Glory to His Name
(NIV) Psalm 29:1 Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic…
11 The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.
When I consider the wonder of God, the awe, the majesty, I am undone with the realization that I cannot fully express my gratitude for Who He is, and for His great love for me. How is it that I, one who claims to be a Christ follower, a seeker of holiness, find it so difficult to show my love for Him? So, what do I do?
I plunge headfirst into the Scriptures and let them speak for me. How could I possibly praise God with greater words or songs than those who have come before me? And then I recall with gratitude the hymns I learned as a child, and I sing praises to the King.
Today I was blessed to be able to meet with our worship Pastor Rue as he readied the team for praise. And I was able to pray with them! And then Greg Kirksey delivered a timely message on learning the fear of God. Father, forgive me, when I failed to clearly illuminate to my congregants where we stand before a righteous God.
And now, for one of the old songs of the church.
1 Down at the cross where my Savior died,
Down where for cleansing from sin I cried,
There to my heart was the blood applied;
Glory to his name!
Refrain:
Glory to his name,
Glory to his name;
There to my heart was the blood applied;
Glory to his name!
2 I am so wondrously saved from sin,
Jesus so sweetly abides within;
There at the cross where he took me in;
Glory to his name! [Refrain]
3 Oh, precious fountain that saves from sin,
I am so glad I have entered in;
There Jesus saves me and keeps me clean;
Glory to his name! [Refrain]
4 Come to this fountain so rich and sweet,
Cast thy poor soul at the Savior’s feet;
Plunge in today, and be made complete;
Glory to his name! [Refrain]
(Elisha A Hoffman, 1878)
Come, let us join together and praise the one True and the Living God, and may we share the name of Jesus with all we meet.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
—
Working out our salvation
NRSV) Phil 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. 16 It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Salvation—oh what a wonderful gift. It comes to us free from God, through grace, but then what? Well, then we need to live into our salvation. You see, through salvation we are redeemed, or bought back, by God. But following salvation we grow into Jesus’ image and His love, and as we grow in His love, we are sanctified daily. We are not made perfect but because of Him we become perfected in love.
Working out our salvation does not mean there is a cost, or that salvation is conditional. Instead, there is a user’s manual and it is called The Holy Bible. The Bible provides all of the instruction you will ever need to live into salvation. The Gospel of John provides a clear picture of Who Jesus is and Who we are in Him. Proverbs provides nuggets of wisdom, while Psalms is an outline of how to praise God, in good times and in bad. We can go to the Psalms for encouragement, when we are ill, or grieving, or when we feel alone.
The Pauline Epistles highlight the struggles of the Church as it battled cultural issues of the day, particularly the Greco-Roman influences, while the Johannine letters focused on truth and light. Samuel and Kings were written during the Babylonian Exile and pointed to the Hebrews’ disobedience, and Chronicles details the history of the Jews after the exile. And there is so much more.
Matthew 5 is our roadmap as we embark on the pathway of holiness. Recognizing the poverty of our heart without Jesus leads us to mourning, which leads to to being comforted, and we learn that meekness is better than pride as we acknowledge everything comes from God. We yearn to be peacemakers and acknowledge the only real peace comes from Jesus.
When you make a practice of reading from your Bible every day, there is a connection that is formed, for the more you read, the more you want to read. The Bible reflects the human condition—there is history, there is mystery, there are stories of faithfulness and loyalty, and there are stories of betrayal. But above all, there is a God Who loves us so much that He gave us Jesus.
So how do I work out my salvation? I ask God to quicken my Spirit when I speak an unkind word, and He does, so that I can make restitution right away. I prayed years ago that I would see people through His eyes, and I do, so that judgment is replaced with compassion. I write Devotionals so that my time with God gives me direction and purpose. I try to speak encouragement to someone every day, because we never know what others are going through. And prayer has become so constant that it is more of an ongoing conversation that never really ceases.
May we recognize that our relationship with Jesus is vital and in Him we truly live, and move and have our being.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Humility of Christ
(NRSV) Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good.
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
(NRSV) Phil 2:1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
Humility—the ability to have a modest or low view of one’s own importance and a lack of pride or arrogance. It involves recognizing one’s limitations and imperfections and focusing on others rather than oneself.
As a Christ follower, there is an imperative to develop certain characteristics which may not be inherent in our makeup. Humility is one of those qualities that God requires, and if God requires it, then He will supply our ability to attain it. Or, perhaps more accurately, He will enable us to grow into it.
If we do not allow God to mold and shape us into His image, then there is a chance the world will shape us into its image. As Paul would say,” God forbid!”
May we be self aware enough to gauge our own Christian attributes, but pliable enough to submit ourselves to God and to others for the transformation of our hearts and minds.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Going deeper with God
Psalm 42:1 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.
James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
There comes a time in our lives when we recognize that a surface relationship with God is not sufficient. When a strong, abiding connection is the only thing that can satisfy, then we must go deeper—deeper into His Word and deeper into prayer.
I am thankful the Church at Rock Creek takes both Bible Study and prayer so seriously. In the Fall of 2023 Immerse, a Disciple Building course was launched, and I am in the second year of learning and building relationships with other Christ followers while always seeking a closer walk with God. I look forward to each week’s study and leave each session filled to overflowing with God’s love and the thirst to know Him more.
If you feel like you are stuck in neutral and are not growing your relationship with God and with other Christ followers, I urge you to join a Bible study group whose focus is Christ and Christ alone. You will be amazed at the results.
I leave you with the lyrics from a song we sang in my childhood church.
Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus
Daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom,
More of grace to know.
Refrain:
Oh, deeper yet, I pray,
And higher ev’ry day,
And wiser, blessed Lord,
In Thy precious, holy word.
Deeper, deeper! blessed Holy Spirit,
Take me deeper still,
Till my life is wholly lost in Jesus,
And His perfect will. [Refrain]
Charles Price Jones, 1900
May we have the desire to, as the song says, go deeper every day with Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Transformed
(NRSV) Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
(NRSV) 2 Cor 5:17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
When my son was around six years old, a new line of toys was introduced. It was cars and motorcycles and other vehicles that could be transformed into robots. Some of the robots were good, while others were bad, and it did not matter whose nimble hands held them, with a few clicks of the moving parts the toy was transformed from a monster truck into a monster robot.
As Christ followers, we are aware that there is both an inward and an outward change in our hearts and in our lives after Jesus becomes our Savior and our Lord. Unlike the Transformer toys that are created to be either good or bad, we have the unique privilege of being made new when we give our lives to Christ. The change is often stark as old habits give way to new, and our former wants and needs give way to kingdom living.
A Transformer toy, if not manipulated by an outward force, will remain the same as it’s original form. Likewise, a person’s character and behavior remains unchanged unless we submit to the life altering power of Jesus. It is a change that is not only necessary, but significant, and is accomplished by daily renewing our minds through prayer and the Word.
May we be grounded in the Word and lifted up by his spirit.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Seeking Holiness 