Browse in your Father's clothes closet

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TODAY'S SPECIAL: Leviticus 1-4;  Psalm 30

TO CHEW ON: "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness." Psalm 30:11


What are you wearing right now? Chances are it's something comfortable, suitable to the temperature in the room, car, outdoors or wherever you are, and was chosen with various things in mind.

Clothing does so much. It protects and warms us (or is scant enough that we don't get too warm). It preserves our modesty and may hide what we consider physical flaws and shortcomings. We choose our clothes with many things in mind—comfort, style, the activities we're planning to do wearing them, season of the year, color. They give subtle messages about our status and wealth, whether we're neat or sloppy, how we feel about the occasion and the company we're in.

We find many references to clothes in the Bible, both literal and symbolic.

Immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, they felt the need for physical clothes. The patriarchs tore their clothes to demonstrate grief. The clothes of the priests were rich with meaning and symbolism.

The many things that clothes do for and say about us give the clothing metaphors and symbols that run through the Bible added significance.

• God dresses like a warrior - Isaiah 59:17.

• His provision in the Old Testament is symbolized by the priests who were "clothed in salvation" - 2 Chronicles 6:41.  (As we read today in Leviticus 1-4 about about the offerings the priests had to make so that sinful people could approach a holy God, we can only imagine how bloody and soiled their priestly clothes must have become--a reminder that salvation is costly.)

• God exchanges our filthy spiritual clothes for clean ones - Zechariah 3:4.
• He cleans up prostitute Israel and dresses her in embroidered cloth, sandals of badger skin, fine linen and silk - Ezekiel 16:10.
• He takes off the pigsty rags of the prodigal and puts on the best robes, rings and sandals of a son - Luke 15:22.
• He gives those who trust in Him clothes of praise, salvation, righteousness (Isaiah 61:3,10) and in our focus verse, "gladness" - Psalm 30:11.

• His children are dressed like king's kids.
• The royal daughter wears clothing "woven with gold" - Psalm 45:13. 
• The training of our parents is jewelry—"a graceful ornament on your head, and chains about your neck" - Proverbs 1:9.  
• Wisdom is our head-ornament and crown - Proverbs 4:9.

• God gives us a whole wardrobe for life on His side.
• There is armor for fighting - Ephesians 6:13-17.
• There is the unencumbered spandex of the Christian race - Hebrews 12:1.
• And especially for women, there are the clothes of good works, godliness (1 Timothy 2:10), and a quiet and gentle spirit (1 Peter 3:4).

• To meet Him someday, he provides a wedding garment (Matthew 22:11) of "fine linen, clean and bright" (Revelation 19:8).

I ask myself, and you, what spiritual clothes are we wearing? Have we chosen to claim all God's promises and let Him take off our sackcloth of worry, fear, care, and life-distraction? Have we browsed through His rich clothes closet for all that's available to us?


PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for all that these spiritual clothes signify of salvation, protection, purity, plenty, preparedness, identity as Your children, and more. Help me, by faith, to put on clothes from Your closet today. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 30

The Bible Project VIDEO: Leviticus (Read Scripture Series)



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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.

Your new name

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 62:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "You shall be called by a new name

Which the mouth of the Lord will name." Isaiah 62:2

Whenever I read about a new name in the Bible, I think of Donna Smallenberg's painting by that title. In it a beautiful queen looks intently at a glowing white stone with an inscription on it. Smallenberg's inspiration for that painting came from Revelation 2 (Revelation 2:17) and Isaiah 62. She says of her depiction:

"This woman representing the overcoming church in Revelations 2 is given a white stone with a new name written on it. The white stone is symbolic of priestly revelation, the new name reveals her true calling and destiny. Isaiah 62 speaks of her shining like the dawn, of being a crown of beauty in the Lord's hand..."

What was her old name? "Forsaken." "Desolate" - Isaiah 62:4.

Her new name is "Hephzibah"—"My delight is in her," and "Beulah"—"married," and a "Holy People," "The Redeemed of the Lord," "Sought Out," and "A City Not forsaken" - Isaiah 62:4,12.

This new name promise is repeated in Revelation 3:12:

"He who overcomes I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem... And I will write on him My new name."

Neil Anderson, in an appendix to the book The Bondage Breaker lists statements that summarize our identity in Christ—our new names. Below are a few from a much longer list. Let's ponder them today and thank God again for the wonderful thing He did when He sent Jesus to earth to adopt us and make us His own.

• I am a new creation - 2 Corinthians 5:17.
• I am a child of God - John 1:12.
• I am a son/daughter of light not of darkness - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
• I am Christ's friend, chosen and appointed to bear His fruit - John 15:15,16.
• I am part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life - John 15:1,5.
• I am God's workmanship—His handiwork - Ephesians 2:10.
• I am one of God's living stones - 1 Peter 2:5.
• I am a joint heir with Christ - Romans 8:17.
• I am a citizen of heaven - Philippians 3:20, Ephesians 2:6.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You that I am Yours and have a new identity in You. Help me to live true to the names You call me. Amen.

MORE: Our thanks back to God

In the last few days I've been listening to Robin Mark's 2009 Year of Grace CD while cooking dinner. One song I can't hear enough times is his rendition of "Greater the One." As we ponder Jesus' coming to earth as a baby and all His life means for us now (our new names and all the benefits of new life in Him),  this song is the perfect response. Sing along with Robin Mark these words of appreciation and thankfulness to our beautiful Saviour.

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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.

Do we have "high places"?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Micah 1:1-16

TO CHEW ON: "For behold the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth." - Micah 1:3

"Prophecies of Christ make Micah's book glow with hope and encouragement," says Willard Elijahson in my Bible's introduction to Micah (New Spirit-Filled Bible, p. 1202). It's a great book to read as we look forward to the season of Advent that begins in a few weeks' time.

Micah, the man, prophesied alongside Isaiah. Historians date his writings between 704-696 B.C. during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His message is directed to inhabitants of Samaria and Jerusalem.

He begins his message by announcing the coming of the Lord. We get the picture of someone coming from elsewhere: "...the Lord is coming out of His place; He will come down..." - Micah 1:3.

The place God chooses to visit is noteworthy—the "high places of the earth." Though we might read this as elevated land masses (mountain peaks perhaps, which would give a good view of all the surrounding area) the people of that time would probably have understood high places to mean elevated pagan altars. God was coming to check out their disloyalty—the places they compromised, flirted with, and gave in to idols. Awkward! Embarrassing! Incriminating!

The picture of God coming down to check out the high places of Judah prompts me to ask, what if I applied this image to my society, my life? What would God find?

Dennis McCallum in his book Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan explains how, at the fall, Satan took charge of the world system or kosmos. He says:

"Perhaps the definitive passage on kosmos is 1 John 2:15-17.

'Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.'

Accordingly the kosmos is primarily a system of values. The lust of the flesh refers to living for ungodly pleasure. The lust of the eyes refers to owning beautiful things or gaining control over beautiful people. The boastful pride of life refers to the way humans try to establish identity and importance by competing with each other for attention, power, and admiration" (Kindle Location, 871).

McCallum goes on to suggest that the church and we as individual Christians have gone easy on many of these attitudinal sins:

"Many Christians think of 'worldly' things as gross sins like wanton sex, for example .... Many of the same Christians, however, would never recognize the world-system when looking at the Harvard University green or the Sears Tower. A glossy magazine advertisement showing a family luxuriating in a hot tub in Tahiti or a shiny new SUV would not ring the kosmos bell in their minds" - KL 887.

Are we in these ways building our own high places? As I imagine God coming to me, I ask, what high places is He finding in my life? Is He finding some in yours?

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to see my attitudes from Your point of view. Show me where I have bought into the world system and perspective. Amen.

MORE: Throwing down 'high place' attitudes

"Instead of arguing with Satan, Christians must learn to share the Word of God with him, like Jesus did. To match up with someone this smart, we need the help of someone even smarter, and God is infinitely smarter than Satan" - McCallum, K.L. 767.

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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.

He identifies with us

"Baptism of Jesus" by Isabella Colette

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 1:1-13

TO CHEW ON: "And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan." Mark 1:9

Mark makes it clear that people were coming to John for baptism to confess their sins and for the remission of their sins. So why did Jesus (who was sinless—2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26—ask to be baptized?

I would submit that one purpose for His baptism was to identify with us. How so?

He would become sin for us. Paul says that God "...made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.." Though Jesus never committed sin, in His baptism He foreshadowed those awful / wonderful hours on the cross when He bore all the sins of all the people that had ever lived and would ever live (including yours and mine).

We can trust Him because He understands the human experience. Hebrews 2 talks more about what His identifying with us means:

• He was subject to physical death (Hebrews 2:14). But His death was loaded with significance in that He would, by dying, satisfy God's wrath against sin ("make propitiation for the sins of the people" - Hebrews 2:17).

• By taking on human existence, He understood/understands our temptation and is able to help us when we are tempted (Hebrews 2:18; 1 Corinthians 10:13).

• When He limited Himself to a human body, He became subject to our weaknesses and so has compassion (deals gently) with us in them (Hebrews 2:5).

I love the aspect of Holy Spirit 's involvement in Jesus' baptism that unfolded when Jesus came up from the water and "He saw the heavens parting (torn open) and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove" accompanied by the message of Father God's approval: "You are My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" - Mark 1:11.

This scene pictures the trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It reminds us of the source and energy of spiritual life following repentance: the Holy Spirit.

Let's thank God for Jesus, our older brother (Hebrews 2:17) who was there first and who understands and sympathizes with our human struggles.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for Jesus's humility and obedience to subject Himself to a human body and go through with the act of baptism. Help me to live the post-baptism Holy Spirit-empowered life. Amen.

MORE: More on Jesus' identity with us

"All through the Bible it is revealed that Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy. He deliberately took upon His own shoulders, and bore in His own Person, the whole massed sin of the human race - "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin," and by so doing He put the whole human race on the basis of Redemption. Jesus Christ rehabilitated the human race; He put it back to where God designed it to be, and anyone can enter into union with God on the ground of what Our Lord has done on the Cross" - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 7 reading.

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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.

What's in a name?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 7:17-8:4

TO CHEW ON: "Then I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, 'Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.'" Isaiah 8:3

In yesterday's reading the new mother was to give her son the name Immanuel. In today's God tells Isaiah and his wife to name their newborn Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (meaning "speed the spoil, hasten the booty"—a prophecy that Assyria would soon plunder Syria and Israel, Judah's enemies).

Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible says about naming:

"Names were very important in the world of the Old Testament. Each Hebrew name has a meaning and it became an important part of the infant's life. Jewish people believed that they must first know a person's name before they could know the person himself. We only have to look at the name Jacob, which means "heel grabber" to see the importance of a name. To know Jacob's name was to know his basic character! Therefore the act of choosing a name for an infant was a serious responsibility." p. 445

Bible-time parents didn't choose names only to designate character traits. Ichabod's mother picked his name in memory of the events around his birth (1 Samuel 4:21).

Parents sometimes chose names of animals for their babies (Rachel = sheep; Deborah = bee), or gave them popular names (there are twelve Obadiah's in the Old Testament) and then had to distinguish their child from others by adding the child's father or hometown to the name (e.g. David's father was called Jesse the Bethlehemite).

Many Bible names are theophoric, i.e. have a divine name joined to a verb or noun thus making a descriptive phrase (Jonathan = the Lord has given; Elijah: my God is the Lord).

I don't recall women of my generation attaching a great deal of significance to name meanings. We picked names for our children that we liked the sound of and then checked their meanings more as a matter of curiosity than anything. Or we named our kids after significant people in our families or society. We certainly didn't make the naming of our children a huge prayer concern or pick their names by divine decree.

But Isaiah did. Giving his son the ungainly name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz was part of his obedience as a prophet. His willingness to listen to God in even the things that would normally be his own choice shows to what extent he had given himself to God.

I ask myself, have I committed my life to God with the same completeness? Is He Lord of even the tiniest details, the areas I would ordinarily assume are up to me?

PRAYER: Dear God, please show me areas in my life which I assume are my business. Help me acknowledge Your lordship over every aspect of life. Amen.

MORE: Feast of St. Mary the Virgin

Today the church celebrates the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin. The liturgy begins with this Collect:

O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

What are you?

"The Call of Gideon" by Gerard Jollain
Engraving, about 1670.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Judges 6:1-21


TO CHEW ON: "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!'" Judges 6:12

The description the Angel of the Lord gave Gideon — "mighty man of valor" — doesn't seem unusual until we read on and discover Gideon was anything but that. He himself argued against it when he said to the angel: "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house" - Judges 6:15.

Later, just beyond the end of today's reading, he did what the angel told him to do but at night, "...because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day..." Judges 6:27.

He reminds me of Peter. Remember the cowardly Peter, so intimidated by events that he couldn't even bring himself to admit knowing Jesus? Then, only weeks later, he was the one who stood up and explained the Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost, turned the healing of the lame man into an altar call, and just wouldn't stop talking about Jesus even when commanded and threatened (Acts 4:18-20).

What made the difference?

In Peter's case the priests themselves figured it out: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" - Acts 4:13.

Gideon would also turn out to become what the angel said—a man of valour. When we read his whole story (Judges 6-8) we see that as he spent time with God, heard His instructions and did them he truly came to impersonate what the angel said he was (though at the end of his life, there was slippage - Judges 8:27).

What does God say about you and me? Here is a sampling:

• We are the salt of the earth - Matthew 5:13.*

• We are the light of the world - Matthew 5:14.

• We are saints - Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2.

• We are God's living stones, being built up as a spiritual house - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

• We are children of God and will resemble Christ when He returns - 1 John 3;1-2.

Do these things seem true about us? Or would we like Gideon argue otherwise? We can make it so as we spend time with Jesus, letting Him change us.

PRAYER: Dear God, I would love it if people puzzled over the grace and power evident in my life — and concluded that the only reason for it was because I had been with Jesus. Amen.


MORE: Five more things we are:

• We are God's workmanship (handiwork) created (born anew) in Christ to do His work that He planned beforehand that we should do - Ephesians 2:10.

• We are righteous and holy - Ephesians 2:24.

• We are citizens of heaven and seated in heaven right now - Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6.

• We are sons/daughters of light not of darkness - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

• We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession to proclaim His excellencies - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

*Taken from "Who Am I?" p. 8 of Resolving Personal Conflicts workbook, Dr. Neil T. Anderson, 1990, Freedom in Christ Ministries.

(From the archives)

What are you?

"The Call of Gideon" by Gerard Jollain
Engraving, about 1670.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Judges 6:1-18


TO CHEW ON: "And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!'" Judges 6:12

The description the Angel of the Lord gave Gideon — "mighty man of valor" — doesn't seem unusual until we read on and discover Gideon was anything but that. He himself argued against it when he said to the angel: "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my father's house" - Judges 6:15.

Later, just beyond the end of today's reading, he did what the angel told him to do but at night, "...because he feared his father's household and the men of the city too much to do it by day..." Judges 6:27.

He reminds me of Peter. Remember the cowardly Peter, so intimidated by events that he couldn't even bring himself to admit knowing Jesus? Then, only weeks later, he was the one who stood up and explained the Holy Spirit coming on the Day of Pentecost, turned the healing of the lame man into an altar call, and just wouldn't stop talking about Jesus even when commanded and threatened (Acts 4:18-20).

What made the difference?

In Peter's case the priests themselves figured it out: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" - Acts 4:13.

Gideon would also turn out to become what the angel said — a man of valour. When we read his whole story (Judges 6-8) we see that as he spent time with God, heard His instructions and did them he truly came to impersonate what the angel said he was (though at the end of his life, there was slippage - Judges 8:27).

What does God say about you and me? Here is a sampling:

• We are the salt of the earth - Matthew 5:13.*

• We are the light of the world - Matthew 5:14.

• We are saints - Ephesians 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2.

• We are God's living stones, being built up as a spiritual house - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

• We are children of God and will resemble Christ when He returns - 1 John 3;1-2.

Do these things seem true about us? Or would we like Gideon argue otherwise? We can make it so as we spend time with Jesus, letting Him change us.

PRAYER: Dear God, I would love it if people puzzled over the grace and power evident in my life — and concluded that the only reason for it was because I had been with Jesus. Amen.


MORE: Five more things we are:

• We are God's workmanship (handiwork) created (born anew) in Christ to do His work that He planned beforehand that we should do - Ephesians 2:10.

• We are righteous and holy - Ephesians 2:24.

• We are citizens of heaven and seated in heaven right now - Philippians 3:20; Ephesians 2:6.

• We are sons/daughters of light not of darkness - 1 Thessalonians 5:5.

• We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession to proclaim His excellencies - 1 Peter 2:9-10.

*Taken from "Who Am I?" p. 8 of Resolving Personal Conflicts workbook, Dr. Neil T. Anderson, 1990, Freedom in Christ Ministries.

What's your spiritual surname?

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Isaiah 3:13-4:6

TO CHEW ON: "And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man saying, 'We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach.'" Isaiah 4:1

The custom in our culture for a married woman to change her surname to that of her husband is ancient. Isaiah refers to it in our reading today when he talks about the desperate state of Israel's women.

In vivid poetry Isaiah describes their flirtatious ways. The result of their unfaithfulness is judgment. Their alluring points become disgusting. The men of the nation are slaughtered in war till there is such a shortage of men we see the scene described in our focus verse: seven women begging one man to give them the respectability of marriage and the right to take his name.

Name (Hebrew: shem) means renown, fame, memorial, character. The root suggests marking or branding. In the New Testament the equivalent Greek word is onoma. Besides referring to a specific person, onoma is also used for all the things that a name implies such as rank, authority, character and reputation.

Taking on another's name, as in marriage, is identification at the deepest level. God, using prophets like Isaiah, spoke about how He desired Israel and Judah to marry Him, to identify with Him, to be true to Him. He wanted them to take His name. This was His heart for them then, and is still His heart for us today:

      “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

      I have called you by your name;

      You are Mine." - Isaiah 43:1

Through His name we receive many benefits:

•  We get remission of sins (Acts 10:43).
• We get life (John 20:31).
• We are invited to ask for things (John 14:13).
• We get the Holy Spirit, sent in His name to be our helper and counselor (John 14:25-26).

His is a most excellent, exalted name that will someday cause every conscious being to worship (Philippians 2:9-11).

Doesn't all that just make you want to live under the covering of His name forever? The end of our reading today describes the pleasant result:

"And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain." Isaiah 4:6

PRAYER: Dear God, help me to discover the beauty of identifying with You at a marriage/name-change level. Amen.

MORE: "Your Name" by Paul Baloche

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