is non-negotiable. It is not an add-on to a community of faith that’s OK to pursue as long as the “interests of the people” are looked after. What could those interests possibly be but to take up the mission of Christ himself who has clearly passed it on to us (John’s Gospel, 20:21 and Matthew 28:16-20)? That is our ‘interest’, our life, our source of true unity, our nourishment, and its own reward.

Prayer:
Make us bold for you, Lord. Amen.

That's Frustrating

2007-08-30T06:21:00.000-04:00

1 John 3:11-24

A hospital chaplain I trained under years ago offered this observation: You can have a meaningful conversation with anyone, anytime, but just responding to whatever they say by saying, “That’s frustrating.” It’s not that great an exaggeration. The point, however, isn’t to have a pat response to a person’s circumstances. The point is that it is a measure of the hunger we have for anyone to respond to us and our lives and circumstances at a heart and feeling level.

God already knows our hearts, our feelings. “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (verse 20). The context of this writing is brutal persecution. The direction to lay down life for others, and to love after the pattern and command of Jesus – this was no pat response – but the beginning of the gift the Christian community would be called to bring to the world. That is to find a different way to respond to hatred than with more hatred. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a hostage in the hands of terrorists; I have no idea what it’s like to be in the midst of war; I have no idea, for that matter, the depth of frustration that may lie at the heart of the experience of someone I will meet today. But I do know – and hope to practice – that part of what my Lord calls me to do is to acknowledge that frustration as sensitively and genuinely as I can, and keep on loving when another’s frustration affects me adversely. Let’s each take a moment just to pray that it be so.

The Difference

2007-08-28T08:24:00.000-04:00

1 John 2:28-3:10

A sign of the ‘last hour’ (2:18) is the distinction between the true ‘children of God’ (3:2) and those of the world. The difference will be clear at Christ’s coming. Meanwhile, Christians should understand that this does not make us better than others. The difference is not of nature, but of conduct, according to what John goes on to say here. The difference in nature and being is between Christ and the world, not Christians and the world. We are enabled to live and demonstrate a different way only because of Christ in us. We ourselves remain sinful, but redeemed (meaning bought out of slavery by Christ). Our life as children of God depends on having made that once-for-all decision to welcome Jesus as Lord within us, and daily renewal in him.

Prayer:
Lord, let me never think of myself as better than anyone, but let me be more like Jesus today in his way of service. In him, Amen.

Welcome to the Last Hour

2007-08-17T11:13:00.001-04:00

1 John 2:18-27

This section reflects the belief that before the end of the world, there will be an intensification of evil forces coming to personification in a great antichrist. Leading up to that time there will be lesser antichrists, whose role it will be to lead people away from the truth of Christ. We are in that time. The “last hour” (verse 18) was kicked in with the coming of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God in personal form (John 1:14), and will end with his return.

What is the implication for us? It is to know the one who has come and is coming, through the anointing of his Spirit. We then ‘know’ him with a knowledge that includes knowing with learning and understanding, but is much deeper. It is a bond established by his grace, and our welcoming. More specific understanding comes as a result of that relationship; it is not a precondition, as those to whom this was written seem to have thought, and as much conventional church life presupposes.

The term ‘anointed’ is loaded with meaning, since ‘Christ’ is the Greek version of the Hebrew title, ‘Messiah’, which means ‘anointed one.’ Jesus is the one through whom we have life in and beyond a world that will pass. We have life by receiving the anointing of his love and grace. How? Just say, “I want to know you, Jesus; I want to love you as you love me; come into my life – be my life; take anything ugly in my past or present and transform it.” Then seek Christian friends and an outreach-oriented church with which to share your best news ever, grow in him, and never look back.

Be Strong

2007-08-15T23:29:00.000-04:00

1 John 2:12-17

Not too much should be made of the different age groups addressed in verses 12-14. I mean, would John not want all ages – and both sexes for that matter (we’re still dealing with a patriarchal culture here) – to grasp that their sins are forgiven on account of Christ’s name (verse 12), because they know him who is from the beginning (verse 13), etc.? The points made come to a climax with writing to ‘young men’ about what real strength is. I think this gets at the stylistic role of the groups mentioned. Young men are thought to be strong. What better group to bounce off in order to point out that real strength is a matter of having the Word of God within, and, by this, overcoming the evil one (verse 14). The truth applies to everyone but the point is made all the more effectively as it addressed to those thought to be strong because of youth and physical vigor.

The style of addressing different groups is then dropped as the last point about strength is expanded in teaching about Christians and the world (verse 15-17). Those who have the Word of God in them, and do it (verse 17), have already overcome the world of false strength that is passing away. It is false in the sense that it is passing away, not in any sense that we can ‘spiritualize’ the real suffering that exercise of power – or brute force – can bring in this world (witness hundreds of people killed in truck bombings Wednesday in Iraq). It is false in comparison to the strength that will endure when it is matter of doing the Word. That is the hope for effectiveness in our daily lives, when the forces that seem to overwhelm threaten to get the better of our spirit.

Prayer:
God, let no false humility get in the way of you making me strong and effective in this world. Let your Word make us strong for your sake. Amen.

A Personal Beginning

2007-08-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

1 John 2:1-11

At the opening of the John’s Gospel, it’s “in the beginning” (John 1:1). At the opening of this letter, it was “from the beginning” (1 John 1:1). This led to the observation that in the letter John’s point of departure was the immediacy of the experience of the risen Christ. Now in verse 7 of chapter two, it is “since the beginning.” I take this to refer to the beginning of the time of Christ being present in the individual believers John is addressing; since the beginning of their new creation. If that new creation is real, there will be a difference to life that the light will reveal. Our love, or not, for our brother/sister is a sign of whether or not we are in the light.

Prayer:
Open my eyes and my heart today, Lord, so as to see someone more as you see him/her. In Christ. Amen.

Fellowship and Self-Perception

2007-08-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

1 John 1:5-10

We can see from our own observations and experience that truth about ourselves depends a lot on our interconnectedness with others. Social isolation can result in poor self-perception. We need social interaction to stay in touch with reality, especially about ourselves. How much more true is that of fellowship with God, which necessarily involves also fellowship with others (see previous post). And so we can see intuitively, I think, the truth that walking in the light (verse 7) involves also growth in fellowship with others, together with honesty about ourselves that leads to renewal and freedom that comes from forgiveness from God (verse 9).

Prayer:
Keep me connected, Lord, in every way that matters. Through Christ. Amen.

Making Joy Complete

2007-08-06T01:18:00.000-04:00

1 John 1:1-4

Open Journal resumes with a launch into the letters of John. John is believed to have been writing to Gnosticizing Christians – who denied the physical, historical reality of Jesus Christ. So he begins by emphasizing just what a real, direct experience he and others had had of Jesus.

The beginning of this letter is very similar to the beginning of John’s Gospel, but now he speaks not of the one who was “in the beginning” (John 1:1), but he who is “from the beginning.” The former is poetic language about the pre-existence (before his earthly life as a man) of Christ. Now he begins his witness from the direct experience.

John craves a fellowship centered on the experience of the living Christ. He concluded his Gospel by noting that such experience, and such fellowship, does not depend on everyone having had first-hand experience of Jesus as he walked this earth. See the dramatic encounter of Jesus with Thomas in John 20:24-31 and especially verse 29 in that passage.

Joy in that fellowship is made “complete” (1 John 1:4) because true fellowship, such as today we seek especially in a church whose life and very structure is based on small groups, brings together the horizontal and vertical dimensions of relationships, i.e., it combines human relationships and the divine-human encounter in such a way that we live our faith life in full recognition that one aspect is not “complete” without the other. In belonging to Christ we belong to one another. Fellowship that begins and ends with this recognition will be lost in the perpetual energy and joy of seeking to know, love, serve and share Jesus Christ more fully every day, with one another; full of passion to enlarge the experience exponentially, increasing the joy until it finally will be made complete in that fellowship to come, of which all other true Christian fellowship is anticipation.

Prayer:
Lord, increase our appetite for real fellowship in which we learn more about you, honour you with worship in simple fellowship settings, are moved to serve you by serving others, wrapping it all up with a deep and abiding concern for others similarly to be fed and enlivened. Encourage the disaffected. Embolden the hurting not to wait for someone to notice their hurt, at the same time we all seek out where those and others are hurting and ask how we can help. How has someone been offended? Am I withholding some hurt and nursing it? Am I withholding what you have given me to share of myself, afraid of being hurt, again? Am I holding material resources that could be used to grow fellowship that seeks completion in its dimensions resembling the shape of the cross itself? So many questions, so many needs. No one of us can address them all for even one other. Let us be a fellowship that seeks completion in you, and truly grows, together. In Christ. Amen.

Transfered Glory

2007-07-29T09:46:00.000-04:00

Exodus 35 -40

The last six chapters of Exodus report the execution of the instructions given concerning the tabernacle. It begins with a restatement of the Sabbath command, and ends with the entrance of the glory of God into the tabernacle. The main thing conveyed here is that the glory of God is transported from Mount Sinai to the tabernacle to with the people.

We would close our journey through Exodus by taking for ourselves the words Moses gave to Joshua as he transferred leadership to him:

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. - Deuteronomy 31:8

Next in Open Journal: The Letters of John

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for this journey through Exodus. May I find you going ahead of me to wherever you would lead me. Thank you that I can count on your promise – that you will never leave me or forsake me, that you have a purpose for me I could never dream myself, and that you have a destiny for me, with others, beyond imagining. Through Christ. Amen.

Chiselers

2007-07-25T23:18:00.000-04:00

Chapter 34

It’s about us after all. But in a manner of reflection. Moses wasn’t aware that he was all lit up (verse 29). It was, of course, reflected glory that caused his face to glow. That’s this whole saga in one picture: God at the centre, the people as his image (recall Genesis 1:27) . One sense of image is a reflection, as in a mirror or when you look down into a pool of water. Only the reflection is never perfect. It can’t be. The full power and goodness of the original would be too great anyway. There is a mediator, but lately we’ve seen more and more that the role of the people is not so passive, as it was, say, in the crossing of the sea. The people supplied the oil to burn in the tabernacle (27:30). The people offer their own repentance along with Moses pleading for them (chapter 33). Now this chapter has started off with Moses - representing the people to God as well as God to the people – supplying, with some labour, the replacement stone tablets for God to write on. I love that picture. How about making it God autographing your heart with his will for you, no matter how you may have messed up in the past (golden calf, chapter 32).

Prayer:
Let me not forget the point, Lord: In order to mediate your glory to others, it’s not what I give them, but what I offer to you for you to work with. Through Christ. Amen.

The Turning

2007-07-23T22:29:00.000-04:00

Exodus 33

This chapter shows how God can both judge and forgive. The sense of judgment I get here looks ahead to the New Testament in that ths simple fact of God’s holy presence with a stubborn people is just too great a difference for the people to tolerate (compare the interplay of light and darkness in John 1 and 3). It’s almost like the effect of matter versus anti-matter. God refuses to accompany the people out of concern for their destruction. And yet there is a way, through a faithful mediator, who is in communion with the Lord and also loves the people (again a hint of things to come). We saw in the last chapter that Moses had a unique position in being both on the mountain and among the people.

For some reason the text itself doesn’t explain, Moses has a tent outside the camp, but even here we find a concession of the Lord who doesn’t completely abandon the people. There is a form of the guiding column of smoke that serves here as a catalyst for the people to worship in repentance from their own place. Here is a new development from the last chapter and more sign of hope. Whereas, before, it was just Moses pleading for the people, now there is still Moses pleading – successfully - for the people, but also the people have their own role of repentance.

The way is being prepared for restoration of the covenant, and yet not based on the actions or any merit of the people or even their mediator (not even Moses can experience the direct presence of God), but on the yet-not-abrogated promise of God, that the actions of the people and their leader are allowed to have a role in re-awakening.

Prayer:
Lord, let us all contemplate for a moment the effectiveness of true repentance over against insistence on rights, influence and privileges. Through Christ. Amen.

Choose

2007-07-20T09:38:00.000-04:00

Exodus 32

Scene One: Moses on the top of the mountain. Concluding forty days of instructions from the Lord, the great I Am, and now receiving stone tablets as culmination of this intensive training to pass on to the people he has led out of Egypt. Time to pass all this on. This is what’s it’s all about.

Scene Two: The people are dissing Moses. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. Aaron, it’s up to you man. Give us something real we can follow. We’re tired of visions and promises. Aaron takes their gold and makes a calf out of it. These are the gods (yes, plural for some reason) that have brought us out of Egypt. Aaron tries to cover all the bases, making the worship of this thing have the form of worship to the Lord.

Scene Three: The Lord tips off Moses he’d better get back. Moses has seen both sides. He’s been on the mountain. He knows the people, or does he? So enraged he smashes the culmination of his mountain top experience, and the covenant with the people with it. It's broken already anyway; they abandoned the promise.

Time to start again. Who really wants to follow the Lord, rather than their own inclinations? Choice is hard; here it is ruthless, brutal. Learn the lesson. You can’t it have it both ways, and it’s not about pleasing anyone. Who will follow the Lord? You have to choose.

Meanwhile, Moses pleads for the people, on the basis of God’s goodness and on the basis of God’s own promise.

Prayer:
Lord, show us what loving the people really means. In Christ. Amen.