Transcendent Praise

Matthew 6: 33 – 34 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

These two verses are fundamental to the well-being of every believer. It is the formula for both physical and mental health. Everyone needs a way to sustain life and to have purpose in life. The believer’s purpose is to seek first the kingdom. In other words, when you pray: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) you are supposed to direct some of your time, effort and resources to fulfilling that goal. That is the principle behind tithing, setting aside the first portion of your blessings for the advancement of the kingdom in the earth.

Each of us has a part to play in seeing that the Word of God is shared and our lives are the Power Point presentations of the love of God as we reach out to the sick, the hungry, the needy and the lonely around us. God in his faithfulness will then undertake for our future. And in so doing he relieves us of worry which is such a kill joy.

A believer who lives in obedience to the will of God, seeking his kingdom first, finds favor with God. You find your joy in him and begin to comprehend how awesome he is and that he takes pleasure in giving to his children. He will open doors of opportunity for you and resolve issues in ways you could only dream of. Will there be no challenges? Of course there will be, but God stands with you and his Holy Spirit will sustain you. That is why Jesus told his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18 -20).

Luke 24: 46 – 47 He [Jesus] told them [his disciples], “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

In Luke 3:3 the following is recorded about John the Baptist: “He went into all the country around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John has been called the forerunner of Jesus. When Jesus came to John to be baptized by him John testified: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me’.” (John 1: 29 – 30).

When Jesus began his ministry we read: “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  (Matthew 4:17). Jesus preached repentance to Jews and non-Jews alike. Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus reminded his disciples that he had told them that everything written about him in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms would be fulfilled. Having been eyewitnesses of his life they would be in a position to share with confidence the good news of salvation once they had received the Holy Spirit. Thus we hear Peter boldly proclaim to a large crowd on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended: “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) So there is clearly no way to enter into a relationship with God without repentance as the message remained unchanged from John to Jesus, to Peter and until our day.

What then is repentance?  It is brokenness before God and the Psalmist David helps us understand when he confessed his sin, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17). The Holy Spirit explained to me further:

“For I have appointed that men shall meet with me only after they have undergone a process of self-examination, repentance and a conscious decision to turn to me and reject his past ways and life. It must be voluntary and the sacrifice he brings must cost him something. For it is his whole heart that I desire. There can be no wavering. When this is the case his sacrifice is acceptable and I will then send my Spirit to cleanse and renew him that he may seek my will and walk with me in righteousness.”

Genesis 9:12 – 16 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all the living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

What a tremendous interaction between God and his creation! To the child who asks where the rainbow came from it is such an amazing opportunity to explain how deep the love of God is for the creatures he has made. It is a chance to contemplate that although our tendency as human beings is to always disobey and turn away from God as the people of Noah’s day did, God’s desire is always to show mercy and bring us back into relationship with himself.

I grew up in the countryside and often watched from our verandah as the rainbow appeared sometimes just before the rain or after the rain. That mystified me because as a young child I did not yet understand that it did not rain everywhere at the same time. But what a beautiful show it was, sometimes bright and sometimes misty. As children we would try to name the colors aloud: red, yellow, orange, indigo…..…. Fortunately, we were taught the Genesis version of creation and the fact that the rainbow was a promise from God not to ever destroy the whole earth by water again as in Noah’s day.

The bottom line is that God loves mankind and has always gone to great lengths to demonstrate that love from time to time. So great is his love for you that he gave his only Son to make it possible for you to be in relationship with him. Such love, such amazing love!

Isaiah 43: 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

The Lord, the Creator gave the above assurances to Israel through Isaiah the prophet despite their repeated willfulness. No one else could make such promises. The same loving-kindness is being extended to believers today. Your Creator is reminding you of his constant care and that you are invincible in him. You might seem like little David coming up against the Goliath in your personal circumstances now or, maybe, much of the fear and dread you feel is in your imagination. In any case God would say to you as he did to Israel, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (See Isaiah 43: 1 – 2) That means he is not going to take his eyes off you.

On the other hand, you may feel perfectly fine about your individual situation but insecure about everything else that is going on around you. It matters not because the Lord God would still have you know that he has not abandoned his creation nor has he abdicated his throne. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it, for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” (Psalm 24:1 – 2).

“I am the eternal God and I do not countenance men’s schemes. They do not stand in the way of anything I have purposed for my children. I dismantle their schemes and render them as nothing.  They can have no lasting negative consequences for my children. They serve as stumbling blocks and tools in the refining process, nothing more.”

Ezekiel 47:1 The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of  the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar.

It will take someone of much higher learning than I to interpret the significance of much of the imagery in this vision of Ezekiel’s. But this I know, the temple represents where God dwells and water quenches thirst, cleanses and gives new life.  It promotes wholeness. The question I want to ask then is very simple. Have you been to the temple lately? The house of God, the church, the synagogue – wherever you used to worship – that place where you meet with God on his terms.  No? Now you are defensive and you say, “God is everywhere, what does it matter?”  Friend it matters greatly because it is necessary for spiritual wellbeing and growth: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10: 24 – 25). The house of God should not be viewed primarily as a social club. It is where we meet with God and bring our prayers, thoughts and acts of worship and focus on God’s agenda. The Day of his appearing is approaching after all.

My experience has been that I have everything to gain and nothing to lose when I enter the house of God to worship. In Old Testament times God gave his people specific instructions on how to conduct worship and the altar has always been of great significance. While I worked full-time I was a care-giver for ten of those years as well and I can tell you that the altar is where I met with God repeatedly to receive the strength and wisdom I needed. It was there that the presence of the Holy Spirit became most real to me. It is there that people often go to be forgiven, healed, delivered, and find the grace to mend broken relationships. God does want us to do things his way. Go as an act of faith and obedience.

“It is from the presence of God that healing flows. It can flow in limited or great degree as He wills. It is up to his people to get into the flow. Present your need and according to your faith it shall be measured to you. The Lord God is not limited but the degree of your faith can limit what you receive.”

John 3: 29 – 30 The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.

John the Baptizer said this to settle an argument between his disciples and a Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John to ask him whether he was aware that Jesus, whom he had baptized earlier in the Jordan, was now baptizing and many people were going to him. John’s response must have taken them by surprise – no hint of jealousy or anger but simply: “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourself can testify that I said I am not the Christ but I am sent ahead of him.” (John 3: 27 – 28). Then John compared himself to the friend of a bridegroom. Today in context of weddings we call that person the “best man”. He stands proudly beside the bridegroom and will later give testimony to his finest qualities, but in no way is he there to usurp the position of the bridegroom. And when the bridegroom steps forward to greet his bride, he takes a step back and stands aside. John admitted that the same joy a best man feels was now his and he was content and complete. Jesus had come. He was yielding and making room because “the one who comes from above is above all”. (See verse 31).

Have you yielded the right of way to God’s Son? Does it bring you joy to enthrone him in your heart and life? I don’t mean: Do you praise and worship him? Most believers do, on Sundays at least. What I am asking is do you subject your desires, passions, emotions, goals to his scrutiny and joyfully submit when you are denied the thing you feel you most want to do or be?

Psalm 46: 10 Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Do you know that there are things only God’s right hand can fix? This Psalm is very frightening and encouraging at the same time. It speaks to total chaos in the earth but assures us that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. Believers have a place of refuge when things become chaotic. Psalm 91:1 tells us “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Sometimes only the passage of time helps you to prove God’s faithfulness and confirm that intervenes in the affairs of men for his own glory.

Unless you are extremely rich, you were not untouched by the economic downturn of 2008/09. Job losses, disappeared fortunes, home foreclosures, unemployment for young people – the underpinnings of society were simply becoming unglued. The experience brought many to their knees in prayer. It also took a toll on the moral fiber of society and certain norms seemed to change. For example, the expectation of many parents that the pattern of their children’s lives, some of them highly educated, would follow or exceed their own success was dashed. Many parents, including me, became pre-occupied with “how can I fix this for my child?” I busied myself giving leads, referrals and hints to my children about next steps to take.

I read the Word a lot and preached to myself but what I wanted God to do was to make things “right” i.e. grant the results that I wanted. Then one day the Holy Spirit drew my attention to Genesis 15 where God revealed himself to Abram as a covenant-keeping God, showed him the wonders of his creation and shared secrets with him  about his future and that of generations yet unborn.  Abram was required to lay out a sacrifice and he wearied himself trying to keep the vultures away. Then either he fell asleep from exhaustion or the Lord gave him rest and consumed the sacrifice by fire himself. I came away from that study realizing that I do not “own” my children’s lives nor should I wrest control of them away from God as my path and theirs is different.  The Holy Spirit further enlightened me:

“Sometimes, it takes the Father’s right hand to make things right. At such a time there is nothing for the believer to do but trust the Everlasting Father, he who knows everything and is able to rearrange life’s circumstances so that his glory can be seen and the praise that results could come no other way. You see my child there are certain things that are God’s prerogative. He does it or it will never be done. His children’s lives follow a course he has ordained. The timing is completely his. So relax and let God have his way in the lives of your children. It shall be well. As he has promised, so shall it be.”

1 Corinthians 2: 9 – 10 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

Paul, in this letter to the church at Corinth, makes reference to Isaiah 64:4. At the time Isaiah prayed out of a longing for God to show up in what was a desperate time in his society. In verses 6 and 7 Isaiah says: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.” Do these words describe the condition of our society today?

Like Isaiah, Paul took the call of God on his life seriously and resolved to preach nothing except Christ crucified. He points out that God’s secret wisdom is now revealed to us by His Spirit. So we can see that the hopelessness of Isaiah’s day has passed in that God’s face is no longer hidden from us but he has unveiled the completeness of his love by his wisdom in sending Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1: 7 – 8).

Those who accept this free gift of redemption experience new birth as the Holy Spirit quickens them to the reality of the presence of God in them. “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1: 3 – 14). How blessed we are!

Acts 16: 35 – 36 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

The Apostle Paul travelled a great deal to preach the gospel, sometimes on foot but often by boat. In the book of Acts we find him in places like Antioch, Jerusalem, Galatia. On his way to Macedonia with his travelling companion Silas they made a stop in Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. There they were joined by Timothy. Their plan was to stay there several days. On the Sabbath day they went outside the city gate to the river expecting to find a place of prayer. There they encountered several women including Lydia, who was converted and baptized together with her household. She became their hostess.

On one occasion they encountered a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future, and was therefore a source of income for her owners. She followed Paul and his companions shouting “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” After she had kept this up for a few days, Paul was disturbed and rebuked the spirit: “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her.” The spirit obeyed but Paul’s actions landed him and Silas in jail after they were stripped and beaten. (Read Acts 16: 16 – 40).

If you were in jail, would you be expecting God to show up? Clearly Paul and Silas did because instead of bemoaning their situation, they were singing and praying at midnight while the other prisoners listened. Suddenly there was a violent earthquake which shook the very foundations of the prison and blew the doors open and the chains of every prisoner came loose. Here was an opportunity for all prisoners to go free but Paul took control of the situation and assured the jailer that no one had escaped. There was another move of God in that jailhouse that night as the jailer and others were saved. This record of the events of that night is so tremendous that I could go on and on, but let us just recognize that our God has no equal and that there is no situation he cannot use for his glory and our good.  He sets men free physically, mentally and spiritually.

“The Spirit of God is always in charge of the situation where God’s servants are concerned. He opens prison doors and breaks asunder the shackles that bind believers to their situations. He inhabits the praises of his people and sets himself above the circle of the earth from where he reigns supreme. It shall never be that he will leave his children without a witness. He will bring glory to himself so that men may know he reigns.”

1 Samuel 25: 23 – 24 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. She fell at his feet and said: My lord, let the blame be on me alone.

Do you have a relative in your life that no one knows what to do with?  Are you always bailing him or her out of situations to no avail or sometimes taking the blame yourself for what has gone wrong? Do you also find it especially burdensome because no gratitude is ever expressed to you for all the good you do? Sadly there are people like that. 1 Samuel 25 speaks of such a man. He was the husband of an intelligent and beautiful woman named Abigail. She says his name “Nabal” means fool and he behaved accordingly. He was a mean and unpleasant fellow. On top of that he was often drunk. I can only imagine what life is like to deal with someone like that, so I tread carefully here in trying to see what helped Abigail cope.

From her description of her husband we see that Abigail did not deny the reality of her circumstances. In addition to being beautiful and intelligent she was wise and I have always contended that intelligence comes from the acquisition of knowledge in one way or another but wisdom comes from God. Her wisdom was demonstrated in dealing with the crisis which developed when her husband chose to send words of insult back to David in response to his simple request for food for himself and his men. She was practical and generous in deciding to overwhelm David and his men with kindness as she provided more than sufficient food for them. As a result she saved herself, her husband’s life and possessions as well as the lives of their servants.

She was articulate too as it strikes me that in her encounter with David she engages in what must be the longest discourse by a woman in Scripture. Most importantly she was not only speaking to David out of a pure heart, she was Spirit-led. She could not have counseled or prophesied to David unless the Lord was with her. God has to be your source of strength, patience, wisdom and hope as you continue to deal with whoever is in your path who constantly challenges you beyond your natural capacity. And with God there is reward: “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9).