Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.--Psalm 51:7-11
Father,
Thank You that as I walk in the light in fellowship with You and with others that the precious blood of Your Son, Jesus, cleanses me from all my sin. If I confess my sin, Lord, You are faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
Wash me, Lord, with the water of Your Word. Allow it to root deeply in my heart and convict me of all unrighteousness. Allow Your Word to transform me into Your image. Allow it to set my heart aright and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Though my sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. In Your precious Son, Father, I am made clean.
Please Father, do not hide your face from me. Blot out all my iniquities. For they have gone over my head and, like a heavy burden, are too heavy for me. I am troubled and bowed down...feeble, sore and broken. There is no rest in my soul because of my sin.
O how happy is the man to whom God does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Lord, I acknowledge my sin and all my desire is before You. My heart pants, my strength fails...the light is gone from my eyes. I am sorry for my sin.
But You, O Lord, are my God who forgives! I have trusted in Your mercy and my hope is in Your Word. My heart rejoices in Your salvation. I sing to You because You have dealt bountifully with me! You have turned my mourning to dancing and have girded me with the gladness of Your salvation. You have forgiven all my sins...You are always with me...even when I make my bed in the depths of the sea...even there You find me...Your right hand leads me and holds me fast.
You have created in me a clean heart. In Your Son, Jesus, I am a new creature. Old things have passed away and behold all things have been made new! You God have reconciled me to Yourself by Your Son. Only in Him am I found righteous! In Him I am washed as white as snow.
I will praise You forever because You, God, are my Portion. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. You do not cast me out but cover me in the blood of Your Son. You are my hiding place. Under Your wing, I take shelter. I am with You always.
What can I render to You, my God, for all Your benefits to me??? Like David, I have taken the cup of Your salvation. Upon Your name will I call.
Make me an ambassador for You, Father. I want to tell the precious people of this world about You. i want to teach them Your ways by Your Spirit working in my life. I want them to be converted unto YOU!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
When My Heart is Overwhelmed...
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?--Joshua 7:6-9
I can so relate to how Joshua is feeling here. Rending clothes, tearing hair, beating the breast, throwing dust upon the head and falling prostrate in the Bible are all signs of deep affliction and distress. Sometimes we just don't understand what God is doing....why something occurred or why the Lord "seemed" to help us one day and not the next. But God whose ways are not our ways and whose thoughts are not our thoughts "did it" differently. We complain against Him, question His motives, His abilities and even His Word.
This is where we find Joshua. He seems to have completely forgotten all the mighty wonders the Lord has done in the last 40 plus years. He seems to have forgotten what the Lord said to Him in the very first chapter of this book:
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, .... There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.--Joshua 1:2-4
I am so like Joshua...it is easy for me to trust God when things are going the way I think they should go...but when things begin to go south and not make sense, I can sound just like Joshua does here....full of doubt and overwhelmed by my circumstances. The Israelites had just had a major victory at Jericho, but had to turn tail and run from the men in Ai. The battle of Ai should have been an easy win. Unfortunately, there was unconfessed sin in the camp of Israel.
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.--Joshua 7:11-12
Israel's disobedience had grieved the Spirit of God, but Joshua, as their leader, had quenched the Spirit by not acknowledging the Lord in prayer before going into battle. It is so easy when coming off a major spiritual victory to forget God and go in your own strength. THAT is not what our God wants. He wants us to depend on Him at all times. Sadly for us, difficulties cause us to remember where our strength comes from more than the good times do. God desire and goal for us as we journey through this life is for us to be conformed to His image...to become like Him and reflect His glory.
Feeling happy...bring it to Him. Feeling helpless, fearful and overwhelmed....bring it to Him. Bring it all to Him. Fall at His feet and turn your heart upside down before Him. Surrender to His Spirit. and acknowledge Him in all your ways. Allow Him to be your Guide and direct your path always.
Father....When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I...
I can so relate to how Joshua is feeling here. Rending clothes, tearing hair, beating the breast, throwing dust upon the head and falling prostrate in the Bible are all signs of deep affliction and distress. Sometimes we just don't understand what God is doing....why something occurred or why the Lord "seemed" to help us one day and not the next. But God whose ways are not our ways and whose thoughts are not our thoughts "did it" differently. We complain against Him, question His motives, His abilities and even His Word.
This is where we find Joshua. He seems to have completely forgotten all the mighty wonders the Lord has done in the last 40 plus years. He seems to have forgotten what the Lord said to Him in the very first chapter of this book:
Now after the death of Moses the servant of the LORD it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, .... There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.--Joshua 1:2-4
I am so like Joshua...it is easy for me to trust God when things are going the way I think they should go...but when things begin to go south and not make sense, I can sound just like Joshua does here....full of doubt and overwhelmed by my circumstances. The Israelites had just had a major victory at Jericho, but had to turn tail and run from the men in Ai. The battle of Ai should have been an easy win. Unfortunately, there was unconfessed sin in the camp of Israel.
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.--Joshua 7:11-12
Israel's disobedience had grieved the Spirit of God, but Joshua, as their leader, had quenched the Spirit by not acknowledging the Lord in prayer before going into battle. It is so easy when coming off a major spiritual victory to forget God and go in your own strength. THAT is not what our God wants. He wants us to depend on Him at all times. Sadly for us, difficulties cause us to remember where our strength comes from more than the good times do. God desire and goal for us as we journey through this life is for us to be conformed to His image...to become like Him and reflect His glory.
Feeling happy...bring it to Him. Feeling helpless, fearful and overwhelmed....bring it to Him. Bring it all to Him. Fall at His feet and turn your heart upside down before Him. Surrender to His Spirit. and acknowledge Him in all your ways. Allow Him to be your Guide and direct your path always.
Father....When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I...
Saturday, December 31, 2011
My Strength and My Song...
Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.
For in You do I trust;
Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
For I lift up my soul to You.
The only thing that will lift me up out of despair is to hear Your voice filled with lovingkindness. Cause me to hear it! You are the One that I trust in. You are the One who lifts my burdens and brings me to hope. You are the One who does not change and whose presence is always with me. I belong to You....I am relying on You. You are faithful...You will not disappoint one who is trusting You.
Lord, I am seeking you diligently and trusting you completely. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk. Enlighten my darkness Lord and enable me to see the perfect path You and You alone have laid out for me.
My soul is heavy but as I lift it up to You, You bear me up on eagle's wings and renew my strength....then I will be able to run and not grow weary; walk and not grow faint.
Lord, You are the God of my circumstances. Thank you for your presence in my life...thank you for the gift of Your Son. You are my strength and my song.
Friday, December 30, 2011
The Waters Will Not Overflow Us...
Chapters 3 and 4 of the book of Joshua were some convicting chapters of Scripture for me. What a reminder of God's sovereign care and love for His people. What a reminder to me who, like the Israelites, often needs memorial stones to remember the wonderful things God has done and still does in my life. God wants us to set up these memorials. He wants us to rejoice in Him always. He wants us to do this not just for us either...but for the generation that will come after us.
He desires us to talk to our children about the marvelous things He has done in our lives. He wants us to show them how the Lord blessed the teeny tiny steps of faith we took....He wants them also to know that when we took these teeny tiny steps of faith and got our feet wet in the waters of the Jordan...THE WATERS DID NOT overflow us AND that throughout it all OUR GOD WAS WITH US. He wants them to know that it was not anything we did, but it was the Lord our God who did it all. He was the One who performed all things for us and made all that concerned us perfect.
The Lord was with Joshua and He is with us. The Lord exalted Him in the sight of all in Israel and when we obey Him and wait on Him as Joshua did, He lifts us up. I love that as their leader Joshua spoke words of faith to the people God had placed in his charge. Read them now:
And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."--Joshua 4:5
Wow...what a great thing for your kids to go to bed hearing. Take a shower, brush your teeth ...tomorrow the Lord is going to do wonders among us. Be ready for it...look for it!
Too often my kids hear me grumble and complain. Too often they hear a lack of thankfulness in both my words and my attitude. How much better if I magnified my Lord. How much better if my words and my actions matched always with what I claim to believe. The faith of all those around me would be strengthened. God wants lives committed completely and utterly to Him...He desires living sacrifices that glorify Him in both word and deed. He wants us to dwell on those things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report...He wants us to meditate on the praiseworthy.
As a believer, I can thank God in all things. In trials I can remember that He works all together for good and that His goodness and mercy follow me wherever He leads. In good times I can remember that also. I can sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to those around me always, because my past has been forgiven. My present is in Him who I can go boldly before to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. My future is secured in heaven. Things may look pretty dark at times, but in reality, I am blessed in the heavenlies by a Father who holds all good things in His hand that is forever stretched out in love toward me.
Praying that my kids today can look to my example and anticipate the wonderful things God can and will do in their lives also.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through Him.--Colossians 3:17
He desires us to talk to our children about the marvelous things He has done in our lives. He wants us to show them how the Lord blessed the teeny tiny steps of faith we took....He wants them also to know that when we took these teeny tiny steps of faith and got our feet wet in the waters of the Jordan...THE WATERS DID NOT overflow us AND that throughout it all OUR GOD WAS WITH US. He wants them to know that it was not anything we did, but it was the Lord our God who did it all. He was the One who performed all things for us and made all that concerned us perfect.
The Lord was with Joshua and He is with us. The Lord exalted Him in the sight of all in Israel and when we obey Him and wait on Him as Joshua did, He lifts us up. I love that as their leader Joshua spoke words of faith to the people God had placed in his charge. Read them now:
And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."--Joshua 4:5
Wow...what a great thing for your kids to go to bed hearing. Take a shower, brush your teeth ...tomorrow the Lord is going to do wonders among us. Be ready for it...look for it!
Too often my kids hear me grumble and complain. Too often they hear a lack of thankfulness in both my words and my attitude. How much better if I magnified my Lord. How much better if my words and my actions matched always with what I claim to believe. The faith of all those around me would be strengthened. God wants lives committed completely and utterly to Him...He desires living sacrifices that glorify Him in both word and deed. He wants us to dwell on those things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report...He wants us to meditate on the praiseworthy.
As a believer, I can thank God in all things. In trials I can remember that He works all together for good and that His goodness and mercy follow me wherever He leads. In good times I can remember that also. I can sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to those around me always, because my past has been forgiven. My present is in Him who I can go boldly before to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. My future is secured in heaven. Things may look pretty dark at times, but in reality, I am blessed in the heavenlies by a Father who holds all good things in His hand that is forever stretched out in love toward me.
Praying that my kids today can look to my example and anticipate the wonderful things God can and will do in their lives also.
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through Him.--Colossians 3:17
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Search Me and Know My Heart...
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.--Psalm 51:5-6
Prayer to My Father in Heaven...
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? It cannot be done." --Job 14:4
I am made, Father, in the likeness of sinful, fallen man. For by one man's offense death has reigned but by one Man's obedience the free gift of righteousness and eternal life came to all men. I was born in sin...You sent Your Son to die so I could be born again in the Spirit. I rejoice, Father, in the gift of Your Son.
I walked in times past according to the lusts of my flesh..fulfilling its desires and was by nature a child of wrath. But You, O God, You who are rich in mercy and who love me with so great a love even when I was dead in my trespasses and sins....You have quickened me and made me alive by Your grace. I am bound for heaven! Not because of anything I did but because of what You did at the cross at Calvary. I am your workmanship. I have nothing to boast about. Whatever I am that is good is from You. Whatever I do that is good comes from You.
You, Father, do no see me as man sees me. Man looks at the outward...but You look at my heart. You desire in me the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. This is what is great and precious in Your sight. This is what pleases You.
Examine me Father, try my innermost heart and soul. These are the seat of all my desires and affections. Try me and test me in the night seasons. You give understanding to my heart...You make me to know wisdom. You write Your law upon my heart. Father, I want to worship You in Spirit and in truth. I want nothing false in my life. You God, are the God who sees. Search me and know my heart. Lead me in the way of righteousness...keep my feet from slipping and set me in a broad place.
I want to seek You with all of my heart. I desire to please You, Father. I pray that as I seek You and You search my heart that I will receive Your correction and my heart will be enlarged with Your goodness and grace. My desire is to draw near to You....to humble myself before You and allow You to lift me up.
Prayer to My Father in Heaven...
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? It cannot be done." --Job 14:4
I am made, Father, in the likeness of sinful, fallen man. For by one man's offense death has reigned but by one Man's obedience the free gift of righteousness and eternal life came to all men. I was born in sin...You sent Your Son to die so I could be born again in the Spirit. I rejoice, Father, in the gift of Your Son.
I walked in times past according to the lusts of my flesh..fulfilling its desires and was by nature a child of wrath. But You, O God, You who are rich in mercy and who love me with so great a love even when I was dead in my trespasses and sins....You have quickened me and made me alive by Your grace. I am bound for heaven! Not because of anything I did but because of what You did at the cross at Calvary. I am your workmanship. I have nothing to boast about. Whatever I am that is good is from You. Whatever I do that is good comes from You.
You, Father, do no see me as man sees me. Man looks at the outward...but You look at my heart. You desire in me the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. This is what is great and precious in Your sight. This is what pleases You.
Examine me Father, try my innermost heart and soul. These are the seat of all my desires and affections. Try me and test me in the night seasons. You give understanding to my heart...You make me to know wisdom. You write Your law upon my heart. Father, I want to worship You in Spirit and in truth. I want nothing false in my life. You God, are the God who sees. Search me and know my heart. Lead me in the way of righteousness...keep my feet from slipping and set me in a broad place.
I want to seek You with all of my heart. I desire to please You, Father. I pray that as I seek You and You search my heart that I will receive Your correction and my heart will be enlarged with Your goodness and grace. My desire is to draw near to You....to humble myself before You and allow You to lift me up.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Hiding Nothing...
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.--Psalm 51:3-4
Father,
I acknowledge...I admit...I say the same thing that you say about my sin and my rebellion. I am hiding nothing from You. I lay it all out before You. I declare my sin and I am sorry for it. Deliver my soul, Father, from going into the pit. I want to see the light of life. You promise in Your word that if I confess my sin and turn, You will show me mercy and will be faithful and just to forgive me my wrongdoing. Let the fear of You be with me always...let me stand in awe of who You are. Keep my heart soft and my conscience tender. Keep my sin always before me...convict me...don't allow my heart to be seared nor my conscience hardened.
I am so grateful, Lord, that you are a God who shows mercy and feels compassion toward me. I am so grateful that You "looked" for my repentance and desired only my good. You pulled me up out of the miry clay and set me feet on a rock. Your kindness drew me close. Your goodness overwhelmed me...it and it alone brought me to repentance. When I turned, You ran to meet me with arms and heart wide open. You delivered me from the power of darkness and conveyed me into the kingdom of Your light. You showered me with Your love and gave me the best of everything.
Lord....You have forgiven me of much! Praying that I will always have Your love and Your compassion and forgiveness for those You have placed in my life. Praying that I realize and remember as David did that even though I wrong others with my sin, my ultimate offense, Father, is against You and Your holy law. You alone, Lord, are righteous. You, alone will judge the world. Jesus, You are the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world for my sin. It is against You and You alone that I have sinned.
Father,
I acknowledge...I admit...I say the same thing that you say about my sin and my rebellion. I am hiding nothing from You. I lay it all out before You. I declare my sin and I am sorry for it. Deliver my soul, Father, from going into the pit. I want to see the light of life. You promise in Your word that if I confess my sin and turn, You will show me mercy and will be faithful and just to forgive me my wrongdoing. Let the fear of You be with me always...let me stand in awe of who You are. Keep my heart soft and my conscience tender. Keep my sin always before me...convict me...don't allow my heart to be seared nor my conscience hardened.
I am so grateful, Lord, that you are a God who shows mercy and feels compassion toward me. I am so grateful that You "looked" for my repentance and desired only my good. You pulled me up out of the miry clay and set me feet on a rock. Your kindness drew me close. Your goodness overwhelmed me...it and it alone brought me to repentance. When I turned, You ran to meet me with arms and heart wide open. You delivered me from the power of darkness and conveyed me into the kingdom of Your light. You showered me with Your love and gave me the best of everything.
Lord....You have forgiven me of much! Praying that I will always have Your love and Your compassion and forgiveness for those You have placed in my life. Praying that I realize and remember as David did that even though I wrong others with my sin, my ultimate offense, Father, is against You and Your holy law. You alone, Lord, are righteous. You, alone will judge the world. Jesus, You are the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world for my sin. It is against You and You alone that I have sinned.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Unrelenting Pictures of Jesus...The Scarlet Thread
I am reading through the book of Joshua and once again I am overwhelmed by the unrelenting pictures of Jesus I find on almost every page of the Bible.
Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee.--Joshua 2:18
This is the scarlet cord that can be found throughout the Old and the New Testament that binds the entire bible together into one integrated message system and points us so beautifully to Jesus and His shed blood that saves. Look for it..it is everywhere.
In Egypt at the Passover the blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts and all who were inside that house were spared the death of the firstborn. In Jericho, the spies were saved by a scarlet cord let down by Rahab, a harlot, who believed that the Israelite's God was the God of the Universe and the God that would save her and her family from certain death. Everyone in Rahab's house was spared when Jericho was destroyed because of the scarlet cord she displayed by faith in her window. Rahab, the harlot, can be found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. What a picture of God's grace!!!!
The Old Testament purification and cleansing rituals are replete with the use of cedar wood, scarlet wool and hyssop. Wood brings to mind the cross. Scarlet speaks of the shed blood of Jesus. Hyssop is what was used to offer Jesus the sour wine on the cross as well as what the Israelites used to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.
There are so many more and all are tied together by the word scarlet. Read the following and be amazed.
Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
Psalm 22 is one of the greatest prophetic messianic psalms and gives a very graphic description of the crucifixion of our Lord. David wrote this psalm 1000 years before crucifixion became a Roman method of capital punishment. The very first verse of Psalm 22 in fact, was quoted by Jesus on the cross. For this study I am looking at the word worm in verse 6. The word is from the Hebrew word towla and in the Strongs it is listed as H8438. There are many different kinds of worms but the word used here refers to a very particular kind of worm. It is the scarlet or crimson worm. In fact, wherever the bible speaks of the word scarlet, as in your sins may be as scarlet, they are referring to the color and shape of this particular worm. Remember how the bible describes the cloak that they put on Jesus.
Matthew 27:28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.
Read and be amazed at how Jesus truly is found on every page of the Bible.
Here is part of the entry for how it is used in this particular psalm:
worm, scarlet stuff, crimson
"When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted."
What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might 'bring many sons unto glory' (Hbr 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through him! Psa 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (cf. Isa 1:18)" (Henry Morris. Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Baker Book House, 1985, p. 73)
Pretty amazing...
God has provided a refuge for us in His Son. Jesus is our place of safety. Just as Rahab and her family were spared from death and the Israelites from the death of their firstborn, so are we, when we abide in Him and are covered by His blood. His presence in our hearts guarantees our safety.
Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee.--Joshua 2:18
This is the scarlet cord that can be found throughout the Old and the New Testament that binds the entire bible together into one integrated message system and points us so beautifully to Jesus and His shed blood that saves. Look for it..it is everywhere.
In Egypt at the Passover the blood of the lamb was placed on the doorposts and all who were inside that house were spared the death of the firstborn. In Jericho, the spies were saved by a scarlet cord let down by Rahab, a harlot, who believed that the Israelite's God was the God of the Universe and the God that would save her and her family from certain death. Everyone in Rahab's house was spared when Jericho was destroyed because of the scarlet cord she displayed by faith in her window. Rahab, the harlot, can be found in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. What a picture of God's grace!!!!
The Old Testament purification and cleansing rituals are replete with the use of cedar wood, scarlet wool and hyssop. Wood brings to mind the cross. Scarlet speaks of the shed blood of Jesus. Hyssop is what was used to offer Jesus the sour wine on the cross as well as what the Israelites used to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on their doorposts.
There are so many more and all are tied together by the word scarlet. Read the following and be amazed.
Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people.
Psalm 22 is one of the greatest prophetic messianic psalms and gives a very graphic description of the crucifixion of our Lord. David wrote this psalm 1000 years before crucifixion became a Roman method of capital punishment. The very first verse of Psalm 22 in fact, was quoted by Jesus on the cross. For this study I am looking at the word worm in verse 6. The word is from the Hebrew word towla and in the Strongs it is listed as H8438. There are many different kinds of worms but the word used here refers to a very particular kind of worm. It is the scarlet or crimson worm. In fact, wherever the bible speaks of the word scarlet, as in your sins may be as scarlet, they are referring to the color and shape of this particular worm. Remember how the bible describes the cloak that they put on Jesus.
Matthew 27:28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.
Read and be amazed at how Jesus truly is found on every page of the Bible.
Here is part of the entry for how it is used in this particular psalm:
worm, scarlet stuff, crimson
a) worm - the female 'coccus ilicis'
b) scarlet stuff, crimson, scarlet
1) the dye made from the dried body of the female of the worm "coccus ilicis"
The following gives a better explanation...
"When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted."
What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might 'bring many sons unto glory' (Hbr 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through him! Psa 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (cf. Isa 1:18)" (Henry Morris. Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Baker Book House, 1985, p. 73)
Pretty amazing...
God has provided a refuge for us in His Son. Jesus is our place of safety. Just as Rahab and her family were spared from death and the Israelites from the death of their firstborn, so are we, when we abide in Him and are covered by His blood. His presence in our hearts guarantees our safety.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Because of His Great Love.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.--Psalm 51:1-2
Lord,
It is within your power to punish me...to bring me to harm, but instead You show mercy. You do not give me what I deserve, You give me grace. You show me unmerited and undeserved favor. I did nothing to earn it...I did nothing to deserve it...and I will never merit it.
In the greatness of Your love, mercy and grace, You suffer long with me, forgive my sins, You cleanse me with hyssop and make me white as snow. You died for me when I was still Your enemy...You live now to make intercession for me. I am forgiven and called by Your name. Deal with me, Lord, and have mercy on me according to the multitude of your tender mercies...not for my sake but because by Your grace I am Your child. You are merciful, righteous and good. You are my God who is compassionate. You are my high priest who sympathizes with my weakness and was in all points tempted like me. You experienced it all. You understand and because of Your great love at the manger in Bethlehem and on the cross at Calvary, I can come boldly to Your throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Truly, who is like my God, who pardons iniquity, blots out transgressions and casts sins into the depths of the sea. My God delights in mercy and has shown me the exceeding riches of His kindness and His grace by making me accepted in His Beloved.
Blessed be my Lord, who daily loads me with benefits, The God of my salvation!
Lord,
It is within your power to punish me...to bring me to harm, but instead You show mercy. You do not give me what I deserve, You give me grace. You show me unmerited and undeserved favor. I did nothing to earn it...I did nothing to deserve it...and I will never merit it.
In the greatness of Your love, mercy and grace, You suffer long with me, forgive my sins, You cleanse me with hyssop and make me white as snow. You died for me when I was still Your enemy...You live now to make intercession for me. I am forgiven and called by Your name. Deal with me, Lord, and have mercy on me according to the multitude of your tender mercies...not for my sake but because by Your grace I am Your child. You are merciful, righteous and good. You are my God who is compassionate. You are my high priest who sympathizes with my weakness and was in all points tempted like me. You experienced it all. You understand and because of Your great love at the manger in Bethlehem and on the cross at Calvary, I can come boldly to Your throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Truly, who is like my God, who pardons iniquity, blots out transgressions and casts sins into the depths of the sea. My God delights in mercy and has shown me the exceeding riches of His kindness and His grace by making me accepted in His Beloved.
Blessed be my Lord, who daily loads me with benefits, The God of my salvation!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Waiting on the Lord
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.--Psalm 27:14
Father,
My hope is in You and in Your word. Thank you that I can come boldly before your throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. While I wait, Lord, help me to be strong and courageous...to quit like a man...to stand fast knowing that you are right there with me and hold my hand. You are my help and my shield...my soul waits for You. You will be gracious to me. You will have mercy on me. You will not disappoint me. Be exalted in my life.
I will not step out ahead of You, nor will I lag behind but I will look for You....I will wait for You! You are my God who cares for me. I will follow where you lead. I will dwell in the shelter of Your wings. You are my God and I want You to be my guide even unto death.
As I walk with You, You will strengthen my heart because as I draw close to You I learn that You are the One who performs all things for me and that You do all things well. You are the One from whom my strength comes. You live in my heart. When I cry out, You answer me and strengthen me with strength in my soul. I am trusting You and depending on You to give me everything I need for the path You lead me down. Because I wait on You, my strength is renewed and I mount up on the wings of eagles. I run and do not grow weary...I walk and do not faint. Your grace, Father, is sufficient for me. Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. I am strengthened with might by Your Spirit in my inner man. I can do all things because You strengthen me as I wait on You.
Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. --2nd Corinthians 2:14
Father,
My hope is in You and in Your word. Thank you that I can come boldly before your throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. While I wait, Lord, help me to be strong and courageous...to quit like a man...to stand fast knowing that you are right there with me and hold my hand. You are my help and my shield...my soul waits for You. You will be gracious to me. You will have mercy on me. You will not disappoint me. Be exalted in my life.
I will not step out ahead of You, nor will I lag behind but I will look for You....I will wait for You! You are my God who cares for me. I will follow where you lead. I will dwell in the shelter of Your wings. You are my God and I want You to be my guide even unto death.
As I walk with You, You will strengthen my heart because as I draw close to You I learn that You are the One who performs all things for me and that You do all things well. You are the One from whom my strength comes. You live in my heart. When I cry out, You answer me and strengthen me with strength in my soul. I am trusting You and depending on You to give me everything I need for the path You lead me down. Because I wait on You, my strength is renewed and I mount up on the wings of eagles. I run and do not grow weary...I walk and do not faint. Your grace, Father, is sufficient for me. Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. I am strengthened with might by Your Spirit in my inner man. I can do all things because You strengthen me as I wait on You.
Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. --2nd Corinthians 2:14
Saturday, December 24, 2011
COME ON IN...BY JONI EARECKSON TADA
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11
One of my favorite moments during the holidays is when the tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, the fire is crackling, music fills the house, and—ta-daaa—you throw open the front door and exclaim to your friends, “Come on in! Now the celebration can start!” Suddenly the place comes alive. Welcoming in friends through the front door is pure joy. And it’s joy because it’s shared. Christmas joy is always welcomed with a “Come on in!”
That’s the beauty of it. It’s appropriate that the Lord Jesus entered the inside of history from the outside. Joy came through a door when he crossed the threshold of this world. Oh sure, the world had all the “trimmings” of religion, the right props and all the tinsel, but it was only when Jesus stepped out of eternity into time that our world experienced genuine joy… perhaps for the first time. Oswald Chambers wrote, “The Lord… is God incarnate, God coming in to human flesh, coming into it from the outside. Our Lord’s birth was an advent, a coming in. And… so he must come into me from the outside, as well.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
So there you are, all dressed up in your Christmas best, waiting to share it with someone special. Well, the room will stay empty (no matter how many people walk through your door) and a little lonely until you invite the Lord of Joy inside. It only happens when he is born in you, a “coming into” much like swinging open the front door to welcome a wonderful guest. Jesus stands outside the door of your holiday season. Don’t miss out on the best part of Christmas. Open up and welcome him in.
Spurgeon on the Birth of Christ....
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.--Isaiah 7:14
Let us today go down to Bethlehem, and in company with wondering shepherds and adoring Magi, let us see him who was born King of the Jews, for we by faith can claim an interest in him, and can sing, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Jesus is Jehovah incarnate, our Lord and our God, and yet our brother and friend; let us adore and admire. Let us notice at the very first glance his miraculous conception. It was a thing unheard of before, and unparalleled since, that a virgin should conceive and bear a Son.
The first promise ran thus, "The seed of the woman," not the offspring of the man. Since venturous woman led the way in the sin which brought forth Paradise lost, she, and she alone, ushers in the Regainer of Paradise. Our Saviour, although truly man, was as to his human nature the Holy One of God.
Let us reverently bow before the holy Child whose innocence restores to manhood its ancient glory; and let us pray that he may be formed in us, the hope of glory. Fail not to note his humble parentage. His mother has been described simply as "a virgin," not a princess, or prophetess, nor a matron of large estate. True the blood of kings ran in her veins; nor was her mind a weak and untaught one, for she could sing most sweetly a song of praise; but yet how humble her position, how poor the man to whom she stood affianced, and how the accommodation afforded to the new-born King! Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendour.
Let us today go down to Bethlehem, and in company with wondering shepherds and adoring Magi, let us see him who was born King of the Jews, for we by faith can claim an interest in him, and can sing, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Jesus is Jehovah incarnate, our Lord and our God, and yet our brother and friend; let us adore and admire. Let us notice at the very first glance his miraculous conception. It was a thing unheard of before, and unparalleled since, that a virgin should conceive and bear a Son.
The first promise ran thus, "The seed of the woman," not the offspring of the man. Since venturous woman led the way in the sin which brought forth Paradise lost, she, and she alone, ushers in the Regainer of Paradise. Our Saviour, although truly man, was as to his human nature the Holy One of God.
Let us reverently bow before the holy Child whose innocence restores to manhood its ancient glory; and let us pray that he may be formed in us, the hope of glory. Fail not to note his humble parentage. His mother has been described simply as "a virgin," not a princess, or prophetess, nor a matron of large estate. True the blood of kings ran in her veins; nor was her mind a weak and untaught one, for she could sing most sweetly a song of praise; but yet how humble her position, how poor the man to whom she stood affianced, and how the accommodation afforded to the new-born King! Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendour.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Screwtape Letters...Chapter 4 by C. S. Lewis
My dear Wormwood,
I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man’s relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage. The Enemy will be working from the centre outwards, gradually bringing more and more of the patient’s conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behaviour to the old lady at any moment. You want to get in first. Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the mother, and build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks. The following methods are useful.
1. Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind—or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.
2. It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very ‘spiritual’, that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother—the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for theimagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s ‘soul’ to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.
3. When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy—if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As hecannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.
4. In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother’s utterances with the fullest and most over-sensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: ‘I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper.’ Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken. Finally, tell me something about the old lady’s religious position. Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son’s life?—at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is making a great deal of ‘fuss’ about it—or that he’s getting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy’s story?
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
I am very pleased by what you tell me about this man’s relations with his mother. But you must press your advantage. The Enemy will be working from the centre outwards, gradually bringing more and more of the patient’s conduct under the new standard, and may reach his behaviour to the old lady at any moment. You want to get in first. Keep in close touch with our colleague Glubose who is in charge of the mother, and build up between you in that house a good settled habit of mutual annoyance; daily pinpricks. The following methods are useful.
1. Keep his mind on the inner life. He thinks his conversion is something inside him and his attention is therefore chiefly turned at present to the states of his own mind—or rather to that very expurgated version of them which is all you should allow him to see. Encourage this. Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practise self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.
2. It is, no doubt, impossible to prevent his praying for his mother, but we have means of rendering the prayers innocuous. Make sure that they are always very ‘spiritual’, that he is always concerned with the state of her soul and never with her rheumatism. Two advantages will follow. In the first place, his attention will be kept on what he regards as her sins, by which, with a little guidance from you, he can be induced to mean any of her actions which are inconvenient or irritating to himself. Thus you can keep rubbing the wounds of the day a little sorer even while he is on his knees; the operation is not at all difficult and you will find it very entertaining. In the second place, since his ideas about her soul will be very crude and often erroneous, he will, in some degree, be praying for an imaginary person, and it will be your task to make that imaginary person daily less and less like the real mother—the sharp-tongued old lady at the breakfast table. In time, you may get the cleavage so wide that no thought or feeling from his prayers for theimagined mother will ever flow over into his treatment of the real one. I have had patients of my own so well in hand that they could be turned at a moment’s notice from impassioned prayer for a wife’s or son’s ‘soul’ to beating or insulting the real wife or son without a qualm.
3. When two humans have lived together for many years it usually happens that each has tones of voice and expressions of face which are almost unendurably irritating to the other. Work on that. Bring fully into the consciousness of your patient that particular lift of his mother’s eyebrows which he learned to dislike in the nursery, and let him think how much he dislikes it. Let him assume that she knows how annoying it is and does it to annoy—if you know your job he will not notice the immense improbability of the assumption. And, of course, never let him suspect that he has tones and looks which similarly annoy her. As hecannot see or hear himself, this is easily managed.
4. In civilised life domestic hatred usually expresses itself by saying things which would appear quite harmless on paper (the words are not offensive) but in such a voice, or at such a moment, that they are not far short of a blow in the face. To keep this game up you and Glubose must see to it that each of these two fools has a sort of double standard. Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother’s utterances with the fullest and most over-sensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know the kind of thing: ‘I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper.’ Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offence is taken. Finally, tell me something about the old lady’s religious position. Is she at all jealous of the new factor in her son’s life?—at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood? Does she feel he is making a great deal of ‘fuss’ about it—or that he’s getting in on very easy terms? Remember the elder brother in the Enemy’s story?
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
Each Day by Max Lucado
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
No Room by Max Lucado
No Room
Here I am! I stand
at the door and knock.
Revelation 3:20
at the door and knock.
Revelation 3:20
Some of the saddest words on earth are: “We don’t have room for you.”
Jesus knew the sound of those words. He was still in Mary’s womb when the innkeeper said, “We don’t have room for you.” …
And when he was hung on the cross, wasn’t the message one of utter rejection? “We don’t have room for you in this world.”
Even today Jesus is given the same treatment. He goes from heart to heart, asking if he might enter.…
Every so often, he is welcomed. Someone throws open the door of his or her heart and invites him to stay. And to that person Jesus gives this great promise: … “In my father’s house are many rooms.” …
What a delightful promise he makes us! We make room for him in our hearts, and he makes room for us in his house.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Screwtape on Gluttony...
My dear Wormwood,
The contemptuous way in which you spoke of gluttony as a means of catching souls, in your last letter, only shows your ignorance. One of the great achievements of the last hundred years has been to deaden the human conscience on that subject, so that by now you will hardly find a sermon preached or a conscience troubled about it in the whole length and breadth of Europe. This has largely been effected by concentrating all our efforts on gluttony of Delicacy, not gluttony of Excess.
Your patient’s mother, as I learn from the dossier and you might have learned from Glubose, is a good example. She would be astonished—one day, I hope, will be—to learn that her whole life is enslaved to this kind of sensuality, which is quite concealed from her by the fact that the quantities involved are small. But what do quantities matter, provided we can use a human belly and palate to produce querulousness, impatience, uncharitableness, and self-concern? Glubose has this old woman well in hand. She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning from what has been offered her to say with a demure little sigh and a smile ‘Oh please, please…all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of really crisp toast.’
You see? Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognises as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging her appetite she believes that she is practising temperance. In a crowded restaurant she gives a little scream at the plate which some overworked waitress has set before her and says, ‘Oh, that’s far, far too much! Take it away and bring me about a quarter of it.’ If challenged, she would say she was doing this to avoid waste; in reality she does it because the particular shade of delicacy to which we have enslaved her is offended by the sight of more food than she happens to want. The real value of the quiet, unobtrusive work which Glubose has been doing for years on this old woman can be gauged by the way in which her belly now dominates her whole life.
The woman is in what may be called the ‘All-I-want’ state of mind. All she wants is a cup of tea properly made, or an egg properly boiled, or a slice of bread properly toasted. But she never finds any servant or any friend who can do these simple things ‘properly’—because her ‘properly’ conceals an insatiable demand for the exact, and almost impossible, palatal pleasures which she imagines she remembers from the past; a past described by her as ‘the days when you could get good servants’ but known to us as the days when her senses were more easily pleased and she had pleasures of other kinds which made her less dependent on those of the table. Meanwhile, the daily disappointment produces daily ill temper: cooks give notice and friendships are cooled. If ever the Enemy introduces into her mind a faint suspicion that she is too interested in food, Glubose counters it by suggesting to her that she doesn’t mind what she eats herself but ‘does like to have things nice for her boy’. In fact, of course, her greed has been one of the chief sources of his domestic discomfort for many years.
Now your patient is his mother’s son. While working your hardest, quite rightly, on other fronts, you must not neglect a little quiet infiltration in respect of gluttony. Being a male, he is not so likely to be caught by the ‘All I want’ camouflage. Males are best turned into gluttons with the help of their vanity. They ought to be made to think themselves very knowing about food, to pique themselves on having found the only restaurant in the town where steaks are really ‘properly’ cooked. What begins as vanity can then be gradually turned into habit. But, however you approach it, the great thing is to bring him into the state in which the denial of any one indulgence—it matters not which, champagne or tea, sole col-bert or cigarettes—‘puts him out’, for then his charity, justice, and obedience are all at your mercy.
Mere excess in food is much less valuable than delicacy. Its chief use is as a kind of artillery preparation for attacks on chastity. On that, as on every other subject, keep your man in a condition of false spirituality. Never let him notice the medical aspect. Keep him wondering what pride or lack of faith has delivered him into your hands when a simple enquiry into what he has been eating or drinking for the last twenty-four hours would show him whence your ammunition comes and thus enable him by a very little abstinence to imperil your lines of communication. If he must think of the medical side of chastity, feed him the grand lie which we have made the English humans believe, that physical exercise in excess and consequent fatigue are specially favourable to this virtue. How they can believe this, in face of the notorious lustfulness of sailors and soldiers, may well be asked. But we used the schoolmasters to put the story about—men who were really interested in chastity as an excuse for games and therefore recommended games as an aid to chastity. But this whole business is too large to deal with at the tail-end of a letter,
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
The contemptuous way in which you spoke of gluttony as a means of catching souls, in your last letter, only shows your ignorance. One of the great achievements of the last hundred years has been to deaden the human conscience on that subject, so that by now you will hardly find a sermon preached or a conscience troubled about it in the whole length and breadth of Europe. This has largely been effected by concentrating all our efforts on gluttony of Delicacy, not gluttony of Excess.
Your patient’s mother, as I learn from the dossier and you might have learned from Glubose, is a good example. She would be astonished—one day, I hope, will be—to learn that her whole life is enslaved to this kind of sensuality, which is quite concealed from her by the fact that the quantities involved are small. But what do quantities matter, provided we can use a human belly and palate to produce querulousness, impatience, uncharitableness, and self-concern? Glubose has this old woman well in hand. She is a positive terror to hostesses and servants. She is always turning from what has been offered her to say with a demure little sigh and a smile ‘Oh please, please…all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of really crisp toast.’
You see? Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognises as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging her appetite she believes that she is practising temperance. In a crowded restaurant she gives a little scream at the plate which some overworked waitress has set before her and says, ‘Oh, that’s far, far too much! Take it away and bring me about a quarter of it.’ If challenged, she would say she was doing this to avoid waste; in reality she does it because the particular shade of delicacy to which we have enslaved her is offended by the sight of more food than she happens to want. The real value of the quiet, unobtrusive work which Glubose has been doing for years on this old woman can be gauged by the way in which her belly now dominates her whole life.
The woman is in what may be called the ‘All-I-want’ state of mind. All she wants is a cup of tea properly made, or an egg properly boiled, or a slice of bread properly toasted. But she never finds any servant or any friend who can do these simple things ‘properly’—because her ‘properly’ conceals an insatiable demand for the exact, and almost impossible, palatal pleasures which she imagines she remembers from the past; a past described by her as ‘the days when you could get good servants’ but known to us as the days when her senses were more easily pleased and she had pleasures of other kinds which made her less dependent on those of the table. Meanwhile, the daily disappointment produces daily ill temper: cooks give notice and friendships are cooled. If ever the Enemy introduces into her mind a faint suspicion that she is too interested in food, Glubose counters it by suggesting to her that she doesn’t mind what she eats herself but ‘does like to have things nice for her boy’. In fact, of course, her greed has been one of the chief sources of his domestic discomfort for many years.
Now your patient is his mother’s son. While working your hardest, quite rightly, on other fronts, you must not neglect a little quiet infiltration in respect of gluttony. Being a male, he is not so likely to be caught by the ‘All I want’ camouflage. Males are best turned into gluttons with the help of their vanity. They ought to be made to think themselves very knowing about food, to pique themselves on having found the only restaurant in the town where steaks are really ‘properly’ cooked. What begins as vanity can then be gradually turned into habit. But, however you approach it, the great thing is to bring him into the state in which the denial of any one indulgence—it matters not which, champagne or tea, sole col-bert or cigarettes—‘puts him out’, for then his charity, justice, and obedience are all at your mercy.
Mere excess in food is much less valuable than delicacy. Its chief use is as a kind of artillery preparation for attacks on chastity. On that, as on every other subject, keep your man in a condition of false spirituality. Never let him notice the medical aspect. Keep him wondering what pride or lack of faith has delivered him into your hands when a simple enquiry into what he has been eating or drinking for the last twenty-four hours would show him whence your ammunition comes and thus enable him by a very little abstinence to imperil your lines of communication. If he must think of the medical side of chastity, feed him the grand lie which we have made the English humans believe, that physical exercise in excess and consequent fatigue are specially favourable to this virtue. How they can believe this, in face of the notorious lustfulness of sailors and soldiers, may well be asked. But we used the schoolmasters to put the story about—men who were really interested in chastity as an excuse for games and therefore recommended games as an aid to chastity. But this whole business is too large to deal with at the tail-end of a letter,
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
Dwelling in Safety...
The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by Him, Who shelters him all the day long And he shall dwell between His shoulders. --Deuteronomy 33:12
The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, Destroy!--Deuteronomy 33:27
I am His beloved and He is mine. My God is my shield, my sword, my refuge, my strength, my song, my strong tower and my help. I dwell in safety with Him...covered by His feathers and tucked safely under His wing. He fights all my battles and shelters me all the day long.
The eternal God, the God that is from everlasting to everlasting, is my hiding place and underneath are His everlasting arms. Really, how safe can I be??? The One who exists outside of time and space, holds me close. I am secure in Him. I am kept by the power of the One who created the heavens and the earth. I am held securely and safely by the One who truly CAN keep me from falling and present me faultless before the presence of His glory. He has thrust out the enemy and freed me from the law of sin and death. He is my everlasting strength and power....He is my salvation!
The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, Destroy!--Deuteronomy 33:27
I am His beloved and He is mine. My God is my shield, my sword, my refuge, my strength, my song, my strong tower and my help. I dwell in safety with Him...covered by His feathers and tucked safely under His wing. He fights all my battles and shelters me all the day long.
The eternal God, the God that is from everlasting to everlasting, is my hiding place and underneath are His everlasting arms. Really, how safe can I be??? The One who exists outside of time and space, holds me close. I am secure in Him. I am kept by the power of the One who created the heavens and the earth. I am held securely and safely by the One who truly CAN keep me from falling and present me faultless before the presence of His glory. He has thrust out the enemy and freed me from the law of sin and death. He is my everlasting strength and power....He is my salvation!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Christophobia: Volcanic Encouragement to Love and Do Good
Christophobia: Volcanic Encouragement to Love and Do Good: And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manne...
Monday, December 19, 2011
C. S. Lewis on Forgiveness...from the Weight of Glory
We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it seems hardly worth putting in. “If one is a Christian,” I thought, “of course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying.” But the people who compiled the Creed apparently thought that this was a part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not nearly so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that very easily slips away if we don’t keep on polishing it up.
We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord’s Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.
Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God’s forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to other people’s sins. Take it first about God’s forgiveness. I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing.
Forgiveness says “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.” But excusing says “I see that you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it; you weren’t really to blame.” If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of course, in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man and another, there may be a mixture of the two. Part of what seemed at first to be the sins turns out to be really nobody’s fault and is excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your action needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses.
What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some “extenuating circumstances.” We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily satisfied about ourselves.
There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real “extenuating circumstances” there is no fear that He will overlook them. Often He must know many excuses that we have never thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they had thought. All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a doctor you show him the bit of you that is wrong—say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and eyes and throat are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really all right, the doctor will know that.
The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favour. But that would not be forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it.
When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, “But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.” Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s since against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine per cent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one per cent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness.
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it?
Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord’s Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.
Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God’s forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to other people’s sins. Take it first about God’s forgiveness. I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing.
Forgiveness says “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.” But excusing says “I see that you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it; you weren’t really to blame.” If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of course, in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man and another, there may be a mixture of the two. Part of what seemed at first to be the sins turns out to be really nobody’s fault and is excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your action needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call “asking God’s forgiveness” very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses.
What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some “extenuating circumstances.” We are so very anxious to point these out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the really important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which the excuses don’t cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves with our own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily satisfied about ourselves.
There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real “extenuating circumstances” there is no fear that He will overlook them. Often He must know many excuses that we have never thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they had thought. All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting time by talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a doctor you show him the bit of you that is wrong—say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and eyes and throat are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really all right, the doctor will know that.
The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favour. But that would not be forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness, and that we can always have from God if we ask for it.
When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also, forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, “But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.” Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.
As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men’s since against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine per cent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one per cent of guilt which is left over. To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness.
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life—to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son—how can we do it?
Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.
Notes on Leprosy...Leviticus 13 and 14.
Leprosy or Hansen's Disease is with us today and, as in biblical times, still incurable. It is not a nice disease. The symptoms can be managed and their effects minimized, but it remains incurable. This is curious to me given that leprosy is a symbol of sin in the bible. Without a miracle of God, sin and its deadly result is also incurable.
Leprosy is a condition where your nerves are deadened so that you can no longer feel pain. On the surface this sounds like a good thing, right? Thinking further on it though, it is clear that pain does have its purposes. Losing your sense of feeling means that if you put your hand on a hot stove you might not be aware of it until your flesh begins to burn and smell. Much of the body damage that lepers experience is a direct result from their inability to feel physically.
Can you see the correlation between leprosy and sin? Sin also deadens your senses. It hardens your conscience, enabling you to do things you might never have thought you would do and think that they are really no big deal. Look at pictures of babies...see there innocence and beauty. There is a reason why they are so attractive to us. Now look at someone, perhaps in their twenties, who is already well on the road of sin. You can see the damage and destruction. Sin takes something beautiful and innocent and disfigures it. Sin is also contagious. If everyone around you is doing it, it makes it easier for you to go down that road also. Sin isolates and separates us...not only from each other but also from God.
Here is the explanation for leprosy given in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge for leprosy.
"The plague of leprosy Tzaraâth, the Leprosy, from the Greek λεπρα, from λεπις, a scale; so called, because in this disease the body is covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. The leprosy is a dreadful, contagious disorder, common in Egypt and Syria, and generally manifests itself at first in the manner described in the text. Its commencement is imperceptible; there appearing only a few reddish spots on the skin, which are not attended with pain or any other symptom, but cannot be removed. It increases imperceptibly, and continues for some years to be more and more manifest. The spots become larger, spread over the whole skin, and are sometimes rather raised, though generally flat. When it increases the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils distend, the nose becomes soft, swellings appear on the under jaws, the eyebrows are elevated, the ears grow thick, the ends of the fingers, feet, and toes, swell, the nails grow scaly, the joints of the hands and feet separate, the palms of hands and soles of the feet are ulcerated, and in its last stage the patient becomes horrible, and falls to pieces."
Sin acts on our spirits in precisely the same manner. Sin is a downward slope that begins almost imperceptibly. It then gains momentum and vigor and its result is always death.
Sin acts on our spirits in precisely the same manner. Sin is a downward slope that begins almost imperceptibly. It then gains momentum and vigor and its result is always death.
The cure is simple and very available, but in pride many refuse to accept it.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.--Romans 6:23
"But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”--Romans 10:6-13
Apart from a touch from God....no one was or is ever cured of leprosy. The same is true for sin. The Son of Man came to seek and save that which is lost. Jesus was called a friend of sinners and compared Himself to a physician caring for those who knew they needed Him. He came to heal us of the sickness of sin. All of us need His cleansing...sadly, not all of us admit our need. Leprosy is a temporal disease and has consequences only in this life. Sin is also temporal but its consequences are eternal. The remedy is Christ. God's desire is that none of us should perish but that all should come to life in His Son. The decision you make for Jesus also has both temporal and eternal consequences. Put your pride aside and thank God that He has done it all. Revel in the fact that there is nothing you can do but accept His free gift. Rejoice!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Life and Death Choices
If you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor isit far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor isit far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong yourdays in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”--Deuteronomy 30:10-20
The choice of life and death is set before each one of us. Each one of us knows that God's way is truly is the best way to live. We may not admit it outwardly and openly but deep within our hearts, we know. God has placed that knowledge there. Some of us spend our lives running from it. Why? Because we, as the bible says, love darkness more than light. We love our sin more than we love God. It is hard to understand how anyone can reject the love of God and His invitation to life, but they do.
In reading verses 11 to 14 of Deuteronomy Chapter 30, we see that really, we have no excuse. There is no place we can run from God. He is not way off in heaven or far across the sea...The Word of God, Jesus, is near us. Read what Romans 10 says about this passage from Deuteronomy.
For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”(that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” --Romans 10:5-13
That's it. That is all you have to do. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. People spend their lives avoiding this truth and upon death truly have no excuse. The choice was right there in front of them. The cure/the remedy for the consequence of their sin was within easy reach. (for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in His Son) But like the Israelites in the wilderness who refused to look at the serpent on the pole and live, they chose death.
Salvation is as close as confession. God is not a long way off. Turn back...He is there...very close...He is at the door. Choose life.
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