He's Never Letting Go

Good morning! Today's passage of focus is Psalm 73:23-26:

Yet I am always with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will take me up in glory. 

Who do I have in heaven but you?

And I desire nothing on earth but you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart,

my portion forever.

Let's be real: I'm a moron. I do some really stupid stuff. Sometimes I forget to turn the burner off of the stove. Sometimes I fall asleep in my contacts. Sometimes I forget an assignment for school. Sometimes I forget to feed my cat in the morning. Sometimes I just do stupid things. Maybe you're a moron that does stupid things too. Maybe I'm the only one. I'll let the reader decide that on their own. 

Even more, I'm a sinner: a rebel against a holy God. Nothing is stupider than that. Asaph, the original poet behind this psalm, goes so far as to call himself a "brute" in reference to his own sinful nature, and I can't disagree from my own angle. I'm an oft-wayward son to my always-faithful Father God. 

And yet... I remain with God. He never lets me go, no matter what.

Does He remain, no matter how stupid I am? Yes, no matter what!

Does He always hold my right hand, guiding me like a dad helping a small child across the street? Yes, no matter what!

Does He always counsel and guide me, no matter how many times I have failed to listen before? Yes, no matter what!

And after it's all said and done, at the end of my life, will He bring me into glory with Him as my strength and portion forever? Oh yes, He will. No matter what. 

This is a truth I need daily reminders of. This is why we must dive into His Word and read the Bible: it rejuvenates our very life. I need to hear it, read it, study it, learn it, pursue it--all to remind myself anew amidst the chaos and temptations and hardships and struggles of each new day that the good news of Jesus and His faithfulness will see me through. 

We remain with God. He will never let us go.

Yes, no matter what.

The Path to Righteousness

Today's passage is Romans 4:23-25, which says:

Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone, but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Abraham's faith was "credited for righteousness." If we are to know what this means, a couple words have to be defined. The first is faith, which means trusting in God, putting His ways and, well, Him before everything else. Faith is not just blindly leaping off a cliff into the unknown, but is instead trusting a God who you believe is really able to hold you. That's what Abraham did when he first followed the Lord: he believed that God could really provide for him and lead him, so he followed. Faith is trust based on past experience, current belief, and future hope; the longer we believe in the Lord in our current situation, the more we will draw on past faithfulness He has shown us and the more we will be confident hoping in His future faithfulness. 

Another term is important to know here: righteousness. We are all sinners (wrongdoers, rebels against God's commands). Therefore, we are all unrighteousness before God, and He will judge us at the end of days on our righteousness (or lack thereof). That's the truth the Bible makes clear. The only way to avoid that judgment is to be seen as righteous before God when that day comes, and that is exactly what this passage details out. 

Abraham was no more righteous than you or me. He was a rebel against the Almighty, and therefore needed to be made righteous before God. These verses show that Abraham was made righteous not because of anything he did, but because of Who he trusted. He trusted, or put his faith in, God, and that trust in God throughout the rest of his life made him a righteous man in the eyes of God. And that is available to us, too. 

 If we believe in Jesus, our Lord and King, as raised from the dead to pay for our sins (delivered for trespasses) and defeat death once and for all (raised), we too can be righteous before God (for our justification). Again, it's trusting, it's putting faith in Jesus. Have you done that? Are you actively doing that with your life daily? Trusting in Jesus is the only path to true righteousness.

This is the entire message of every evangelist that ever was, from the apostle Paul to Billy Graham. This is the message that fulfills the Great Commission to go and make disciples, or followers of Jesus, of all nations. This is the message of trusting in the resurrection of Christ in order to be made righteous! This is the epitome of the power of God on display in the good news of Jesus: you can be saved! Trust it today.

The Contrast of Sinfulness and Holiness

Today's passage is Romans 3:5-6. which says:

But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I am using a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world?

I have a cat named Casey, and she is adorable. I love this kitty dearly; I play with her, I start my day with feeding her and petting her, yada yada yada. But there is one time when I avoid her with all of my being: when I am dressed in a pair of black dress pants, headed to somewhere important. 

Without fail, every time I put a pair of black pants on, Casey will find me and start rubbing against the legs of the pants. She may have wanted nothing to do with me just moments before, but now, there are black pants to rub on. If you have a cat, you know where this is headed. If you don't, I have one word for you: fur. 

Cat hair stands out on a pair of black pants brighter than a full moon on a clear night. You can't miss it. Thus, I so try to stay away from my cat when I am dressed up because I don't want to end up with hair all over my pants, which is embarrassing if it goes unnoticed (so I hear).

Here's the deal: like cat hair on a pair of black slacks, our unrighteousness (our sinful hearts, our rebellion against God, etc.) actively highlights our God's righteousness. Our sinful actions show just how holy He is in comparison. Truly, we all deserve wrath and judgment, and there is no hiding it. It can't be missed when put in contrast with the Lord's holiness. 

This is why we daily need to preach the gospel to ourselves. It's not because as a believer we are likely to fall into judgment--we cannot. Christ already paid for that on the cross, securing life eternal for all who trust in Him as Lord and Savior.

However, there are others all around us that are in danger of the coming judgment. They have not put their faith in Jesus, and are sitting in their sinfulness, ready to accept God's righteous wrath if they do not repent. And that's something that should burden believers.

We are called, as the people of God and followers of Jesus, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Just as we love ourselves enough to repent of the sinfulness in our lives (I hope), we must love others well enough to want them to do the same. We must warn a sinful world that a holy God is bringing righteous and deserved wrath upon them, judging them for their blatant sinfulness. 

Lord, work the beauty of the gospel into us today. Show us our need to preach, proclaim, exclaim, and shout the good news of salvation in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Give us a bigger heart for the lost, and a greater love for others--like your love for them. 

The Horrible Result of Christian Hypocrisy

This morning I was stricken by Romans 2:24, which reads: 

For, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. 

This passage is at the conclusion of a long rant from Paul about a lack of godliness in the Jewish people. The Jewish people were calling for the Gentiles (those outside the people of God) to live up to the values of the Old Testament Scriptures, yet they themselves were not living up to them, either. It's hypocrisy, plain and simple.

The Lord makes it clear in this verse that the hypocrisy of His people is not just reflecting poorly upon their own holiness, but it is ultimately a reason that the world is blaspheming and rejecting the Lord as their God! Can you imagine--the behavior of God's people, and lack of godliness in it, is turning people away from the Lord!

This has always been a struggle for God's people. In the Old Testament, this verse is actually stated in its original context in the prophetic books of Isaiah (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy before judgment came through the Babylonians) and Ezekiel (who tried to get the Jews to repent of their hypocrisy amidst their trials with the Babylonians). Then, in the New Testament, we have Peter clearly applying this principle to the church (and specifically the false converts and teachers that we fail to root out of the church), saying that our hypocrisy will lead the lost to follow our shameful ways and bring The Way, the path of Jesus Christ, into disrepute. We must not allow for this. 

To put it simply, our hypocrisy as believers leads to the world's rejection of Jesus as Lord and Savior.

There are almost an infinite number of ways that I fail to live up to what I preach and claim to believe as a follower of Jesus, but a lack of love for the Lord is the root of all of it. Because I do not love the Lord my God with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind, and all of my strength as I ought, I end up failing to live according to the commands He said I would follow if I love Him. I allow other gods before Him. I make little idols out of any number of possessions, hobbies, or worldly ideals. I use His name in vain every time I refer to Him in a flippant or irreverent way (which includes half-hearted worship through singing or prayer). I fail to keep the Sabbath whenever I choose not to rest in His works and truly worship with His bride on a Sunday morning, allowing worries and distractions keep me from Him. I fail to love my neighbor or even myself as I should, all because my love for God is imperfect. 

The good news, however, is that these shortcomings in my own walk with Jesus upon The Way are what the gospel is all about! As I reflect daily on the salvation I have through Christ, which began when He knew me before I was born and will be completed throughout eternity as I walk with Him in the new earth, I become more ensnared by the beauty of His grace. As I reflect on the work of Jesus in my heart, on the cross, and on His throne today, praise and worship naturally blossoms in my being! I must daily, hourly even, remind myself of the beauty of the gospel!

Are you doing the same? Are you reflecting on the good news of Jesus to help you prevent hypocrisy among a lost world, Christian? Are you a non-Christian, and want to know more about what Jesus has done in my life? Drop in the comments below, and I'll be happy to talk with you more.