Daily Scriptures for March 9 2007 First Thoughts

Morning: Psalm 22:1-31; Jeremiah 5:1-9; Romans 2:25-3:18; John 5:30-47; Psalm 105:1-45

Well. The psalmist has said a mouth full today, speaking for those who have been all over the place with God and with enemies and pain and suffering, and back again. Psalm 22’s troubles are like living in a zoo of animals gone berserk.

Jeremiah has seen the same ravaging woes come upon the people – yet reminds us – we leave ourselves open game for evil and destruction, when we turn away from the One True God. We are vulnerable to unjust laws, cruelty and immorality, when we build our own flimsy self-protecting barriers against the world; when we put our hope in other “gods” to save us, like more money, sex, food, a promotion; putting our faith in prosperity gospel phonies, slick politicians, the government, a relationship. This is the sin of idolatry, says the Lord. It deserves punishment, says the Lord through Jeremiah:

⁷How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes. ⁸They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife. ⁹Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Paul makes the same grim observation for Jews and Gentiles alike, quoting all the Old Testament prophesies as well in Romans 3:10-18. In sum, saying, all have turned away, have fallen short by seeking other respites, other gods, giving glory to others. Jesus too, knows that the result of seeking after human glory will bring death. Yet for believers in the one true God, deliverance comes from what would tear us limb to limb, financially, physically, emotionally. That seems always the psalmist’s conclusion after the terror:

⁴For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him. (Psalm 22).

God rescues us from death through the glory of the resurrection – maybe not in this life, literally, but spiritually and at the end of the age. Jesus is “the glory that comes from the one who alone is God” (John 5). You may still feel the hot breath of wild animals at your back, but the glory of the Lord will ultimately destroy all that seeks to destroy you. And God will set you on a new safe path.

Believe.

Daily Scriptures for March 8 2007 First Thoughts

Morning: Psalm 27:1-14; Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28; Romans 2:12-24; John 5:19-29

These scriptures today hit home for me, a pastor and teacher, a parent, a wife, a leader. I am a custodian of God’s ways and commands – a teacher and preacher who tries everyday to convey the truth, love and hope of Christ into the lives of my family and flock. Hours of my week include one-on-one conversations with many of you – exhorting and encouraging you to find God in your circumstances, to change directions when you’re tempted, to struggle with temptation. We pray and play and worship together.

And then there is my own life. Practice what you preach, preacher. Paul’s admonishment to the Jewish leaders is taken to heart. IF I teach and preach the goodness of God and God’s laws are for us to follow, IF I preach that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life for every situation we encounter, and for salvation and peace and hope for me and the world – then, how does my life show that? I am humbled every day with that question: ²³You that boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?

Well, yes. Every day. Since I was born, I have broken the laws of God. The 10 commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, all of them. (Well, almost all of them…). I have doubted, hardened my heart, ignored the law, fallen way, way short in my long life. And so what gives me the authority and right to preach and teach to you with a straight face and shouts of joy?

God gave it to me when Jesus saved me from the law and from myself. God has passed on all judgment to Jesus, who paid it all, who died for me, so that I might testify to you the WHOLE truth: I am a sinner forgiven and redeemed forever. Come and listen to what God has done for me and other believers in Christ. “He has done great things for them.” As Paul writes,

²¹Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. ²²The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

And so, in humility and gratefulness, I teach and preach with joy, while I pray for guidance and holiness and pure thoughts and motives, and forgiveness, every day. Because of Christ, I go to sleep with the evening psalm’s assurance:

¹When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. ²Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."³The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.”

Now this will preach!

Daily Scriptures for march 7 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 5:1-12; Jeremiah 3:6-18; Romans 1:(26-27) 28-2:11; John 5:1-18

When I was raising my kids, as their mother it was always my desire to teach them well, and help them avoid pitfalls. I did not want to punish them – it made my life miserable as well as theirs. I did not want to give up on them, or my parenting skills. I know there were times I spent way too long trying to convince them that behaving badly would not go well for them. Yet, there were times I had to leave them to discover the consequences themselves. Those consequences were my anger, and punishment. But the ones that hurt me the most was the destruction their bad decisions caused. Many times, I could see it coming, because I had been there, done that.

There are bookends to God’s love too: mercy and judgment. I know I risk criticism in our liberal Christian culture, but God is a God of wrath as God is a God or mercy. Those outside – and even inside the faith – don’t want to believe God is a God of wrath, of judgment. They want to believe that God’s primary activity is showing love and compassion and mercy – healing and saving and nourishing. Indeed it is God’s character to call us home, to call us friend and children of God. To welcome us back and teach us the straight and narrow. Indeed God has all the wisdom and knowledge we need for life. Indeed in love God has given us prophets and teachers and the church to teach us how to behave well, to love and nurture us, as we hear Jeremiah proclaim: ⁵I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Indeed, God does love us and desires that we be righteous as God created us. God has given us Jesus as God’s ultimate act of love and mercy, when we would deserve to die.

But lest we believe that God does not show God’s anger and wrath, or will not leave us to ourselves, we are fools. Look around us. God leaves people to do evil things every day. God does not change everyone into well behaved children, obedient and fruitful and loving. God expects us to participate in our healing and our understanding, like the man by the pool, who allowed discouragement and ridicule keep him out of the pool and dependant upon the whims of others to help him. Jesus told him, “Pick up your mat, man! Make the effort to turn away from everything that separates you from the living water, and get to it. Trust ME, not your condition. Climb in and start over.” I can just hear Jesus’ voice: “If you don’t do it, you can just sit there and die.”

The Bible tells us there WILL be a day of wrath. ⁶For he will repay according to each one's deeds: ⁷to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.

Wrath comes to those who insist on misbehaving without God, without faith in Christ. Wrath to those who mock the power of the Holy Spirit, and deny there are demons of this world. And some will be judged I think, for failing to believe and failing to participate in life and hope, when they have heard and received understanding and knowledge. To their peril they miss out on the abundant life that could be theirs now and in eternity. And God loses another co-worker for righteousness. When it would seem God has given up on us, I consider again God’s primary character: love. Love in grace and love in truth. Love that calls all people to him, yet insists on a heart for righteousness from those who come.

Daily Scriptures March 6 2007 First Thoughts

Psalm 34:1-22; Jeremiah 2:1-13, 29-32; Romans 1:16-25; John 4:43-54

When I’m thirsty, I forget about good old water – my taste buds are conditioned for soda or a hot cup of coffee. Quenching our spirits is like that. How soon we forget that our thirst in life is for God. Maybe some of us have never stopped long enough to look around and see the evidence of God in our lives, in creation, in the lives of others. Once in awhile, I go to the well, and ponder the darkness and then drink deeply. Once in awhile I get a feeling of thanksgiving and make the connection between the wonders and provisions large and small around me, and God who created them. Once in awhile, I give up all that hinders my search for living water – usually in Lent.

But mostly, I get caught up in my routines, even “righteous” ones, and miss the evidence all around me, among the mystery. I never go to the well at all. I find other ways to satisfy my soul. I believe God gives us evidence all the time, of God’s existence, and God’s purpose, and provision. And God tells us every day what is expected of us: To love God and do justice, and walk humbly in His ways. Come to the well and drink.

We don’t see what this looks like if we don’t even look for God along the roadside, in the quiet, on the mountaintop, at home in school, in our families, and drink from Him the water that is our life. God has placed cisterns of water everywhere, but we have turned away.

For as Jeremiah says of Israel, ¹³for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

Paul understood all this – and warns us in Romans 1 if we forget the Creator and Sustainer of our lives, if we depend on water from leaky human-made wells to be there for our thirst, we will die. The water will never be sweet wine. ²⁰Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; ²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. ²²Claiming to be wise, they became fools…

For depending on what is unseen can be risky and politically incorrect and plain stupid in the eyes of the world. But we have no excuse: we say we believe and we know God through God’s word, and we have the living water of Christ in us by faith. We have seen people healed – even our own lives have been transformed, if we think about it. If we think deeply, and linger long near the water cooler.