April 29

NUMBERS 6
I stood in her backyard and watched as she came toward me escorted by her father. It was his last act of authority over her. She was beautiful. She was wearing the traditional white dress for the occasion, and in her hands was a bouquet of yellow roses. We exchanged vows to each other of extreme devotion. The vows were to separate ourselves to each other till ‘death do us part.’ My life now ought to be lived to make her happy, to protect her, to smile upon her, to be gracious to her, to give her peace. In exchange for her devotion, I pledged to her my undying love, all that I am, and that which is most precious to me, I gave her my name.
While not a marriage vow, this ‘Nazarite Vow,’ as it is often called is described by Dr. Ronald Allen as, “An act of unusual devotion to God, based perhaps on an intense desire to demonstrate to the Lord one’s utter separation to Him.”* The more negative person would look at it and say, “Why should I have to keep myself from using any grape product, cutting my hair or touching anything dead?” Simply, one would do it to express one’s utter devotion to the Lord. Why would one want to do that? One would desire it only because one has found His great glory and tasted of it. That one taste makes the denial of any other thing worth it. If you have tasted of His glory, then you know exactly what I mean. So here it is, the Nazarite Vow. It is the vow of one who desires to give oneself in extreme devotion to the Lord.
I find it more than a coincidence that at the end of the Nazarite Vow description and requirements that the Lord instructs Aaron to bless the people with these specific words. Notice that in this blessing, the name of the Lord is repeated three times. As Christians, we read into this that the whole Trinity is desirous of blessing us. Yahweh, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, desires to make us happy. Those who have given themselves to Him receive His blessing, His protection, His enlightenment, His grace, His smile, His peace. When He desires to do this for us, why wouldn’t I want to devote myself wholly to Him? But wait! There is still more. He puts His name upon us! I have a new name now. It is His name. He wants to glorify His name. It is done in us! It is His desire that all the world should see extreme love and extreme devotion when it sees us. The normal way in which the world will see His glory before the Day of Judgment is as He has placed His name upon His bride. Hmmmm. . . will the world see extreme devotion or will it be sullied by our spiritual adultery? He is all about blessing His bride. What will our world see? Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
*The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Numbers, Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor, Ronald B. Allen Numbers contributor, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan, ©1990, p.749.
PSALM 119:57-112
One Christmas in 1961, my parents gave my brother and me a portable Roy Rogers stereo record player. My 11-year-old brother thought it was awesome. In my 6-year-old mindset, I was not so impressed. He offered me one of his other gifts if I would relinquish my portion of the record player. I was impressed with the offer, so I gladly took it. He became the sole possessor of the record player, and I became the possessor of toy doctor’s kit. At the time we were both delighted with our exchange. As the years progressed, I began to think less of the exchange and to realize that I had thought too little of my portion of the record player.
God’s law is more than a list of His commands of how He wants us to live and not to live. Rather, His law is a reflection of what He is like. So, the keeping of His law is not a “do and don’t” proposition. It is learning to dwell in His presence in such a way that we delight in what He is like. He remains our portion. Notice some of the things that David says about the law of the Lord:

72The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
75I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
92Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.

When He becomes our delight, He becomes our hope and He enlightens our life (vs. 81 &105). That hope and enlightenment produces strength in adversity. Look at verses 61 & 62:

“The cords of the wicked have bound me, But I have not forgotten Your law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, Because of Your righteous judgments.”

While the New Testament writers did not interpret this as a reference to Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, it sure is reminiscent of their experience. These two men were preaching the good news in Philippi and having great success. As a result of that success, they were beaten and thrown into the dungeon. Most people who would be beaten and imprisoned for exercising free speech would be rather depressed, but not Paul and Silas. Why? Because the law and the gospel was more than a concept for them. It was a relationship with the living God! It was a delight to enjoy His presence while they suffered! At midnight, bruised and bleeding, fastened by chains to the dungeon floor, they joyfully raised up songs of praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the law and the gospel was the presence of Jesus Christ. His presence was delight!
Often I think too little of my portion of the Lord. I trade His presence for the toys of this world. When will I ever learn? O Lord, teach me your judgments, knowledge and commandments for they are more than words on paper. They are what You are like. You are a delight! That is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

ISAIAH 29
It is absolutely astonishing! The complexity of the DNA molecule is absolutely astonishing! I went on line to see if I could come up with a good illustration of that idea. As I began to read various scholarly articles, I began to see that I was completely out of my league. I am not illiterate, but I might as well have been as I read the various articles. I know enough from high school and college biology to understand the basic concepts about DNA, but I have not mastered the terminology. So, as I read the articles, I began to realize that I am not quite there, and it would take me a long time to really understand what I was reading. The articles might as well have been sealed to me.
When it comes to the glory of God, people are the same way. His glory is all around us and is self-evident. To some it is as though they are illiterate. It is impossible to try to read it. To others it is like handing a book to them that is sealed; they have the ability to read, but cannot open the book. Both are in the same boat; the contents of the book are closed to them. A problem erupts when I seek to worship the Lord when I really have not seen His glory. Like an illiterate child who has heard the story read so many times that they can sit down and recite the book, but they really are not reading. So too are we when we choose to worship the Lord in the manner in which we choose rather than seeing His glory first and letting His glory impel us on.
So was the problem with Israel in Isaiah’s day. They chose to bring their offerings and sacrifices before the Lord, but continued to live their lives as they pleased, rather than how the glory of God blew them. So too in the days of Jesus, the glory of the Lord should have blown them to honoring their parents, but the lure of following the Pharisaical practice of giving to the temple before meeting the needs of their parents invalidated the way God had instructed them to obey Him. Thus they were illiterate to the command to honor their parents in order to follow the established path of worship. Jesus quotes this passage to point out their illiterate spiritual hearts. They could not read how meeting their parents need first was a higher calling than giving to the temple treasury.
It would seem that seeing the glory of God is linked to a willingness to obey. Without an unfettered willingness to obey, there is little hope of truly seeing the glory of God. We seem to have it turned around. We seem to want to tell the Lord how we should worship Him. Is it really wise for the clay to instruct the potter in the fine arts of pot making for the potter’s glory? God’s glory is all around me. Why should I ever have any compulsion to tell him how to construct my life? Should I not rather position myself so that I can hear his instruction on how He wants to construct my Life? Lord, help me to be open to you and your glory! Put together Your amazing spiritual DNA in me. Reproduce the life of Jesus in me! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john

LUKE 20:27-47
The first funeral I presided over was for a lady, whom I had never met. I had no idea whether she was in heaven or hell. It was absolutely the worst situation in which I have ever preached a funeral. I was asked to preach it because our church had done a VBS that her grandchildren had come to. The next week she died. Neither the woman who died nor her son, the father of the children who came to VBS, had a church home. In talking with her son in preparation for the funeral, it was apparent that there was open hostility among extended family members. There was no grace in the home. It was a simple graveside ceremony. It was raining. The only ones who came were the dead woman's son, his wife and their daughters. I had asked the son what were some of the good memories he had of his mother. He had none. What do you say?
A colleague of mine gave me the best advice I've ever received in conducting funerals. I've followed it ever since. He said, "You want to accomplish three things: 1) To remember together the life of the departed and in remembering, to honor them for the way that they loved each of those left behind. 2) To try to reach out to each other to comfort one another. 3) To prepare ourselves to pass through the portal of death. I did my best to accomplish those things at that funeral. Obviously, I had to focus on the last goal. I preached the gospel.
Jesus is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob call (present tense) Him Lord. David calls Him Lord. David called Him Lord when he, David, was living upon the earth. Yet, Jesus, the Messiah, is the Son of David. David still calls Him Lord. The glory of Jesus is that He had great glory before He added flesh to His person! In Him is life! His life is the light of men. What brings Him even greater glory is that He shares His life with us! He takes our deadness, which comes from our refusal to exalt His name over our own, and He raises those who place their trust in Him to new life! He has made it so simple and so easy for us to share in that life. He Himself said, "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Life is abundant in Jesus. One cannot dwell in His presence and not come alive oneself. Remember the Star Trek movie where they had the Genesis project? Spock is killed and given a 'burial' in the Genesis project. What happens? He comes back to life in the next movie. Nice science fiction, yes? But it is fiction. Jesus is the real Genesis. He is not fiction. He is real life. He who clings to Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Nothing can abide in His presence and not come to life! Now, that is good news, which is what gospel means. Even in the depths of the despair of death, at the worst funeral situation possible, there is hope. There is hope because of His glory--He is the God of the living!
I wish I could tell you that the grieving family embraced the gospel. They did not. They continued in the bitterness death. They could have embraced joy of the life of Jesus. But their own pride was more important to them. So Jesus let them have their own pride. As far as I know, they are still embracing their pride and bitterness rather than the glory of Jesus and His ability to raise the dead. Don't be that way! Focus upon His glory, not your pride. If you do, it will make your funeral a time of rejoicing rather than bitterness. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john