Month: May 2017

“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” These daily petitions are desperately needed by every child of God. Jesus is so wise to give this prayer.

One way to avoid temptation is to avoid the circles of people and places where sins in word and deed are evidently right in the open. Ask the Lord for simple strength and wisdom to say no to such parties and socials. Ask the Lord to set a watch at your mouth. Ask the Lord to not let your heart incline to any evil thing. In many cases we know well enough the right thing to do and to say, but we can only do the right thing if given the grace and strength. We can admit the sinfulness and weakness inside of us and ask for help in avoiding and resisting the temptation. Ask for grace and strength.

At other times we walk into temptations oblivious and unaware. We do not even see the evil or the harm in speaking or activity. Satan sets camouflaged snares and traps that we don’t even notice until too late. We pray for wisdom and discernment while admitting blindness and stupidity. Our Lord delivers.

 

 

 

 

 

The NT believer loves his enemies, turns the other cheek, blesses persecutors and does not avenge. This applies to flesh and blood human beings, whom we will love, pray for, and be kind to. The spiritual forces driving people to evil words and deeds, however, are real enemies that must be prayed against. The vengeance is God’s and our prayer is for His justice. Most of these imprecatory prayers are prophetic in nature and for reaping the consequences.

Sin, death and the devil are not to be loved and treated kindly. But we are too weak to fight them alone, so we pray for our Lord, our Shepherd, our Savior, our Warrior to fight for us and crush our enemies in serious spiritual warfare.

I am in danger from wars against me, poisonous snakebite, and from hunters’ snares. It’s OK to ask the Lord to send coals of fire from above and open up the pits of earth beneath. This warfare is deadly serious: ask your Defender and Protector to maintain your cause and bring you into His Presence.

 

 

 

Spirituality is theology intersecting with the realities of human life. Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence are abstract attributes of God in a textbook, but they are not at all abstract, as the omnipresence of God is apt to break into my awareness as blessing or curse any time.

My spiritual enemies, and God’s, are speaking evil, and we hate them. Before they accuse me falsely and bring me into shame and despair, I ask the Lord to search me and know my thoughts and see if their is any harmful way (unconfessed sin) in me; if so, the enemy has a right to come into that place and mess up my life. I ask the Lord to clean it up and lead me in the way everlasting.

After asking for such soul searching I discover the depth of His penetration and the width of His coverage. I can’t get away with anything! But I have confessed every known sin and repented of every hidden sin and the blood of Jesus cleanses me from every sin. The penetrating search of my soul has revealed only Jesus. I an innocent. Now the Presence of God to bless surrounds me and defends against anxious and terrifying thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

Although real life is much messier, a normal sequence of events often works out as follows: sin and rebellion – trouble and distress – prayer for help – promise of deliverance – rescue and salvation – praise and thanks. Then the cycle repeats.

How the believer sees life with God: First, the resolution of the crisis in my life is interpreted as engineered by the Lord. “On the day I called you answered me, and increased my strength.” My prayer and your answer was not coincidence.

Second, God’s attributes of steadfast love and faithfulness (grace and truth) have intervened in my life to deliver me. Though far off in distant power your have come near to deliver me.

Third, I believe your lovingkindness lasts forever. I see the pattern of delivering love in the past and I am bold to ask for continuing care in the future. He will preserve me from my troubles, save me from my enemies, and fulfill his purpose for me. And that is a forever promise.

Therefore, I will praise Him with my whole heart. I will praise Him in front of all demons and false gods, and I will proclaim God before kings and rulers. God is good forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

War is hell! War is violence. It can’t be romanticized or glamourized; there is no two ways about it. War kills people, breaks things, and causes years of untold trauma. Spiritual warfare is the same. Killing babies is an act of total warfare (to prevent a rising of the next generation). Spiritually, little sins grow up to be killer sins; so stop it now. The Sin and Death Enemies (called Edom and Babylon) must be violently overthrown. The most violent overthrow and total destruction was the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was violence to our enemies and it was hell for them.

The heartfelt passion that the Exiles felt toward enemies was caused by being blocked and removed from the Presence of God in Zion. (They did not yet know that the Presence could be recovered in the Word of God.) This passion drove them to pray a violent curse on the enemies of God. They were too weak to take vengeance into their own hands so they wisely left justice up to the Lord.

We also can ask to feel this kind of violent passion for the presence of God, seek Him with our whole heart, and not be squeamish about hellish spiritual warfare.

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading Psalm 136: Saving Love is Eternal

Praise the Lord because He is good and because His Name is pleasant. Usually when the psalmist calls to praise he gives a reason. First, because He is good: this should go without saying, but it still needs to be said; this should never be doubted, but at certain times it needs to reaffirmed strongly over against the negative feelings of real life. If God is good (and He always is), then life is good (so praise Him).

Second, His Name is pleasant: the name of God is the Presence of God. If the Lord is present then everything is pleasant, that is, gracious joy and pleasing peace fills the room. There’s a sweet, sweet spirit in this place (so praise Him).

The two specific reasons for praise are creation of nature and the creation of Israel. Both creations are a result of prevailing over enemies: the empty darkness and the chaotic deep, and the gods (demons) of Egypt, Pharaoh, Og, Sihon, and of the Canaanites. Then He could give the Land to the People = promise fulfilled.

The triangulation of the Lord, the Promised Land, and  the Covenant People comes together at a point. That point is the Cross where God, Kingdom and Church meet. So at the “crossing” praise Him.

 

 

 

 

“Bless” means essentially to say or do good things to someone; as a result both the one who is blessed and one who gives a blessing normally feel better. This is how it usually works in human interaction. One can only imagine how wonderful life would be when people experience constant interactive, reciprocal blessings.

A believer’s relationship with God is similar except that God by nature doesn’t “feel better,” for He does not change and He cannot be improved; although He is pleased with faith in His Son and He is grieved with sin. In life we are continually blessing God and He is always blessing us. In worship, as in this Psalm, we bless the Lord and the Lord blesses us. We feel better.

Worship is like a doorway that opens out into the power and love behind the world. The One who made the heaven and the earth blesses the worshiper out of Zion, the church, the place of His Presence on earth. We receive the Gospel blessing in faith, and in turn, bless the Lord in an unending cycle of well-being. “Bless the Lord; the Lord bless you.”

 

 

 

 

Unity, peace and harmony is beautiful to behold and a wonderful thing to experience. It is beautiful like the anointing oil poured over Aaron and like the heavy morning dew that glistens on Mt. Zion.

You know it when you see it, but you can’t understand it, explain it or even describe it; and furthermore, you cannot make it happen. Unity and oneness is a gift and blessing from God alone.

There is a Unity in many living things that we cannot understand, create or control; these things are mysteries that we can believe, enjoy and sometimes experience: the Trinity, Christ the God-man, one flesh marriage, family ties, church fellowship, body and blood in the bread and wine, God in you, you in Christ.

God allows to humans the power to divide and separate and destroy the unity that God creates. Sin and death separate, and the devil divides incessantly. God holds it all together if we but repent of divisiveness and believe the Gospel: God’s Love alone has the power to hold together what He has joined. There, on Zion, the presence of God, He has commanded the blessing of life forevermore.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord God promises to establish a place for His Presence on earth and set up a King to rule His kingdom on the earth; He uses David to initiate and secure the Place and the Throne; this Temple and King is Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David, the Anointed One. He replaced the temple Presence and fulfilled the throne promise. This Man, the Son of God in human flesh, stood on the dusty earth and proclaimed the kingdom of God: “Repent and believe the Gospel.”

The Anointed would be given a horn and a lamp: the power to rule God’s people on earth and the light to shine on a darkened world. On Him the crown would sparkle and flourish, but His enemies will be clothed with shame, humiliation and defeat. He will gather a kingdom of priests (His followers and subjects); we the priests will be clothed with righteousness and with salvation while the people shout for joy.

The Anointed will live and rule among us, defeating our enemies, providing our needs, and giving the joy and blessings of righteousness and salvation. The Zion presence of God and the David rule of God is always and forever with us.