Joy, Joy, Joy
(ESV) Ps 100:1 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Whenever I read this psalm, I feel total comfort and peace. Make a joyful noise, the psalmist says. Enter into His courts with praise. Bless Him.
These few verses assure me that nothing I do for my Lord is in vain. My service, my praise, are all a small part of being in a relationship with God. And today, following the second deadly hurricane to slam into the east coast in a week, I am especially thankful. Hurricane Milton was forecast to be a severe storm, even worse than Hurricane Helene that hit the prior week. This morning they are assessing the damage, but there was significantly less destruction than predicted.
When I was in Richmond, I wrote several songs. I call them songs even though I don’t know how to write music. So, basically my “songs” are just lyrics and the music is in my head.
True Praise
True praise is like a fragrance, expensive and so rare
Stored in the heart of the believer, marked “Handle with Care.”
But once the bottles opened and the aroma fills the air
There is praise, praise, praise everywhere.
Let my praise be like a fragrance carried high on angel’s wings,
Let the aroma drift toward heaven’s throne into the King of Kings.
Let my sacrifice be wholly acceptable my God to thee
Just let me praise Your name through eternity.
The ingredients are simple, start with a heart of love
Then you add a up of thankfulness to the Father up above.
Then add a measure of faith, we all have it don’t you know,
There’s just one last ingredient before your praise can grow.
You need a broken and contrite spirit, that’s the catalyst you see
For you can’t truly praise the Lord of all without humility,
And though the process may be painful, I’m sure that you will find,
Praise that comes from a broken heart, is the sweetest kind.
Let my praise be like a fragrance carried high on angel’s wings,
Let the aroma drift toward heaven’s throne into the King of Kings.
Let my sacrifice be wholly acceptable my God to thee
Just let me praise Your name through eternity.
May we focus our thoughts and our hearts on the Lord our God today and every day, giving Him the praise that He is due.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
You Are the Man
(ESV) Psalm 51:15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
“You da man,” this modern expression is a congratulatory phrase to acknowledge a person’s success in a particular venture. But when I read this psalm of confession and repentance, my mind goes to the story the prophet Nathan told David in 2 Samuel 12.
Samuel told the story of two men, one rich and the other poor. The lamb in the parable was precious to the poor man, yet the rich man stole the poor man’s lamb to feed to one of his guests. David was incensed when he heard the story, proclaiming the man must die. But Nathan said, “You are the man.”
Could there be any more chilling words? You are the man.
Today’s psalm is a direct result of Nathan’s accusation and of David’s realization of his sin. David did what a man after God’s own heart does— he repents. Being a man of God did not make him perfect, but it enabled him to turn back to God.
May we pay close attention to our choices, understanding that poor choices produce poor results. But God’s love produces forgiveness.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Protect us, O God
(ESV Ps 57:)1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his
purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
(ESV) Ps 46:1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
Who can we turn to when storms threaten to overtake us? Often in the Bible, storms are a metaphor for troubles that overwhelm us. But sometimes a storm is just a storm, a physical disturbance of the atmosphere with occasional deadly results.
The southeastern United States is still reeling from one of the deadliest hurricanes to ever make landfall, and tomorrow they face one that portends to be even worse. Rather than try to inspire you with a devotional extolling the goodness of God, I am asking that whoever reads this post do two things: pray the above passages over anyone in the path of Hurricane Milton with the authority given you by God and pray without ceasing.
You see, there are things I have learned in my life. One thing I know is that our God is our protector. He created the heavens and the earth and He has authority over all things. So I ask that you join me in praying to God to protect those in the path of this deadly storm.
Father God, we come before You today praising Your holy name. We ask that You be merciful to to those in the path of Hurricane Milton. May they find refuge in you and hide in the shadow of your loving arms until the storms of destruction pass by. We cry out to the most high God, and ask that You station Your angels around those in the path of the storm to protect them. We ask that You turn this storm away from its intended path and when a multitude of people have been saved that all glory and honor will be Yours now and forever. We ask Your forgiveness that we sometimes fail to call on You before the storm hits, waiting instead to approach You after the damage has been done. But today we acknowledge You are not the god of the last resort, but You are the All Sufficient One and we bow before You. And when fear grasps us, we say boldly in Jesus’ name we will have no fear for You are with us. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Finally, pray without ceasing, which simply means to stay in an attitude of prayer. Let God overwhelm you with His presence today, and know, believe and understand that our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ask.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Mercy, Grace and Love
(NRSV) Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
When I think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I do not think of just one quality or attribute. But three things immediately come to mind—His mercy, His grace, and His love.
I see mercy, grace and love as the legs on a three-legged stool. Without either of these supports the stool could not stand. Likewise, without either of these qualities God would not function as God.
When God sees our sin, yet spares us from the penalty of sin, that is mercy. Mercy is generally paired with power, for it only means something if one has the power to grant forgiveness. I often find myself singing the old hymn “At Calvary” by William Newell:
- Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He died On Calvary.
o Refrain:
Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty At Calvary.
- By God’s Word at last my sin I learned; Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned, Till my guilty soul imploring turned To Calvary.
Verse 2 of this song reveals such an important truth—we learn of our sin by reading God’s Holy Word. We also hear of our sin from the pulpit, and the Holy Spirit impresses upon us our need for repentance, at which point we turn to a holy God for mercy.
Grace, which we do not deserve and cannot earn, offers us that most blessed gift of salvation, and both Grace and mercy is brought to us by the love of God. As much as I love the Word, I love the old hymns of the church. Both are sources of such comfort.
The Love of God by Frederick Lehman.
O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure— the saints’ and angels’ song.
May we each meet Jesus at the foot of the Cross, accepting His mercy, grace and love which is abundant and free.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Gardens
(NIV) Gen 2:8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
(NIV) Matt 25:36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Have you ever thought about the gardens mentioned prominently in the Bible? Thera is a dichotomy that I began thinking about early this morning. Gardens, where growth and transformation take place. Gardens, where community happens. And gardens, where betrayal leading to death occurred.
In the first garden, new life began. By all accounts, Eden was a paradise where man walked with God. Eden was teeming with life, new life, and there was nothing lacking. But as soon as man disobeyed God, Eden was transformed from a garden of life into a garden of doom. Indeed, if Adam and Eve had remained in the Garden, they would have tasted of the Tree of Life and lived forever in their sin.
Likewise, The Garden of Gethsemane which contained a grove of olive trees, was transformed from a quiet place of introspection and prayer into a place of chaos. Where Jesus called His most trustworthy disciples, asking them to pray, Could you not tarry one hour? He was betrayed first by their inability to remain awake. He was betrayed by their incomprehension of the seriousness of the time. The final betrayal came when Judas brought Roman soldiers to arrest Him.
As I consider these two places, I wonder if each of us has had our own garden experiences. Was there a time when we relied on God more than we do today? Did we linger in God’s presence, finding our communion with Him and our Christian brothers and sisters life giving and life affirming?
May we return to the place where our first thought when we awake is of God, and our hearts desire is to walk with Him in our own personal garden.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Seeking Holiness 