The Christian's memory

"Return of the Ark" - Gustave Dore (1 Samuel 6:13)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 27-28; Psalm 132

TO CHEW ON: "Behold we heard of it in Ephratheh
We found it in the fields of the woods." - Psalm 132:6

What is the "it" the psalmist is talking about? It is the ark—that box that symbolized the presence of God among the Israelites.

The first verses of this psalm refer to specific stories about the ark that pilgrims marching to Jerusalem* would have known. They recall the time that David vowed to bring the ark back to Jerusalem. They remember an even earlier time when Samuel located it in "the field of the woods," that is, Kirjath Jearim ("City of Forests") - 1 Samuel 7:1,2.

What's the point of bringing up these memories? It is to help the people get a vision for their future with God (Psalm 132:11-18).

Eugene Peterson enlarges on this psalm in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He says about the importance of memory in matters of faith:

"This history is important, for without it we are at the mercy of whims. Memory is a databank we use to evaluate our position and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith.

"[...] The past is not, for the person of faith, a restored historical site that we tour when we are on vacation; it is a field that we plow and harrow and plant and fertilize and work for a harvest" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 166, 168 (emphasis added).

What are we facing today that is making us nervous, upset, panicky, desperate, scared? Let's recall our history with God and how He has proved Himself faithful to help us in the past. Let's obey His instructions to us, whatever they are in the situation. Maybe it's to:

• acknowledge Him and trust Him for directions (Proverbs 3:5-6).
• pray and not worry (Philippians 4:6-7).
• tell the truth and live with integrity (Matthew 5:37)
• be single-hearted (Luke 6:13; James 1:5-8)
• or ...

Peterson again:

"What we require is obedience—the strength to stand and the willingness to leap, and the sense to know when to do which. Which is exactly what we get when an accurate memory of God's ways is combined with a lively hope in his promises" - p. 171.

PRAYER: Dear God, I bring the specific situation of ___ to You. You know the dis-ease I have in my spirit over it. Please settle me down as I remember Your faithfulness to me in the past. Help me to hear Your instructions about what to do (or perhaps it's to be still)  and to obey. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 132

MORE: Defective memory

"A Christian with a defective memory has to start everything from scratch and spends far too much of his or her time backtracking, repairing, starting over. A Christian with a good memory avoids repeating old sins, knows the easiest way through complex situations and instead of starting over each day continues what was begun in Adam" - Peterson, p. 167 (emphasis added). 

*This psalm is one of the "Songs of Ascent" which pilgrims sang as they went to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly festivals.

********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Waiting for morning

TODAY'S SPECIAL:  Acts 23-24; Psalm 130

TO CHEW ON: "Out of the depths I have cried to You O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!" Psalm 130:1-2a

In January 2018 it was eleven years since my brother went to the doctor about his morning headaches. The doc soon found the cause — high blood pressure, which led to a diagnosis of kidney failure, which led to the discovery of the real culprit, a tumour, the advancing tentacles of which had choked that poor kidney.

Surgery, radiation, prayer, and hope followed. But in the intervening time it became clear that that malignant tumour would not be denied. After a time in palliative care in the summer of 2010, my brother was sent home. There his nurse-wife looked after him in his own private hospice.* Her email update from early 2011 is a modern incarnation of the Psalm 130 experience. Here are some snatches:

"...anticipation and hope is replaced by a reality that continues to wear you down and break your heart 100 times a day.... Sometimes I feel that we have entered into a 'twilight zone,' where all the old expectations and normal pleasures have been tossed aside, and we are left to grapple with a whole new set of circumstances and rules.... This is the valley of the shadow of death..."

Psalm 130 is a psalm written by a sufferer for sufferers. Eugene Peterson in his book A Long Obedience in he Same Direction speaks of what it teaches us:

"Such are the two great realities of Psalm 130: suffering is real; God is real.... We accept suffering; we believe in God. The acceptance and the belief both emerge out of those times when 'the bottom has fallen out' of our lives" p. 142.

Thankfully it doesn't end there.

"But there is more than a description of reality here, there is a procedure for participating in it. The program is given in two words: wait and watch. The words at the centre of the psalm: 'I pray to God — my life a prayer — and wait for what he'll say and do. My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.' Wait and watch add up to hope" - p. 142.

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to be realistic about suffering. May my faith in You be unshaken by it. And help me to be a companion in waiting and watching with those who are suffering now. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 130 

MORE: Notes from the furnace

My sister-in-law ended her January update in 2011 with this testimony: "....we are not without peace and gratitude. Sorrow and peace can go hand in hand, I have discovered."

Then this quote:

"Shining is always costly.  Light comes only at the cost of that which produces it.  An unlit candle does no shining.  Burning must come before shining.  We cannot be of great use to others without cost to ourselves.  Burning suggests suffering.  We shrink from pain.  We are apt to feel that we are doing the greatest good in the world when we are strong, and able for active duty, and when the heart and hands are full of kindly service.  When we are called aside and can only suffer; when we are sick; when we are consumed with pain; when all our activities have been dropped, we feel that we are no longer of use, that we are not doing anything.


But, if we are patient and submissive, it is almost certain that we are a greater blessing to the world in our time of suffering and pain than we were in the days when we thought we were doing the most of our work.  We are burning now, and shining because we are burning.  The glory of tomorrow is rooted in the drudgery of today.  Many want the glory without the cross, the shining without the burning, but crucifixion comes before coronation." - from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

*UPDATE:  I initially wrote this devotion on January 25th, 2011. My brother died that evening.

**************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Unifiers, not dividers

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 132:1-134:3

TO CHEW ON: “Behold how good and pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

Psalms 132,133, and 134 are all Songs of Ascents—Jewish liturgy of pilgrimage. Pilgrims to Jerusalem, on their way to celebrate the thrice-yearly feasts (spring: Feast of Passover; summer: Feast of Pentecost; autumn: Feast of Tabernacles) would sing these fifteen songs (Psalm 120-134) as they ascended to the city—the high point of Palestine. How fitting that the second-last, Psalm 133, was a reminder to them to get along.

Eugene Peterson, in his chapter about this psalm in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, makes the point that the moment we confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we become a member of the Christian church even though we never attend one physically or attach our names to the membership roll of one formally. “We can no more be a Christian and have nothing to do with the church than we can be a person and not be in a family” - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience, p. 175. In other words, church is to Christian what family is to person.

How then, do we get along with our church siblings? Peterson lists some ways we might live in this community of faith. Who are you on his list?

• Some run away from it and pretend that the family doesn’t exist.

• Some move out and get an apartment… from which they return to make occasional visits.

• Some would never dream of leaving but cause others to dream it for them, for they are always criticizing what is served at meals, quarrelling with the way the housekeeping is done, complaining that the others in the family are either ignoring or taking advantage of them.

• Some determine to find out what God has in mind by placing them in this community … learn how to function harmoniously and joyously, develop maturity that shares and exchanges God’s grace, even with the nuisances - Peterson, Op. Cit., p. 176 (formatting and emphasis added).

If we’re not there already, let’s work to be in that last set. Let’s be unifiers, not dividers.


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to be a family member who doesn’t think of myself first but who works for the good of others and the body. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Guidebook

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 119:129-144

TO CHEW ON: "Direct my steps by Your word;
And let no iniquity have dominion over me." Psalm 119:133


This deceptively easy request, if granted, could make life a lot simpler.
- Our struggle with resentment would be over, for we would forgive.
- Jealousy would be a thing of the past, for we would not covet.
- Rudeness, selfishness and generally living with a chip on our shoulders would be replaced with love.
- Etc.

So how many of us actually pray this and mean it?

Perhaps it's simplistic to interpret and spell out the results of this prayer so literally. It certainly is a lot easier said than done. But it does seem like the last part of our focus verse gives us a clue as to why obeying God's word is not only a good suggestion but vital to spiritual health. Because when we don't, "iniquity" will not only be present in our lives, but may rule us (Romans 6:12).

["Iniquity" is the old-fashioned word that means the bad stuff. The Message renders it malign: evil in effect, pernicious, baleful, injurious. It is bad attitudes, harmful tendencies, plain old sin.]

I'm going to challenge myself today to actually pray and mean this prayer. When negative attitudes creep in, when fear pops up, when my thoughts toward others are critical, negative, suspicious — anything but loving —I will ask: Does the Bible have a command, give advice, or tell a story about this that, if obeyed, would defeat this iniquity in me. And then I purpose to act on what I'm shown.

Will you join me?

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the Bible — so clear and practical. Please show me where sin has the upper hand in my life because I haven't let Your word direct my steps. Amen.

MORE: Obey — what exactly?
In order for this prayer to make sense, the pray-er needs to have some familiarity with what God has said in the Bible — His outright commands and the stories of how He dealt with people. Eugene Peterson, in the chapter on obedience from the book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction speaks of the need for getting familiar with that history:

"The psalmist [Peterson is analyzing Psalm 132 in this chapter] is not an antiquarian reveling in the past for its own sake but a traveler using what he knows of the past to get to where he is going — to God.


For all its interest in history the Bible never refers to the past as 'the good old times.' The past is not, for the person of faith, a restored historical site that we tour when we are on vacation; it is a field that we plow and harrow and plant and fertilize and work for a harvest." p. 168.

**************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

"Carless in the care of God"

Field crocuses - © V. Nesdoly

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Matthew 6:16-34

TO CHEW ON: “'Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own trouble. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.'” Matthew 6:34

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly familiar with “worry” that activity defined as: tormenting oneself with or suffering from disturbing thoughts; tormenting with cares, anxieties, etc.

Our passage lists common worry subjects: what to eat, drink, wear. As someone who lives in affluent Canada, I don’t worry much about those things. When our basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter are met, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs illustrates where our worries typically go next—to  security and safety, then belonging and love, then esteem, and finally self-actualization and achieving our full potential.

Whatever level our worries are focused on, Jesus tells us here to STOP worrying. I love how the Message rendering of these Matthew 6 verses directs our focus off our worries and onto Someone else.  I’ve bolded the phrases and words that show us where to look instead.

25-26 “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds….

30-33 “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

34 “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes" - Matthew 6:25-26; 33-34 MSG.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to focus on You, Your reality and goodness shown every day in Your provision and care on every level. I want to live carefree in Your care. Amen. 

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Statute songs

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 119:49-64

TO CHEW ON: "Your statutes have been my songs

In the house of my pilgrimage." Psalm 119:54

Why do we sing?

Some of us sing almost unconsciously, in a habitual sort of way. Sometimes we hum or sing along with the catchy tunes on the radio or our listening device; we know the words and the melodies and rhythms make us feel good. Sometimes we sing the songs of our childhood to entertain grandchildren, and the songs of our youth to remember the past. And we sing in church.

I would submit that the last singing—in church—may be the most unemotional, mechanical kind of singing we do. It’s what’s done there so whether we enter into the message and emotion of the song or not, we sing.

Here the psalmist talks about singing God's statutes. Were these the Mosaic laws set to music? Did he sing them to help him memorize and review the myriad commandments contained in the code? Perhaps. But they seem meant also to bolster his faith and remind him that God is right there beside him in his pilgrimage life. We get the sense that he turns to these songs when life gets puzzling and discouraging, singing them to remind himself of what and who is his focus.

Or perhaps he didn't literally put God's commandments to music but he is using music here as a metaphor for how God's laws put joy into him in the same way a song would.

Eugene Peterson says about joy:

"Joy is not a requirement of Christian discipleship, it is a consequence. It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience. ... Joy is a product of abundance; it is the overflow of vitality. It is life working together harmoniously...


Peterson goes on to say that when we feel joyless, we may try to rouse joy artificially with entertainment. But though a comedian or movie may amuse us for a time, the joy they give is never permanent. However, he says, there is a way to live that taps into genuine joy.


"We can decide to live in response to the abundance of God and not under the dictatorship of our own poor needs. We can decide to live in the environment of a living God and not our own dying selves. We can decide to centre ourselves in the God who generously gives and not in our own egos which greedily grab." A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 96-97 (emphasis added).

I think that's what the psalm writer is doing here: living in response to God's lavishness, in an environment of an alive God, centering himself in God with music the reminder and overflow of such a life.

I ask myself, how can I do that today? How can you? Singing to remind ourselves of God's goodness and to express our gratitude—outside of church, and in—is a good place to start.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to focus on Your abundance, to centre myself in You, to live in Your environment to the extent that songs of faith, hope and joy will well up inside. Amen.

**********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Pilgrims

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 35:1-10

TO CHEW ON: "A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it shall be for others
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray…
But the redeemed shall walk there
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads
They shall obtain joy and gladness
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Isaiah 35:8-10

Eugene Peterson says in the first chapter of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction:

"For recognizing and resisting the stream of the world's ways, there are two biblical designations for people of faith that are extremely useful: disciple and pilgrim...Pilgrim (parepidemos) tells us we are people who spend our lives going someplace for God and whose path for getting there is the way, Jesus Christ. We realize that 'this world is not my home' and set out for 'the Father's house.' Abraham, who 'went out' is our archetype. Jesus, answering Thomas's question 'Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?' gives us directions: 'I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me' (John 14:5-6)" (p. 17-18).

Our focus verse today talks about part of that pilgrimage path. It appears to be the part near the end of the journey. Don't you just love the way Isaiah describes this part of the road — it's bigness (it's a "Highway"), its purity (it's a "Highway of Holiness" with nothing unclean on it), its safety (no one goes astray on it), its music, and its joy!

Isaiah's description here got me thinking about ways and roads and paths and how this metaphor for our life as people of faith is used again and again in the Bible. Here are some examples:

1. We choose the way we want to go (Psalm 119:30).

2. It's important to choose well, for our choice has implications for eternity (Matthew 7:13-14; Proverbs 15:24).

3. God and our leaders teach us the right way (Jeremiah 42:3; 1 Samuel 12:23).

4. Staying on the right path involves continuing choices for us (Proverbs 9:6; Proverbs 10:17; 2 Peter 2:2).

5. The way we choose impacts private actions as well as public life (Psalm 101:2).

6. When we get confused about the path, God promises to give us direction (Isaiah 30:21; Psalm 139:23-24).

7. The right path — the path of wisdom — is righteous, level, straight, and smooth (Isaiah 26:7), also described as pleasant and peaceful (Proverbs 3:17).

8. Staying on the right path brings with it the promise of a prolonged life (Deuteronomy 5:33).

9. It leads, finally, to a wonderful destination (Psalm 107:7, as well as today's focus verse).

A while ago we attended the funeral service of a friend who was part of the church we were members of years ago. Though it was a sad time, the afternoon had a glad side to it too, as we again met people we had worked with in the nursery, in Sunday School, and on the church board, people we knew well because we had, for years, journeyed side by side.

It was also an afternoon of reflecting on where our friend, was now. The hours I spent musing and mingling was to me a brief glimpse of what it means to be on that "Highway of Holiness" — traveling, singing, joyful, and ever hopeful as I make my way, in the company of many others, to a wonderful destination.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this picture of life as a journey and Your way as the road. Please guide my steps on it today. Amen.

MORE: "I'll Lead You Home" by Michael W. Smith



*************
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Active Worship

Image: Pixabay.com

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 145:1-21

TO CHEW ON: “Every day I will bless You
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.” Psalm 145:2

“We can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship” - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 54.

I was reminded of the  above Peterson quote when I read David-authored Psalm 145 this morning. During an earlier reading I had circled the verbs, so they are what jumped out at me. What an illustration of the act / actions of worship!

According to David, actions of worship include:
Extol (“You, my God, O King”).
Bless ("Every day”)
Praise (“Your name forever and ever”).
Declare (“Your mighty acts”).
Meditate (“on the glorious splendor of Your majesty”).
Speak (“of the Your mighty awesome acts… of the glory of Your kingdom”).
Utter (“the memory of Your great goodness”).
Sing (“of Your righteousness”).
Talk (“of Your power”).
Make known (“His mighty acts”).
Call ("upon Him”).
Cry
Love (“Him”).


(Of course, these are the verbs as listed in the NKVJ Bible. If you consult another version, the list will be a little different. Doing that might be an interesting exercise.)

This is active worship. Let’s engage our thoughts and mouths in such worship today—and even if our emotions are unresponsive at first, they will warm up to the activity.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for this beautiful example of active worship. Help me to pattern my worship on David’s especially when I don’t feel like worshiping. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Are you glad to go to church?

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 121:1-122:9

TO CHEW ON: “I was glad when they said to me,
Let us go into the house of the LORD.” Psalm 122:1

Today is Sunday, the day many of us have a habit of attending church. Can you, can I honestly say we're glad to go—that we can’t wait to get there? That’s the question that came to me this morning as I read Psalm 122:1.

Whenever the assigned Bible reading is one of the Songs of Ascent from the Psalms (and Psalms 121 and 122 are such songs), I find myself reaching for Eugene Peterson’s excellent A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. It’s a book that richly elaborates on these songs and psalms that were part of the Israelites’ pilgrimages to Jerusalem to commemorate the feasts.

Peterson says some profound things about worship in the chapter on Psalm 122. He explains worship as one activity Christians do that is voluntary: “… worship is not forced. Everyone who worships does so because he wants to” - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience, p. 50.

Peterson points out three items in Psalm 122 that worship does for us.

1. “Worship gives us a workable structure for life” - p. 51 (Psalm 122:3,4).
For the Israelites keeping Sabbath and celebrating the feasts became the bones of the year. Other activities, even work, were subservient to these observances. I wonder, do we allow worship to help us set priorities?

2. “Worship nurtures our need to be in relationship with God” - p. 53 (Psalm 122:4).
God is with us through trouble and good times, when we mess up and when we do good. Times of worship give us space to express our thanks. “A Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot” - Augustine (quoted p. 53).

3. In worship “…our attention is centered on the decisions of God” - p. 54 (Psalm 122:5).
“Every time we worship our minds are informed, our memories refreshed with the judgments of God, we are familiarized with what God says, what he has decided is the way he is working out our salvation” - p. 55.

This psalm and Mr. Peterson’s thoughts on worship have prompted me to list some of the reasons I gladly go into the “house of the Lord":

* I get encouraged by the numbers of people—and their variety—who are my brothers and sisters in the faith.

* The songs and message of a church service often provide a course correction for what’s happening in my life, for the decisions I’m considering, the attitudes I’m nurturing.

* The songs, scriptures and talks remind me of aspects of God that I may have forgotten about.

* Body life—visiting with friends and being on the prayer team—helps me feel connected to what God is doing as I hear about His work in others lives and agree in faith for His help for needs.

Are you glad to go to church? Why or why not?

PRAYER: Dear Father, voluntary worship—that’s what I want mind to be. Help me to deal with life clutter that gets in the way of my sincere, all-in worship. Amen.

MORE: More Peterson wisdom:
“… we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new way of acting. Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship” - Eugene Peterson, Op. Cit., p. 54.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Muscle and snew

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Acts 14:21-15:2

TO CHEW ON: "And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.'" Acts 14:21,22

At the beginning of our reading today, Paul was in Derbe. It was practically the only city on this whole trip from which he wasn't run out of town.

But, spiritual father and pastor that he was, nothing could keep him away from his spiritual babies. When retracing his steps back to Antioch (his sending church - Acts 13:1,2) he went through Lystra (where he had been stoned and left for dead - Acts 14:19,20), Iconium (where he had been the object of abuse and near stoning - Acts 14:5,6), and Antioch in Pisidia (where the city leadership had expelled him - Acts 13:50). Would we have been so bold and brave?

On visiting the fledgling congregations he had 'hatched,' he built them up with a blend of realism and optimism. I love how Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message:

"After proclaiming the Message in Derbe and establishing a strong core of disciples, they retraced their steps to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: 'Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times'" - Acts 14:21,22 MSG  (emphasis added).

Jack Hayford interprets this combination of suffering and victory for our time:

"Triumph and victory may characterized the attitude of each citizen of the kingdom of God, and Holy Spirit-empowered authority is given to be applied to realize results. Yet God did not promise life without struggle.

"[…]The Bible teaches that suffering, trial, and all order of human difficulty are unavoidable; but God's Word also teaches that they may all be overcome. The presence of the King and the power of His kingdom in our lives make us neither invulnerable nor immune to life's struggles. But they do bring the promise of victory: provision in need, strength for the day, and healing, comfort, and saving help" - Jack Hayford, "Suffering, Tribulation," New Spirit-Filled Bible, p. 1518 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for Paul's example in suffering and tribulation. When problems come my way, help me to shun self pity, instead view them as a means to grow my faith and character. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Bless the Lord

Photo courtesy Pixabay.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 133:1-134:3

TO CHEW ON: "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,
And bless the Lord." Psalm 134:2


Psalm 134 is the last of fifteen Songs of Ascent (Psalm 120-134). Pilgrims sang these psalms as they ascended to Jerusalem to take part in the annual feasts. (Jerusalem was a high point of the country topographically.)

"But," Eugene Peterson points out in his book about these psalms, "the ascent was not only literal, it was also a metaphor: the trip to Jerusalem acted out a life lived upward toward God, an existence that advanced from one level to another in developing maturity" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 18.

I love how this last psalm in the set focuses on blessing. The Hebrew word translated "bless" here is berekah.

"It describes what God does to us and among us: he shares the goodness of his Spirit, the vitality of his creation, the joys of his redemption. He empties himself among us, and we get what he is. That is blessing" - Peterson, p 191. 

Peterson points out that "bless the Lord" is both an invitation and a command.

"Read one way the sentence is an invitation: 'Come bless God.' The great promise of being in Jerusalem is that all may join in the rich temple worship. You are welcome now to do it. Come and join in…

"The sentence… is also a command. … Do that for which you were created and redeemed; lift your voices in gratitude;  enter into the community of praise and prayer that anticipates the final consummation of faith in heaven. Bless God" - Peterson, p. 193,4.

No doubt you've experienced this. I know I have. Life is overwhelming. We feel jaded, tired, and frayed by the battles—personal, family, public, political, whatever. How refreshing it is then to enter God's presence—not with prayers of request or begging or pleading but praise and blessing.

When we bless God in this way we remind ourselves of who He is and what He is capable of. As we do this our cares somehow dissipate at His feet in our acknowledgement of how vast and powerful and glorious and good and wise He is—way bigger than all our puny concerns.

Today, whatever situation we're in, let's do that for which we were created. Let's lift our hands and faces and voices and bless the Lord.

PRAYER: Dear God, I bless You today for who You are and what You mean to me now and  will mean in the future. Thank you! Amen. 

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The seed of tears

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 126:1-6


TO CHEW ON: "Those who sow in tears

Shall reap in joy.

He who continually goes forth weeping,

Bearing seed for sowing,

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing

Bringing his sheaves with him." - Psalm 126:5,6

Have you ever thought of your griefs and disappointments as seed? That's what Eugene Peterson suggests they are:

"All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: Sow it in God and he will finally bring a crop of joy from it" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 100.

This seed doesn't come in paper packets or burlap sacks but falls from our eyes as tears.

An article in my Bible writes about our tears in another way, as ministry.

"Tears in Scripture play a unique role in spiritual breakthrough. Here...the planting of seeds accompanied by a spirit of brokenness will not only bring a spiritual harvest of results but will leave the sower with a spirit of rejoicing. This passage along with numerous others...pictures a variety of purposes and functions related to what might be termed "the ministry of tears." These are:

• Tears of sorrow and suffering - 2 Kings 20:5.

• Tears of joy - Genesis 33:4.

• Tears of compassion - John 11:35.

• Tears of desperation - Esther 4:1,3.

• Tears of travail or giving birth - Isaiah 42:14.

• Tears of repentance - Joel 2:12,13, Dick Eastman, "Tears and Brokenness in Victorious Warfare," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 787.

and let me add another:

• Tears that God has seen, collected and that have persuaded Him to come to my defense - Psalm 56: 8,9.

When you and I go through difficult times,  let's view our tears not as a sign of weakness or lack of faith, but part of the cycle of spiritual sowing and reaping. Peterson again:

"There is plenty of suffering on both sides, past and future. The joy comes because God knows how to wipe away tears, and, in his resurrection work, create the smile of new life. Joy is what God gives, not what we work up. Laughter is the delight that things are working together for good to those who love God, not the giggles that betray the nervousness of a precarious defense system. The joy that develops in the Christian way of discipleship is an overflow of spirits that comes from feeling good not about yourself but about God. We find that his ways are dependable, his promises sure" - p. 100, 101.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that even tears have a kingdom purpose. When sorrow, pain, or confusion come, help me to face my situation with faith and expectation, knowing that my tears have a place in Your plan. Amen.


********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Looking for mercy

TODAY' SPECIAL: Psalm 122:1-123:4

TO CHEW ON: "Behold as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters,

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

So our eyes look to the Lord our God,

Until He has mercy on us." Psalm 123:2

I've always liked this picturesque little verse, reading it as servants keeping an eye on the master for the next command. But on a close look today, I see that that's not what the servant is waiting for at all. Rather, he or she is waiting, looking up, hoping for mercy

[Mercy (chanan) means to be gracious, show pity, favour.

In English mercy is defined as kind or compassionate treatment of an offender, adversary, prisoner etc. in one's power; compassion where severity is expected or deserved.]

This request for mercy from the lips of man to God—from our own lips—reminds us of who God is and who we are. Eugene Peterson comments on this psalm and the stance of the person praying:

"The person of faith looks up to God, not at him or down on him. The servant assumes a certain posture, a stance. If he or she fails to take that posture, attentive responsiveness to the master's commands will be hard" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 61.

The definition of mercy reminds us of why it is only realistic to take that low, looking-up posture: because we are people who deserve and, except for Jesus and His substitutionary death for us, expect severity.

It's easy to get in the 'ordering God around' mode in our prayers. This little psalm reminds us of who we are and what our realistic posture before God is. And yet, because He is good, this grovelling for mercy is not fear-filled but optimistic. Peterson again:

"In obedience we pray 'Mercy!' instead of 'Give us what we want. We prayer 'Mercy!' and not 'Reward us for our goodness so our neighbors will acknowledge our superiority." We pray "Mercy!" and not "Punish us for our badness so we will feel better.' We pray 'Mercy!' and not 'Be nice to us because we have been such good people.'


We live under the mercy. God does not treat us as alien others, lining us up so that he can evaluate our competence or our usefulness or our worth. He rules, guides, commands, loves us as children whose destinies he carries in his heart" - Peterson, Ibid., p. 64.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for this reminder of my realistic position before You. Thank You for Your mercy that looks on me with soft, compassionate eyes, instead of with the condemnation I deserve. Help me to extend Your mercy to others. Amen.

MORE: Kyrie Eleison (As We Come Before You) by Stuart Townend & Keith Getty


**********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The power of story

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Exodus 12:29-51


TO CHEW ON: "And it shall be, when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' that you shall say, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.'" Exodus 12:26-27

In our home it was Mom who told the stories and we would beg — Tell us about the time you dyed the wedding gloves. Tell us about being a nurse in Winnipeg. Tell us about when you and Daddy met.

These stories gave us kids a sense of who we were and where we had come from. In a small way they located us in history and gave us a context for some of our own tendencies.

Moses encouraged—no commanded— the Israelites to tell their children the story of the death angel passing over their homes. They were to retell it every time they ate the Passover meal. In this way God's working to preserve them would be engrained on their psyches individually and as a nation.

When times were good, the story would remind them of how God had brought them out of something very bad. When times were bad, it would remind them to call on God with a faith bolstered by how He had come through for them in the past. Of course since Jesus' death the Passover meal and story takes on additional meaning for believers who celebrate it.

Luci Shaw in her book Breath for the Bones says,

"Story has the power to grasp bits of the past and carry them into the imaginative present, rescuing us from the pitfalls of abstraction. It is not insignificant that much of the Bible ... is narrative in form and that the characters and plots revealed on the sacred pages are not so different from those that surround and involve us today" Breath for the Bones, Kindle Location 966.

We need to carry on that tradition of telling stories to our children. We should tell them the embarrassing, humorous, triumphant, and love stories of our lives. We must tell them the stories of our spiritual journeys. Above all, they should hear from us the Bible stories which are, after all, the stories of our spiritual great-great-great-great.... grandparents.


PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the rich stories of the Bible that help colour the mundanities of life with spiritual meaning and significance. Help me to faithfully pass on this history to my descendants. Amen.

MORE: The power of story

"Story isn't imposed on our lives; it invites us into its life. As we enter and imaginatively participate, we find ourselves in a more spacious, freer, and more coherent world. We didn't know all this was going on! We had never noticed all this significance... Story brings us into more reality, not less, expands horizons, sharpens both sight and insight. Story is the primary means we have for learning what the world is, and what it means to be a human being in it. No wonder that from the time we acquire the rudiments of language, we demand stories" - Eugene Peterson (from Leap Over a Wall), quoted by Luci Shaw in Breath for the Bones, Kindle Location 967.

*********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Kept through trouble

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 121:1-8

TO CHEW ON: "The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in

From this time forth, and even forevermore." Psalm 121:8

Though a quick read-through of this Psalm may give us the impression that life with God is insulated and lived "on flowery beds of ease," it doesn't really say that at all. Because every positive statement the psalmist makes argues back to an implied niggling worry that is altogether familiar:

We fear that help won't come; we will slip; God will miss something; He won't keep us; we'll faint in the heat or lose heart in the night; we'll succumb to evil; our life will end badly after all.

Eugene Peterson says in his commentary on this psalm:

"No literature is more realistic and honest in facing the harsh facts of life than the Bible. At no time is there the faintest suggestion that the life of faith exempts us from difficulties....On every page of the Bible there is recognition that faith encounters troubles" A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 42.

Though this psalm does't promise a problem-free life, it does promise:
- God will be right there with us in our problems (Psalm 121:2,4).
- He controls their extent; their limits are in His hands (Psalm 121:3).
- He will send us protection and relief in them (Psalm 121:5,6).
- He preserves us through them (Psalm 121:7,8).

Peterson again:

"The Christian life is going to God. In every going to God Christians travel the same ground that everyone else walks on, breathe the same air, drink the same water, shop in the same stores, read the same newspapers...

The difference is that each step we walk, each breath we breathe we know we are preserved by God, we know we are accompanied by God, we know we are led by God; and therefore no matter what doubts we endure or what accidents we experience, the Lord will guard us from every evil, He guards our very life" - A Long Obedience p. 45 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, I lay out before You the problems of my day. Help me not to be transfixed by their bigness but to focus on how secure I am (even as I ride them out) with You beside me, behind me, in front of me, over me, under me, in me. Amen.

**********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

It's Saturday, but Sunday's coming!

Stained glass window from St.
George's Anglican Church,
Fort Langley, B.C.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 122: 1-9

TO CHEW ON: "I was glad when they said to me

'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'" Psalm 122:1

Today is Saturday. Do your thoughts flit ahead toward tomorrow with anticipation because then you can again "go into the house of the Lord"?

For David going into the house of the Lord meant gathering together with fellow Israelites in Jerusalem. It was celebrating the feast days and festivals — and they were celebrations! It meant going up to the tabernacle (the temple had not yet been built) where resided the "Testimony" — the ark with the tablets containing the ten commandments. It meant witnessing the various sacrifices, performed only by the priests, but heavy with the symbolism of God's plan of atonement, redemption and salvation for all.

What we mean when we say we go into the house of the Lord is, of course, different from David's meaning for him. But it has similarities in its regularity, the way its celebrations provide the bones of our year (Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas), and the way each visit again directs our attention God-ward.

Would you miss it if it were gone — if Sunday were just another workday? If you never had to make an appearance at church again? Sometimes the way to realize how much we appreciate a thing is to imagine it gone — indeed put ourselves through actual withdrawal for a whlie.

I don't advise doing that with church attendance (stopping to see how much you miss it). But I do think it's a valuable exercise to, once in a while, think about what it would be like if church weren't there to attend.

Today, make a list of things you would miss if your church disappeared off the face of your town and you never met with your brothers and sisters in a corporate, church-gathering way. Here is the beginning of my list:

I would miss:
1. Worshiping, loudly and heartily, with others.
2. Pastor's teaching and how it focuses me on eternal things.
3. Hearing the stories of God working in the lives of others.
4. Seeing people baptized.
5. Hearing reports from missionaries about what God is doing in other parts of the world...

Would you be sorry to see it gone? I know I would!

PRAYER: Dear God, please give me a new appreciation for my church and its role in my life. I want to say with David, "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go into the house of the Lord.'" Amen.


MORE: Songs of Ascent

Psalm 122 is one of the fifteen Psalms of Ascent (they are Psalms 120-134). Eugene Peterson writes about these psalms in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. In Chapter 1 of the book he explains their origin and use:

"These fifteen psalms were likely sung, possibly in sequence, by Hebrew pilgrims as they went up to Jerusalem to the great worship festivals.

[...] Three times a year faithful Hebrews made that trip (Exodus 23:14-17; 34:22-24). The Hebrews were a people whose salvation had been accomplished in the exodus, whose identity had been defined at Sinai, and whose preservation had been assured in the forty years of wilderness wandering.

As such a people they regularly climbed the road to Jerusalem to worship. They refreshed their memories of God's saving ways at the Feast of Passover in the spring; they renewed their commitments as God's covenanted people at the Feast of Pentecost in the early summer; they responded as a blessed community to the best that God had for them at the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn. They were a redeemed people, a commanded people, a blessed people."

- Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. pp. 18-19.

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.

Pilgrimage

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 84:1-12*

TO CHEW ON: "Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,

Whose heart is set on pilgrimage." Psalm 84:5

One way the Bible describes believers is as pilgrims.  Eugene Peterson unpacks the pilgrim image in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society:

"Pilgrim (parepidemos) tells us we are people who spend our lives going someplace, going to God, and whose path for getting there is the way, Jesus Christ. We realize 'this world is not my home,' and set out for the 'Father's house.' Abraham who 'went out,' is our archetype. Jesus answering Thomas's question, 'Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?' gives us directions: 'I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from Me (John 14:5-6)" - p. 18.

Our pilgrimage through life will be a mixed adventure. There will be "Valleys of Baca"—dry, difficult, dangerous places (Valley of Baca means "Valley of tears"). But because we find our strength in God, "They (we) make it a spring." Doesn't this remind us of John 14:14: "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

However, heaven is not unresponsive, the psalmist reassures. "The rain also covers it (that Valley of Baca) with pools." The rain is "...the early rain that begins to fall in the autumn and gives new life to sprouting plants and strength to men" explains my Bible's footnote - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 751.

The journey finally ends in God's courts where "A day...is better than a thousand." In other words, the destination is worth all the effort to get there.

Where are you on your pilgrimage today? Whether in a dry, tearful Valley of Baca, or on a path surrounded by pools of blessing, stay the course. Your destination, "God's courts" (as in your final home of heaven, or your experience of God's presence even as you journey) is well worth the quest.


PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to be a faithful and brave pilgrim through whatever landscape life takes me. Please refresh that fountain of living water springing up in me. Amen.

Work that lasts

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 127:1-5

TO CHEW ON: "Unless the Lord builds the house
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city
The watchman stays awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early,
To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows;
For so He gives His beloved sleep." Psalm 127:1,2

These verses tell me that the things I want to accomplish—in whatever field they are—will wear me out if I try to get them done by myself. And unless I am cooperating with God there will be no lasting fruit from my efforts in any case.

Eugene Peterson comments on this psalm in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. He points out how people tend to distort work, making it all self-effort (e.g. Humanism), or opting out of activity into a state of pure being (e.g. Buddhism). Christian parallels are the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) or the retirement of the Thessalonians who gave up work to wait for Jesus' return (2 Thessalonians 3:11-13).

But, Peterson reminds us, God worked and works:

"The work of God is defined and described in the pages of Scripture. We have models of creation, acts of redemption, examples of help and compassion, paradigms of comfort and salvation. One of the reasons that Christians read Scripture repeatedly and carefully is to find out just how God works in Jesus Christ so that we can work in the name of Jesus Christ" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 108, 109.

So what does a proper work ethic look like for the Christian? Peterson again:

"Christian discipleship, by orienting us in God's work and setting us in the mainstream of what God is already doing, frees us from the compulsiveness of work" - Peterson, p. 109 (emphasis added).

The psalmist's example of fruitful, easy work—the begetting of children (Psalm 127:3-5)—also has a Christian life parallel:

"The character of our work is shaped not by accomplishments or possessions but in the birth of relationships. Children are God's best gift! We invest our energy in people .... We learn a name; we start a friendship; we follow up on a smile .... Out of numerous handshakes and greetings, some germinate and grow into a friendship in Christ" - Peterson, pp. 110, 111 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to be sensitive to what You are doing, and to work with You, especially in building relationships. Amen.

MORE: Work, discipleship, and obedience

"It is the nature of sin to take good things and twist them, ever so slightly, so that they miss the target to which they were aimed, the target of God. One requirement of discipleship is to learn the ways sin skews our nature and submit what we learn to the continuing will of God, so that we are shaped through the days of our obedience" - Peterson, Op. Cit. p. 105 (emphasis added). 

***********

Secure because He is faithful

Modern Jerusalem - photo by beggs

(on flickr, via everystockphoto.com - used with permission)

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 125:1-5

TO CHEW ON: "As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
So the Lord surrounds His people
From this time forth and forever." Psalm 125:2

Psalm 125 is a "Song of Ascent"—one of the songs Jewish pilgrims sang on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the yearly feasts (Psalms 120-134).  In this one, the writer likens the travellers' security to the security of their destination, Zion (Jerusalem).

Eugene Peterson in his book about these psalms talks about Jerusalem's physical situation and draws a spiritual parallel:

"Jerusalem was set in a saucer of hills. It was the safest of cities because of the protective fortress these hills provided. Just so is the person of faith surrounded by the Lord" - Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 85 (all page numbers below from the same book).

If we are so secure ("surrounded by the Lord") why do we often feel insecure? Peterson points out three possible sources of insecurity and how God anchors us even in them.

1. We listen to our feelings which change with circumstances. One day we're up, the next we're down.
To counter that, Peterson says, "... we learn to live not by our feelings about God but by the facts about God .... My security comes from who God is, not from how I feel" - p. 87.

2. We experience pain and suffering.
But these conditions are not permanent: "Nothing counter to God's justice has any eternity to it - 1 Corinthians 10:13" - p. 89.

3. We fear we will defect, give up, backslide.
About this insecurity Peterson says, "It is not possible to drift unconsciously from faith to perdition .... Defection requires a deliberate sustained and determined rejection.... We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us" - pp. 89,90.

Whatever life throws at us in the form of feelings, physical challenges, or self-doubts, we are secure because our security is not in ourselves but in our God who never changes!

PRAYER: Dear God, I am so glad that in You there is no "shadow of turning" and that You never change and that I can trust You to hang onto me even when I am discouraged, hurting or fearful. Amen.

MORE: Great is Thy Faithfulness sung by Chris Rice

The happy life of blessing

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 128:1-6

TO CHEW ON: "Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,

Who walks in His ways." Psalm 128:1

Yesterday, as I was watching "Property Virgins" (an HGTV show where we follow home buyers in their attempt to purchase a first property) I was struck by a statement made by the young woman of the featured couple. After they encountered road block after road block to the closing of their purchase, the host Sandra asked them how they were feeling. The wife answered, "As if I'm depending on someone else for my happiness."

Happiness is what Psalm 128 is about. Eugene Peterson in the chapter on this psalm in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction describes how the "blessed" [or happy - asher - Psalm 128:1-2; barak - Psalm 128:4-5] state is what Psalm 128 is about, beginning with the promise: "blessed is every one who fears the Lord" to the pronouncement of the physical blessing of seeing our human descendants in, "Yes, may you see your children's children."

He explains how the Bible is one long exposition of God's blessing from Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:28), to Abraham (Genesis 12:2), to the twelve tribes (Genesis 49), to Jesus' beatitude blessings (Matthew 5:3-12), to the seven "salvos of blessing" in Revelation (Revelation 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:714).

So, is Peterson saying that for those who "fear the Lord" there will be a smooth sailing happiness for the duration of life? That's certainly not been my experience, and I'm sure it's not yours. If it doesn't mean constant situational happiness, what does the happiness of God's blessing mean?

Peterson again:

"As we read this story of blessing and familiarize ourselves with the men and women who are experiencing God's blessing, we realize that it is not something external or ephemeral. Not a matter of having a good day, not an occasional run of luck. It is an

'inner strength of the soul — and the happiness it creates, ....the vital power, without which no living being can exist. Happiness cannot be given to a person as something lying outside him...The action of God does not fall outside but at the very centre of the soul; that which it gives us is not something external, but the energy, the power of creating it ... The blessing thus comprises the power to live in its deepest and most comprehensive sense. Nothing which belongs to action and to making life real can fall outside the blessing....Blessing is the vital power, without which no living being can exist.'*

It is this that fills and surrounds the person who is on the way of faith." - p. 117.

I must admit I have been where the young house hunter of my opening paragraph was — wishing circumstances would change so I could again feel happy. But such happiness is shallow and transient. Oh to have, on a daily basis, that "inner strength of the soul," the "power to live" in the faith that God is in every situation, that He loves me and that He is working all the time for my highest good.

PRAYER: Dear God, please grow my faith in Your goodness and Your good plans for me. May I experience and live Your blessing over the long haul of discipleship. Amen.

MORE: No tricks, no luck

"There are no tricks involved in getting in on this life of blessing, and no luck required. We simply become Christians and begin the life of faith. We acknowledge God as our maker and lover and accept Christ as the means by which we can be in living relationship with God. We accept the announced and proclaimed truth that God is at the centre of our existence, find out how he has constructed this world (his creation), how he has provided for our redemption, and proceed to walk in that way. In the plain words of the psalm: "All you who fear God, how blessed you are! how happily you awoke on his smooth straight road!" - Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 119-120.

"If you go against the grain of the universe, you get splinters." - H. H. Farmer (quoted in Peterson, p. 121).

* quote from Johannes Pedersen, Israel: Its Life and Culture, 1926; pp. 182-199.