Leave it, Charlie!

Good morning,

We have this beloved mutt, Charlie, who in only generally obedient, but faithfully devoted.  He does not know many commands, due mainly to the laxness of his family's training of him.  However, he does know "leave it".  This is the verbal command we give him when, basically, we want him to avoid something that will hurt him or us, OR when we have something for him which is far better.

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you.

2 

Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you,

and I will make your name great,

so that you will exemplify divine blessing.

3 

I will bless those who bless you,

but the one who treats you lightly I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”

4 So Abram left, just as the Lord had told him to do

God said to Abram, "If you want my blessing, you've got to leave this place".  Leave it!  It wasn't that God was in some other place to which He wanted Abram to go.  God was there with him and his family, in Ur, also in Haran.  God had already anointed him, chosen him, blessed him.  However, the God of All Greatness wanted to bless him even further .... by making him a blessing to others, to generations, to all the peoples of the earth.  (God even told Abraham's son, Isaac, that his descendants would be more numerous than all the stars in the sky! Genesis 26:4)  In order to receive that promise, Abram had to make a huge step of faith.  Basically, he had to "leave it".

Such is the pattern of resplendent Christian living.  From the overflow of our blessings received, we pour out the love of God on those around us.  We were never meant to keep such love, mercy and grace to ourselves.  We were commissioned to share it with those all around us.  That almost always means coming out of our comfort zones --- Ann Voskamp calls it "leaving the blur of Ur" --- to go to the Promised Land.

Even in the middle of all the Advent preparation, is God calling you to leave your Ur, to make a big step of faith?  Is He asking you to leave some lesser thing in the dust of Haran and move on to something greater for His kingdom?  Has He put a new song in your mouth today?  A song of praise to your God?

Don't go away empty.  Just as we gas our car's tank for a big trip, drink in the beauty of your God. Fill your tank with the beauty of His holiness, with the majesty of His praise.  Let His abundant goodness overflow your vessel, so that it spills out all over those around you, so that it pushes out anything that could be considered "lesser", inferior, dross.

1Sing to the LORD a new song;

         Sing to the LORD, all the earth.

2Sing to the LORD, bless His name;

         Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

3Tell of His glory among the nations,

         His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

4For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised;

         He is to be feared above all gods.

5For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

         But the LORD made the heavens.

6Splendor and majesty are before Him,

         Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

7Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,

         Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

8Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name;

         Bring an offering and come into His courts.

9Worship the LORD in holy attire;

         Tremble before Him, all the earth.

10Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns;

Psalm 96:1-10a (NET)

Arise, my soul, arise!  Have done with lesser things!  Tell of His glory among the nations! Be to others the Advent blessing He has poured out on you.

We praise you, O God, because strength, beauty and and majesty are in Your sanctuary. We praise You for the Son of your love, for Jesus who died, was buried and resurrected, who now intercedes for His church, at Your right hand, O Father.  We praise You for Your Holy Spirit, who is with us in our Urs, yet calls us to leave behind anything that would keep us from intimate relationship with You, our Triune God.
Through Your children, may Advent appear in all kinds of unlikely places today, for the glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, amen.

Source:

 Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. Print. 

Fig Leaves

Good morning,

In telling the story of Advent, the story of Jesus, the truth of the Fall of Man is inescapable.

6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

      8They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:6-12

Adam's and Eve's disastrous decisions in the Garden of Eden are the very reason Christ came.  Since Eden, not a single human soul is born without that stain, now built in to the human DNA.  We are all unable to resist the Serpent's beguiling words.  Regardless of his many temptations, at least one is going to the particular trap we fall for.  We all have that moment when we discover ourselves stained, irreparably soiled by sin.

The very ones who dismiss this key event in the history of mankind, the Fall, are the same ones who reach for fig leaves.  But, they aren't alone, because even followers of Jesus Christ, even Believers, Redeemed Ones, daily feel the lure of the Serpent's words and lapse into sin.  As the anguished hymnwriter said, "Prone to wander, LORD, I feel it!  Prone to leave the God I love!"

There are really only two responses to the stench of our sin.  In the midst of our foul besmirchment Jesus comes.  He calls to us:  "Come to me, all of you who are weary and impossibly weighed down with your sin; and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28)  We can either run to Him for confession, repentance, cleansing and restoration.  Or, we can grab a fig leaf - - - some lesser remedy.

Look at the picture above again.  Did you notice, in the design of the fig leaf that the young leaf is red, reminiscent of blood? A fig leaf represents a false and ineffective blood atonement for our sins.  "Fig leaves" can be denial, rejection of God's truth, self-righteousness, self-help, false religions, pop psychology, mind-numbing drugs, addictive substances....the list goes on and on.  All other options, cures, antidotes, though they may appear to be "magic bullets" will fail.  None other than the one God gave to us, in the person of the Baby in the Manger, can heal our deepest wounds.

He calls to each of us today, not only in this Advent season, but every day:  "Where are you?" (vs. 9).  Here is the call of a loving God, the Lover of our Souls, who poured Himself out so that all of our sin can be forever remedied, so that no revulsive unholiness can resist the power of His blood which covers them all, so that all we He created can run toward Him to find our utter completeness in Him, and only there in His arms.

St. Augustine of Hippo, an early church father, came to understand this.  Today's closing prayer will be from a portion of his work entitled, Confessions:

Great are you , O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense and your wisdom beyond reckoning.  And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you - - we also carry our mortality about us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud.  You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and draw us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.

"The Fall turns into a falling into His everlasting arms! (Deuteronomy 33:27)"  Ann Voskamp

Oh Jesus!  Only You.  Amen.


Sources:

https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/621/Our_Heart_is_Restless_St_Augustine.html

 Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. Print. 

Be One

Good morning,

We have this thing in education lately called the "flipped classroom".  Basically, it works like this: the teacher's whole-group instruction (fancy name for "lecture" or "demonstration", usually) is video-recorded.  Students are then asked to watch it at home, where they can start, stop, re-wind and re-watch, etc.  Then, in the classroom, small-group instruction that is more hands-on and application-focused is done with the teacher's supervision and guidance.  I like it!  I'll come back to this in a moment.

Paul spent the remainder of chapter 8 and all of chapter 9 expounding on His theme of giving.  See, this is how it worked back then.  Each small, local church first shared their resources to support each other.  Then, once their members' basic needs were met, they donated heavily of their overflow to support other local churches in the Asia Minor and Mediterranean areas.  The missionaries, such as Paul, Titus, Barnabas, Mark and others transported the gifts to the other local churches.

So, this morning, we are going to "flip" the Scripture passage, in a sense.  We are going to start at the end.  Here's the passage first:  2 Cor. 9:6-15 (NET)

6 My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. 9 Just as it is written, “He has scattered widely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness remains forever.”10 Now God who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God, 12 because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.13 Through the evidence of this service they will glorify God because of your obedience to your confession in the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your sharing with them and with everyone. 14 And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

What is this "indescribable gift" Paul mentions at the end of the chapter? It is not a "what"; it is a Person, Jesus Christ!  He is God's indescribable gift to us.  In 8:9 together with 9:15, Paul bookends this exposition on the importance of charity by pointing out the main reason the Christians give generously:  because God gave so lavishly to us.  John 3:16 comes to mind.  For He SO loved....!

I'm very excited about doing Ann Voskamp's Advent devotionals, starting December 1.  It's called, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, which is what made me think of it right now.  Last year, I did John Piper's.  What a blessing!  If you want to check his out, download to your phone or iPad the app called, "Solid Joys".  Excellent!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  There is a very powerful giving principle expressed in 9:6, an agricultural principle that was familiar to most of the people of that day.  If you don't plant much seed, you won't harvest much fruit!  Applied to giving, we are similarly encouraged to give lavishly. I wrote a little note to a young brother this morning who was leading a small group Bible study that did not have have "gangbusters" attendance.  I reminded him that we never see on this mortal plane the full outcomes of our obedience and faithfulness.  So true!  And, the same is true of our giving.  When we get to Heaven, I believe we'll get to see a fuller picture of what our obedient service has produced. You see, it's not just about giving your money, although that's what Paul was dealing with here.  It's about giving from all your resources - - - including your time and your God-given talents.  "It's time to get our hands dirty."

Verse 7 has another excellent principle.  If you give because you feel "guilted" into it, you might as well not give at all.  That is not a gift, it is a tariff.  This kind of giving does not honor God.  I'll be straight with you:  if you don't give of your money and serve the Lord, and do it cheerfully, there is something wrong in your walk with God.  Those who truly "see" what God has so freely given to them give back to Him out of a cheerful heart.  Because He is our "enough", (vs. 8), we "overflow to every good work".

Natalie Grant has a new album out, and the title cut is called "Be One".  That's what I'm talking about!  "Calling all hearts, calling all hands....we can be the arms that don't let go...why wait around for a miracle to come, when we can be one?"   And, the people of God said, "Yes!  So be it!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq-6pXBHCZM

Dear Father, you know, I was thinking about that awful dream I had last night, where in it I committed a crime.  Even though I walked it back in the dream, it showed me just how deeply depraved my sinful nature is (and also that I should not eat sweet potato pie right before going to bed!)  That's why I'm so thankful for your "indescribable gift" of Jesus, who washes ALL my sins away.  Because of Your generosity, I am set free...free to "be one".  Thank you for another of Your precious promises, found in verse 10.  Yes!  You provide seed for the sower and not only that, You multiply it, causing righteousness to grow in me, the only true righteousness, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  In the only Name, the precious name of Jesus, amen.