7 For we are brought to an end by your anger;
by your wrath we are dismayed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
Thus far, in our series, we have found solace in the knowledge that God is our dwelling place and He never changes. Our last lesson showed us the sobering reality of what we face as humans whose lives are brief and fleeting. Thankfully, we serve a God who is everlasting and ordains all of our days! I hope you were challenged to think about where your security truly lies: in the sinking sand of temporal things or in the firm foundation of an eternal God.
In this lesson, we will answer the question, “Why do we die?” Even though we understand death is a reality for each of us, often times, we don’t fully comprehend the reason that death reigns. No mortal has ever escaped death. Even those who have claimed miraculous healings, or out of body experiences have all faced the same fate in the end. Even Jesus, as the God-man faced death.
BUT praise God, He was resurrected and lives again that we might have life in Him. This doesn’t mean we escape physical death but it does mean that, if we are believers, we face it in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, THEN shall come to pass the saying that is written:“Death is swallowed up in victory.”“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Jared Wilson states, “Dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Dying after you die is far worse.”
As we shift into v.7-10, the outlook for us gets even more grim. Hang in there, I promise that the series will end well! Remember when I said that God’s wounds us in order to heal us? His wounds are always faithful. And He never holds back truth from us. In this section, Moses is articulating our sin and guilt before the Lord.
Part of our fear of death is our fear of the unknown. However, part of the reason, is the knowledge of our guilt before the Lord. We know we are guilty and deserving of death. We know in the deep recesses of our heart that grace is not something we deserve and is counter to how we view justice, punishment, sin and death. We know that there are things we should have done and things we shouldn’t have done.
In writing verse 7, Moses understands that the sentence of death is right for sinners in the presence of a Holy God. Romans 6:23a states accurately, “the wages of sin is death.” Even though as believers God’s wrath toward us is satisfied in Christ our sentence in this life is the same - we still die under the curse that took place way back in Genesis, God’s universal punishment of sin declared in the garden.
And not only are we deserving of death but all that we do that makes us sinners, all of our sin is in full view of God. Which is what he says in verse 8. Nothing is hidden from Him. Our sins are ever before Him. Did you catch the adjective he uses for sin in the second part of the verse? He says, “secret” sins. Yes, even our secret sins are brought to light.
When I was younger, if I wanted to get away with something I usually attempted to hide under the cover of night. There is a reason they call them “Night clubs” instead of “Day clubs”. People lose their inhibitions when they assume they are hidden or cannot be seen by others. There is something about the night that encourages sin.
There are many passages of scripture that talk about deeds that are done in evil take place in darkness. However, scripture is also clear that NOTHING is hidden from the Lord, “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17). So when your Mama said to you, like mine said to me, “I may not know but Jesus knows,” she was right! Bottom line: we know we are guilty. If there were no guilt there would be no fear. But guilt is real and therefore, fear persists.
Now that verses seven and eight have laid out the just cause for why we die, verses nine and ten declare our sentence: a brief, troublesome, hard life under the wrath of God that ends in death. Even if we live 70 or 80 years, which by most accounts is a long life, our days are toil and trouble and end quickly.
Like I said before, grim, very grim. We abide under the just wrath of a holy God, our sin is ever before Him and our sentence is swift and sure. If that was the end of the story I wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. And the truth is, there are millions perhaps billions of people alive today that live with this as the end of their story! And if you are not in Christ, if you have not trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior, your story is the same. Beloved, we are not saved from Satan, we are saved by God from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9). Through the “good news”, the gospel, God has provided a way for sinners, and it is indeed good news!
The gospel is a message about us. We are all desperate sinners, born in sin and destined for a just punishment for our sin (Rom. 3:23; Ps. 51:5; Rom. 6:23). The gospel is a message about God. God’s righteousness requires payment for sin. Otherwise, He would not be just and He would not be good. The gospel is a message about Jesus. The Son of God who became man to die as payment to His Father for the sin of those who believe in His name (2 Cor. 5:21;Rom. 5:6-8). That is the gospel. It is for you and it is for me.
If you find yourself reading these lessons and the fear of death is not undergirded by the hope of your faith in Jesus Christ I pray that you will find that assurance today. “For the wages of sin IS death BUT the FREE GIFT of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.6:23).
Monday, January 30, 2017
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The Eternality of God and the Death of the Saints: Lesson Three
3 You return man to dust
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
In our last lesson we got a big view of God. Starting with a big God will always end in right thinking and victorious living. Faith is built on being as Robert Dick Wilson says, a “big God-er”. Today, we will begin our descent from the glorious to the infamous, the divine to the human, by lowering our gaze to man.
We pick up in verse three, where Moses begins to write on his view of man. He states, “You return man to dust.” He comes off of His glorious doxology about the divine nature of God and immediately plunges us into despair by pointing out the contrast between the everlasting God and the frailty of man. God is everlasting and man returns to dust. Previously, we established that God is eternal and here, we learn that God is also sovereign. The “You” he is talking about is God, “You return man to dust.” This statement acknowledges the sovereignty of God over man’s life and death.
Acts 17:24-28 states: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being.
Not only is God everlasting but He also ordains all of man’s days. Our time, the dash, is in His hands and by ordaining our days, He controls the DOB and the DOD as well. All of it, beginning, end and everything in between belongs to Him.
Then, in v. 4-6, Moses fleshes out his comparison between God and man. Beginning in v. 4 God’s view of time is long-sighted, rooted in the eternal present. There is no time with God. Moses attempts to illustrate this by a large number, a thousand years. He states that a thousand years is as yesterday. Or a watch in the night. Typically, a night watch, in biblical times consisted of three hours in the middle of the night. Nights were divided into four watches starting at 6pm, sundown and running until dawn at 6am. How quickly does three hours pass? How much faster do those three hours pass while you are asleep? These illustrations represent the eons of time with our God.
But in v. 5-6, Moses uses quick bursts of events and time to illustrate man: floods, dreams, morning to evening. A meteorologist might talk about flash flooding as a result of heavy rains. However, in the South, we call flash floods “gullie-washers” because the water comes on with intensity, floods the gullies and then recedes almost as quickly as it came. The rate at which the large amount of water hits the earth overwhelms the ground and the process of saturation isn’t fast enough to keep up and water overflows into the lower lying areas or gullies.
Or think about dreams. How many of you remember now what you dreamed last night or even the night before? I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast much less what I dreamed about last night! And think about how fast his day has come and gone. How rapidly did morning turn to evening? Scripture is filled with talk about the brevity of man’s life, calling it a mist, a vapor, grass or a fading flower. Here today and gone tomorrow.
Man is transient and everything man does or chases after, is the same. There is no security in the transient. As humans we search for security because we crave it. We crave a firm foundation because we look around us and realize that everything is sinking sand. We attempt to find it in our finances. We attempt to find it in our health. We attempt to find it in our relationships or our jobs or our future. But until we place our security, our hope, in the One who is an Eternal, Solid Rock, we will always be chasing the security of sinking sand.
Ecclesiastes calls this “vanity” or “foolishness”. The entire second chapter of Ecclesiastes documents Solomon’s attempt to find his security in all life has to offer from self-indulgence, living wisely and hard work. Listed below are his conclusions at the end of each attempt at temporal security:
Self-indulgence: 2:9-11, “So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
Living Wisely: 2:16-17, “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”
Hard Work: 2:22-23, “What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.”
In the end, Solomon comes to a very astute conclusion, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God” (Eccl. 2:24-26).
Man’s life and death is depressing, empty and fleeting without the Lord. Our only hope is to place our security in the eternal and see ourselves through the lens of God. We must find our purpose for now and for then in Him. A life that is built of the solidarity of Christ alone finds peace. In the parable of the wise man versus the foolish man in Matthew 7:24-26, the same circumstances plagued both men “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house”. The difference in the outcome was based on the foundation. The foolish man’s house fell because it had been built on the sand. The wise man’s house, “did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
As we close today, pause and think about the brevity of life. I just received word that my dear friend’s Dad, the one mentioned in my introduction, has just passed away. Just like that. The dash is over. Brief, very brief. Where is your faith? Where do you place your security? Is it in the hands of a God who lives outside of time or in the hands of man who is here today and gone tomorrow? The hymn writer Edward Mote wrote so eloquently, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.”
and say, “Return, O children of man!”
4 For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,
like grass that is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
In our last lesson we got a big view of God. Starting with a big God will always end in right thinking and victorious living. Faith is built on being as Robert Dick Wilson says, a “big God-er”. Today, we will begin our descent from the glorious to the infamous, the divine to the human, by lowering our gaze to man.
We pick up in verse three, where Moses begins to write on his view of man. He states, “You return man to dust.” He comes off of His glorious doxology about the divine nature of God and immediately plunges us into despair by pointing out the contrast between the everlasting God and the frailty of man. God is everlasting and man returns to dust. Previously, we established that God is eternal and here, we learn that God is also sovereign. The “You” he is talking about is God, “You return man to dust.” This statement acknowledges the sovereignty of God over man’s life and death.
Acts 17:24-28 states: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being.
Not only is God everlasting but He also ordains all of man’s days. Our time, the dash, is in His hands and by ordaining our days, He controls the DOB and the DOD as well. All of it, beginning, end and everything in between belongs to Him.
Then, in v. 4-6, Moses fleshes out his comparison between God and man. Beginning in v. 4 God’s view of time is long-sighted, rooted in the eternal present. There is no time with God. Moses attempts to illustrate this by a large number, a thousand years. He states that a thousand years is as yesterday. Or a watch in the night. Typically, a night watch, in biblical times consisted of three hours in the middle of the night. Nights were divided into four watches starting at 6pm, sundown and running until dawn at 6am. How quickly does three hours pass? How much faster do those three hours pass while you are asleep? These illustrations represent the eons of time with our God.
But in v. 5-6, Moses uses quick bursts of events and time to illustrate man: floods, dreams, morning to evening. A meteorologist might talk about flash flooding as a result of heavy rains. However, in the South, we call flash floods “gullie-washers” because the water comes on with intensity, floods the gullies and then recedes almost as quickly as it came. The rate at which the large amount of water hits the earth overwhelms the ground and the process of saturation isn’t fast enough to keep up and water overflows into the lower lying areas or gullies.
Or think about dreams. How many of you remember now what you dreamed last night or even the night before? I can hardly remember what I had for breakfast much less what I dreamed about last night! And think about how fast his day has come and gone. How rapidly did morning turn to evening? Scripture is filled with talk about the brevity of man’s life, calling it a mist, a vapor, grass or a fading flower. Here today and gone tomorrow.
Man is transient and everything man does or chases after, is the same. There is no security in the transient. As humans we search for security because we crave it. We crave a firm foundation because we look around us and realize that everything is sinking sand. We attempt to find it in our finances. We attempt to find it in our health. We attempt to find it in our relationships or our jobs or our future. But until we place our security, our hope, in the One who is an Eternal, Solid Rock, we will always be chasing the security of sinking sand.
Ecclesiastes calls this “vanity” or “foolishness”. The entire second chapter of Ecclesiastes documents Solomon’s attempt to find his security in all life has to offer from self-indulgence, living wisely and hard work. Listed below are his conclusions at the end of each attempt at temporal security:
Self-indulgence: 2:9-11, “So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”
Living Wisely: 2:16-17, “For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.”
Hard Work: 2:22-23, “What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.”
In the end, Solomon comes to a very astute conclusion, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God” (Eccl. 2:24-26).
Man’s life and death is depressing, empty and fleeting without the Lord. Our only hope is to place our security in the eternal and see ourselves through the lens of God. We must find our purpose for now and for then in Him. A life that is built of the solidarity of Christ alone finds peace. In the parable of the wise man versus the foolish man in Matthew 7:24-26, the same circumstances plagued both men “the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house”. The difference in the outcome was based on the foundation. The foolish man’s house fell because it had been built on the sand. The wise man’s house, “did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”
As we close today, pause and think about the brevity of life. I just received word that my dear friend’s Dad, the one mentioned in my introduction, has just passed away. Just like that. The dash is over. Brief, very brief. Where is your faith? Where do you place your security? Is it in the hands of a God who lives outside of time or in the hands of man who is here today and gone tomorrow? The hymn writer Edward Mote wrote so eloquently, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.”
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The Eternality of God and the Death of the Saints: Lesson Two
Psalm 90
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
I hope you took the time to read Psalm 90 and meditate on the words written there. The word of God is so nourishing to our souls! Let’s pick up where we left off and begin our study of scripture beginning in verse one. Remember, our author Moses, is writing during the 38 years of wilderness wanderings, after the curse of death has been handed down to the first generation.
Moses starts out this Psalm, surrounded by the reality of the human condition: man’s rebellion against God and God’s punishment of sin through death; and he starts out with a big view of God. Beloved, we have to have a greater view of God then we do of man. We have to have a greater view of God than we do of man’s sinful condition in order to see ANYTHING accurately. Otherwise, man and his problems become big and God becomes very small.
Moses knew this so He started with God and He says, “You have been our dwelling place.” Let’s think about this statement in light of what we already know: the Israelites didn’t have a dwelling place in the desert. They dwelt in tents. They had no permanent home under Moses. They were wilderness wanderers. But Moses acknowledges that though they are sojourners, they have had a dwelling place in God.
It was easy for the Israelites to remember they were sojourners because they lived in tents and picked up manna every day. They never got to a point where they moved from a small apartment to a house that they owned. They never replaced manna with 4 course meals and modern day conveniences. They lived in the wilderness and they were acutely aware of their surroundings. It is harder for us to keep a sojourning perspective in mind, especially in America.
But scripture is clear that we too are sojourners. 1 Peter 2:11 calls us sojourners and even though we are comfortable here, this is not our home. Sometimes I think that my level of comfort is a disadvantage to keeping my mindset one of longing for a “better country.” It wasn’t hard for Abraham to long for a better country as a nomad. It is hard for us to long for a better country in middle class America where we hold the top percentage of the world’s wealth.
But Moses goes on to add in a qualifier, “in all generations.” He states that from Adam and Eve, to the generation that will die in the desert, to the generation that will inherit the Promised Land, to us, God has been our dwelling place. Literally our place of refuge. You think about what images come to your mind when you think of a place of refuge. Is it a safe place? Is it a comfortable place? Is it a peaceful place? God Himself, our refuge. He is our dwelling place.
I like my home. Even after a week’s vacation at the beach I still love coming home. My home, with my family in it, is my refuge. It is safe, comfortable, peaceful and full of all the things I love. When I’ve had a bad day or even on the best days I look forward to coming home. We should see the Lord in this way.
Then Moses goes on to say in v.2, “before”. Let’s pause here. Before begins that clock ticking. It sets our minds in a place that is bound by time and reminds us that time exists for us but it also reminds us there was a time BEFORE time began. He says, “Before the mountains, earth and the world were formed.” He starts with the tangible and stretches to the intangible: the mountains, the earth, the world. He acknowledges God as author of Creation. He goes on to say, “from everlasting to everlasting you ARE God.”
That word everlasting means: the vanishing point, or time that is out of mind. Literally, from forever in both directions. John explains this concept perfectly when he writes in Revelation of the Lord, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”, “the first and the last”. These are the first statements made about God at the very beginning of the book of Revelation.
In the first chapter of Revelation, after John has given his greeting, the first quotation begins in v.8. It is important to note things like quotations in order to gain greater understanding into a passage of scripture. This indicates to us that someone is speaking and in this verse, that person is God. And what does God say about Himself? He states, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” So, God confirms by His own words that He is from everlasting to everlasting.
However, what I find even more awesome is what happens later on in verse 17 of chapter one. At this point, John has been confronted with a vision of Jesus and he struggles to describe what he sees. He can only use the word “like” to convey his vision because what he sees is clearly “unlike” anything else he has ever seen. And his immediate reaction is to fall down at His feet as dead.
Up to this point, Jesus has not said anything, but in verse 17 He opens His mouth and the very first thing He says is this: “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” Beloved, does this give you chills like it does me? God has spoken twice in the first chapter of Revelation and He states the exact same thing about Himself both times! Basically, I am from everlasting to everlasting!
It is always very important for us to take note when God talks about Himself. We are wise to be attentive to what He says. And surely, what He says FIRST about Himself. The last book of scripture that deals with last things and God states first, “I am the BEGINNING and I am the END.” Yet Moses writes all of this in Psalm 90 before Revelation was even written. He knows that, “You are God.” Before creation, You ARE - present tense - God. Before creation AND after the end of time, You ARE God.
You see, beloved, God never changes. The same God that Moses served in the wilderness is the same God John encountered in Revelation and He is the same God you and I worship today. He is our dwelling place, in all generations, our refuge and our home. And, for the believer, He always will be. From everlasting to everlasting, You ARE God. When our dash is over, if our dwelling place is the Lord, where we reside never changes. We may be absent from the body but our spirit continually abides in Him.
A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
I hope you took the time to read Psalm 90 and meditate on the words written there. The word of God is so nourishing to our souls! Let’s pick up where we left off and begin our study of scripture beginning in verse one. Remember, our author Moses, is writing during the 38 years of wilderness wanderings, after the curse of death has been handed down to the first generation.
Moses starts out this Psalm, surrounded by the reality of the human condition: man’s rebellion against God and God’s punishment of sin through death; and he starts out with a big view of God. Beloved, we have to have a greater view of God then we do of man. We have to have a greater view of God than we do of man’s sinful condition in order to see ANYTHING accurately. Otherwise, man and his problems become big and God becomes very small.
Moses knew this so He started with God and He says, “You have been our dwelling place.” Let’s think about this statement in light of what we already know: the Israelites didn’t have a dwelling place in the desert. They dwelt in tents. They had no permanent home under Moses. They were wilderness wanderers. But Moses acknowledges that though they are sojourners, they have had a dwelling place in God.
It was easy for the Israelites to remember they were sojourners because they lived in tents and picked up manna every day. They never got to a point where they moved from a small apartment to a house that they owned. They never replaced manna with 4 course meals and modern day conveniences. They lived in the wilderness and they were acutely aware of their surroundings. It is harder for us to keep a sojourning perspective in mind, especially in America.
But scripture is clear that we too are sojourners. 1 Peter 2:11 calls us sojourners and even though we are comfortable here, this is not our home. Sometimes I think that my level of comfort is a disadvantage to keeping my mindset one of longing for a “better country.” It wasn’t hard for Abraham to long for a better country as a nomad. It is hard for us to long for a better country in middle class America where we hold the top percentage of the world’s wealth.
But Moses goes on to add in a qualifier, “in all generations.” He states that from Adam and Eve, to the generation that will die in the desert, to the generation that will inherit the Promised Land, to us, God has been our dwelling place. Literally our place of refuge. You think about what images come to your mind when you think of a place of refuge. Is it a safe place? Is it a comfortable place? Is it a peaceful place? God Himself, our refuge. He is our dwelling place.
I like my home. Even after a week’s vacation at the beach I still love coming home. My home, with my family in it, is my refuge. It is safe, comfortable, peaceful and full of all the things I love. When I’ve had a bad day or even on the best days I look forward to coming home. We should see the Lord in this way.
Then Moses goes on to say in v.2, “before”. Let’s pause here. Before begins that clock ticking. It sets our minds in a place that is bound by time and reminds us that time exists for us but it also reminds us there was a time BEFORE time began. He says, “Before the mountains, earth and the world were formed.” He starts with the tangible and stretches to the intangible: the mountains, the earth, the world. He acknowledges God as author of Creation. He goes on to say, “from everlasting to everlasting you ARE God.”
That word everlasting means: the vanishing point, or time that is out of mind. Literally, from forever in both directions. John explains this concept perfectly when he writes in Revelation of the Lord, “I am the Alpha and the Omega”, “the first and the last”. These are the first statements made about God at the very beginning of the book of Revelation.
In the first chapter of Revelation, after John has given his greeting, the first quotation begins in v.8. It is important to note things like quotations in order to gain greater understanding into a passage of scripture. This indicates to us that someone is speaking and in this verse, that person is God. And what does God say about Himself? He states, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” So, God confirms by His own words that He is from everlasting to everlasting.
However, what I find even more awesome is what happens later on in verse 17 of chapter one. At this point, John has been confronted with a vision of Jesus and he struggles to describe what he sees. He can only use the word “like” to convey his vision because what he sees is clearly “unlike” anything else he has ever seen. And his immediate reaction is to fall down at His feet as dead.
Up to this point, Jesus has not said anything, but in verse 17 He opens His mouth and the very first thing He says is this: “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” Beloved, does this give you chills like it does me? God has spoken twice in the first chapter of Revelation and He states the exact same thing about Himself both times! Basically, I am from everlasting to everlasting!
It is always very important for us to take note when God talks about Himself. We are wise to be attentive to what He says. And surely, what He says FIRST about Himself. The last book of scripture that deals with last things and God states first, “I am the BEGINNING and I am the END.” Yet Moses writes all of this in Psalm 90 before Revelation was even written. He knows that, “You are God.” Before creation, You ARE - present tense - God. Before creation AND after the end of time, You ARE God.
You see, beloved, God never changes. The same God that Moses served in the wilderness is the same God John encountered in Revelation and He is the same God you and I worship today. He is our dwelling place, in all generations, our refuge and our home. And, for the believer, He always will be. From everlasting to everlasting, You ARE God. When our dash is over, if our dwelling place is the Lord, where we reside never changes. We may be absent from the body but our spirit continually abides in Him.
Saturday, January 21, 2017
The Eternality of God and the Death of the Saints: Lesson One
Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the introduction to this blog series! Our focal passage for this series is Psalm 90. I strongly encourage you to read it in its entirety several times and familiarize yourself with the passage. Engaging the scripture yourself will serve to aid you in a deeper, long term understanding of the passage. Plus your participation will help you get more out of each lesson.
As we discussed yesterday, death is a sobering reality. Thankfully, we serve a God who does not avoid the tough subjects but informs us in His word. He wounds us in order to heal us. He rattles our chains to cause us to stand and give pause to what will inevitably come for us all.
Let me give full disclosure to the fact that this is not a topic we would willingly search out to read about or study. In fact, this is not a topic I would willingly search out to teach. But, I promise I wasn’t having a bad day when I determined to write this lesson. I chose it because as believers we need to be informed of the full counsel of scripture regardless of how difficult the subject. Death, if viewed through the wrong lens, the lens of humanity, is morbid and depressing. But if viewed through the right lens, the lens of the Eternality of God, it brings joy and peace.
Ironically, I have experienced more peace writing this lesson then any other lesson I can remember. Not just peace about death but peace about life. Beloved, it is GOOD for us to think about death. It is humbling and scripture even says it is WISE for us to think about death. In our focal passage, the Psalmist says, “Teach me to number my days that I may have a heart of wisdom.” Let’s enter each lesson with minds that are sharp and hearts that are prepared to be informed about death from the TRUTH of the word of God!
Before we begin our walk in the scriptures let’s get acquainted with the author, the setting and the original subjects. It might say in the heading of your Bible that this is a Psalm of Moses. This was a new discovery for me. I knew that David and Asaph were regular authors of the Psalms but it never occurred to me that Moses was the author of anything past the Pentateuch.
The setting for this Psalm is sometime in the 38 years of wilderness dwelling on the edge of Canaan. This 38 years was purposed as a season of death while the 2nd generation waited for the first generation of Israelites to die. How sobering is this? For two years, after the Exodus, the Israelites made their way from Egypt to the edge of the Jordan bordering the “PROMISED” Land and they get there only to fall back into a pattern of fear and unbelief.
In Numbers 13, Moses sends 12 spies into the land to bring back word about Canaan. However, upon hearing about the number and size of the inhabitants, the people began complaining out of fear. Disgruntled, unbelieving hearts sinfully railed against Moses and the Lord, “If only we had died in Egypt! If only we had died here in the wilderness! God, have you brought us into this land only for us to die?
And so, God gave them what they wanted by cursing everyone over the age of 20, minus two, Joshua and Caleb, to die in the wilderness rather than enter the land. This took 38 years! 38 continuous years of death. Daily, scores of people died. It is estimated that based on the sheer number of people that often hundreds of deaths took place each day.
Do you think death was on their minds? Do you think they were thinking about eternity and life after their DOD? Every. Single. Day. How do you live as one of the ones over 20 (probably most of you reading this lesson) from one day to the next and not obsess over death? I’m sure some of them did. I’m sure every time they got a cough or felt a pain they began to panic.
They didn’t know when their time was up. Just like us. They knew they were going to die in the wilderness but God had not told them it was going to take 38 years. The timeframe was hidden from them. We know it, in hindsight, but they did not. If you were 20 you could have assumed, “Ok, I’m not making it into the promised land. I know I am dying in the desert but it won’t be today.” The sobering reality was that everyone who was 20 would be dead by the age of 58.
So, they knew they were going to die AND to compound the anxiety of the situation, they were watching other people die. People their own age, people younger, people older. I think they had to quickly come to terms with death and what occurred after death in order to be able to face the time they had alive with some semblance of normalcy. The truth is, we are really no different. We know we are going to die and we are touched by death around us while we live. Yet, our society and even the church has swept the subject of death under the rug. We have sanitized death. We don’t want to think about it. We want to avoid it as if death is for another day, another time and not for now, not for us.
And when we do think about it, we think about it from a perspective of fear. We teach the gospel to our children, making sure they are saved from hell and then we go about our lives avoiding the thought of death until a diagnosis makes it unavoidable any longer. And even at those times we often bury ourselves in the research for a cure rather than preparing ourselves for the fate that comes to all of us. I firmly believe this is why we fear death, why we deem it as unpleasant and depressing, because we don’t think about it and when we do, we don’t think rightly about it.
Which is why we are studying the eternality of God through the lens of the mortality of man. Tomorrow we will begin our look into Psalm 90 verse by verse. The following is the outline we for our lesson:
V.1-6 God’s eternality: God is eternal vs. Man’s mortality: Man is not
V. 7-10 Sin brings death: Why do we die?
V. 11-17 Moses’ plea: How do we live?
We will discover the truth about God’s eternality, man’s mortality, why death is imminent and how that affects our living the “dash”. Beloved, let’s allow the Israelites experience to shape us. By the truth of God’s word, we are informed and we are healed. Take some time today to meditate on death. Your death and the the death of those around you. What emotions surround your thoughts? Do you have a theology on death or just an ideology? Is it based on scripture? Take these things to the Lord in prayer and ask that He show you, by His grace, the wisdom of numbering your days.
As we discussed yesterday, death is a sobering reality. Thankfully, we serve a God who does not avoid the tough subjects but informs us in His word. He wounds us in order to heal us. He rattles our chains to cause us to stand and give pause to what will inevitably come for us all.
Let me give full disclosure to the fact that this is not a topic we would willingly search out to read about or study. In fact, this is not a topic I would willingly search out to teach. But, I promise I wasn’t having a bad day when I determined to write this lesson. I chose it because as believers we need to be informed of the full counsel of scripture regardless of how difficult the subject. Death, if viewed through the wrong lens, the lens of humanity, is morbid and depressing. But if viewed through the right lens, the lens of the Eternality of God, it brings joy and peace.
Ironically, I have experienced more peace writing this lesson then any other lesson I can remember. Not just peace about death but peace about life. Beloved, it is GOOD for us to think about death. It is humbling and scripture even says it is WISE for us to think about death. In our focal passage, the Psalmist says, “Teach me to number my days that I may have a heart of wisdom.” Let’s enter each lesson with minds that are sharp and hearts that are prepared to be informed about death from the TRUTH of the word of God!
Before we begin our walk in the scriptures let’s get acquainted with the author, the setting and the original subjects. It might say in the heading of your Bible that this is a Psalm of Moses. This was a new discovery for me. I knew that David and Asaph were regular authors of the Psalms but it never occurred to me that Moses was the author of anything past the Pentateuch.
The setting for this Psalm is sometime in the 38 years of wilderness dwelling on the edge of Canaan. This 38 years was purposed as a season of death while the 2nd generation waited for the first generation of Israelites to die. How sobering is this? For two years, after the Exodus, the Israelites made their way from Egypt to the edge of the Jordan bordering the “PROMISED” Land and they get there only to fall back into a pattern of fear and unbelief.
In Numbers 13, Moses sends 12 spies into the land to bring back word about Canaan. However, upon hearing about the number and size of the inhabitants, the people began complaining out of fear. Disgruntled, unbelieving hearts sinfully railed against Moses and the Lord, “If only we had died in Egypt! If only we had died here in the wilderness! God, have you brought us into this land only for us to die?
And so, God gave them what they wanted by cursing everyone over the age of 20, minus two, Joshua and Caleb, to die in the wilderness rather than enter the land. This took 38 years! 38 continuous years of death. Daily, scores of people died. It is estimated that based on the sheer number of people that often hundreds of deaths took place each day.
Do you think death was on their minds? Do you think they were thinking about eternity and life after their DOD? Every. Single. Day. How do you live as one of the ones over 20 (probably most of you reading this lesson) from one day to the next and not obsess over death? I’m sure some of them did. I’m sure every time they got a cough or felt a pain they began to panic.
They didn’t know when their time was up. Just like us. They knew they were going to die in the wilderness but God had not told them it was going to take 38 years. The timeframe was hidden from them. We know it, in hindsight, but they did not. If you were 20 you could have assumed, “Ok, I’m not making it into the promised land. I know I am dying in the desert but it won’t be today.” The sobering reality was that everyone who was 20 would be dead by the age of 58.
So, they knew they were going to die AND to compound the anxiety of the situation, they were watching other people die. People their own age, people younger, people older. I think they had to quickly come to terms with death and what occurred after death in order to be able to face the time they had alive with some semblance of normalcy. The truth is, we are really no different. We know we are going to die and we are touched by death around us while we live. Yet, our society and even the church has swept the subject of death under the rug. We have sanitized death. We don’t want to think about it. We want to avoid it as if death is for another day, another time and not for now, not for us.
And when we do think about it, we think about it from a perspective of fear. We teach the gospel to our children, making sure they are saved from hell and then we go about our lives avoiding the thought of death until a diagnosis makes it unavoidable any longer. And even at those times we often bury ourselves in the research for a cure rather than preparing ourselves for the fate that comes to all of us. I firmly believe this is why we fear death, why we deem it as unpleasant and depressing, because we don’t think about it and when we do, we don’t think rightly about it.
Which is why we are studying the eternality of God through the lens of the mortality of man. Tomorrow we will begin our look into Psalm 90 verse by verse. The following is the outline we for our lesson:
V.1-6 God’s eternality: God is eternal vs. Man’s mortality: Man is not
V. 7-10 Sin brings death: Why do we die?
V. 11-17 Moses’ plea: How do we live?
We will discover the truth about God’s eternality, man’s mortality, why death is imminent and how that affects our living the “dash”. Beloved, let’s allow the Israelites experience to shape us. By the truth of God’s word, we are informed and we are healed. Take some time today to meditate on death. Your death and the the death of those around you. What emotions surround your thoughts? Do you have a theology on death or just an ideology? Is it based on scripture? Take these things to the Lord in prayer and ask that He show you, by His grace, the wisdom of numbering your days.
Friday, January 20, 2017
The Eternality of God & the Death of the Saints: Introduction
In my most recent Biblestudy, I taught a lesson on death and dying. Contrary to my hesitations going into the lesson, I received a great deal of positive feedback which made me think this might be a much needed blog series. It, indeed, counseled my heart as I wrote it. That, coupled with the fact that at this moment our family knows of at least 7 people we are praying for that have received a recent cancer diagnosis and, I have a dear friend who is on the verge of losing her Dad. In fact, by the time the last of this series is published he will most likely have passed away. All of these things have continued to press in on the fact that death is a reality but we are rarely prepared to face it, for ourselves or our loved ones.
Death isn’t something most of us spend time pondering. We would rather surround ourselves with levity and pleasure and leave death for another day. Until it comes to call. The truth is, we don’t want to go out of our way to think about death but there is a strong pull within us to have answers to life’s most inevitable questions. There is assurance in pondering and settling within our souls the theology of death. Death is a reality for all of us. It is a part of life. Not only will we face death ourselves but as long as we live, death will surround us.
For every circumstance people face in life, there is a way people think about those circumstances. The more concise, modern term for this is “ideology”. Everyone has an “idea-ology”. However, for the believer, our ideology should be driven by our theology. In other words, we must always begin and end with God. If we do otherwise, we can never think rightly about any circumstances much less walk in them with any confidence, peace or hope. Our God is the answer, in and of Himself, for all that we face on earth and for eternity. He isn’t just the Giver of good gifts, He, Himself is the gift. He isn’t just the One who grants forgiveness of sins, He, Himself is the means by which we gain forgiveness. He isn’t just the Father that bestows an inheritance, imperishable and undefiled, He, Himself is the inheritance.
Therefore, we study God to inform us about life. And what more applicable attribute to study when pondering death than the Eternality of God? The eternality of God, His timelessness, stands in stark contrast to our limited “finite-ness”. God’s eternality, just like all of His other attributes: His incomprehensibility, self-existence, self-sufficiency, immutability, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, to name a few, are underscored by His limitlessness or the fact that He is infinite.
However, this is a concept that our minds cannot fully grasp. We know that the term “eternal” means having no beginning and no end however, we cannot completely UNDERSTAND what it means. This will always be the case when we study about God. We can know Him and study His character but because He is so far above us and so “other” than us, we will struggle to comprehend the full extent of who He is because He is a God of no limits.
In the same way, we will study His eternality. The fact that our God has had no beginning and will have no end. He is the God of infinite days yet He is not bound by time. God created time, God controls time but He is not encapsulated or bound by time. He lives in the eternal present. All days are as one with Him. There are no yesterdays or tomorrows. Everything is always today. Right now.
Again, it is hard for us to understand exactly what that looks like. Mainly because we are bound by time. On a specific day we were created and our bodies began the process of aging, the process of dying from the moment of conception. Think about that. Then, we were born and our DOB and time was recorded by the physician and the clock began to tick. And when we meet our end here on earth, the exact same set of numbers will be recorded. And somewhere between the DOB and the DOD we have this thing called life, in the dash.
We measure our lives by time. We mark experiences and significant events and we remember based on time: before this person was born, after this person died; after we worked here or before we were married etc; Yet, we often become so wrapped up in our days that we don’t take inventory of “what happens next.” We are content to live out our days in busyness until we are forced to take a look at the fact that we are but dust, our days are as a mist and death is certain for us all.
Thankfully, scripture tells us, in Psalm 31:15a, our times are in His hands! Our times, our dash, are not arbitrary days, surrounded by arbitrary people driven by arbitrary circumstances. Our times are in the hands of a sovereign and eternal God who numbers our days before there is even one. And you know what the Psalmist says leading up to this great declaration? “I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God” (Psalm 31:14). The Psalmist placed his trust in the One who held his times and claimed Him as Lord God.
Beloved, what we think of death will inform what we think of life. How we think about death will inform how we live! As we begin this series of lessons about death, dying, the frailty of man and the eternality of God, let’s begin by reminding ourselves that even though we are not eternal, we serve a God who is. Praise Him for His eternality and praise Him that our times are indeed in His hands!
Death isn’t something most of us spend time pondering. We would rather surround ourselves with levity and pleasure and leave death for another day. Until it comes to call. The truth is, we don’t want to go out of our way to think about death but there is a strong pull within us to have answers to life’s most inevitable questions. There is assurance in pondering and settling within our souls the theology of death. Death is a reality for all of us. It is a part of life. Not only will we face death ourselves but as long as we live, death will surround us.
For every circumstance people face in life, there is a way people think about those circumstances. The more concise, modern term for this is “ideology”. Everyone has an “idea-ology”. However, for the believer, our ideology should be driven by our theology. In other words, we must always begin and end with God. If we do otherwise, we can never think rightly about any circumstances much less walk in them with any confidence, peace or hope. Our God is the answer, in and of Himself, for all that we face on earth and for eternity. He isn’t just the Giver of good gifts, He, Himself is the gift. He isn’t just the One who grants forgiveness of sins, He, Himself is the means by which we gain forgiveness. He isn’t just the Father that bestows an inheritance, imperishable and undefiled, He, Himself is the inheritance.
Therefore, we study God to inform us about life. And what more applicable attribute to study when pondering death than the Eternality of God? The eternality of God, His timelessness, stands in stark contrast to our limited “finite-ness”. God’s eternality, just like all of His other attributes: His incomprehensibility, self-existence, self-sufficiency, immutability, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, to name a few, are underscored by His limitlessness or the fact that He is infinite.
However, this is a concept that our minds cannot fully grasp. We know that the term “eternal” means having no beginning and no end however, we cannot completely UNDERSTAND what it means. This will always be the case when we study about God. We can know Him and study His character but because He is so far above us and so “other” than us, we will struggle to comprehend the full extent of who He is because He is a God of no limits.
In the same way, we will study His eternality. The fact that our God has had no beginning and will have no end. He is the God of infinite days yet He is not bound by time. God created time, God controls time but He is not encapsulated or bound by time. He lives in the eternal present. All days are as one with Him. There are no yesterdays or tomorrows. Everything is always today. Right now.
Again, it is hard for us to understand exactly what that looks like. Mainly because we are bound by time. On a specific day we were created and our bodies began the process of aging, the process of dying from the moment of conception. Think about that. Then, we were born and our DOB and time was recorded by the physician and the clock began to tick. And when we meet our end here on earth, the exact same set of numbers will be recorded. And somewhere between the DOB and the DOD we have this thing called life, in the dash.
We measure our lives by time. We mark experiences and significant events and we remember based on time: before this person was born, after this person died; after we worked here or before we were married etc; Yet, we often become so wrapped up in our days that we don’t take inventory of “what happens next.” We are content to live out our days in busyness until we are forced to take a look at the fact that we are but dust, our days are as a mist and death is certain for us all.
Thankfully, scripture tells us, in Psalm 31:15a, our times are in His hands! Our times, our dash, are not arbitrary days, surrounded by arbitrary people driven by arbitrary circumstances. Our times are in the hands of a sovereign and eternal God who numbers our days before there is even one. And you know what the Psalmist says leading up to this great declaration? “I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God” (Psalm 31:14). The Psalmist placed his trust in the One who held his times and claimed Him as Lord God.
Beloved, what we think of death will inform what we think of life. How we think about death will inform how we live! As we begin this series of lessons about death, dying, the frailty of man and the eternality of God, let’s begin by reminding ourselves that even though we are not eternal, we serve a God who is. Praise Him for His eternality and praise Him that our times are indeed in His hands!
Monday, December 5, 2016
Seconds on Thanksgiving
I am a firm believer that seconds are okay and sometimes even necessary! Thanksgiving was a day for seconds this year. Not turkey, (although I did have seconds there) but this year, I needed seconds from the Word. Have you ever had a day where the first time just didn’t seem to take? You read the word, you have time in prayer and no sooner have you said “Amen” then Satan is conspiring with your flesh to take your claims of being a Christian and leave the whole world wondering...
AND on the one day of the year when we are supposed to be grateful! It’s as if gratefulness should be a switch that is turned on as soon as the last bit of Halloween candy is gone and turkey goes on sale. And the culmination of that thankfulness should appear, on cue, somewhere between the stuffing and pumpkin pie. But this year, my attitude was not going to cooperate. Yep, I was going down for the count which meant my family was coming with me! Because it is somewhere in the Bible (although I haven’t located it yet) that if Mama isn’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, or grateful or fill in the blank.
I can’t exactly put my finger on what happened but about the time I was pulling the turkey out of the oven I could feel it rising up in me. And the truth is, I had no idea why I was feeling this way. I had a quiet time with the Lord that morning, all was right with the world and my turkey was just beautiful. But inside there was civil war going on and the army of the Spirit was losing the battle. So, I quickly grabbed my sword and determined that I had to have seconds before Thanksgiving dinner went down in flames and there were more than a few casualties.
For a second time that day, really in a matter of hours, I opened the Word and prayed once again asking the Lord to “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” I knew once I got up the second time that the victory was sure and Thanksgiving 2016 was saved from my attitude. Praise God!
The truth is this, there are many days when seconds are necessary in my life. I believe when Robert Lowry wrote the hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour”, he must have been having a seconds kind of day. And that’s okay. Jesus knows we will have those days and that’s why we are told in 1John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And not just any Advocate, but an eternal High Priest that LIVES to make intercession for us.
Listen to the author of Hebrews, “This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:22-25)
Ladies, when we are justified we are saved from our sins, but as long as we inhabit a body comprised of sinful flesh, we will continue to sin. It is not until we are glorified that we will no longer know sin. Until that day, we will groan and struggle within ourselves as the flesh and the renewed Spirit are at enmity with one another. It is because of that very struggle that we have an Advocate who lives to make intercession for us. All day, every day.
And so on Thanksgiving Day I was very grateful that Jesus was not taking a holiday and that I could come back for seconds. I was grateful for the One who sits at the right hand of the Father and never leaves so that in my desperate need for Him I knew with confidence I could boldly approach His throne of grace once again. And again. And again. So, if today is a seconds kind of day for you then go! Don’t be embarassed and don’t put it off. He is there and He lives to make intercession for you.
I need thee ev'ry hour;
Stay thou nearby.
Temptations lose their pow'r
When thou art nigh.
I need thee, oh, I need thee;
Ev'ry hour I need thee!
Oh, bless me now, my Savior;
I come to thee!
AND on the one day of the year when we are supposed to be grateful! It’s as if gratefulness should be a switch that is turned on as soon as the last bit of Halloween candy is gone and turkey goes on sale. And the culmination of that thankfulness should appear, on cue, somewhere between the stuffing and pumpkin pie. But this year, my attitude was not going to cooperate. Yep, I was going down for the count which meant my family was coming with me! Because it is somewhere in the Bible (although I haven’t located it yet) that if Mama isn’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, or grateful or fill in the blank.
I can’t exactly put my finger on what happened but about the time I was pulling the turkey out of the oven I could feel it rising up in me. And the truth is, I had no idea why I was feeling this way. I had a quiet time with the Lord that morning, all was right with the world and my turkey was just beautiful. But inside there was civil war going on and the army of the Spirit was losing the battle. So, I quickly grabbed my sword and determined that I had to have seconds before Thanksgiving dinner went down in flames and there were more than a few casualties.
For a second time that day, really in a matter of hours, I opened the Word and prayed once again asking the Lord to “create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.” I knew once I got up the second time that the victory was sure and Thanksgiving 2016 was saved from my attitude. Praise God!
The truth is this, there are many days when seconds are necessary in my life. I believe when Robert Lowry wrote the hymn, “I Need Thee Every Hour”, he must have been having a seconds kind of day. And that’s okay. Jesus knows we will have those days and that’s why we are told in 1John 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And not just any Advocate, but an eternal High Priest that LIVES to make intercession for us.
Listen to the author of Hebrews, “This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:22-25)
Ladies, when we are justified we are saved from our sins, but as long as we inhabit a body comprised of sinful flesh, we will continue to sin. It is not until we are glorified that we will no longer know sin. Until that day, we will groan and struggle within ourselves as the flesh and the renewed Spirit are at enmity with one another. It is because of that very struggle that we have an Advocate who lives to make intercession for us. All day, every day.
And so on Thanksgiving Day I was very grateful that Jesus was not taking a holiday and that I could come back for seconds. I was grateful for the One who sits at the right hand of the Father and never leaves so that in my desperate need for Him I knew with confidence I could boldly approach His throne of grace once again. And again. And again. So, if today is a seconds kind of day for you then go! Don’t be embarassed and don’t put it off. He is there and He lives to make intercession for you.
I need thee ev'ry hour;
Stay thou nearby.
Temptations lose their pow'r
When thou art nigh.
I need thee, oh, I need thee;
Ev'ry hour I need thee!
Oh, bless me now, my Savior;
I come to thee!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Are We Raising a Daniel?
“But Daniel resolved (purposed in his heart, made up his mind) that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine that he drank.” Daniel 1:8
“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” Daniel 6:10
I have to admit, I am not happy about 2016. I thought 2015 was a perfectly good year and I would have been content to stop the clock and stay right where we were. Yes, New Years bring new beginnings and the opportunity to start over but the New Year also draws our attention to the fact that time is fleeting. We can’t think about the beginning without simultaneously thinking about the year that has passed. What happened in that year? What did we accomplish?
Likewise, as parents, we take inventory and it is at this point things get real! We are confronted with the harsh reality that our children are growing up and let’s face it, every year brings them one step closer to leaving us. Let’s selah here Mamas so we can all have a good cry together.
For my part, it is hard to believe that a 6 pound 8 ounce baby boy can turn into a 6 foot man over night. Literally, over night. There were mornings when Landon would come down the hall and it appeared he had grown inches overnight. Our grocery bill went through the roof and I couldn’t keep cereal in the house. (There seems to be some correlation between teenage boys and heaping bowls of cereal).
Enter nostalgia. It seems like just yesterday that I held a little bundle of potential in my arms and now I struggle to reach my arms around his neck for a hug! This thing is going fast. Very, very fast. On New Year’s Day as Kraig and I were praying together, thanking the Lord for the blessings of 2015 and asking the Lord’s grace upon 2016, it struck me that this is the last full year that our son will be under our roof. As I spoke the words, I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. This is it!
Yes, I do realize that we will never stop being his parents and we will always have a place in his life. I also realize he may move away only to return again. But this is the last year, as far as we know, where we live out all of the seasons together in the same house. It is an emotional thought, an anxious thought and a thought that brings deep reflection because, our time is short! This is the last year we will have contact with him every day to hear about his day, to see the emotion on his face as he struggles with various circumstances in his life and just to be able to put an arm around him (even if that requires a step stool) to assure him that God is in control. After this, our level of influence and involvement begins to diminish, as it should, as he grows up.
On the heels of all of this emotion, the practical side of me took over. What will I do with this brief, fleeting window of time? What do I want to say? What do I want to do? What do I want to pour into him with the rest of the time we have left? I want to finish well! I want to send him off with a firm foundation that is rooted in conviction that is engendered by His relationship with Jesus. Yes, I want him to be able to feed himself and do some laundry but mainly I want him to be a man of principle.
The prophet Daniel was one such man. It says in scripture that Daniel was a youth when his home country of Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon. Scholars estimate that Daniel would have likely been between 14 and 17 years of age when all of this occurred. He was separated from his family and sent to serve in the king’s palace. Gone were the days of being under the watchful eye of Mom and Dad and their teachings about the One true God. There would be no observation of feasts, reading of the word of the Lord or trips to the temple to sacrifice and worship. All that Daniel had learned up to this point in his life would have to carry him for the rest of his life.
Let’s pause here for a moment. Don’t you love how scripture is so relevant to our lives? Although scripture doesn’t tell us about Daniel’s mama, I have to believe that she was just like us. That her joy mirrored our joys. That her hopes mirrored our hopes. Surely she never dreamed that she would be separated from him for the rest of her life. But, in his formative years, while he was still with her, she “trained him in the way that he should go.” And on the day when she said goodbye to her baby boy, as she was pierced through with many sorrows, was there the thought, “will all that I’ve instilled in him be enough?”
I know there are mothers who may be reading this that have children that are far from the Lord. Regardless of all that you have taught, they have not “purposed in their heart not to defile themselves.” Let me reassure you that God is faithful. You do your part and God is big enough to handle the rest. It is not all up to us if our children love Jesus. We are simply scattering seed. But let's not fall short in saturating our fields with the seed of God's word!
Furthermore, sometimes, scripture leaves blank spaces in order that we fill them in. Not that we base our theology on conjecture or what scripture doesn't say but God leaves room in order for us to make some applications in our own lives. We don’t know if there was a time in which Daniel wandered. Maybe he did. Even though we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But we do know that when the pressure escalated and he found himself facing life and death situations that he fell back on what he knew.
Over the course of the next 70 plus years, Daniel would be brought before kings and rulers and he would never waiver in his convictions or deviate from the truth. He suffered under the threat of the lion’s den, watched his friends survive the fiery furnace and learned to live as an alien in a pagan culture. Yet, he never compromised. And, he never returned home. Daniel died in Babylon.
Am I raising a Daniel? Am I raising a man who will have all that he needs by now to live out the rest of his life with unwavering compromise? Because, Landon is 16. He is the age that Daniel would have been. Will he fall under temptations that are less severe and falter? If he never came back home and never had the word of God to guide him again, would he continue to believe for the rest of his life? Against trials, sufferings and threats? I wonder…
And so, for 2016, I have my eye on finishing well with him. I have my focus on pouring into him all that I can so that it carries him for the rest of his life. Sobering? Yes. Difficult? Yes. Worth it? Yes! So, my encouragement to us as mother’s is to take inventory this year and every year as we raise and hopefully, disciple our children. Whether you are rocking a bundle of potential or struggling to reach his neck, let us heed the words of Solomon and not forget to, “train up a child in the way he should go so that even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6 Let’s get to it! Happy New Year!
“When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.” Daniel 6:10
I have to admit, I am not happy about 2016. I thought 2015 was a perfectly good year and I would have been content to stop the clock and stay right where we were. Yes, New Years bring new beginnings and the opportunity to start over but the New Year also draws our attention to the fact that time is fleeting. We can’t think about the beginning without simultaneously thinking about the year that has passed. What happened in that year? What did we accomplish?
Likewise, as parents, we take inventory and it is at this point things get real! We are confronted with the harsh reality that our children are growing up and let’s face it, every year brings them one step closer to leaving us. Let’s selah here Mamas so we can all have a good cry together.
For my part, it is hard to believe that a 6 pound 8 ounce baby boy can turn into a 6 foot man over night. Literally, over night. There were mornings when Landon would come down the hall and it appeared he had grown inches overnight. Our grocery bill went through the roof and I couldn’t keep cereal in the house. (There seems to be some correlation between teenage boys and heaping bowls of cereal).
Enter nostalgia. It seems like just yesterday that I held a little bundle of potential in my arms and now I struggle to reach my arms around his neck for a hug! This thing is going fast. Very, very fast. On New Year’s Day as Kraig and I were praying together, thanking the Lord for the blessings of 2015 and asking the Lord’s grace upon 2016, it struck me that this is the last full year that our son will be under our roof. As I spoke the words, I was completely overwhelmed with emotion. This is it!
Yes, I do realize that we will never stop being his parents and we will always have a place in his life. I also realize he may move away only to return again. But this is the last year, as far as we know, where we live out all of the seasons together in the same house. It is an emotional thought, an anxious thought and a thought that brings deep reflection because, our time is short! This is the last year we will have contact with him every day to hear about his day, to see the emotion on his face as he struggles with various circumstances in his life and just to be able to put an arm around him (even if that requires a step stool) to assure him that God is in control. After this, our level of influence and involvement begins to diminish, as it should, as he grows up.
On the heels of all of this emotion, the practical side of me took over. What will I do with this brief, fleeting window of time? What do I want to say? What do I want to do? What do I want to pour into him with the rest of the time we have left? I want to finish well! I want to send him off with a firm foundation that is rooted in conviction that is engendered by His relationship with Jesus. Yes, I want him to be able to feed himself and do some laundry but mainly I want him to be a man of principle.
The prophet Daniel was one such man. It says in scripture that Daniel was a youth when his home country of Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon. Scholars estimate that Daniel would have likely been between 14 and 17 years of age when all of this occurred. He was separated from his family and sent to serve in the king’s palace. Gone were the days of being under the watchful eye of Mom and Dad and their teachings about the One true God. There would be no observation of feasts, reading of the word of the Lord or trips to the temple to sacrifice and worship. All that Daniel had learned up to this point in his life would have to carry him for the rest of his life.
Let’s pause here for a moment. Don’t you love how scripture is so relevant to our lives? Although scripture doesn’t tell us about Daniel’s mama, I have to believe that she was just like us. That her joy mirrored our joys. That her hopes mirrored our hopes. Surely she never dreamed that she would be separated from him for the rest of her life. But, in his formative years, while he was still with her, she “trained him in the way that he should go.” And on the day when she said goodbye to her baby boy, as she was pierced through with many sorrows, was there the thought, “will all that I’ve instilled in him be enough?”
I know there are mothers who may be reading this that have children that are far from the Lord. Regardless of all that you have taught, they have not “purposed in their heart not to defile themselves.” Let me reassure you that God is faithful. You do your part and God is big enough to handle the rest. It is not all up to us if our children love Jesus. We are simply scattering seed. But let's not fall short in saturating our fields with the seed of God's word!
Furthermore, sometimes, scripture leaves blank spaces in order that we fill them in. Not that we base our theology on conjecture or what scripture doesn't say but God leaves room in order for us to make some applications in our own lives. We don’t know if there was a time in which Daniel wandered. Maybe he did. Even though we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. But we do know that when the pressure escalated and he found himself facing life and death situations that he fell back on what he knew.
Over the course of the next 70 plus years, Daniel would be brought before kings and rulers and he would never waiver in his convictions or deviate from the truth. He suffered under the threat of the lion’s den, watched his friends survive the fiery furnace and learned to live as an alien in a pagan culture. Yet, he never compromised. And, he never returned home. Daniel died in Babylon.
Am I raising a Daniel? Am I raising a man who will have all that he needs by now to live out the rest of his life with unwavering compromise? Because, Landon is 16. He is the age that Daniel would have been. Will he fall under temptations that are less severe and falter? If he never came back home and never had the word of God to guide him again, would he continue to believe for the rest of his life? Against trials, sufferings and threats? I wonder…
And so, for 2016, I have my eye on finishing well with him. I have my focus on pouring into him all that I can so that it carries him for the rest of his life. Sobering? Yes. Difficult? Yes. Worth it? Yes! So, my encouragement to us as mother’s is to take inventory this year and every year as we raise and hopefully, disciple our children. Whether you are rocking a bundle of potential or struggling to reach his neck, let us heed the words of Solomon and not forget to, “train up a child in the way he should go so that even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6 Let’s get to it! Happy New Year!
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