Thursday, November
29, 2012, 4:53 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Seek the Lord” playing in my mind.
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 5 (NIV 1984):
Give ear to my words,
O Lord,
consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for
help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
In the morning, O
Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.
You are not a God who
takes pleasure in evil;
with you the wicked cannot dwell.
The arrogant cannot
stand in your presence;
you hate all who do wrong.
You destroy those who
tell lies;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men
the Lord abhors.
But I, by your great
mercy,
will come into your house;
in reverence will I
bow down
toward your holy temple.
Lead me, O Lord, in
your righteousness
because of my enemies—
make straight your way before me.
Not a word from their
mouth can be trusted;
their heart is filled with destruction.
Their throat is an
open grave;
with their tongue they speak deceit.
Declare them guilty, O
God!
Let their intrigues be their downfall.
Banish them for their
many sins,
for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take
refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection
over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice
in you.
For surely, O Lord,
you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a
shield.
Give
Ear
The Psalmist sought an audience with God. He
lamented and wept over the wickedness of his enemies, as he called to God for
intervention. He acknowledged that God was not a God who takes pleasure in
evil. God is not pleased with us no matter what we do. It grieves him when we
sin against him, particularly when we get engrossed and entrapped in sin all
over again after we have experienced freedom from sin by his grace, and through
Jesus’ blood sacrifice for our sins.
As well, we can’t just pray a prayer for
salvation and then continue to live however we want in order to please
ourselves, thinking we have our ticket into heaven or that God’s grace covers
it all. With God the wicked cannot dwell. If we claim to have fellowship with God
and yet we continue in a lifestyle of willful sin and rebellion, then scripture
says we are liars, and the truth is not in us (see 1 John 1).
The
Wicked
Oh, you might say, that is Old Testament. We
are now under the New Covenant of God’s grace, so the rules have changed. Have
they? Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, said:
Do
you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male
prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards
nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ~
1 Co. 6:9-10 NIV 1984
The New Testament is quite clear that we
cannot continue in a lifestyle of willful sin and yet claim God as our Father,
Jesus as our Lord, and heaven as our eternal destiny.
The wicked are described here as those who
cannot be trusted, because their mouths are full of lies. They regularly and
consistently practice deceit, probably to cover up for their other sins. So,
don’t think for a moment that just because you “accepted Christ” at some point
in your life that it means that you are truly saved. If you are continuing in a
lifestyle of sin, and you practice lies and deceit as a way to cover up for
your sin, then scripture lists you among the wicked with whom God cannot dwell.
I am not saying here that any of us must
reach a level of perfection or that this is all about performance. It is not!
It is about repentance, though. If we truly believe that Jesus Christ died,
taking upon himself the sins of the entire world, as though his physical
suffering was not enough, then that should drive us to our knees in humility
and repentance, and we should desire nothing more than to obey our Lord and to
serve him only in all ways. Jesus demands the cross in our lives. He said:
“If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole
world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” ~
Luke 9:23-24 NIV 1984
The
Righteous
We are made righteous by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Any “righteousness” we think we have of our own is considered as “filthy
rags” in God’s sight. Take the Pharisees for example. They thought they were
completely righteous, but it was all external, but their hearts were full of
wickedness. So, the righteous are not those who think they are better than
other people because they follow a set of rituals, rites, traditions or
religious practices. It amazes me how many professing followers of Jesus Christ
still judge a person’s level of spirituality by their external religious
practices and performances, and how many of these are within the churches that
claim to be authentic, real, and free from such hindrances, too.
It is only by God’s saving grace, through the
blood of Jesus Christ given for us so we can be free from sin, and by faith
(repentance + obedience) that we are truly made righteous in God’s sight. And,
even our faith is a gift from God, meaning it is only by God’s Spirit that we
can even be drawn to Christ, that we can desire God, that we want to turn from
our sins and follow Jesus, and that we are given new birth in Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
Yet, being made righteous is not just
positional, it is continual. We read in 1 John (NIV ’84):
This
is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him
there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk
in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
In the New Testament we learn that we are
saved, we are being saved, and that we will be saved, i.e. our salvation will
be complete when Jesus Christ returns, and while we wait for his return, we are
continually growing in God’s grace, and are being transformed into the image of
Christ, and daily the blood of Jesus Christ purifies (refines) us from all sin.
Jesus said that every fruit-bearing branch in him he prunes, so that it will be
more fruitful. Our salvation is a process of changing us and making us to be
more and more like Jesus. And, that’s a big job, but God can do it! We just
have to cooperate with his work.
Lead
Me
The Psalmist understood what it meant to
follow God with his life. He was not perfect, and there was a point in his life
where he sinned greatly against God, yet when confronted with the reality of
his sin, he repented of his sin and he turned his heart back to God. He
understood it was only by God’s mercy and grace that he was even able to
approach the throne of grace (of God) to help him in his time of need. He had
great reverence, awe and respect for God, which is something that is greatly
missing in today’s evangelical church here in America. God has become too
casual in man’s sight to where much of the church has lost the awe of God and
often fails to recognize and to respond appropriately to his absolute holiness.
That is why so many professing Christians are able to continue in sin with lack
of conscience, because they don’t see God for who he truly is.
When we have the understanding of who God is
in all his holiness and righteousness, and we see ourselves, not only as loved
by him, as beneficiaries of his divine grace, forgiven, and having an inheritance
with God that cannot fade, spoil, or perish, but we honestly have a full
appreciation of what his grace means to us in delivering us, not just from
eternal damnation, but from bondage to sin day-to-day, then we will truly
desire to have him lead us daily in his righteousness. And, we will want him to
make a straight way before us.
A straight way means no diversions, no
compromises, and no side paths. A straight path is honest, respectable,
honorable, upright, undiluted and unmixed with the world, as well as unadulterated
with other ‘lovers’ and other ‘gods’ of this world. A straight path is focused
in one direction and it is unyielding, stubborn, relentless, and unwavering in
its pursuit of God and his holiness, and wants nothing more than to please God
in all ways. A follower of this straight path will be tenacious, steadfast,
determined and purposeful in how he or she lives each and every day of his or
her life. They will rejoice in the Lord, in whom they take refuge, and God will
spread his spiritual protection over them. God will spiritually bless those who
love him, who are faithful to him, and who walk in his holiness and his righteousness.
God will be a shield around them so that they can withstand Satan’s attacks
against them, and they will give God the glory! Amen!
Seek
the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off
Isaiah 55
“Come
to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen
to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And
your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give
ear to Me, and you will live.
I
have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash
in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let
the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let
him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely,
God pardons him.
“For
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor
are your ways My ways,”
declares
the Lord, our God.
“My
word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It
will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My
word will accomplish all that I desire,
And
achieve the goal I intend.
You
will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The
mountains will burst into song… before you,
And
all of the trees clap their hands.”
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