Prepare for the Lord; Psalm 15; Proverbs 29

May the mumbling commence!

How do we come into God’s presence?  Let’s take a look at Psalm fifteen:

Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?

Who may dwell in Your holy hill? 

He who walks uprightly,

And works righteousness,

And speaks the truth in his heart; 

He who does not backbite with his tongue,

Nor does evil to his neighbor,

Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; 

In whose eyes a vile person is despised,

But he honors those who fear the Lord;

He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 

He who does not put out his money at usury,

Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.

He who does these things shall never be moved.

This psalm lists some things that a person does that opens the way to God’s presence.  Walk the walk – and do it uprightly.  Walk uprightly by your word – even when it hurts do not change. 

Work with a righteous goal in mind – to please God.  Despise vile ways to get ahead that does not take into account other people and the creation which surrounds us.

Honor those who fear the Lord.  Honor them by speaking the truth from your heart.  Know that the truth is only discovered through journeying to God together.

The psalm also lists some things that we cannot do and come into God’s presence.  Get rid of that backbiting tongue.  Do no evil to our neighbors.  Do not reproach a friend without cause.  When you lend money, do not charge interest.  In some cases, do not even anticipate getting the loan back.  And do not take a bribe to turn from righteousness.

This is a long to-do list!  It is a journey that is never complete.  It is a matter of preparing and moving down the road to being more Christ-like.  It is a matter of preparing our whole selves – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and attitudinally.  All this preparation to welcome God into our lives!

This Sunday, we start the four-week season of Advent that prepares us for the coming of the baby Jesus into our lives in a new way.  We are to find new ways to abide in the vine – Jesus, who chose to come and tent with us.  Jesus came and tabernacled with us.  He dwelled in our neighborhoods.  That offer is still there!  Welcome the baby Jesus into your life!

For those of us who have welcomed a baby, we know just how dramatically a baby changes our lives.  We are never the same again.  We are forced to grow and change.  We begin to understand our role of creating an environment where faith in God can grow.  May we prepare ourselves for such a change in our faith lives this coming Advent season.

And know that people will begin to see us differently as we grow and change.  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-nine:

An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous,

And he who is upright in the way

is an abomination to the wicked. (Verse 27) 

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Healing Confession; Psalm 14; Proverbs 28

May the mumbling commence!

Have you ever heard that April Fool’s Day is a national holiday for fools?  If you read the Scriptures, you will see that this is true.  Read the first verse of Psalm fourteen:

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."

They are corrupt,

They have done abominable works,

There is none who does good.

It is foolish to deny the existence of God.  Denial leads to corruption and abominable works – basically no good can come from it.  At first glance, it may make those who do believe feel good about themselves.  But do not neglect to read that last sentence.  There is none who does good.  Read the next couple of verses and come crashing back down to earth:

The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men,

To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 

They have all turned aside,

They have together become corrupt;

There is none who does good,

No, not one.  

All of us, in some way, have turned aside from the narrow path that Christ blazed for us.  Corruption is a part of the human condition.  Indeed, no one is good – not even one. 

So, what should we do?  Thank God for the work of Christ Jesus.  Accept that work on our behalf.  And do our best to live together the life the God call each of us to. 

Most of all remember where we have come from.  Remember that none of us our good in God’s eyes.  And, in this remembrance, we are not to become paralyzed with fear.  We are to become freed to share with everyone who will listen the way to cleanse all corruption away.

Yes, we should never attempt to hide our sins.  We cannot hide them from God.  To hide them from other and even ourselves only gives the sin space to grow in our lives.  And the fruit that will be born will end in death.  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-eight:

He who covers his sins will not prosper,

But whoever confesses

and forsakes them will have mercy. (Verse 13)

Confess and receive mercy.  Give yourself a chance to turn back into right relationship with God and all creation.  Without right relationships no one can truly prosper.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Single-Hearted Devotion; Psalm 12; Proverbs 27

May the mumbling commence!

The local public high school that I drive bus for – Buhler High of Kansas – had a marching band routine this year that was titled “Man Versus Machine”.  As always, they did quite well. 

Today, I turn my thoughts to man versus deity.  And, with these thoughts I will look at two passages from Psalm twelve.  One of the passages describes humanity; the other describes our Lord God Almighty.  Read them below:

Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases!

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 

They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;

With flattering lips and a double heart they speak. (Verses 1-2)

Humanity finds it impossible to sustain godliness and faithfulness.  We can spend years and years and generations upon generations and get a few more miles down the road to godliness and faithfulness only to see all that progress vanish in the matter of moments. 

Help us, O Lord!  Help us, indeed.  Humanly speaking it appears to be impossible.  But, let us give thanks that with God the impossible becomes possible.  These are the words of Jesus, the Word of God.

With God and godly people surrounding us, we have a much greater chance at not lapsing into idle speech.  And idle speech does nothing but hurt.  Idle speech reveals humanity for what it is – hopelessly self-centered and narcissist.  Yet, we crave relationship – God made us with such a craving. 

But, to enter into rightful relationship with God and all of creation we need to think first about other people and other things than ourselves.  To be hopelessly self-centered and narcissist and to crave relationship is quite a paradox.

The psalmist talks about having a double heart.  It is not a phrase that I am familiar with, so it struck me.  What does it mean to have a double heart?  I believe that it describes the tug of war on our lives.  The competing pulls to ask, “What’s in it for me?”  And to ask, “How can I serve God and others?” can lead to a double heart. 

Which pull will win out?  The simple answer is whichever one I feed more.  The more complex answer lies in priorities.  How much will I allow God to affect my life – change it, rather return it to being what He intended it to be?  And how much do I wish to set my own goals and pursuits?

To pursue anything other than the heart of God is an empty pursuit with no way to win – only ways to lose less.  To pursue anything other than the heart of God is a thankless and reward-less pursuit.  It leads to death and eternal separation from God. 

To pursue God’s heart alone is to heal the double heart of humanity.  It is the cure for what ails us in our human condition.  But we have to choose God and diligently pursue Him. 

How am I doing in my pursuit of God’s heart?  Ask those who know me best – like my wife.  That is where you will get a better answer than from me.  

Think about this verse from Proverbs chapter twenty-seven:

             “As in water face reflects face,

                         So a man's heart reveals the man.” (Verse 19)

And, what is God like?  Read the description from Psalm twelve:

The words of the Lord are pure words,

Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,

Purified seven times. 

You shall keep them, O Lord,

You shall preserve them

from this generation forever. (Verses 6-7)

The Lord is perfectly pure – seven times denotes perfection in the Hebrew Scriptures.  And it tells us that we cannot possibly get it right the first time. 

Thank God that He will keep us safe in Christ, our Life Preserver.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Conduct Becoming... Pslams 9-10; Proverbs 26

May the mumbling commence!

In Buhler, a city seal that contained the cross of Christ is being redesigned to conform to the First Amendment of the constitution of the United States.  I know some will be sad to see the Christian symbol removed from the sign.  But, the sign itself means very little.

What matters so much is how the people of Buhler conduct themselves.  You and I can wear all the Christian paraphernalia we want.  We can have Christian bumper stickers and go to worship services regularly with the small church family.  We can even be heavily involved in leadership in the church.

But, none of these things mean much, if we do not live our lives in a Christian way.  And living our lives in a Christian way has much to do with our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions.  Everything we do needs to be soaked in Christian love.  That is where Christianity will truly become known to all – not on some sign.  If we refuse to make significant changes in our lives – be willing to sacrifice what many other people do not, all the tangible signs listed above are hollow.  (You can cross-reference First Corinthians 13 on this face, if you like.)

There is no such thing as a “Christian nation” or a “Christian state” or a “Christian city” or a “Christian town”.  To call a nation or a state or a city or a town Christian is to equate what they do as being Christian.  That is a deception.

Nations and states and cities and towns – all of these things are built upon people.  It is the people within these areas that make or break any Christian faith.  Read from Psalm nine:

Arise, O Lord, Do not let man prevail;

Let the nations be judged in Your sight. 

Put them in fear, O Lord,

That the nations may know themselves

to be but men. Selah (Verses 19-20)

Selah – whenever we see that word in the Psalms, we should meditate on what preceded it.  Think upon these words is what Selah means.  Nations are made up of nothing but people.  Therefore, we should maintain our humility as we relate to the other nations of the world.  Keep us humble or make us so, O Lord…  Read from Psalm ten:

The Lord is King forever and ever;

The nations have perished out of His land. 

Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble;

You will prepare their heart;

You will cause Your ear to hear, 

To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,

That the man of the earth

may oppress no more. (Verses 16-18)

God will hear the humble.  God will grant justice to the vulnerable – the fatherless and the oppressed.  This is good news for the many children without fathers in our society.  This is good news to those who are oppressed.  It means hope for the hopeless. 

And, for people like me who are blessed, it is a call to action.  Let us humble ourselves and support the single parents out there – regardless of how they got in that condition.  Let us humble ourselves and listen to the oppressed in our neighborhoods.  Let us help give them a voice. 

And let us search for hope together.  Let us humble ourselves and realize that not only do we not have all the answers, we also do not know all the right questions to ask.  Then, with the movement of God’s Spirit there will be hope. 

Claiming wisdom only for ourselves is a great way to kill hope!  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-six:

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Verse 12)

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

Only the Innocent and Vulnerable Survive; Psalm 8, Proverbs 25

May the mumbling commence!

Because of the power of God, strength comes from the innocent and vulnerable.  Though we underestimate some people, let us never underestimate their Creator.  God brings strength and wisdom and intelligence through what the world might see as weakness, vulnerability and foolishness.  Read a portion of Psalm eight:

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants

You have ordained strength,

Because of Your enemies,

That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. 

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 

What is man that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man that You visit him? 

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,

And You have crowned him

with glory and honor. (Verses 2-5)

Out of the mouth of babes and infants comes the destruction of the enemy and the avenger.  So much for only the strong will survive.  Only the innocent and vulnerable will survive!

And, when we look into the heavens at night, we can feel really small and insignificant.  There was once a U.S. president – I cannot remember which one – who would take his staff out onto the lawn in the evening time to observe the heavens.  After a time, he would announce that now that they had gotten a more proper perspective on themselves, they could continue their work.

Yes, I am dwarfed by the immensity of the wonderful creation that God has made.  When we are at the mercy of the wrath of nature – whether it is an earthquake or a tornado or a hurricane or an avalanche – we can feel quite powerless, like a babe in the woods, like an infant.

I ask along with the psalmist, why are you mindful of humanity?  In the grand scheme of things, any one of us is about as significant as a gnat.  Yet, God has made us a little lower than the angels.  We are crowned as children of God – with glory and honor.

But, let’s not allow our heads to get too big.  We need the perspective that places us in the innocent and vulnerable position of the baby and infant.  For everything we need, we are totally dependent upon God.  Let us thank our Creator for all that we have.

As Jesus taught us, let us seek a humble and lowly place before the King of all Creation.  The wisdom of Jesus is based on the same things that the book of Proverbs is.  This same basis becomes extremely clear when we look at some passages from Proverbs twenty-five.  This morning, I will only use one such instance of the parallelism between Jesus and Proverbs:

Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,

And do not stand in the place of the great; 

For it is better that he say to you, "Come up here,"

Than that you should be put lower

in the presence of the prince,

Whom your eyes have seen. (Verses 6-7)

Yes, in God’s upside-down kingdom only the innocent and vulnerable survive.  Thank God through Jesus that we can obtain innocence.  Let us seek to be vulnerable as well. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

Crunch Time; Psalm 5; Proverbs 24

May the mumbling commence!

When it is crunch time, where do we go?  There is but one place where we can go for comfort and help in our time of need.  We approach God the King, God my King.  We pray.  We petition. We listen.  And we are transformed.  Read from Psalm five:

Give ear to my words, O Lord,

Consider my meditation. 

Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God,

For to You I will pray. 

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up. (Verses 1-3)

Nearly every day for nearly a couple of years now, I have writing meditations.  I call them mumblings.  I hunger to share my ramblings with you and for you to become a part of the community of people actively engaging the Bible every day.

I can understand the psalmist’s need to be heard by God, to be considered, and to be heeded.  We often want God to work on our time table.  But that just isn’t the way the God works.

It is good for us to vent our uncensored emotions before God.  God already knows our feelings and emotions.  We need to articulate them whenever we can so that we can become more aware of them.  And, when our words fail us, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with moans and groans.

It is also good for us to look to God – whether we sense God above us or all around us.  We need to look for God and embrace our Lord wherever we find Him.  It begins each and every morning and continues well into our nights.  The Lord can even speak to us in dreams.

Let us listen, understand and obey.  When we do, our lives will be healed and sweetened.  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-four:

My son, eat honey because it is good,

And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste; 

So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;

If you have found it, there is a prospect,

And your hope will not be cut off. (Verses 13-14)

Honey is good and sweet and nourishing.  But I found out, by watching a show on rescuing marine animals, I learned the honey has great medicinal properties.  It helps to protect a wounded area.  It draws from the blood stream the needed parts for healing. And it helps to protect from infection.

Now, that is good and sweet!  We are often in the need of protection from infection and contamination.  Often, we are our own worst enemies.  Seek God and be nourished and healed.  In the seeking after God’s heart, we shall accrue knowledge.  When we put that knowledge into practical actions and words, we are living illustrations of wisdom. 

Then, there will be great prospect and hope.  Perhaps the prospect and hope will not be recognizable to those living the ways of the world.  But it is a prospect and hope that will far outlast any hope we think we find elsewhere.  The hope and prospect that comes from God has been here long before any human hope and will be there for us long after.  And the quality is much greater. 

So… choose wisely in crunch time.  Choose God.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out

"Now, I Lay Me down to Sleep"; Psalm 4; Proverbs 23

May the mumbling commence!

Many of us know some popular writings like “Footprints in the Sand”.  They become dear to our hearts.  “Footprints in the Sand” is one of my favorites.  It helps me rest at night – particularly when I am going through difficult times.  I rest comforted by these words.

In what or whom do we find rest?  It is an important question for our safety and security, because not all things or people can be trusted.  Do you remember the first time your beloved fell asleep in your arms?  I do.  It is a touching, awe-inspiring, fearful experience.  This person trusts in me.  I hope I do not screw it up. 

Do you remember, if you are a parent, the first time your child fell asleep in your arms?  I do.  And the feelings are much the same.  I hope I do not screw it up. 

I am not one to trust.  I often fail.  There are other people and things to trust with our rest and security.  But they can end up hurting us.  Read about what dependency on drugs – specifically alcohol – can do to those who trust them with rest and security.  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-three:

Who has woe?

Who has sorrow?

Who has contentions?

Who has complaints?

Who has wounds without cause?

Who has redness of eyes? 

Those who linger long at the wine,

Those who go in search of mixed wine. 

Do not look on the wine when it is red,

When it sparkles in the cup,

When it swirls around smoothly; 

At the last it bites like a serpent,

And stings like a viper. 

Your eyes will see strange things,

And your heart will utter perverse things. 

Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,

Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying: 

"They have struck me, but I was not hurt;

They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.

When shall I awake, that I may seek another drink?" (Verses 29-35)

How’s that for a beginning of a top ten list of things we wish to avoid?  Do you want 1) woe, 2) sorrow, 3) contentions, 4) complaints, 5) wounds without cause, 6) red eyes, 7) to be snake-bitten?  I don’t know about you, but these are not on my bucket-list. 

I want to avoid strange and perverse things.  I want to avoid numbness – even if it means feeling pain and hurt feelings.  To avoid the less than pleasant feelings also means to dull the good feelings.  I throw avoidance away as far as I can. 

Now, remember with me, the nighttime prayer often spoken in families of old – the one made popular recently by Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” song.  Here it is:

“Now, I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake.  I pray the Lord my soul to take.” 

The words are none to comforting to a child – if they understand and pay attention to the words.  But for older chaps, like me, they do bring comfort.  I no longer think myself invincible.  But do these words have any basis in Scripture?  Read and make your own conclusions from Psalm Four:

There are many who say,

"Who will show us any good?"

Lord, lift up the light of Your countenance upon us. 

You have put gladness in my heart,

More than in the season that their grain and wine increased. 

I will both lie down in peace, and sleep;

For You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. (Verses 6-8)

Trust and rest in the Lord.  There is no other true or reliable. 

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out

The 100%; Proverbs 22; Psalm 2

May the mumbling commence!

There is the ninety-nine percent and the one percent.  These percentages are brought forth because of the deepening disparity between haves and have nots.  To a human point of view, it can seem daunting, insurmountable, and unfair.

God sees things differently between the rich and the poor, between the royalty and the peasants.  God sees no difference between these groups of people.  Would that we could see with the eyes of Christ, the eyes of God, the knowing of the Holy Spirit!  Read from Proverbs chapter twenty-two:

The rich and the poor have this in common,

The Lord is the maker of them all. (Verse 2)

One day, the rich and the poor, the royal and the commoner, the famous and the forgotten will all have to face the Lord and answer for their actions.  Our Maker will ask us what we have done with the talents given to us. 

We will have to answer.  And, the more resources that we had, the more we will be held responsible.  And, if you are a Christian, you are a child of God.  You are a son or daughter of the King.  We are royalty.  With this in mind, read from Psalm Two:

Now therefore, be wise, O kings;

Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 

Serve the Lord with fear,

And rejoice with trembling. 

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,

And you perish in the way,

When His wrath is kindled but a little.

Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Verses 10-12)

Be wise.  Be instructed.  Know that you do NOT know it all.  We have much to learn from the Word of God and from each other.

Think and speak and act with the attitude of a grateful servant of the Lord.  Rejoice.  Kiss the Son.

Now, here’s a good question: What does it look like to kiss the Son, to kiss Christ Jesus?  It looks like clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, visiting the imprisoned, and nursing back to health the sick. 

It looks like learning the language of immigrants so that we might help them understand and be understood – translation. 

It looks like supporting single parents in their ongoing struggles.  It looks like adopting orphaned children – orphaned by death and by other living deaths that their parents choose.  It looks like opening your home to foster children – for a time, until they are ready to return to their biological families.

Remember from Matthew 25 – “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me.”  To care for the most vulnerable in our society is to kiss the Son.  These are the actions that will be more comfortable to account for than most of the rest of the things that we do with our lives – the things we do for a living, the money we earn, or the toys that we buy.

So, let’s be responsible with our knowledge and our privilege and our resources.  Let us show each other and the world around us what it means to act like children of the King of all the universe.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out