Living in God's house

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 23:1-6

TO CHEW ON: "… And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever"  Psalm 23:6 NKJV

"…and through the length of days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place."  Psalm 23:6 Amplified

Most of us spend only a tiny percentage of our week in church. David, the writer of this psalm, may have spent more time in the temple than we spend in church, but he surely didn't live there. So what did he mean by "I will dwell in the house of the Lord / Forever"? Isn't that even a little weird?

Let's start answering that by thinking about what happens in God's house—in David's time and still today. There is worship, praise, and thanksgiving in word, music and singing. There is prayer, repentance, fellowship, testimony, and giving.

Of course all of the things above are also things we could do in other places as well. So we might ask, could dwelling in the house of the Lord mean bringing more of what happens in church into other places, like our everyday living? Could we bring more gratitude, worship and praise expressed in singing and speaking, more sensitivity to sin and quickness to repent, more eagerness to share what God is doing with those our lives touch every day, more generosity with our time, our stuff, ourselves, our home...?

The way the Amplified Bible adds "[and His presence] shall be my dwelling place" gives us another clue concerning this type of life. How do we live in God's presence?

• "I have set the Lord always before me" says David in Psalm 16:8, implying a conscious effort to remember God is here.

• We cultivate a humble attitude - Psalm 34:18.

• We concentrate on His goodness to us - Psalm 75:1.

• We call on him (pray) - Psalm 145:18.

• We trust Him - Psalm 73:28.

• We purify our consciences of known sin - Hebrews 10:22.

• We draw near to Him even when He doesn't feel near to us and suddenly we realize He was there all the time - James 4:8.

• And of course we live in Him, He in us, as we allow His life to flow to/through us - John 15:5,7,10.

Maybe it's not so impossible, or weird, to live in God's house all the time after all!

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to live in Your 'house,' conscious of Your presence today. Amen.

MORE: "Better Is One Day In Your House" by Matt Redman

********

The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation - Used with permission.

Overcome by glory

The priests brought in the ark 
to the most holy place" - Paul Hardy

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Kings 8:1-21

TO CHEW ON: "And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord." 1 Kings 8:10-11

What a wonderful benediction fell on David and Solomon's temple project when God's glory filled it. The temple was so full, so thick with the shockingly awesome glory of God that the priests couldn't do their work.

We think of other times God's glory is mentioned in the Bible.

• It appeared to the Israelites in the wilderness as a bright cloud by day, a fiery cloud by night - Exodus 16:7, 10.

• It illumined the top of Mount Sinai when God met with Moses and the Israelites there (Exodus 24:17).

• When the tabernacle was finished, God's glory filled it (Exodus 40:34), as it did the temple in today's reading.

• Glory surrounded the angels who announced Jesus' birth - Luke 2:9.

• Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus as he gazed into heaven just before he died under a barrage of stones - Acts 7:55.

• And here is the wonderful one: We are being transformed to reflect that same glory. As we see the glory of God through Jesus in the Bible and let the Holy Spirit change us, we "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" - 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Rick Warren gives us a great definition of God's glory in The Purpose Driven Life:

"What is the glory of God? It is who God is. It is the essence of his nature, the weight of his importance, the radiance of his splendour, the demonstration of his power, and the atmosphere of his presence. God's glory is the expression of his goodness and all his other intrinsic, eternal qualities" - page 53.

He goes on to list five things we can do to bring God glory:
1. Worship Him - Romans 6:13
2. Love other believers - 1 John 3:14.
3. Become like Christ - 2 Corinthians 3:18.
4. Serve others with our gifts - 1 Peter 4:10-11, 2 Corinthians 8:19.
5. Tell others about Him - 2 Corinthians 4:15 (from The Purpose Driven Life pp. 55-57).


PRAYER: Dear God, in the natural I live out the truth of the words: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Please transform my life so that I will  give You glory and reflect Your glory. Amen.

MORE: Lord, Let Your Glory Fall − Matt Redman

**********

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.

You can be God's friend

Bronze crucifix by Donatello - c. 1448

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Hebrews 2:1-18

TO CHEW ON: “So it is evident that it was essential that He be made like His brethren in every respect, in order that He might become a merciful (sympathetic) and faithful High Priest in the things related to God to make atonement and propitiation for the people’s sins. - Hebrews 2:17 – Amplified.

In many ways we moderns have adapted God to our culture. We are soft on sin in ourselves, saying we can’t help sinning for a myriad of reasons. In such a thought climate it’s hard to view realistically God's holiness and inability to tolerate sin.*

But if God possesses all the attributes we credit Him with, His holiness, which can’t bear the presence of sin, and His mercy, which loves us, can only coexist if the price for sin – death – is paid.

That’s where the concept of propitiation comes in. When Jesus, who was human (like us), and sinless (unlike us) took the punishment for our sin, God was appeased or propitiated and we are reconciled to Him.

In our tolerant-of-sin culture, I don’t think we begin to appreciate the hugeness of what this means. H. C. Thiessen, author of a favorite old systematic theology textbook I own says it simply yet profoundly:

“The thought is something like this: At first God and man stood face to face with each other. In sinning, Adam turned his back upon God. Then God turned His back upon Adam. Christ’s death has satisfied the demands of God and now God has again turned His face toward man. It remains for man to turn round about and face God. Since God has been reconciled by the death of His Son, man is now entreated to be reconciled to God.”
- Lectures in Systematic Theology by H. C. Thiessen (1949), p. 328.

PRAYER: Thank you God for making a way for me to be reconciled to You. Thank you Jesus, for dying for me. Amen.

MORE:  "Worthy, You Are Worthy"

How can we respond to such good news but with praise?




* Some parts of Christendom have such a problem with this they have played down the atonement aspect of what Jesus did, questioning whether it really happened and using language like “cosmic child abuse” (on linked page skip down to the heading “Penal Substitution”) to describe God sending Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins .

Also:
J. I. Packer’s response
Adrian Warnock

(From the archives)

True worship

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 4:1-24

TO CHEW ON: "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." John 4:24

There is at this time in Protestant church circles, a range of opinions on the best way to worship God. On one hand there are those who are discovering new-to-them practices of worship by exploring and reintroducing the old ways. A return to liturgy and various methods of contemplative prayer are gaining popularity. Here, for example, is an article by a former Baptist pastor explaining how he uses a rosary in prayer.

On the other side there are those who caution against any and all whiffs of the contemplative, warning that even though these things were modeled and taught by the early church fathers and mothers, they were influenced by paganism and thus tainted and suspect.

Personally, I understand the need for caution but also wonder if we're not going overboard when we label as dangerous everyone with whom we don't agree on every detail. I find myself siding with A. W. Tozer who, when he was criticized for reading and quoting Catholic writers like Julian of Norwich, Augustine, Francis of Assissi, and Michale De Molinos "...handled these naysayers in the same way he dealt with negative comments from his frequent references to the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers, or moderns such as Thomas Merton. These saints, from Tozer's angle of vision, knew the Lord intimately and he learned from their writings about drawing closer to Christ — even if he did not agree with everything they believed" - Lyle Dorset,  A Passion for God: The Spiritual Journey of A. W. Tozer , Moody Publishers 2008,  Kindle location 2074.

But how does one decide what to use, and what to throw out? Worship leader LeMar Boschman writes, in a sidebar article in my Bible:

"It is the believer's responsibility to discover how the Lord wants to be worshiped and to explore and cultivate a relationship with Him out of which sincere, Holy Spirit-enabled worship will flow. Jesus instructs it:

Worship in "spirit" — that is alive through new birth (John 1:12-13; 3:6-7) and aglow with holy Spirit enablement (1 Corinthians 14:14-15). This is not mechanical, rote or merely human activity but dynamically capacitated spiritual action.

"In truth" emphasizes biblical integrity joined to personal honesty, manifest in a heart of sincerity, a humble manner of transparency and a relational integrity. Meaning and being what we say, as well as being spiritually energized in our worship, opens the way to that worship the Father seeks" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1449.

With the Bible as our plum line, we won't go wrong.

PRAYER: Dear God, direct me to true worship through Your word. Please warn me by Your Spirit against any practice or method of prayer or meditation that is dangerous, forbidden, or will do me harm. Amen.

MORE: "Heart of Worship" - Matt Redman