Rebuking the Wind and Sea

Matthew 8.26 this morning. Normal people do not rebuke the wind and sea. They can and sometimes do curse at the wind and sea, but normal people do not talk to nature as if it were a little child that needed correction. This is just the way that Christ addresses nature, as if he were it's father and they were in subjection to him, which he was and they are.

Listen and Obey.

In Matthew 7.25 this morning. Listen! It behooves us to listen when Christ speaks that the one who hears and heeds! his words is like a wise man. I take several things from the point that Christ makes here. First, it is possible to hear and know all Christian dogma and not heed it. Second, Christ assumes that rain and floods will come into one's life, not if, but when. Third, Christ assumes that if my life is founded on the rock (of hearing and heeding Christ's words) then I can be assured that when difficulties come, my house (my life) will not fall. I take this as a promise from Christ. Fourth, any person who makes the claim Christ makes here is either the biggest egomaniac in history, or speaking the truth. Once again an absolutely stunning and mind-boggling claim from Christ...unless it's true.

God and...

While Christ uses the example of God and money in Matt 6.24, when he says "No one can serve two masters," the principle stated obviously applies to all things. You cannot serve God and...anything. In the life of faith it is never God and [insert anything] it is always God alone, God first, last, and always. Christ gives the warning here because he understands that we are prone to make our lives "God and..."

Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Augustine commenting at Matt 5.8: Whatever we do, whatever good deeds we perform, whatever we strive to accomplish, whatever we laudably yearn for, whatever we blamelessly desire, we shall no longer be seeking any of those things when we reach the vision of God. Indeed, what would one search for when one has God before one’s eyes? Or what would satisfy one who would not be satisfied with God?

Plodding Through The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Psalms 119.50 gives solid fuel for wading through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. God's promise gives me life.

Come, Thirsty One!

The first verse (Isaiah 55.1) in one of my favorite chapters. Here is an evangelical call to all: Come whoever is thirsty and partake of God's grace because it is free to whoever will have it.

If you are thirsty, come. If you have no money, come and purchase the stuff of life. It won't cost you money, it won't cost you anything. It will cost the Messiah everything. Such is the message of the gospel. Such is the nature of grace.

Worship Might Cost You Something

Reading through Matthew in my devotions and I came across Matt 2.11. The wise men saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. A couple of thoughts here. First, the wise men had come a long and difficult way. They could have used any number of excuses why they should not come to find Christ. "It's too far." "It's too dangerous." "I'm too old." They were willing to travel, to risk being put upon by thieves, to come and worship Messiah.
Second, when they had the opportunity, they worshiped!

Worship might (and often does) cost us something. No barrier was too great for these wise men to come and worship Messiah. No barrier should be too great for us. Also, we need to heed these traveler's examples, when we have the opportunity to worship, we should (must!) worship.

The Lord is On My Side...

...as helper. Wow, what else do I need to know? The God who created the universe, who spoke the words and it was done. He is on my side. Do I need to fear anything? Psalms 118.7.

Strength for the Journey

Revelation 21.3 is a precious promise and the hope of all believers. It gives us strength for the journey of life. There will come a day when we will dwell in the presence of God for all eternity. That promise gives us purpose in this life, and endurance in the ever present difficulties that come our way, patience in adversity, and confidence in the future. It's a promise that should fire our imagination and keep us from wasting our lives on trivialities. God is God and our God and the eternal God.

Plumbing the Depths of God's Mighty Deeds

I believe what the Psalmist is getting at in Psalms 106.2, is that it is impossible to plumb the depths of God by declaring all of his deeds or proclaiming all his praise. Which song writer penned the words, "In vain the first-born seraph tries to plumb the depths of love divine?" Just so, says the Psalmist. We will never get to the end of God's praises. Never exhaust the declaration of his mighty works.

He says this not to discourage us; he writes it to spur us on to more and more praise because we can never get to the end of it, and he wants us to understand the limitless depths of God's power and character.

As always, Spurgeon is great: Those who praise the Lord have an infinite subject, a subject which will not be exhausted throughout eternity by the most enlarged intellects, nay, nor by the whole multitude of the redeemed, though no man can number them.

Assignment for Old People...and Young!

Thinking through the implication of Psalms 92.14,15, this morning. There is a message that we are to be proclaiming when we are old, namely that God is upright; that God is my rock; and that there is no unrighteousness in him. Steve and Bonnie Opper, stuck in severe difficulty to which God has assigned them, are doing that incredibly well! Of course it is an assignment, not only for the aged, it is something every Christian should be declaring.

Steve: God has assigned this difficult task to us, particularly for Bonnie. He takes great care to make sure the assignment is the exact amount; measured and controlled.

Giving to God What is Due

Moses clearly explains to the Israelites in Deut 8.17, that success, wealth, and by inference, talent and opportunity, come from God. They (and we) ought to be very careful that, when they became successful, they not sit back and pat themselves on the back and say, "look what an incredible person I am." Unfortunately, the human tendency is to do just that.

Fuel for the Journey

Reading through Isaiah 35.4 this morning. The fuel that sustains God's people in difficulty—when they experience pain and suffering—is God himself; the promise that God will come and save us. The promise!

Calvin comments: That strength of which he spoke is breathed into our hearts by God through his word, as “by faith alone we stand” (2 Corinthians 1:24) and live; and therefore he adds the promise of grace yet to come.

Dependence

Meditating on Isaiah 33.2 this morning. (By the way, the Hebrew word for "meditate" means "to growl, or mutter," implying that we ought to ponder and chew on God's word aloud in some sense). It's a verse that screams out "dependence," which is exactly what we do not want to be. This is probably the most difficult part about growing in the faith. We want to continually be our own god, at the root of things. The people of Judah are in deep trouble and independence is not an option when the Assyrian army is literally knocking on the gates of Jerusalem. Thus God severs us from our inclination to depend upon ourselves.