Psalm 15 [NIV] (BibleGateway.com)
1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
2 He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,
5 who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things
will never be shaken.
------
I've been convicted more and more of how I am so quick to leave God's presence. I don't mean viewing His presence as a place, such as a worship service or even my devotion time. I'm talking about walking WITH the presence of God. Treating it as a coat of blessing, as it says in Psalm 56.
Just imagine: everywhere you go, the presence of God follows you. My goodness. What power. You will never stumble (v5), you will experience joy and favor unending (Psalm 68), and signs and wonders follow you (Pretty much most of the chapters in Acts)! This is just a short list of the countless promises of God. If you've encountered the presence, then you know what I'm talking about. If not, that's okay--keep searching for it!
So I ask myself, how may I keep God's presence on me? Well, I must first be able to enter His presence, shouldn't I? How am I supposed to carry it as a mantle if I cannot even access it in the first place?
Here are some ways:
1. (v2) Righteousness
We must get in an attitude of constant repentance to cleanse ourselves. Christians today are so easily offended when they are corrected by other brothers/sisters. I'm not encouraging false repentance, such as stating "FINE! SORRY! Goodness." and storm away frustrated. Repentance is not about whether we are right or wrong; rather it is about your heart. We forget that when we pray for God to help improve our character to become more godly, he sends us other people to do it.
2. (v3) Compassion
Simply put, if we protected other people's integrity and well-being, the church would be a place where people would want to go. After all, who loves being slandered by insults and hurt by others? On the other hand, I don't want Christians to be fake. Being honest with each other is not trying to harm them, but there is a time, place, and manner to do so. Continuing off my previous point, let us be slow to speak and quick to repent. I do not want us to become passive, however. To summarize: when it comes to talking, as it says in James 3, use your discernment and tame your tongue. All words--whether its rejection, neutral statements, or affirmation--have power.
3. (v4) Fear of the Lord
I could spend all day on this topic. One of the main reasons we don't have power as Christians because we do not fear God. At conferences, retreats, and conventions, I often see way too many overeager Christians who make ambitious covenants and promises to God. Purity, radical lifestyles, and life commitments are often the big sharks here. It is no fault to the pastor/speaker, the worship team, and the church itself, but to our own recklessness in how we deal with sin. We love to dine with angels and demons. Sometimes, even simultaneously. We do not honor that fear of the Lord. Read more on Charles Finney if you're interested on this subject. It's powerful stuff.
4. (v5) Extravagant Generosity
Christianity was based upon the principles of giving. Think about the most well known verses, such as John 3:16. For God loved the world that he gave. Jesus too gave his life. Yes, in verse 5, it is talking about monetary giving. But the context of David's psalms are always a reflection upon life. We must give our lives without "interest" (usury), meaning we should not expect anything in return! Wow! And the best part is this: we must do cheerfully. 2 Corinthians 9:7. Ohhhhhhh boy. This is what gets most Christians right here. Many times me and my friends see homeless people and we often attempt to AVOID them. When by chance they grab our attention, we reluctantly pull some change out and give it to them. I want to challenge ourselves to look deeper into what we give and to do it with joy. Jesus did not sacrifice himself with a frown and a whining voice. He did it, with all his heart, cheerfully.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Perfection
In his book, "The 7 Longings of the Human Heart," Mike Bickle writes that as members of the human race, it is natural for us to want to be great.
Let's be real here--I have never met one person who truthfully admitted that they DESIRE to be awful in every area of life. Some clever folk might try to say, "Well, Dan, I don't mind being weak in everything so that the strength of Christ shines through me." While this statement is a great way to be profound and impress your local bible study buddies, the truth is that God wants you to love yourself as well! Why do you think Jesus also stated "Love your neighbor [as] yourself." He doesn't want you to serve others, yet suffer from low self-esteem. Read Psalms 139 if you want more proof.
Wow! And here we are, sulking in an attempt to display a false form of humility so that people would not think we are proud. While we can deceive man, we cannot deceive the Lord. He knows our intentions and ambitions.
Anyhow, now that we have established that we should enjoy how we're created in the image of God, I would like to make another point: we as humans only have one life to live. To live for ourselves is simply against the commandments of the Bible (Matthew 28:19-20, Micah 6:8, James 2:15-17, the list goes on). Thus, we must live for more than our own wishes and continually to improve our character. Cool. But as we all know, writing down all those New Year's resolutions seem overwhelmingly difficult. What then shall we do? As the economist says, we simplify and isolate. We must have one simple goal and focus on that one vision. One aspiration.
No, I'm not promoting IHOP-KC's One Thing conferences.
Rather, our goal, as Christians, is to bear the resemblance and likeness of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).
However, back to the analogy of the New Year's Resolutions, it seems far too naive to simply put "Be a better person in 20xx" to replace every resolution on the list. After all, we're asked to not just be better citizens, friends, and family members, but we're asked, as it says in Matthew 5 to be perfect because Jesus is perfect.
Perfection?! But nobody's perfect! Is God setting us up for failure?
Not quite.
In the Greek translation, perfectus is not defined to be without flaw. Alternatively, it means "a finishing" or, to be more grammatically sound, "finished." Furthermore, the word has various contextual implications, such as:
- to be complete with all requisite parts
- to be so good that nothing can be compared as better
- to attain its purpose
Great Scott!! This whole time, we have been under the impression that every move we make has God angered on his mighty throne in heaven because we're not like his perfect son, Jesus. Nonsense! Jesus was stating in Matthew that we have to become COMPLETE like Him. God wants for us to achieve our destiny (attain purpose) by obtaining all the characteristics (requisite parts). As in says in James 1, God simply seeks for us to become mature, so that we're lacking nothing.
The amazing thing is that above all else, God delights in us so much for who we are. He understands that its a process! That's why God calls upon us to wait upon Him, because the procedure of abiding takes time. Even when we accomplish the greatest feat of human history or become the scum of the earth, Jesus thinks that there's no one better than you!
Let's be real here--I have never met one person who truthfully admitted that they DESIRE to be awful in every area of life. Some clever folk might try to say, "Well, Dan, I don't mind being weak in everything so that the strength of Christ shines through me." While this statement is a great way to be profound and impress your local bible study buddies, the truth is that God wants you to love yourself as well! Why do you think Jesus also stated "Love your neighbor [as] yourself." He doesn't want you to serve others, yet suffer from low self-esteem. Read Psalms 139 if you want more proof.
Wow! And here we are, sulking in an attempt to display a false form of humility so that people would not think we are proud. While we can deceive man, we cannot deceive the Lord. He knows our intentions and ambitions.
Anyhow, now that we have established that we should enjoy how we're created in the image of God, I would like to make another point: we as humans only have one life to live. To live for ourselves is simply against the commandments of the Bible (Matthew 28:19-20, Micah 6:8, James 2:15-17, the list goes on). Thus, we must live for more than our own wishes and continually to improve our character. Cool. But as we all know, writing down all those New Year's resolutions seem overwhelmingly difficult. What then shall we do? As the economist says, we simplify and isolate. We must have one simple goal and focus on that one vision. One aspiration.
No, I'm not promoting IHOP-KC's One Thing conferences.
Rather, our goal, as Christians, is to bear the resemblance and likeness of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).
However, back to the analogy of the New Year's Resolutions, it seems far too naive to simply put "Be a better person in 20xx" to replace every resolution on the list. After all, we're asked to not just be better citizens, friends, and family members, but we're asked, as it says in Matthew 5 to be perfect because Jesus is perfect.
Perfection?! But nobody's perfect! Is God setting us up for failure?
Not quite.
In the Greek translation, perfectus is not defined to be without flaw. Alternatively, it means "a finishing" or, to be more grammatically sound, "finished." Furthermore, the word has various contextual implications, such as:
- to be complete with all requisite parts
- to be so good that nothing can be compared as better
- to attain its purpose
Great Scott!! This whole time, we have been under the impression that every move we make has God angered on his mighty throne in heaven because we're not like his perfect son, Jesus. Nonsense! Jesus was stating in Matthew that we have to become COMPLETE like Him. God wants for us to achieve our destiny (attain purpose) by obtaining all the characteristics (requisite parts). As in says in James 1, God simply seeks for us to become mature, so that we're lacking nothing.
The amazing thing is that above all else, God delights in us so much for who we are. He understands that its a process! That's why God calls upon us to wait upon Him, because the procedure of abiding takes time. Even when we accomplish the greatest feat of human history or become the scum of the earth, Jesus thinks that there's no one better than you!
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