What's Your Happy Place?

Image from Ian Lindsey, from Pixabay.com

I dreamed of Israel last night, and this morning, my devotional time took me to Psalm 42.  Before you look it up, that's the one where David says that his heart pants to spend time with God, like a thirsty deer pants for the water of the creek.  Every time I read that I think, "I wish I had such a thirst for God!"  I would like to tell you I do, but that would be an exaggeration.  Honestly, most of the time, I am distracted by lesser pursuits.

Still, the verse I want to focus on this morning is Psalm 42:5-7.  Here they are in the ESV:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him,

my salvation and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I remember you

from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

from Mount Mizar.

When I read these verses, I was able to picture the land of Israel, deep in my soul, because I have a sense now of how far it is from the Jordan to Hermon, in the far north of the land.  (Did you know that Israelis go skiing on Mt. Hermon?  Yes!  There are ski resorts there! I would love to go there, on a return trip, as I have never been to the farthest northern parts.)  Oh, that beautiful Land!  How I love it! 

The reference I did not get was "Mount Mizar".  There are two schools of thought on this place; therefore, no one is totally sure where it was or is today. 
1.  Some say Mount Mizar was a small hill near Mount Hermon.  They say this because David goes on to mention the rushing headwaters of the Jordan River, which begins in that region, the mountains of Hermon (Mount Hermon being one of those).  Perhaps there was known to David an actual Mount Mizar.  If so, today, we are not sure where it is.1
2.  Some say (Spurgeon included2) this is a poetic reference by David, to mean a place where he experienced a sweet, intimate time of fellowship with his God.  In other words, David's "happy place".  If we are honest, we can all name one or more of those, plus the reasons we name those places as such.

Regardless of the more actual location or a poetic reference, David is making an important point.
"Wherever we are, if we are fellowshipping with God, it is a happy place."  He emphasizes in these verses that his soul is "cast down", or that he is sad, depressed, etc. when he writes those words.  So, even when he "isn't feeling it", God's presence is the ultimate happy place.

I don't know "where you are" today, whether your soul is skipping merrily along or whether it is "cast down".  I do know that God's love is waiting for you, in His presence, and as it says in verse 11, The Message version - -

Then God promises to love me all day,

sing songs all through the night!

Other versions speak of hope restored, in His presence.  What glory!

Where is your more personal and concrete "happy place" and why is it special to you?  Comment in the comments section of the blog!

Sources:

1    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizar_(mountain)

2    https://www.mountmizar.com/what-s-in-a-name

Rainbow Days

Image by Free-Photos, from Pixabay.com

Rainbows are beautiful - - aren't they?
We have been having some stormy weather, off and on, as Spring moves into Summer, here in north Georgia.  The other night, a limb fell off one of our trees into the yard.  I'm glad the other trees and limbs have "stayed put".  This morning, when I arose early, as usual, the skies were stormy.  But, looking out the front door I could see, just peeking through the many trees, a rainbow.

Weather and heavenly phenomena have long mystified us humans, but in Genesis 9 God cleared up a lot of the mystery about rainbows, when He established what bible scholars call the Noahic Covenant.  Speaking to Noah, God said....

11And I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.

Genesis 9:11-13 (BSB)

In the several verses following verse 13, God seems to repeat Himself, for emphasis.  There is no doubt the meaning behind and the purpose of the rainbows we see periodically.  Now, of course, God does not forget.  It is impossible for Him to forget anything, although in Hebrews 8:12 we read that God "remembers our sins no more". Isaiah 43:25 is another, similar passage.  In other words, His forgiveness is so utterly complete, it is as if He forgets the sins of those who have trusted His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior.  He no longer "charges them to our spiritual account", as Jesus paid that bill "in full".  He chooses not to remember them, because the sins of the saved people are "under the blood of Jesus Christ."

Why the rainbow, then?  I can't think of another Old Testament covenant that has such a tangible symbol.

Maybe He does not want us to forget - - to forget the horrendous sins that required a world-wide flood in the first place.  For a catalog of some of them, go read Romans 1, which I've been looking at recently.  Well, here; let me make it easy for you:

21For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.

Romans 1:21-32 (NET)

The culture of Noah's day was utterly depraved.  It was the culture described in Romans 1.  It was so very evil, God declared it must be totally destroyed.  How about today, though?

Yesterday, an infamous trial in New York State came to an end.1  The leader (Keith Raniere) of a perverted sex cult (NXVIM) was judged by a jury "guilty on all counts".  The things that went on involved all manner of perversion, including unspeakable acts with children. The acts were so heinous this whole, sordid tale has had limited airing on the news.  I pity the poor jurors on that case because surely they were witnessing a story like a scene right out of Romans 1.

In our modern culture, the rainbow has been co-opted by some whose lives are characterized by patterns, habits, practices right out of Romans 1 as well.  The dictionary defines "co-opt" as follows: to divert or use in a role different from the usual or original one.2
The Bible makes plain the rainbow's distinct meaning.  It is very sad, although not at all surprising, that a segment of our modern society has perverted the rainbow's meaning, to support and celebrate sinful lifestyles.

No, God's word is sure.  His promises are true.  Every.Single.One. of them, including the one earlier in Genesis that says He will not strive with man forever, nor the one in Galatians 6:7, where He says He will not be mocked.  He will never again destroy the Earth with water, and He's given us the rainbow to remind us of that fact.

However . . .
Every single human born and who reaches the age when the gospel message can be understood will be judged for his or her sins.  Those who will escape the eternal judgment of God will do so ONLY because their sins have been forever forgiven and covered by God's Son's sacrificial death and resurrection from the dead.  Those who mock God, rejecting His offer of salvation in order to wallow in their own sins face an excruciatingly painful eternity without Him, and if that's not Hell, I don't know what is.

Sources:

1     https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48699099

2     https://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+co-opted&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS829US829&oq=define%3A+co-opted&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i58.3936j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Shavuot and Pentecost 2019 edition

Good Sunday morning, and wishing you a blessed Pentecost Sunday!  I published this content under a similar heading here at the blog last year.  Because it received over 375 views, I decided to reprise it this morning.

In this post, I am going to share some of the parallels between the Jewish feast called Shavuot and the Christian Sunday of Pentecost, because they are beautiful and meaningful, historically and theologically linked.  To help make these easier to read and comprehend, I'll use a compare-and-contrast format, with bullet points and different-colored fonts.

1.  When?

• Shavuot falls 50 days to the day after the Passover Feast of Firstfruits, the Sunday Jesus arose from the dead.  The Hebrew word Shavuot means "weeks", and this celebration is often called Feast of Weeks.  (See Exodus 19:18-20, Leviticus 23:15-16 and Exodus 24:3-11.)  In 2018, Shavuot begins at dusk on May 19 and ends at dusk on May 21. 
• Pentecost is a Greek word (pentekostos) which means "fiftieth day".  Christians celebrate Pentecost on the 7th Sunday after Easter.  Pentecost occurred when the disciples were together, celebrating Shavuot. (See Acts 2:1-4.) . 

2.  Where?

• Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to Moses, which occurred on Mt. Sinai.  
• Pentecost also features a gift, the greater gift of the Holy Spirit.  This occurred on Mt. Zion (Jerusalem).

3.  Significance

• The giving of Torah marks what many consider to be the day on which Judaism was born.  The word Torah means "teaching".  (The Torah is the first five books of the Old Testament.)
• The giving of the Holy Spirit ratified the New Covenant of Jesus Christ, and marked the beginning of the worldwide Church, redeemed "from every tribe and tongue"(Revelation 5:9).  In John 14:26, the Holy Spirit is called "the teacher".

4.  Similar Signs and Wonders

• At Sinai, there were wind, fire and smoke.  The presence of God was powerfully evident, and the people were afraid to approach the presence of God they visibly saw displayed on the mountain.
• At Zion, there was wind and fire, but in a different, more personal way.  God manifested Himself in awesome power at Pentecost in a manner reminiscent of Sinai, except that this time, the fire of God fell upon each person present.

5.  Marked by God

• One of the marks of the Jews was the circumcision of males, a cutting which distinguished them as belonging to Yahweh.  Also, at Sinai, the finger of God wrote on tablets of stone.
• At Pentecost, the Spirit of God wrote on the tablets of each heart (2 Corinthians 3:3 and Hebrews 8:10).  This act of God confirmed His promise made to the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34) and which Jesus promised to the disciples (Acts 1:4).  When a person receives Jesus as his or her personal Lord and Savior, there is figuratively a "cutting of the heart", a circurmcision of the heart, to allow the Holy Spirit to enter.  The Holy Spirit is a mark, a "cut" if you will, on each person's heart to indicate both His everlasting presence as well as the believer's eternal belonging to Jesus Christ.  This was not the case in the Old Testament.  The Holy Spirit did not dwell with each Jewish person, whether circumcised in the flesh or not. Before Jesus ascended, the Spirit of God descended on those He chose for His specific purposes.  At and after Pentecost, the ever-present Holy Spirit in the heart of every follower of Jesus Christ represents Jesus' mark of ownership.  

6.  Agriculture (Firstfruits)

• On an additional level, the Israelites celebrated at Shavuot the gathering in of the grain harvests, by bringing crops to the Temple.  Shavuot marked the endpoint of the Firstfruits celebration, which began with the wave offering of the first grain of the harvest during Passover week.  (See http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2018/03/first-fruits.html ) At Shavuot, a more plentiful, bountiful offering was made, representative of such a bountiful harvest.
• Jesus was raised from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits, that Sunday which ended Passion Week. Paul referred to Him as "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). The 3000 souls converted to belief in Jesus Christ as Savior on Shavuot/Pentecost (Acts 2:41) represented a huge Firstfruits/Feast of Weeks offering to God.  If each Christian will allow the Spirit to do His transformative work, what is produced in each person reflects Deuteronomy 30:6.  This yielding by each person produces an all-consuming love for the Savior, down deep in the soul.  The Spirit produces, as Paul said in Gal. 6:14, a willing, daily crucifixion of one's will to the Cross of Jesus Christ, a daily dying to Self.  Further, this love for Christ produces the "fruits of the Spirit", listed in Galatians 5:22-23.  I do not believe Paul's terminology "fruits" was an accidental use of the word.  The giving of the Holy Spirit marks the completion of our Triune God's salvation plan for mankind, as well as the end of the Easter season.

These are just some of the amazing parallels between these two holy days.  For more details, feel free to read at the links I've provided below.

When we study about the history and meaning of the divinely consecrated feast of Shavuot, our understanding and appreciation of the Day of Pentecost are deepened.  Isn't it exciting to see how God's revelation of Himself 1200 hundred years earlier was mirrored and enhanced at Pentecost?  What an amazing God!

After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:33 (King James 2000 Bible)

Sources:

https://forward.com/news/373541/why-do-some-christians-observe-shavuot/

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/Zion/zion.html

http://acts242study.com/they-many-parallels-of-sinai-and-pentecost/

https://www.ligonier.org/learn/devotionals/firstfruits-and-pentecost/

A Thriller, A Filler and a Spiller

Admittedly, I know nothing of gardening.  I blame my mother, who gardened little when I was young.  She worked about 50 hours a week, between her outside-the-home job, teaching 15 hours of music lessons a week and then add to that her church work on Sundays...good reasons why there was little time for gardening.  At any rate, I am not a gardener, by any stretch, regardless of who's to "blame".

But, I decided we needed a planter of lovely flowers outside the back door to the deck.  So, I bought a matchy-matchy pot at Wally World, and then went looking for some on-sale foliage with potting soil at the local mom-and-pop nursery. 
Unfortunately, I was lost as a goat.  The young man "manning the store" had no idea how to direct me, other than to send me to the correct greenhouse.
Fortunately, a stranger saw my bewilderment and stepped in, out of mercy, no doubt.  Her advice to me was to:
1) Pick a color scheme:  pinks/purples, reds or oranges.  (I chose the pinks.)
2) Get a "thriller', some "fillers" and some "spillers".  Some of you will know what that means.  For the rest of you who, like me, are "ignernt" (solid, country word meaning "ignorant", i.e. "lack of knowledge"), here's the explanation.

The thriller is the tall, lovely plant in the center of the arrangement.  It anchors the piece, and without it, you just have a mishmash of this and that.  You plant the thriller first.
The fillers are those plants that, along with the spillers, fill in between the base of the thriller and the rim of the container.
The spillers are trailing vine-like plants, inserted near the rim.  They then proceed to spill out over the edge of the planter, again, giving more dimension.

Three-in-one.

Remind you of anything?

The thriller reminds me of the salvation act/decision at the center of the Christian life.  Without it, you have nothing, or chaos, or both.  This anchors everything else, and is indispensable.
The fillers remind me of discipleship, which is the next step, along with the spillers, which make me think of evangelism.  Discipleship is necessary to surround and beautify the salvation decision.  Faith grows through acts of discipleship - - studying the Bible, learning to pray, fellowshipping with other believers.  Cultivating these habits deepen the relationship which began with the salvation decision; they are the "working out" of the initial act (Philippians 2:12).
The spillers represent the abundant Christian life spilling over to an unbelieving world as, by our example and through our words and deeds, we share the gospel with others.

A trifecta of beauty, representing the Christian's resplendent walk with THE Three-In-One, the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

6Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7 (Berean Study Bible)

Happy growing!

My Name is Lazarus

I was riding down the road yesterday morning, listening to one of the few radio stations that still plays Southern gospel music on Sunday mornings, WCON radio "My Country", in Cornelia, GA. 

A song began, one that I had never heard.  The title was "My Name is Lazarus".  It was a catchy song, about the biblical character, Lazarus - - brother of Mary and Martha of Bethany, all close friends of Jesus.  If you want to listen to it, the link is in the Sources below.1

Loyal readers to this blog may remember that I visited the site purported to be Lazarus' tomb when I visited Israel for the first time, back in January, 2018.  A picture from that day in Bethany is above.  The area is in the town of Bethany (surprise!), which is now part of the West Bank.  It is controlled by the Palestinians, and we had to pay a "keeper" at the site, in order to be allowed entrance into the tomb.

Down, down, down into the ground we went, via these musty, damp steps.  It felt like we descended hundreds of feet, although it surely was not.  In the photo, Chris and I were standing in "the tomb".

Driving down the road, I thought about all this and also about how my name is Lazarus too.  (What?!)

No, I've not yet physically died, nor was I physically resurrected.  However, until I was about 9 years old, I was dead in every way that mattered.  I was spiritually dead.

Oh, I had (and still have) a soul and spirit.  The difference is: prior to August of 1967 they were dead.  (Even more dead than Lazarus.)  Now, they are spiritually alive.  I surely do praise God for that!

The apostle Paul said this on the subject, speaking to a church in Ephesus, people who had become Christ-followers:

1As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins...

Ephesians 2:1a

"Were" is such a wonderful word, in this context!  Lazarus was dead, completely incapable of generating life on his own as he lay there moldering in the grave.2  

Before we came to salvation in Jesus Christ, we were a worse kind of dead, and similarly incapable of "raising ourselves", of saving ourselves.   Somebody pointed out that if something is dead, it can't do anything on its own, not even respond.  Jesus said,

 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him."  

John 6:44.

Because He has loved us with an everlasting love, He pursues us, in order to initiate that love relationship with us, in order to make the dead come alive, to bring the dead to life.  I am so deeply grateful for that.  Paul goes on to say....

4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

Ephesians 2:4-5

To be honest, there are times when I still feel dead.

• When I sin
• When I am disappointed
• When I am sad
• When I am focusing on what isn't, instead of what is

Those times.  

Fortunately, though, the truth, the gospel, the good news - - - they are not changed by my feelings.  Hallelujah for that!  And, God gave me a whole, whopping book of reminders, a heaping volume of truth to counteract that pity party junk.  When I go there and spend time with Him, worship Him, listen for Him, He tenderly reminds me of His love, which transcends all earthly sorrows.

"When I in the chains of death was bound,

this Man named Jesus pulled me out."

- - - Rodney Griffin, "My Name is Lazarus"

Sources:

1     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNsLT1BxUto

2     "Moldering" is an old English word, not much used these days.  It means "rotting".