How Blessed We Are

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,whose sin is covered.

 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1, 2 ESV)

 

How blessed we are that God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us.  It is because of Christ we can experience forgiveness.  It is because of Christ our sins have been covered by His perfect blood.  It is because of Christ our sin will not be counted against us.  It is because of Christ we have been justified, declared righteous before God, never to experience His wrath.  Because of the work of Christ we can experience the peace and mercy and grace of God for all eternity.   

 

Unfortunately it seems like it is easy to lose sight of the blessings we have in Christ.  So often we focus on all the things we do not have, we focus on the pains of our lives, and we begin to think that we are victims in this world.  

 

Later in the Psalm David warns us not to be like animals:

 

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:9 ESV)

 

How true this verse is.  The natural tendency of sin is to cause us to wander away from God.  Animals must have a bit placed in their mouth so that they can be controlled and will not stray.  WE ARE NOT ANIMALS!  We are God's special creation made in His image that we could know Him and love Him.  In verse 10, David says the "steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord."  The more we trust in God, the more we focus on the cross and God's love, holiness, and justice the more we will realize how blessed we are.  When we understand how unworthy we are to have our sins forgiven and yet God lavished His grace upon us anyway, we will not need a bridle to keep us near to God, that is what grace does.  God's grace compels us to love Him and live for Him.  God's grace is what lifts us out of the mire we live in and seats us at the right hand of God.  I pray I never lose sight of the cross and how blessed I am that God has forgiven me of my sins.   I pray I continually grow in a deeper understanding of God's grace that I might die to self and live for Him at all times. 

 

Thank you God for your son Jesus Christ.  Thank you for forgiving me of my sins.  You truly are a Wonderful, Holy, and Awesome God.

The Hope We Have In God's Word

In Psalm 12 David calls out for help. The poor have been plundered and the needy are groaning and now in verse 5, God says He will help.  Upon hearing God's Word, we see this incredible peace come over David. This is what he says in verse 6:

"The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times."

 Because God is righteous and pure, so are His Words. His Word contains no impurities, in fact David likens God's Word to silver that has been purified by fire 7 times.  7 is the number of perfection, therefore God's Word is perfect. So what does this mean?  It means that David knew with absolute confidence that God would help because He does not lie, His words are always true.  It means we also can place our absolute confidence in God's Word. What it God says we can believe! When God's Word says in, John 1:12 that when we believe in His name, we "become children of God", we can rest assured that we have been adopted into family of God forever.  When His Word says, in Romans 8:1 that there is "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus", we know for certain we will never again be the objects of God's wrath.  When we are told in Romans 8:28 that God works all things for His glory and for the good of "those who are called according to His purpose", then we can be confident that all of His actions are perfect and righteous with never even an ounce of wickedness in them.  

While this knowledge is good, it does us no good if we do not apply it.  Often times because of difficult trials and circumstances we can begin to doubt God's goodness.  We wonder if He is really there.  We question if He really is all-knowing and all-seeing.  What happens in these moments is that we are placing God's Word in subjection to our feelings.  We begin to think His Word is not as perfect and pure as He says it is.  Now feelings are great and are very important for us, but if we allow emotions to control us rather than God's Word we are surely headed for rocky ground.  Just as David does so many times throughout the Psalms we must also continually subject our feelings to the Truth of who God is and what He has told us about Himself.  

Here in Psalm 12 David cries out for help and upon hearing God's Word His soul is at rest.  God has said He will help and even though there has been no evidence of Him helping in the current situation, David knows He will.  The same thing takes place in Psalm 13.  Four times David cries out in the first two verses, "How long..."  David is tired, He needs helps but does he throw in the towel?  No!  In verse 5 David says, 

"But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me."

 David subjects his feelings to the authority of Scripture to the authority of God.  This is real faith.  This is what you and I are to do each day.  We must fight against a finite, earthly, sinful perspective and believe in the truth of God's Word.  It is in God's perfect pure and righteous Word we will find hope and comfort and the strength to persevere. 

Faithful Prayers When Soaking Our Bed With Tears

I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
 

The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment. (Psalm 6:6, 7, 9, 10 ESV)

The amazing display of faith in this psalm greatly blessed me this morning.  David is in such great suffering that he describes himself as wasting away as he soaks his bed with tears every night. Whatever the situation is, David's soul is certainly troubled. At the end of verse 3 he cries out "O Lord - how long?".

Is this not what we do when we suffer, we want to know how much longer, when will life get easy again? Often it seems that the longer we are in a trial, the longer we suffer the more discouraged we become. We become less inclined to pray, we think God does not hear us, and anger and bitterness quickly begin to build.  When we say "how much longer" it is often out of a lack of faith but David's is not that way.  His cry is one of faith.  That is what is so incredible about the psalm. 

For 7 verses David describes the pain he is in and that he wants God to bring relief, and then in verses 8-10 he talks with great confidence the victory God is going to give him over his enemies.

• In verse 8 he tells his enemies to depart from him because God has heard him.
• In verse 9 he says the Lord has heard my plea and accepted it.
• In verse 10 he is confident that God will bring victory at any moment.

Twice David says God has heard him even though there has been no audible or visible indication, what faith!  David has not been discouraged that God has not answered him quickly but it seems as though he has grown in confidence that God will rescue him and it could take place at any moment.

This psalm greatly convicts me and encourages me. It convicts me of trying to put God in a box and saying he must answer me within my prescribed time. It convicts me that I can grow weary of praying and think God has not heard me.  It convicts me that my my faith is often to small.

But this psalm encourages me because it shows that God does hear my prayers even when there are no visible signs.  It encourages me to not let my time dictate God's answer as if I know when it would be best for him to act, but to let God act in His perfect timing. It encourages me that God's answer can come at any moment.

David knows God loves him.
David knows God hears him.
David knows God will do what is best for him and for His glory.
David knows to wait patiently for God's timing.
David knows to remain focused on God and His character and not his surroundings.

An App that really does you help memorize God's Word

Because of great peer pressure I have recently converted from an Android phone to an Iphone, and actually I have been quite pleased.  The Iphone does everything I need, the programs always work, and there is no lag time.  I am one of those cell phone users that always has his phone with him and uses it repeatedly throughout the day.  I am always looking for new and better apps (preferably free) to make me more efficient but I also and always looking for ones that can help me in my faith.  I figure if I have my phone with me all the time then surely I can use it for more then just making a phone call or sending a text.  I have several Bible apps and even a great prayer app but the last app I downloaded was one that helps you memorize God's Word. 

It's called FighterVerse and it is from Desiring God.  It comes with 5 years worth of passages to memorize and in addition to that it also comes with what is called an extended memory collection which helps you memorize the Book of Philippians, Colossians, James, Matthew 5-7, and Romans 5-8.  It also contains a section titled, "Foundation Verses" for kids.  There are 76 verses in this section and they are geared to help young kids understand basic biblical truths.  What is neat is that every verse comes with a unique picture to help the child memorize.   And if you memorize all the verses that come with the app, you can still enter you own in. 

But this app does more than just hold all the verses you want to memorize, it also offers 3 different types of quizzes, each containing 5 levels of increasing difficulty to help you learn the verse.  The first quiz is called Quick Blanks, and in this quiz there are certain words at random that will be missing from the verse.  By tapping on the screen the words will appear.  The second quiz is called, Word Blank, it is similar to Quick Blank but you are given a word box to choose words from.  The third quiz is called Typing quiz, and you must type in the words that are missing. 

In addition to all that, you can also label your verses according to topic, you can save them to your lock screen so you see them every time you turn on your phone, and one last fun feature is that every verse in the standard Fighter Verse collection includes a song.   This is especially neat for those who have a hard time memorizing, sometimes by putting verses to music it makes them easier to memorize.

The Bible is the Word of God and we must take it seriously.  We need to know it, and one of the best ways to really learn God's Word is to memorize it.  This is an app that can actually really help with that. 

Video from Desiring God

Desiring God just posted a video on their blog today that I believe is worth looking at.  It gives a little insight into the life of John and Noel Piper but it really focuses on the mission of Desiring God and what they are trying to do.  The population of the earth is now over 7 billion people, and the majority of them do not know Christ.  Desiring God is one ministry that is serious about making a global impact for the Kingdom of God. 

Click here to go to the Desiring God website and read even more about this great ministry.



Desiring God Mission Update — with Pastor John from Desiring God on Vimeo.

6 Important Links to the Meaning of Hope

I have been absent from blogging for the last couple of weeks, I guess the holiday season has had its toil on me.  My family and I just returned from seeing my parents in California a couple of days ago, and the great thing is, we made it back for the first snow fall.  I woke up my son today by whispering in his ear, "Ben, it snowed."   He quickly jumped up and we ran to the big living room window where he let out a squeal of pure delight. 

Now to the real reason why I am writing this post...
This morning I came across a blog on the Desiring God website and it was a huge blessing to me.  Sam Crabtree the executive pastor at Bethlehem Baptist has written a great post on hope.  Please take the time to read and meditate on what is said.  To see the original link click here.


Romans 15:13,

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  

1. Link Between Gratitude and Hope

Gratefulness looks back. Hope looks forward with desire and reasonable confidence and expectation. By looking back, gratitude fuels forward-looking hope.
As with over-matched ball teams that are behind late in the game, hanging their heads without oomph, without hope for the future, there isn’t power for the present.
Persons who tend not to be grateful tend not to be hopeful.

2. Link Between Hopelessness and Misplaced Trust

Hopelessness is a curse; it’s the curse of trusting in man or in anything other than God and his perfect wisdom and timing.
Despair looks at immediate realities; hope sees ultimate realities. Some see a hopeless end, but others see an Endless Hope.
Psalm 33:17, The war horse is a false hope for salvation. . .
How is hope sustained? Answer: trust the right thing — God.
Hope believes that God is not done. Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not the feeling we will have. That is, hope is the (up) feeling we have that the (down) feeling we have is not permanent.

3. Link Between Old Testament text (Isaiah 11:1–10) with New Testament Hope

The Old Testament is a story of frustrated hope. Everyone longs for God to do something.
Why was Isaiah 11:1–10 written? Here’s one reason:
Romans 15:4, "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Romans 15:12–13, "And again Isaiah says, 'The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.' May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."

4. Link Suffering to Hope

Romans 5:2–5,

we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The goal of everything, including suffering, is hope.
Many lose hope during tribulation, but God intends for tribulation to produce hope… through faith.
How does one grow in hope during tribulation? Answer: God’s love is poured into our hearts (through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us).

5. Link Jesus to Your Hope

Jesus is our hope.
In the baby Jesus, God was fulfilling the hopes of his people in a way that they did not recognize. We may not see it now, but God has already acted for us, and God is working even now behind the scenes to bring about his good will.
The key is to remember Jesus, who knows your situation, and whose Spirit in us is a down payment of glory yet to come. God is not done.

6. Link Your Hope to the God Who Is Not Done

God was not done when Noah was in the boat, Sarah was barren, Joseph was in prison, Moses was on the run from Pharaoh, the children of Israel were pinned against the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho blocked possession of the promised land, Gideon was hiding from the Midianites, Samson was seduced by a woman and blinded, Ruth was widowed, David was mocked as a boy facing a giant, Job’s children were all killed, government officials persecuted Daniel, Jonah was in the belly of a fish, Paul couldn’t get rid of this thorn, and Jesus was put in the grave. God is not done!
Hope is not undone, because he is not done!
Sam Crabtree is Executive Pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church and author of Practicing Affirmation (Crossway, 2011). Listen to Sam's recent sermon at Bethlehem that this post is based on.

Living a Gospel Saturated Life

I opened my email today and to my delight I saw a blog from the Desiring God website, titled: Gospel-Saturated Dish-Washing and Diaper-Changing.  The blog is basically an excerpt from Jared Wilson's new book Gospel Wakefulness.  In it he shows that God owns every millisecond of our lives, and everything we do from washing dishes to changing diapers is to be done for the glory of God.  This book will be finding its way into my e-reader very soon. 
You can either read the blog below or click here to go to the Desiring God website to read it.

In his new book, Gospel Wakefulness, Jared Wilson talks about how all of life is relevant for mission. From drinking coffee to changing diapers, from cutting the grass to washing dishes — all of life can be lived to the glory of God by those who have been awakened to the gospel of our exhaustively sovereign Savior.
He writes,

One of the attendant aims of missional evangelicalism is to challenge the compartmentalizing of the Christian faith that we see within the Western church. We are fantastic at itemizing our schedules, and even if we don't assign God a very large bracket, we are constantly remorseful that we "haven't made much time for him." While such compartmentalizing — as if "time with God" can or should be hermetically sealed off from everything else — is a natural symptom of our culture and environment, it also reflects a bad theology.
The truth is, the day does not belong to us. It is not our day to do with as we please. We serve a sovereign God. He created the end from the beginning, knows our future exhaustively, and is firmly in control. He made our days and they belong to him. As such, isn't it a bit arrogant to begin with the idea that each day is ours and then worry about fitting God in? Instead, we should work at the humble awe of knowing all of our moments, every millisecond, waking or sleeping, are perfectly accounted for within the economy of heaven.
Let us stake the flag of Christ's kingdom into the soil of our first waking moment. Drink your coffee when you get up, of course, but drink it to the glory of God. Then carry on in this way all day, no matter the task, be it menial or notable, so that each day may be a living prayer that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what it means to live a gospel-saturated life: it means being so conscious of the greatness of the gospel that changing diapers or cutting the grass is as much an act of worship as singing a praise chorus in a church service….
Jesus Christ is Lord over my heart, and he is Lord over my hands, and he is Lord over what I do with these hands, and he is Lord over what I say in my heart while I'm doing it. In submitting to the lordship of Christ, then, I do not treat washing dishes as wasting time I could be spending doing something "meaningful," but rather as a service to those who eat in my home, as a service to those who would have to wash the dishes if I did not, and as an offering of thanksgiving to God that I have food to eat, dishes to eat it on, and running water inside my home to clean with.
To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, there is not a square inch of our lives that is not claimed by God and counterclaimed by ourselves. If we believe God is sovereign, however, we will see all of life as mission and be led to submit the square inches we otherwise hold so tightly to the Maker of inches and hands.

Gospel Wakefulness, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 90–92, paragraphing added.