Tag Archives: Commitment

Singing with the King 2.0

When I started this blog a few years back, it pretty much was the recipient of all my theological-faith-writing-chops. Then a couple of years into it and I became an interim pastor at a Church in town, which morphed into a part-time-every-week-teaching pastor thing.

Needless to say, working on a sermon every week has taken over my theological-faith-writing-chops. And for those of you who to whom I have failed to deliver, I apologize. Hence Singing with the King 2.0.

It will be a lot shorter, there will be no fancy artwork or germane music to tie it all together. Sometimes finding the right picture, or the right song. took as much time as the writing. So for the time being, you’re stuck with just my musings, meditations, and meanderings, as we seek to worship the King.

What I write will be what the Lord brought into my path that day. So for this Sunday, it’s Psalm 62:1-2.

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.

Have you ever tried to wait in silence for God alone?

Waiting in silence is just one word in the Hebrew and it can mean both silence and rest. Now I gotta admit that waiting in silence does not play to my strengths. I have an over-active imagination, random thoughts just pop into my brain, distractions abound, and many other aspects of my life overwhelm me and keep me from waiting in silence. And focusing ONLY on Him, there’s a whole ‘nother challenge.

But when you look at what David was in the middle of when he wrote this, I am seriously put to shame:

How long will all of you attack a man to batter him, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position. They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. (3-4)

Attack, batter, thrust down, speaking lies and cursing. All in a day in the life of a king. So what’s my excuse? Mine’s more drama than trauma.

We learn from David that waiting in silence for God alone has nothing to do with the conflict with his enemies, and everything to do with his commitment to his Lord. His love for God was more important that his personal safety. And we are reminded that the battle belongs to the Lord, as does our salvation.

Father, each me to “Be still and know that you are God.” Amen.

What God Gave Up for Lent – Day 36

36. Pharisee Fever

Swear

Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’” Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent. (Mark 14:55-59)

The Greek word for trying to obtain is very intentional and very deliberate (one of its translations). It is a mental, emotional, and physical process. You are trying to reason it out or meditate upon it; but you are also striving after it and craving it. The pursuit and maintenance of untruth requires total commitment on your part. Heart, soul, mind and strength. Sound familiar?

Do you remember the passage from the Sermon on the Mount? Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ( Matt 7:7) A more accurate way of representing this passage would be: Ask (and keep asking) and it will be given to you; seek (and keep seeking) and you will find; knock (and keep knocking) and it will be opened to you. Note the sense of persistence in this passage. The question arises: Are we as persistent in seeking God’s Truth in our prayers as the Pharisees were seeking untruth?

The Greek word for consistent is where we get the root for an isosceles triangle; or equilateral triangle. And if one of the three angles is off even a fraction of a degree, then it is no longer an isosceles triangle. So it is with the truth. If there is any divergence from it, then it is no longer truth but a lie.

In the Greek, the meaning of the word has to do with being the same or equal, measure for measure. It has to do with equal shares, equal rights and fair measures. It is a sad thing to note that the Pharisees had the law and the prophets in their possession; but the truth and guidance found therein did not possess them..

I call this the Pharisee Fever. They had God in the flesh before them, they had Truth Incarnate standing there. He had proven Himself by authority, through miracles and teaching; yet they still would not accept Him as Messiah.

Now, when confronted with the Truth, you either accept it or deny it. But denying it requires that you disassemble it. You cannot ignore it; for if Truth remains it will be revealed, it will be found, and at some point, it will cause you to stumble and your house of cards to fall.

The need to destroy the Truth becomes so great, that eventually it doesn’t matter if what you proclaim has no consistency or credibility. You simply declare your version is consistent, credible, and worthy of placing your trust in it. And that’s what you do—you put your trust in it. And it doesn’t really matter how many civil, social or spiritual commands you break:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)              

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4)

You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:11-12)

There are more, but you get the point. The members of the Sanhedrin knew these laws but to keep them would have meant giving up their truth.

Here then is the first phase of the Pharisee Fever: your truth receives its validation and authority from you. You declare it to be meaningful and trustworthy. And you declare it long enough and loud enough until any inconsistencies are seen as irrelevant.

True Truth, absolute truth, has no need for validation. It simply is. That’s how God designed it. It’s worth, veracity, and application is not determined by human perspective, nor by individual interpretation, but by divine decree. It is utterly consistent and will stand up to the most strenuous scrutiny.

The second phase, and indeed the very purpose to the Pharisee Fever, is to destroy the Truth so that manufactured truth can stand unchallenged. Manufactured truth cannot stand when seen in the light of absolute Truth. The Pharisees were not about to trade in their cushy religious jobs and their seemingly exalted positions for a relationship with The Most High.

The reason for the existence of manufactured truth: pride.

The power behind these acts of pride is organized religion (I use that term in the broadest sense). When people choose to ascribe to the same opinions, beliefs, philosophies, and untruths, then build rituals and traditions around them, a unifying and destructive power begins to grow. And those who have gathered beneath its shadow, with the truths they believe, the pronouncements they make; and the actions they take, risk perilous and eternal consequences. Note the actions in Psalm 2.

Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.  Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’” Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him! (Psalm 2:1-12)

Note how the LORD addresses these kings. He lays down the consequences for their actions: break them with a rod of iron…  shatter them like earthenware. But He also gives them the opportunity to repent: show discernment, take warning, worship and do homage. He is revealing to them the path of repentance, and the opportunity to turn from rebellion to refuge. But how can they know this, these pagan kings, who have neither the commands of God nor Word of God. Recall the passage Paul’s letter to the Romans: For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

God has shown enough of Himself for all to know that HE IS. Knowing that, it is then our responsibility and journey to leave the path of rebellion and travel the path of refuge, that we might find salvation.

If there is hope for a pagan king to repent, is there hope for the Pharisee? Can you be healed from the Pharisee fever?

Father, help me to seek You, and to seek Your Truth with at least the same total and utter commitment as one who would seek and maintain untruth. Amen.

Singing with the King (24) – The Ways of the Lord

For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. (Psalm 18:21)

Walking On RoadFor us to keep the word of the Lord requires commitment, it requires the heart as well as the mind; is that not the nature of obedience? Two verses to put this into the proper context:

Jesus answered, “the foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD, and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength.’” (Mark 12:29-30)

If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments. (John 14:15)

After reading that previous verse, it should be obvious what it is we are to keep, if we do indeed love the Lord. And in this Psalm, David kept the ways of the LORD.

Some of the definitions of the way, are path, journey, direction, manner, habit, course of life, and moral character. Do you see how this is so much more than simple obedience? Indeed, keeping or walking in His way defines us: how we think, what we think, what we do, our attitudes, our perception, our character, our ambition; indeed our very lives. Why is that? Consider the radical change that has taken place within us:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. (Colossians 2:13)

For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light. (Ephesians 5:8)

You have been radically transformed from death to life, from darkness to light. Go out there and live Christ, and light up the lives around you!