I am often overwhelmed by the pendulum swing of the Lord. On one end of the swing we see His unbending justice and righteousness. On the other end we see His immeasurable love and mercy. His glory displays both. So too in today’s passage we see both extremes. “10 So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood; but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death. . . 12 Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine.” Wow! Now that is extreme! Any outsider who comes near shall be put to death. Why? God’s purity is something He treasures highly! Since we are made in His image, our rejection of His holiness is extremely offensive to Him. Until that sin is taken care of, we are of great offense to Him! Yet, because we are made in His image, He loves us unconditionally. He desires us to be His. He desires to possess us. He chose the Levites and the sons of Aaron to be the ones who would ritually take away the sin of His people. He demands that purity and provides away to become pure. He jealously possesses His priests and servants. It is through them that He is able to come to His bride!
Jesus has become the Great High Priest who takes away our sin. We have become with Him a priesthood of those who believe in Him. He jealously possesses us. He has said of you and me, “You are mine!” He calls us to bring others into this great love! Wow! What glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 116-117
He looked me in the eye and said, “I just want you to know that I don’t like the way you are treating my brother.”
“How am I treating your brother?” I responded.
His open palm went up and he declared, “Enough said!” He ignored my question, my voice, and stormed out of the building. Such a response can be expected out of an immature child, or even and immature adult, but not out of a man in his sixties who has spent the bulk of his life in ministry and is a trained psychologist. He ignored my voice. It did not endear me to him.
Has your voice ever been ignored? The Psalmist says, “I love the Lord because He heard my voice.” If there is anyone in all of creation that I might expect to ignore my voice, perhaps it would be the Creator. After all as I look at the vastness of His creation and its overpowering complexity, I am convinced of my smallness! Why should He listen to me? Not only am I such a small thing in His finite creation, but He has a reason to be mad at me. I have rebelled against His authority and sinned against Him. According to His own justice, I deserve death. The Psalmist cries out to the Lord as he is about to die. The Lord heard his voice and delivered him.
I have called out to the Lord; He has delivered me from death and from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over me. I will take that cup of salvation. It enables me to live victoriously over sin in this life. I can live this life in victory because He has heard my voice. I can call on His name and because He hears my voice, I can expect power to live victoriously. It endears me to Him. I love Him for it.
My death is precious in His sight. Physically I think that means that if I am walking with Him, my death is a valuable thing to Him. It will come neither before nor after the appropriate time. Spiritually, He desires the death of my old nature. It is precious to Him so that He can raise me to walk in newness of life. This infinite God desires to hear my voice. He desires to hear me call out to Him so that He might deliver me from and through death. Wow! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
ISAIAH 26
In 2007 I was blessed to be able to spend a dream vacation with my family in Germany. The first castle which we visited was Rheinfels on the Rhine River which was still fabulous even in its ruins. For centuries it was the stronghold for the area and was never defeated. The outer courtyards were laced with underground tunnels as part of its defense. The idea was that once an invading army had breached the outer wall, the defenders could purposely fall back and let the army fill the outer courtyards to begin their work of trying to breach the next wall. When the defenders felt that a major part of the army had entered the courtyards, they could collapse the underground tunnels below the invaders and kill most of the army above. The castle was never taken until the French revolutionary army took it in 1794. It was surrendered without a fight and the army blasted it to pieces with their cannons which could penetrate stone walls. Until then, the city had been a source of peace for those who sought refuge there.
The song begun in Isaiah chapter 25 continues in chapter 26. The Lord is the strong city, castle, who protects His inhabitants. His walls are impenetrable and unscaleable. After years of ministry as a pastor, I am convinced that every person struggles with some kind of addiction that masters each one of us. For some that addiction is more recognizable to others because of how it destroys one’s life. If the master becomes destructive enough, we (as individuals in a culture) may retreat to different methods to find relief from those masters. It might be a twelve step method, counseling, a treatment center, self-help books, religion (anything from eastern mysticism, Islam, Judaism, to Christianity). It could be a retreat into a grab for power, wealth or pleasure. These all become masters over us which ultimately bring death and which cannot rescue us from ourselves or the destructive forces which come against us. There is only one person, one name, Jesus, who can deliver us.
Ultimately only He can deliver because we were made for Him. If we seek deliverance anywhere else, we incur His wrath. He lets us go to that for which we desire. Because what we desire is not infinite, it ultimately fails. Eventually the cannons of time blast the walls of our self-made fortresses and the masters which rule over us, and we are destroyed. But unlike those walls, He is a fortress to which we can run which cannot be destroyed, even by His own wrath. The result is that if we voluntarily leave our old masters and surrender to Him, He joyfully receives us to Himself and welcomes us into the interior court of His castle. The result is peace for those who have entered in. The key is simply surrendering all, being willing to let Him take all not just the select things which we want to give Him. He will keep us in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him. Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
LUKE 19:11-27
Once, I misplaced my cell phone. I couldn't find it anywhere. I remembered having it when I bought my lunch at Wal*Mart. But when it came time to go home, I couldn't find it anywhere. I remembered having left it on. So, I called the number from my office phone. I couldn't hear it ringing anywhere. I thought it might be out in the van. I called the number again as I walked out to the van to hear it ringing. I couldn't hear it. I had that sinking feeling that I must have laid it down somewhere at Wal*Mart or the bank, which meant, there is a good possibility that it is gone for good. Traveling home, I reported my loss to Laura. She said, "Are you sure it’s not in the van?" I decided to check the van one more time. There it was. It apparently had fallen out of my pocket down into the step inside the door. I wonder why I couldn't hear it ring. I was delighted to find my lost phone.
Jesus delights in finding those who are lost. Walking underneath the tree of Zacchaeus, with great joy He looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house!" Zacchaeus became a new man because of that encounter. His life was filled with a new righteous lifestyle. Jesus delights in making our lives ring with righteousness. When others hear the ring in us, some of them are also drawn to Him, and He finds other lost ones. Zacchaeus was one of those that He found and made him to ring with righteousness. The ringing of the new righteousness of Zacchaeus brought others to the Lord.
Jesus delights in having gone to receive a kingdom. What are the basic elements of a kingdom? There are three, a king, a realm and subjects of the realm. Jesus is the King of kings. Jesus has the power to take the realm anytime that He wants to take it. Currently it is His glory to find those lost ones through us, causing us to ring with His righteousness. We are the way that He calls lost ones in order to find them. Are we letting Him ring through us so that He may call others? That is part of His glory. He makes His glory to ring through us in order to draw others. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
No comments:
Post a Comment