DALMAC Day 1

Cherie, Sue and I got off at about 8.15 on day one of DALMAC. We left from home instead of East Lansing, saving ourselves an extra trip into the city. We had dropped off our bags the night before like we alway do.

It was a gorgeous, uneventful day, sunny and cool to start but rapidly warming up to the lower 80's. We rode through field after field of standing corn and soybeans, just starting to dry out.

We stopped for lunch at the fire hall in Perrinton, Mi, our traditional place.

After 14 miles on the Meijer bikeway, we rolled into Vestaburg about 1.30 and set up camp. Day 1 done.

What Have I to do with Judging Outsiders

1 Corinthians 5:11-12
But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so- called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler —not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

This is a huge verse in terms of how we interact with those outside the church. We are to expect the wicked to act according to their nature and love them all the same. Are they idolaters? Fornicators? Arrogant? Drunkards? Junkies? Who cares? God judges them. We are called to go to where they are and love them all the same.

We ought not associate with those who say they are Christians and live like the world. Sinners who make no claim to follow Christ? No.

1 Corinthians 4:2
In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

We are stewards of the message of the good news of Christ Jesus, indeed we are Christ's stewards. One of the primary requirements for a steward is that they be a faithful steward. So one of our chief aims as stewards of Christ is that we be faithful to Christ.

Faithfulness seems to be expressed primarily in obedience.
John 14:15
“ If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

The Church's One Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:11

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

This calls to mind the old hymn we used to sing when I was a kid:

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord

She is his new creation by water and the word

From heaven he came and sought her

To be his holy bride

With his own blood he bought her 

And for her life he died

If we lay a foundation for reconciliation with God that is not Jesus Christ, then we are not laying a biblical foundation. We are laying no foundation at all. What we are doing is not Christianity; it is something else.

Christ is the foundation; Christ alone.

A Sovereign God; An Enigma

Lamentations 5:19-20

And yet, GOD, you're sovereign still,

your throne intact and eternal.

20 So why do you keep forgetting us?

Why dump us and leave us like this?

There is a reason that the book of Lamentations is called Lamentations; it is a lament, no better reflected than in these words here. The author (Jeremiah?) has been through the turmoil of  seeing Judah destroyed by the Babylonians—and this is not turmoil as we think of it, calamity would be a better description.

These verses demonstrate both the faith of the author in spite of the calamity, as well as the questions with which the author struggles.  All too human questions, surely questions which we would have asked as well given the situation. Why do you keep forgetting us? Why dump us and leave us like this?

Waiting Eagerly

1 Corinthians 1:4

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

1 Corinthians 1:7

so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul to the Christians in Corinth. Those who have been changed by the grace of God will await eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

I wonder what that looks like...

Enter the Silence

Lamentations 3:28

When life is heavy and hard to take,

go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

The Message paraphrase of Lam 3.28. NASB: Let him sit alone and be silent

Since He has laid it on him.

There is something about entering the silence that is conducive to our spiritual health. This is hard to do in our age of instant connection and ever present social media. For us when life is heavy and hard to take we go post an update on Facebook.  I think entering the silence would be more helpful.

Powerful Words

Psalms 33:6

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And by the breath of His mouth all their host.

Psalms 33:9

For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast.

Whatever one thinks about the age of the universe and the earth—whether billions of years or thousands of years—one cannot escape the implications of David's words here in Psalm 33: The universe came about by the word of the Lord; For he spoke, and it was done.

Powerful words; powerful words indeed.

With What are you Building?

Romans 14:12

So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

This is a sobering thought. We will give an account to God, not as a requirement for entry into heaven—as if we were justified by faith—but as servants to their master—have you been a faithful servant?

The closest parallel to this short comment from Paul goes into deeper explanation of what he means here:

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire

So we will give an account of ourselves for purposes of reward—whether we build with gold and silver, or with wood, hay, and stubble.

May we build with material that brings God glory.

"Orphaned From Her Land"

Jeremiah 52:27

And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon killed the lot of them in cold blood. Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land.

Such profoundly sad words. The generation of the exile—those who had almost en masse rejected God for idols—had ended up dead by famine, or by the sword, or carried away into Hamath to be executed, or carried into exile in Babylon.

Judah went into exile, orphaned from her land, The Messages paraphrases. Can their be sadder words than this?

My Dependence and God's Glory

Psalms 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart exults,

And with my song I shall thank Him.

Another example of how my dependence upon God results in God's glory. I am helped when I rely upon God to be my strength and shield. When I am helped my heart exults in him (because I know that he is the one responsible for bringing help). Naturally, with my song I thank him, resulting in glory abounding to God.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

Christ: Light and Salvation

Ps. 27.1

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the defense of my life;

 Whom shall I dread?

David says here: The Lord is my light and my salvation.

John writes of Christ: John 1:4

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Jesus says of himself: John 8:12

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “ I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Jesus says: John 5:34 But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.

When Christ claimed that he was the light of the world and that men could be saved through him, he fully understood what he was claiming, for he understood Ps 27.1.

What I Need; What God Deserves

Psalms 25:16

Turn to me and be gracious to me,

For I am lonely and afflicted.

The Bible is about making much of God, but here David seems to be making much of himself. What gives?

The beauty of the Scriptures is that there is no incompatibility between calling out to God when I am in affliction—as David does here—and God getting glory. When I call out to God in my affliction, I am acknowledging my dependence on God. When God meets me in my loneliness and sustains me, I get comfort and He gets glory.

In my dependence I get what I need; in his sustaining Providence, God gets what he deserves.

Idols Cause Blindness

Jeremiah 44:17-18

We're going to go right on offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, keeping up the traditions set by our ancestors, our kings and government leaders in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem in the good old days. We had a good life then-- lots of food, rising standard of living, and no bad luck. 18 But the moment we quit sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out offerings to her, everything fell apart. We've had nothing but massacres and starvation ever since.

The Jews who fled to Egypt against God's express words as delivered through Jeremiah.

What is astonishing here is that they came up with the exactly wrong conclusion about their situation.  They thought things had turned bad when they stopped being "faithful" to the Queen of Heaven. The truth was that things turned bad because they had abandoned God and turned to idol worship, which was just what Jeremiah had warned them about all along.

Their idol worship had blinded them to the truth.

A sobering truth and one we ought to slow down and think about.  What idols do we have that blind us to the truth?

What Does the Scripture Say?

Romans 4:3

For what does the Scripture say? “ Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Paul gives us a demonstration here of how we answer our theological and spiritual questions.  He goes to the Scriptures.  He is arguing that salvation is not through works, but through faith and by going to the Scriptures he says, "I agree with what the writer of the Pentateuch believed about salvation," and "our search for truth in the spiritual and theological realm must be grounded in the Scriptures." Put another way, our first question must be, "what does the Scripture say?"

In this Paul demonstrates that he is a true disciple of Christ.  As Christ demonstrates here: Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures or the power of God?  The clear meaning of Christ's words being, "Had you understood the Scriptures you would not have been mistaken, but you don't understand the scriptures and you are mistaken."

We must always be first turning to the Scriptures for the answers to our questions.  In doing this we show that we are faithful followers of Christ.

"The Faithful Disappear..."

Psalms 12:1

 Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be,

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

In a time of great evil this is certainly true; more and more people fall prey to turning to what the world has to offer, rather than side with God, and so the godly man ceases to be.  This is a sign of great judgment coming as God withdraws his favor...not to mention any of the faithful.

The psalmist calls for God's help, as he recognizes that it is greatly needed.  Certainly one of the things that the rise of evil times do is make us more and more dependent on the Lord.  One only alphas to read of the experience of Chinese Christians during the time of Mao to understand that.  Mao is dead now, and Christianity is thriving.

"I believe God..."

Acts 27:25

Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.

Paul's unflinching belief that God will do what he says he will do.  He said that all would be saved from the coming shipwreck, all 276 were saved.

We ought to have Paul's attitude towards God's word.  God will do what he says.  Hudson Taylor once wrote: "There is a God in heaven.  He has spoken in his word.  He means what he says and will do all that he has promised."

As much as Paul trusted God's word to him, we can trust God's word to mankind.

Go Hide! So God can Hide You

Jeremiah 36:19

The government officials told Baruch, "You need to get out of here. Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don't let anyone know where you are!"

Jeremiah 36:26

He just plowed ahead and ordered Prince Jerahameel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Jeremiah the prophet and his secretary Baruch. But GOD had hidden them away.

There is a perfect juxtaposition of our responsibility and God's provision here.  In order to preserve themselves from the wrath of the king, Jeremiah and Baruch go and hide themselves from the king.  When the king orders the pair arrested, they cannot be found because God had hidden them away.

We work; God provides the increase. We are not passive in the Christian life, but God is active and ultimately responsible.  In other words, God sovereignly acts in our actions so that when we hide ourselves (from danger), God hides us. When we work, God is providing the increase. When we obey, God makes us obedient. It's a mystery how God works in our own choices, but it is clearly the truth.

With God; Against Evil

Psalms 7:9

O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous;

For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.

When David calls to God to let the evil of the wicked come to an end, he is doing so because he understands that God and evil are on opposing sides in this world.  At the end of history God wins, and if God wins evil is finally and fully defeated.  So here David is calling for God to win, a call in which we should join him.  

If God is opposed to evil, then we should be implacably opposed to it as well.

Praying so that God Looks Great

Psalms 6:4

Return, O Lord, rescue my soul;

Save me because of Your lovingkindness.

David's motive for the rescue of his soul is God's character, or loving kindness, or literally "hesed." Save me because of your hesed. Not because I am in trouble, or because I deserve it, or even because I need it.  Save me, Lord, because salvation reflects on your character.  Salvation makes you look great.

When we pray we ought to pray like David did.  Pour out our troubles to the Lord.  Depend upon him.  Ask for deliverance, because God is a covenant-keeping, loving God; because of God's character; because delivering us makes God look great!

God and...Equals Nothing

Jeremiah 29:13

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

The importance of pursuing God with an undivided heart.  The promise here is that the Jews would find God if they searched for him with all their heart.  

The promise is the same for us.  God is not hiding, we may find him, but we must seek him and him alone, not God and other things, but God alone.

The problem I have is not that I don't seek God, but that all too often I do it with a divided heart.