Love and Fear

1 Peter 1:17-22
And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners here on earth. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God. Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters* because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.


I have just had a truly amazing experience that I simply had to share with you. On Sunday, my Pastor preached a message that has proven to be life altering for me. He spoke about Saul in the book of I Samuel, and how he was chosen by Samuel to be the first King of Israel. However, we go on to learn that he was chosen largely because of his physical size and good looks. God gave Saul a number of jobs to do, and in the beginning, Saul was successful. Over time, however, he rejected God by relying on his own abilities rather than on God’s power and promises. In the end, Saul’s rejection of God resulted in God’s rejection of Saul and Saul’s ultimate failure. God had called Saul to simply be faithful and obedient to God and trust God to fulfill His word, not to try to do it all with his own brains and muscle. Saul trusted his own abilities over God’s. The battle is not ours.

As I drove home, I thought about some of the doubts I had struggled with in terms of my own ability to be a good youth leader. A few years ago, I had stood in church praising God and seeking His will in my life when He spoke to me. He told me to teach His children to fear Him and to love Him. I knew then that my life of service would be in the form of teaching the young people in our church. I was (and am still) profoundly honored. Yet as I prepare for my youth group each week and pray and study the lessons I will teach, I am always bothered by a small voice nagging me, telling me that I am not good enough because I am not a ‘pastor’. True, I never attended Bible College, so each week I would worry and study and try to memorize in the attempt to give my best to God and my youth. But just as Saul had been appointed to a position by God and then tried to do it with his own strengths, so was I. That path will lead to failure. The story of Saul showed me that God will make up for my lacking. He doesn’t need me to be the most learned scholar in the world, nor do I need to be a world class public speaker. I simply need to be faithful and obedient to what God had called me to do. The battle is not mine.

Next step: I prayed, “God, what do you want me to do to prepare? What is the next step?” I felt led to read the Bible. (I had really hoped He wouldn’t ask me to do that. Sometimes, I find the Bible a little overwhelming and confusing.) But where do I start? How do I know if I am understanding it properly without years of Theology? So many questions. Again and again, doubting my ability.
A spiritual hush.
Just be obedient. Have faith in Me.
So, I picked up my bible.
Where do I begin?
I Peter.
I began at the beginning. As I read my mind kept asking me, “Are you sure this is where God wants you to read? Why start at I Peter? Why not start at the beginning?” I kept reading. I read all of Chapter 1, and moved on to the reading of the notes on the bottom of the page. That is when I saw it. My notes for 1:17 began “Reverent Fear” and went on to discuss its meaning. Further on my notes for 1:22 began “Sincere Love” and continued to talk about its meaning. There it was in black and white. All those years ago I was told to teach His children two things, to fear and to love Him. I put my Bible down and wept. I felt like God was giving me a pat on the back telling me I’d finally figured it out. This isn’t my job I am doing, it is His. I am simply meant to be obedient and faithful to Him. If I do those things, God’s Will will be done. The battle is not mine, the job is not mine, the glory is not mine, it is His. Our job is not to figure it out and make it work. If we are faithful and obedient the battle will be won by God’s power and for His glory. Hallelujah!

Praise you Father God for Your faithfulness to us. Thank you that never expect more from us than we are able to provide. Thank you for Your word which is both Holy and trustworthy. You never fail to give help to those who ask for it and your love in unfailing. You do not grow tired of hearing from us and you will never leave of forsake us. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Amen.

Intimacy with God

I am often amazed at David's relationship with our Father God. God said of David, "He is a man after God's own heart."
That He was. To cultivate a relationship with our Heavenly Father such as David maintained, is a treasure!

David drew strength, power, comfort, wisdom, and blessing from an intimate, deep, and abiding relationship with God. He sought the Lord faithfully every step of the way.

David was faithful yet He sinned just like each of us. When David sinned he returned to His loving Father. With a contrite heart he repented and each time God dealt mercifully with David. In spite of everything, God's favour rested on David.

In Chronicles we learn that David numbered the people of Israel. God was displeased with David and He struck Israel.

David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Thy servant, for I have done very foolishly. I Chronicles 21:8 NASV

The Lord gave David a choice of three punishments for His sin. (Before Christ, there was no atonement for sin, other than through sacrifices and punishment.) Two punishments included David being overtaken by his foes. The third was allowing the sword of the Lord, and pestilence in the land for three days.

David responded, "I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hands of men." 1 Chronicles 21:13 NASV

David trusted His Heavenly Father as a God of mercy even when justly dealing punishment for his own wrong-doing. He knew the hearts of men can be merciless and unkind and at best unpredictable. He would not trust this punishment. Instead He turned His heart back to His Father.

David humbled himself before His God. With true repentance and a contrite heart, he sought forgiveness. A contrite heart the Lord will never refuse.

So the Lord did send pestilence on Israel; 70000 men of Israel fell. "And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity, and said to the destroying angel, 'It is enough; now relax your hand.'" I Chronicles 21:15 NASV

God's mercies are great. They were to David and they are to us. He does not deal with His children as we deserve.

Throughout the Psalms, and the Old Testament we are witness to David's intimacy with His Father. We can cry out to our Father in our darkest of nights, in oppression, fear, grief, terror quoting the Psalms that David penned. We find comfort, peace, and strength through David's words in the Psalms.

As we read the accounts of David in the Old Testament we see David humble himself again and again before His God. We see Him come boldly and desperately, with a trusting heart to His God and King.

There were times he danced and sang to His God, sometimes mocked by others, even his wife. He was grateful for all He received from His father's hand. Over and over David found favour in God's sight. He pleaded with God at times too. He spoke to God, He listened to God, and He obeyed Him. But David was a man. He was weak and fragile just as we are weak and fragile.
He fell short of the holiness of God. And we do too!

So many times we see account after account of David's intimate relationship with His loving Father. David learned His Father's heart. He knew Him. He sought Him in good times and in bad. Is this why God says, "He was a man after my own heart."?

Father God, we seek You like David did. We cry out to You. We want to know Your heart. We meditate on Your word. We teach it to our children, when we walk by the way, when we eat, and when we sleep. We want to be faithful to love You with all our heart, mind, body, and soul. We give it all to You Lord. Use us Lord. May we learn like David did, to seek that intimate, deep, abiding relationship with You. We love You, Lord.

Wisdom's Blessing

We sat across a table over lunch, Paul’s uncle John and I, catching up on news; he telling me of his recent missionary journeys to the Philippines and Nepal and India. At almost 79, he shows no sign of letting up on a schedule that would exhaust many younger men. He has just crossed thousands of miles in India, on overnight trains; teaching groups of pastors hungry for encouragement and sound biblical knowledge.

“And you? What are you doing?” he asked, turning his attention to me.

I told him what I was writing and what I had been thinking through lately about having been “in” Christ when he died; I, testing my thoughts and understanding before an older, wiser disciple.

When we are wrestling through to truth, that is one of the tests; that and measuring what we think or someone tells us, against God’s Word. I often bounce things off Paul when I get excited about a principle or thought, and sometimes he suggests that maybe I should consider this, or that counterpoint or thought. It’s a place of safety.

Uncle John’s eyes brightened and he nodded with approval and agreement in response.

“Yes,” he said, “First we appropriate our identification with Christ’s finished work, and then we cultivate the life of the Spirit; nourishing it with good food.”

“Thank you,” I said, “You’ve just given me my next blog post! “ And he laughed.

Appropriate: 1. Take and use as one’s own.[1]
Cultivate: 2. Produce (crops) by tending them. 3. Spend time and care in developing and encouraging. [2]
This is “working out” our salvation; not “working for” by our own human effort, which can never succeed or else the law would have been enough.
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2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Galatians 5:16-18
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

[1] Oxford Dictionary
[2] Oxford Dictionary

What a Book!

I'm catching up. A week ago I was 24 days behind on the Marathon of Biblical Proportions. By the time I go to sleep tonight, hopefully having read the next three chapters, I'll be down to just 12 days behind. Soon the people who have been pacing themselves with more diligence than I will be able see my dust in the distance behind them somewhere. And before long I'll be running side by side with them again. I'm getting my second wind. I'm running my heart out right now, and at the same time, thoroughly enjoying the race.

I'm thankful for this race through God's Word. I've started to read the Bible through from cover to cover a number of times, but have always fizzled out somewhere in the Old Testament. Mostly I have stuck to the parts that I enjoy - like the Psalms. And John's gospel. Written in her own hand in the flyleaf of my mom's Bible, are these words:

"Reading only the portions of scripture that we enjoy will not give us the whole counsel of God."

I'm finding the truth that is in those words as I get closer to the half-way point. I'm finding myself looking forward to doing it again. To passing landmarks that will be familiar to me the next time through, and become more and more familiar each time.

I love God's Word. I love it's living-breathing-ness. I love that it's HIM coming through the pages to speak to US. I love that it is the key to intimacy with Him. A humble key... a book. Just a book that could stay lying on a shelf gathering dust, and yet the key to SUCH riches of wisdom and understanding. Opening the cover, and applying faith to the words on the pages, is the pathway to knowing God, to hearing his voice, to understanding his ways, to being conformed to the image of his Son. Isn't that just like him to pick such a humble way of revealing himself? Just a book on a shelf - taken down and read with a heart that is longing to know Him.
Just a book... What a Book!