GOD IS NOT AN IDOLATER

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When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:10)

People stumble over the teaching that God exalts his own glory and seeks to be praised by his people because the Bible teaches us not to be like that. For example, the Bible says that love “does not seek its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5, NASB). How can God be loving and yet be utterly devoted to “seeking his own” glory
and praise and joy? How can God be for us if he is so utterly for himself? The answer I propose is this: Because God is unique as an all-glorious,
totally self-sufficient Being, he must be for himself if he is to be for us. The rules of humility that belong to a creature cannot apply in the same way to its Creator.

If God should turn away from himself as the Source of infinite joy, he would cease to be God. He would deny the infinite worth of his own glory. He would imply that there is something more valuable outside himself. He would commit idolatry. This would be no gain for us. For where can we go when our God has become unrighteous? Where will we find a Rock of integrity in the universe when the heart of God has ceased to value supremely the supremely valuable? Where shall we turn with our adoration when God himself has forsaken the claims of infinite worth and beauty? No, we do not turn God’s self-exaltation into love by demanding that God cease to be God. (Piper)

Instead, we must come to see that God is love precisely because he relentlessly pursues the praises of his name in the hearts of his people.

WHAT THE RESURRECTION MEANS

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“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

The meaning of the resurrection is that God is for us. He aims to close ranks with us. He aims to overcome all our sense of abandonment and alienation.

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration to Israel and to the world that we cannot work our way to glory but that he intends to do the impossible to
get us there. The resurrection is the promise of God that all who trust Jesus will be the beneficiaries of God’s power to lead us in paths of righteousness and through the valley of death. Therefore, believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is much more than accepting a fact. It means being confident that God is for you, that he has closed ranks with you, that he is transforming your life, and that he will save you for eternal joy. Believing in the resurrection means trusting in all the promises of life and hope and righteousness for which it stands. It means being so confident of God’s power and love that no fear of worldly loss or greed for worldly gain will lure us to disobey his will.

That’s the difference between Satan and the saints. O, might God circumcise our hearts to love him and to rest in the resurrection of his Son.

HOPE TO OBEY HARD COMMANDS

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Whoever desires to love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from
evil and do good. (1 Peter 3:10–11)

There is only one basic reason why we disobey the commands of Jesus: it’s because we don’t have confidence that obeying will bring more blessing than disobeying. We do not hope fully in God’s promise. What did he promise? Peter passes on his teaching like this: Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called that you may obtain a blessing. He who would love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from evil and do good. You will always be better off to obey than to disobey, even if it costs you your life. Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and the gospel’s, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29–30) The only way to have the power to follow Christ in the costly way of love is to be filled with hope, with strong confidence that if we lose our life doing his will, we will find it again and be richly rewarded.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BLESS THE LORD…

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“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)

The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord—and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands. The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness. What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself that it not happen.

Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. (Tozer)

CALLING US BACK

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Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” — Genesis 3:9

Although the human mind stubbornly resists and resents the suggestion that it is a sick, fallen planet upon which we ride, everything within our consciousness, our innermost spirit, confirms that the voice of God is sounding in this world—the voice of God calling, seeking, beckoning to lost men and women!… Sacred revelation declares plainly that the inhabitants of the earth are lost. They are lost by a mighty calamitous visitation of woe which came upon them somewhere in that distant past and is still upon them. But it also reveals a glorious fact—that this lost race has not been given up! There is a divine voice that continues to call. It is the voice of the Creator, God, and it is entreating them. Just as the shepherd went everywhere searching for his sheep, just as the woman in the parable went everywhere searching for her coins, so there is a divine search with many variations of the voice that entreats us, calling us back…. (A.W. Tozer).

“Thank You, Father, for Your grace that continues to call so patiently. Lord, You’re calling some today with whom I could have the privilege of sharing the Gospel. Give me a sensitivity today to opportunities where I might be Your human voice, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

HAVE MERCY ON ME O GOD…

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Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)

Three times: “Have mercy,” “according to your steadfast love,” and “according to your abundant mercy.”

This is what God had promised in Exodus 34:6–7: The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. David knew that there were guilty who would not be forgiven. And there were guilty who by some mysterious work of redemption would not be counted as guilty, but would be forgiven. Psalm 51 is his way of laying hold on that mystery of mercy. We know more of the mystery of this redemption than David did. We know Christ. But we lay hold of the mercy in the same way he did.

The first thing he does is turn helpless to the mercy and love of God. Today that means turning helpless to Christ.

SHE HAD TO TELL SOMEONE

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“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” —John 4:30

Spiritual experiences must be shared. It is not possible for very long to enjoy them alone. The very attempt to do so will destroy them.

The reason for this is obvious. The nearer our souls draw to God the larger our love will grow, and the greater our love the more unselfish we shall become and the greater our care for the souls of others. Hence increased spiritual experience, so far as it is genuine, brings with it a strong desire that others may know the same grace that we ourselves enjoy. This leads quite naturally to an increased effort to lead others to a closer and more satisfying fellowship with God….

The impulse to share, to impart, normally accompanies any true encounter with God and spiritual things. The woman at the well, after her soul-inspiring meeting with Jesus, left her waterpots, hurried into the city and tried to persuade her friends to come out and meet Him. “Come, see a man,” she said, “which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Her spiritual excitement could not be contained within her own heart. She had to tell someone. (Tozer)

“Lord, we have so much more! We’ve seen Your goodness. We’ve tasted Your blessing. We’ve come to love you. Yet how seldom are we that impelled to tell anyone. Direct me even today to someone with whom I can share the glorious news of the Gospel in Jesus’ name, Amen”

EVANGELISM: BE PREPARED

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And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” —Mark 16:15

Recall what happened when Jesus said to the disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). Peter jumped up right away, grabbed his hat and would have been on his way, but Jesus stopped him, and said, “Not yet, Peter! Don’t go like that. Tarry until you are endued with power from on high, and then go!” I believe that our Lord wants us to learn more of Him in worship before we become busy for Him. He wants us to have a gift of the Spirit, an inner experience of the heart, as our first service, and out of that will grow the profound and deep and divine activities which are necessary. (Tozer)

“It’s so easy to become busy, Lord, especially when I’m challenged with the vital task of evangelism. Quiet my heart first, that my evangelism efforts might spring from a heart of worship in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

WHAT IT MEANS TO DWELL IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH

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“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the almighty” Psalm 91: 1

To dwell means to live or stay as a permanent resident, to live or continue in a given condition or state (Oxford dictionary).

Therefore dwelling in the shelter of the Most High God can be an attitude of acknowedging his presence at all times. It means giving him praise in our hearts constantly. To be in a permanent place of saying yes Lord. It is being at that place of total surrender to God. I believe it speaks to being obedient to the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and direct our paths. Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High means that we turn over all our worries, anxieties and fears to him because He cares for us. It means a life that is totally submitted to Him. When we are at the place of rest in God we find peace no matter what storm may be raging. We can trust Him because we have proven Him many times. This entire Psalm is about the benefits of trusting God.  It is about God’s protection and provision. The Psalmist cries out in the 2nd verse, “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” What confidence!!!z  It is clear the author of Psalm 91 had a personal knowledge of God and an intimate relationship with God. Like the Psalmist we too can find rest in the shadow of the Most High. It is offering our lives up to Him with praise and adoration no matter what is happening. It is having the knowledge that God will be there for us therefore we can rest in Him.

Psalm 55:22 encourages us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares. Would you do that today?

GOD IS DEPENDING ON US

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“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him love….” —Ephesians 1:4

Sin is a disease. It is lawlessness. It is rebellion. It is transgression—but it is also a wasting of the most precious of all treasures on earth. The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost, and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his life, his peace, his total mysterious personality, his dear and everlasting all! Oh, how can we get men and women around us to realize that God Almighty, before the beginning of the world, loved them, and thought about them, planning redemption and salvation and forgiveness? Christian brethren, why are we not more faithful and serious in proclaiming God’s great eternal concerns? How is this world all around us ever to learn that God is all in all unless we are faithful in our witness? In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that only He can give meaning  to all other realities.

“Forgive me, Lord. I fear that all too often I have let You down when You were depending on me. Use me today as a faithful servant. Amen.”