The Old Testament Lesson
Psalm 119 verses 145-152. Listen to what they say:
“I cry out with my whole heart; hear me, O Lord! I will keep Your statutes. I cry out to You; Save me, and I will keep Your testimonies. I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word. Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; O Lord, revive me according to Your justice. They draw near who follow after wickedness; they are far from Your law. You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are truth. Concerning Your testimonies, I have known of old that You have founded them forever.”Psalm 119 verses 145-152, NIV)
The Devotion
Do you desire God, more than anything or anyone else? Did you begin your day—this very
morning— adoring Him, talking to Him, listening to Him? During the day, are you sharing your
joys, your successes, your sorrow, even the areas in your life where you are secretly sinning, but
truly desire to more like Jesus. Is the time you spend with Him sweet—-something you don’t
want to miss? And are you finding yourself, more and more, throughout the day, talking to Him,
worshipping Him, confessing to Him and even day-dreaming with Him? If you are, you’re truly
falling in love with Him, over and over again, and you’re living as a true disciple! You’re being
the good son or daughter Christ died for you to become. And here’s the evidence that this
happening—that you’re being transformed:
-You’re not a whiner—-you are keenly aware of how good He is to you—- and how bad things would be for you if He was not in your heart. We all miss the mark, lose our tempers, say things we regret. Just a couple of days ago, as I working on this devotion, a friend informed me that one of my customers had suggested that I was not very good at running my little camp. And I was disgusted to see how quickly my posture straightened, my veins pumped out on my neck and how I began to defend my experience and competence— and then attack his competence! Ahh, I missed the target again! I allowed pride to swell up and raise it’s ugly head in my life. But I’ve learned this, because I do love God, when I do fail to please God, by slapping back when I am slapped, I’ve learned to quickly admit it that I was wrong. I pray to Him:“I will never reach that high mark you want me to attaint unless you help me—-please forgive me and help me.”
And then, when I see myself sin, I remind myself that I am forgiven and made clean only by the blood of Jesus. How could I not love him all the more when I am reminded of what He has done for me! And how can I not tolerate the sins, even if the crazy slander and unkindness towards me, as remind myself of how Jesus, and not my own feeble efforts, has made me clean. And I believe this—-that He was washed away every sin, along with the penalty and filthy appearance of sin from my life—-I am clean and pure in God’s eyes because of the blood of Jesus! Are you?
There are books and books written tying to figure out “the reason men and women are here on this earth”, or what’s the “purpose of life”? Jesus came to make it simple and clear: Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him for eternity. That’s it! That’s what our hearts yearn for, even if we’ve forgotten it or have had a different narrative pounded into our heads. And peace, quite naturally, comes when I do the work that He has set for me to do. When asked about work God requires of mankind, do you know what He said? “Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”John 6:29, NIV. That’s it! Believe in Jesus Christ and you will find yourself doing the actual work of God!
That is what God requires of us as while we live on this earth! Do you believe that Jesus was sent here by God? You’d better! It was God’s greatest gift of love—-it’s not wise to smirk at His kindness or return His gifts. There are some folks you can’t give anything to, because they think they have it all, or their tastes are too picky. I tend to give those folks much less—or just a gift card or cash— because I know that whatever I give will be re-cyled to someone else or put in a closet. I want my gifts to be appreciated——and God’s gift of His beloved Son is not something to be denied or hid in a closet.
But “belief in Jesus” is not just about admitting the obvious—-i.e. that Jesus lived and died. It means that we believe in the PURPOSE of His life, we believe what He said and that we have surrendered our lives to him. Believing in Jesus means that on bended knee we admit that He is Lord of our lives and that we are willing to follow Him wherever He leads. Do you believe—like that? Are you living like that?
Following anyone, or even following the directions of a computer like Siri on our iPhones, means that we “trust”. We believe that they—-or “it”—know what they’re saying. Following Jesus means that we believe so strongly in God that we are willing to commit our lives to Him and live a way that is totally at odds with human wisdom and our instincts! And that naturally means that we will abide in Him—that we will have Him, ever present, in all that we do. But do you? Do you feel His presence in your soul right now?
This morning I challenge you to maintain this ultimate closeness with God all day long! Do you feel His hand upon you throughout the day, or only at church or when you’re reading the Bible? We become intimate—“one”—with God, in much the same way we become very, very close to the ones we love the most—we are in constant communication with those we love throughout the day. A teenager needs no counsel in how to be love a person they’ve fallen in love with—they find way and overcome all kinds of obstacles, deadlines, curfews and house rules!
If you find God and make it your habit to have Him in your heart—-to be in His presence all day long—you will have perpetual peace. You’ll find that the secret to having the highest pleasure is found in doing His will throughout the day. And you do it not because you must—-but because you’ve fallen in love— you want to be with Him—in all things you do! He is the lover of your very soul like no-one else—-and you pant for Him and desire intimacy with Him like nothing else.
What’s going to happen if you get closer and closer to Him, each day? You are going to find that you are getting less angry with others, that you have less to complain about—even when you come face to face with all the evil in the world. So as you pray, speak to Him, pour out your heart heart to Him…delight to be with Him you will be surprised to discover that things are actually not worse in the world than they are! Your whole outlook changes! You might not find others more charitable and kind, but you will find that you are more charitable to those that sin against you, as you are brought face-to-face with your own sins against God—and how He tolerates that waywardness and yet hugs you and embraces you.
Friends, I am not thoroughly there yet—-I know it and my behavior evidences it each day! But this I do: I meekly ask Him throughout the day to guard my heart from my own selfish agenda, my determinations to be properly understood and admired, and most importantly from those that might be trying to help me, but are actually in the way of Him having His way in my life and His way in my ministry to Him..
My heavenly Father is a “giver”, and we are, by and large, “takers”. Our destiny is to become like Jesus—one who gave everything—even His life—and had such profound joy in freely giving up His life for those He loved! But if you would have compete satisfaction in this life, this morning, right now, stop living for God’s blessing and gifts, and start living for His love—period. Does this require effort. Yes!… at least in the beginning. And sometimes, during the day, when God sends a really tough person for me to love or forgive, or the task is beyond my gifts, a love for God might be difficult—so I must tell Him the truth! “I need help with this! I know that you’ll be pleased with me if accomplish this or do this, but I cannot do this! I need your help or it will be a royal mess.” And of course He helps me every time. He heard my cries all week and even last night as I uttered those very words….
Yesterday, as I was literally writing this sermon, I discovered that a person I would give my life to, was doing something that would appear, to most sane men, as being insane. And I was at a total loss of words for what to say to express my dissatisfaction! So I told God about this (and of course He already knew!) and I pleaded with Him for help! How should I handle this! Lord take me home to glory right now! And it occurred to me what Jeremiah, Daniel—-heroes in the Old Testament!—have in common with my heroes of the Christian faith: Saint Francis of Assisi, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Aquinas and Saint Paul. Now they all loved God and did incredible things. But what was that common among them? Socially they were different than most all other men in one grand manner—they did not have teenage sons to raise! In fact they had no children or wives. And whereas it must have been quite lonely at times, I can see how it’s far easier to be 100% focused upon God then, when you’re literally putting out fires, breaking up fights, trying to help young men go through the curse of all teenagers—-“puberty”. It’s not only distracting, it stretches moms and dads to the limit some days!!! And yet, that’s what God has called most of us to experience—and the continuation of the human race depends upon us raising sons and daughters! But as I read the biographies or Brother Lawrence or Saint Francis, I wonder how their lives and the things they wrote might have been a little more nuanced if they were raising three boys in their homes….
But whether you’re a bachelor, childless, or married with children, it’s a rock solid faith in God, and the certainty of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on calvary, that allows us to be the creatures He wants us to be…the same creatures our souls long to be! Have you devoted yourself entirely to Him? If you have, one of the benefits is His protection from the doubt and deception the enemy throws at the rest of mankind about right and wrong, good and evil, and even God’s love for you.
Peace with God is ours… when He is our goal—our purpose—-the end of all our efforts. It is surrender to God and abandoning our lives to Him that allows us to enjoy that abundant life and total assurance of His love and provision—not the other way around.
My Christian heroes were very intelligent, disciplined and skilled men. But talent, knowledge, education and a superior intelligence are not required to get close to God—in fact, for many people, it can be hindrances. All that is required is a love for God that is consuming and exceeds all other loves and affections. You could be the Christian hero to this generation of believers! Are you willing?
The greatest joy in the Christian life comes not from accomplishing great things for Him, but rather always being in constant communion with Him in the smallest, simplest and most common tasks of the day. Asking Him to bless me before, during and after the tasks I do—and dedicating those tasks to honor Him brings sustained joy! That joy explodes within me as I trust Him, not myself or even my most trusted friends, with the tasks He assigns me or the opportunities He presents to me for loving my sons, my friends, my neighbors and all those who allows to cross my path during the day.. Hope, faith and love is the key to this profound peace.
It’s been said that many, many things are possible for the man that has hope—the very things that will elude the more gifted man that lacks faith. But even more is possible for the one that has hope and faith. But far more for the one that has love! Don’t you see that in the lives of other saints around you? “But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues!” (Brother Lawrence)
I am doing my best, after 42 years of running a summer camp, to walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love; and I am trying every day to diligently do nothing and think nothing which may displease Him. I hope that when I have done what I can, He will do with me what He pleases.
The Challenge:
Let me leave you with these words: “I consider myself as the most wretched of men, full of sores and corruption, and who has committed all sorts of crimes against God, my King and Sovereign. Touched with a sensible regret I confess to him all my wickedness, I ask his forgiveness, I abandon myself in his hands, that he may do what He pleases with me. This Almighty God, full of mercy and goodness, very far from chastising me, embraces me with love, makes me eat at his table, serves me with his own hands, gives me the key of his treasures; He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a thousand and a thousand ways, and treats me in all respects as his favorite.” (Brother Lawrence). Don’t you want that kind of life with God?
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