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.

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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.

A home for God

TODAY'S SPECIAL: John 14:15-31

TO CHEW ON: "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him.'" John 14:23

What a delightful possibility—to make a home with God, to have God make His home with us. This is what we have when we have the Holy Spirit. Our passage today gives us some ideas of what God at home with us is like.


1. We live with a Helper - John 14:16, 26

[Helper - parakletos 3875. Para = beside. Kaleo = to call. Called to one's side, intercessor, comforter, helper, advocate, counsellor. In nonbiblical literature parakletos had the technical meaning of an attorney who appears in court in another's behalf. The Holy Spirit leads believers to a greater apprehension of gospel truth. In addition to general help and guidance, He gives the strength to endure the hostility of the world system. - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1472.]

What are some of the ways He helps us? He will teach all things and bring Jesus' sayings to mind. For the disciples one way this promise was fulfilled was by the Holy Spirit bringing to mind the sayings of Jesus so Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could write them down in the Gospels. For us, it is words, ideas, songs, and memorized Scriptures that come to mind to encourage us in everyday life.


2. We live with truth - John 14:17
When the Holy Spirit lives with us we have within us a spiritual and moral compass based on what is real, true and unchanging. No longer is there any question about whether it's okay to lie, cheat, spread gossip, or nurture jealousy and unforgiveness.

3. We live with family - John 14:19-20
Jesus said, "I will not leave you orphans," implying that when He imparts the Holy Spirit, He comes with an aspect of family—of parenting. He also said, "I am in My Father and you in Me and I in you." This reminds us of how we carry the characteristics of our ancestors in our very DNA. Oh that we would carry God's characteristics in our makeup to that extent!


4. We live in a mutual relationship - John 14:21, 23-24
Our mutual relationship with God is characterized by revelation and love on the Father's part, obedience and love on our part. Revelation comes through His commandments (God's word - the Bible) and His promise to "manifest" Himself to us. We keep our end of the relationship when we become familiar with and obey His words, and thus demonstrate that we really do love Him.

A home is not made in a day. It is something that lasts and can endure a lifetime of day-to-days, of experiences, of walking through life together. That's what God wants to do with us—make a home with us, do life with us.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the Holy Spirit — in a way the oxygen, blood and synapses of my life with You. Help me to be a worthy, compliant and obedient host for Your life in me. Amen.

MORE: My Heart Christ's Home

I have in my packrat collections, a little booklet called "My Heart Christ's Home" by Robert Boyd Munger. A few years ago, I posted several sections of it on my personal blog promptings. Munger has done a wonderful job of extending the metaphor of our life being a home for God. The booklet is longer than these two sections, but they will give you an idea:

Heart cleaning — the library

Heart cleaning — the dining room

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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.

Part of a bigger story

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ruth 4:1-22

TO CHEW ON: "And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David." Ruth 4:17.

The story of Boaz and Ruth ends happily. The other relative and first-in-line with a right to redeem Naomi's land (and inherit Ruth as his wife) declines. And so Boaz gets the land and the wife, and soon there is a baby on the way.

Naomi becomes a grandma whose happy lot is lauded by the "chorus"—the women of Bethlehem. They sing the praises of Ruth while Naomi cuddles little Obed (Ruth 4:14-17).

And then the author does something interesting—recites a genealogy. By doing this, I believe he is telling us this story of Naomi and Ruth, Boaz and Obed fits into a much larger one.

Some of the characters of this larger story:

Perez
Perez was the son of Judah (son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Israel's patriarch Abraham) and Tamar. Tamar was that woman first married to Judah's firstborn son, who, when he died, Judah gave her to his second son. When he died too, Judah promised her to the third son. Tamar, not trusting Judah to keep his word, dressed as a prostitute and got pregnant by Judah himself. Yikes! (Read the story in Genesis 38. Perez appears in Genesis 38:29).

Nahshon
Nahshon was the head of the tribe of Judah during their time of wandering in the wilderness under Moses - Numbers 1:7; 2:3.

David
He was the second king of Israel and the prophets predicted Messiah would come from His house and line - Jeremiah 23:5; Isaiah 9:7; 11:1; Acts 13:34.

Flipping over to the New Testament book of Matthew, we see a continuation of the genealogy begun in Ruth and how it eventually leads to—Jesus! (Matthew 1:1-16).

All our stories are also part of a larger story. Just like Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz had no idea they were living out an episode in the narrative of God's big story of redemption, neither do we know the plot line or significance of the story of our lives.

God does, though:

"And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them" - Psalm 139:16

and

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" - Ephesians 2:10 (emphases added).

I'm looking forward to heaven—when I'll be able to read and understand the whole book, including my little chapter of it! You too?

PRAYER: Dear Father, how exciting to zoom in on these little episodes of Your story and see You working in the details of the lives of ordinary people. May I be a sympathetic character in Your story on earth. Amen. 

MORE: I came across a short video about the book of Ruth by Dr. Daniel I Block (professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College). He has recently written the commentary on Ruth in the  Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament series. This under 5-minute video puts a perfect cherry on top of our short study! Watch it. It's so worthwhile!





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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.

Let God father you

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 89:19-37

TO CHEW ON: "He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father,

My God and the rock of my salvation." Psalm 89:26

Dr. David Popenoe, a sociologist who researches fathers and fatherhood talks, without equivocation, about the importance of fathers: "'Fathers are far more than just "second adults" in the home. Involved fathers bring positive benefits to their children that no other person is as likely to bring.'" The article from which this quote was taken (to child protection workers in the U.S.) goes on to discuss how children with involved, caring fathers have better education outcomes, are more emotionally secure, and feel safer than children who grow up in homes without a father present.

In our reading today Ethan the Ezrahite draws our attention to the son-father relationship that David had with God (Psalm 89:26). Jesus often talked about and referred to God as His Father too (e.g. Mark 11:27).

["The word 'father' is ab. It is one of the first words a baby can speak. The Aramaic form of 'ab' is 'abba' which has become common in Hebrew as the word Israelite children use for 'daddy.' Jesus applied this toddler's word to His divine Father in Mark 14:36" - Dick Mills, "Word Wealth", New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 736.]

We too are God's children. He is our Father (2 Corinthians 6:18), a fact we accept by faith (Galatians 3:26). How does God father us?

• He forms us - Isaiah 64:8.

• He adopts us - Romans 8:15.

• He guides us - Jeremiah 3:4

• We talk to Him in prayer - Matthew 6:6.

• He promises to give us good things - Matthew 7:11.

• He gives us a heritage - Jeremiah 3:19.

• He will judge our performance fairly - 1 Peter 1:17.

• We have the promise that we will be like Him someday - 1 John 3:2.

Transferring the feelings that we have for our earthly fathers to our heavenly Father is always tricky—even if our earthly father was a good one. It is even more difficult if our earthly father was absent, abusive, or a negative influence. However, even in this God fathers us. For convincing us of the fact that we are God's children and what that means is one of the jobs of God the Holy Spirit:

"And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, 'Abba Father'"- Galatians 4:6.

and

"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" - Romans 8:16.

Let's let God father us today.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for being my Father. Help me to learn more and more what this means in my everyday life. Amen.

MORE: "Father Me" by Brian Doerksen

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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.

Table presence

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 24:28-49

TO CHEW ON: "And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread." Luke 24:35

"Come Lord Jesus, be our guest

May this food to us be blessed.  Amen."

This childhood grace came true in the flesh for two disciples. Unbeknownst to them, Jesus was their traveling companion on the road to Emmaus. At the end of the seven-mile walk, they invited this interesting stranger to stay with them.

It was in the breaking of bread that they recognized Him. What was it that twigged—the lift of His eyes when he gave thanks? The way He tore the bread and dipped it into the sauce? The way He chewed? The fact that these disciples recognized Him during their meal tells us they had shared meals with Him before.

Henri Nouwen talks about the meaning of this incident:

"The table is the place of intimacy. Around the table we discover each other. It's the place where we pray. It's the place where we ask: 'How was your day?' ...


'The table, too, is the place where distance is most painfully felt. It is the place where the children feel the tension between the parents, where brothers and sisters express their anger and jealousies...


'Around the table, we know whether there is friendship and community or hatred and division. ...it is also the place where the absence of that intimacy is most painfully revealed" - Henri Nouwen, With Burning Hearts, pp. 74,75 (paragraphing added to ease online reading).

Mr. Nouwen's musings bring me to the question, is the table in my home a place of blessing or pain? Do I truly expect Jesus to be my guest? Is He present with me, with us, in this most ordinary, mundane, and needful activity of life?

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for sharing with us Your life on earth in these ordinary ways (and inspiring Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to record them). Please be with me in my sitting and walking, at the table and doing the dishes, when I work at my computer or read my book. Please join me in all my activities of daily living. Amen.

MORE: Nouwen again...

"Jesus accepts the invitation to come into the home of his traveling companions, and he sits down at table with them. ...Then something new happens. Something scarcely noticeable to an untrained eye. Jesus is the guest of his disciples, but as soon as he enters into their home, he becomes their host! And as their host, he invites them to enter into full communion with him" - Henri Nouwen, With Burning Hearts, p. 77.

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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.

Indiscriminate love

"Give to him who asks you."
Published in 1899 - Artist unknown.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 5:38-48

TO CHEW ON: "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven..." Matthew 5:44,45

How do I handle people stepping on my toes, not literally, but figuratively? That's the question I'm asking myself as I read the list of personal rights infractions with which Jesus challenges His listeners (Matthew 5:38-42). I realize, as I read the way Jesus told His disciples to react, that I'm pretty entrenched in the modern I-have-my-rights way of thinking. I would never naturally turn the other cheek for another slap, give my sweater to a thief who has just taken my jacket, volunteer to work extra hours of forced labour, or willingly lend to the neighbourhood mooch who never returns things.

The behaviour Jesus taught is love that goes way beyond the usual tit-for-tat. It's me and you loving:
- By choice. It takes a firm act of the will to react in such an anti-intuitive way.
- Indiscriminately. Everybody is a candidate for this kind of love, no matter what their behaviour.
- Practically. Besides giving in, it blesses, does good and prays for the loved one.

The point is not to be a pushover but to prove that we are children of God, whose very DNA is love, and who went to the greatest length to prove His love to us (John 3:16).

So how do I change from an I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine type of lover to the indiscriminate lover Jesus describes? A sidebar article in my Bible sheds some light on this:

"A major emphasis of Jesus' teaching is how to build and maintain right relationships with God and others. He views these relationships as neither unimportant nor extraneous, but as vital components of our Christian lives. Knowing God is our highest priority, but this pursuit should not replace or diminish our interpersonal relationships with others. Rather, our personal interaction with God should produce within us the qualities of character that build and sustain all our relationships" - Leslyn Musch, New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1439 (emphasis added).

PRAYER: Dear God, I read these things and realize how little family likeness is in me. Help me to get to know You so well, to be so much Your daughter, that demonstrating Your love to others will become second nature. Amen.


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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.

Who is our real family?

"Mary seeks her son" - Max Furst

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 3:20-35

TO CHEW ON: "And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him and said, 'Here are My Mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.'" Mark 3:34,35

Some of life's deepest hurts can come from people in our family. The people we're closest to genetically and in living arrangement, who we're supposed to love and who are supposed to love, us can really cut our souls with words, actions or non-actions.

Here Jesus is misunderstood by His family: "'His own people.' The Greek expression may well denote Jesus' immediately family (Mark 3:31" - J. Lyle Story in the notes on Mark, New Spirit Filled Life Bible, p. 1354.

One gets the sense that they were embarrassed by His publicity and the controversy He caused. Afraid that He had 'lost it,' they came to take Him in hand to preserve peace with the Jewish leaders and the family's reputation.

Jesus did not let them silence Him. Rather, He repudiated their claim on Him, saying to the disciples who surrounded Him, "For whoever does the will of God is My brother, and My sister and mother" - Mark 3:35.

The reality of spiritual family permeates the Bible.

• Jesus felt a kinship with His heavenly family from his early days. At twelve years of age, He stayed behind in the Jerusalem temple and said, when Mary and Joseph (his earthly dad) finally found Him: "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" - Luke 2:49.

• Paul, in his letters to the churches uses family terms like "brethren" (1 Corinthians 1:10; Galatians 1:2; Colossians 1:2 etc.), "children of God" (Romans 8:16,21), "sons of God" (Galatians 3:26). So does John (1 John 3:10; 5:2).

• The writer of Hebrews talks of believers, though imperfect ("those who are being sanctified") as Jesus' brothers (Hebrews 2:11) and explains that one reason Jesus came in the flesh was to be like us "His brethren" in order to understand us and aid us in overcoming temptation (Hebrews 2:17,18).

• Perhaps the most comforting Bible promise in this regard is expressed by David:

"When my father and my mother forsake me  / Then the Lord will take care of me." - Psalm 27:10

So let's remember, if our earthly family has shunned us, we are not family-less. Let's acknowledge and nurture our family-of-God relationships, finding in them what we never can in those relatives whose ties lack the spiritual gene.

PRAYER: Dear God, it hurts to be misunderstood by family members—those people from whom I expect to get sympathy, love, and understanding. When barriers come as a result of my allegiance to You, help me to find a family and be a family to other Christian brothers and sisters. Amen.

MORE: Brothers and sisters

"God takes very seriously the truth that all his children are brothers and sisters. They all have one Father, one homeland. And God says, there is a way that my children should feel about each other. Not just act toward each other, but feel about each other. They are to be tenderly affectionate toward each other. Why? Because this testifies to the reality of the family of God. To feel hard toward each other, to feel indifferent or narrow, not to mention bitter and resentful, toward each other, contradicts who God is and who we are. God is our father and we are his children and we are brothers and sisters in one family with the deepest common values in the universe." - By John Piper in ""Love One Another With Tender Affection," ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Website: desiringGod.org