In the Morning . . .

It’s still pretty dark outside as I sit here at my desk. My window is open and I hear the birds greeting the first light of the dawn. I’ve been rising early for many years. I often wake up before my 4:30 alarm these days. I love early mornings – everyone is still asleep and it’s my quiet time with Jesus. And coffee. These mornings set the tone for the rest of my day as I fill my mind and heart with truth and wisdom. I don’t know what the day will hold, but the Lord does and He guides me to a word that He knows I will need before I lay my head back down at the end of the day.

This morning His word speaks deep into my soul: “Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You” (Ps 142:8). On it’s own this is a sweet sentiment. In fact, it’s about to go up on the wall over my desk. But if you read the entire Psalm (and I encourage you to do so), you will notice that David is in a dark place. He is being pursued by his enemy and he says “My spirit grows faith within me; my heart within me is dismayed” (v. 4). He is running out of hope.

I get it, David. This Psalm resonates with my own aching heart. It would be so easy to slip into despair and hopelessness right now – and the truth is, I have over the past few weeks. Like Peter, I let my eyes drift from the One who called me to the waves that threaten me and I soon feel the waters start to overtake me. What hope do I have when I’m drowning? The same hope that David had: the unfailing love of God and His faithfulness. David wisely did two things: he cried out to God (vv. 1-2) and he meditated on what God has already done on his behalf (v. 5). And so must you and I.

David asked for direction (v. 8), rescue (v. 9), and to know God’s will (v. 10). That’s what I’m asking for today. As His child, you can too. Beloved, whatever comes today, God wants to remind you of His unfailing love and assure you that you can trust Him. His good Spirit will lead you on level ground (v. 10). You have His Word on it.

The Overwhelming, Unfailing Love of God

The Psalms are a favorite place in the Scriptures for many of us. The writers (no, David didn’t write them all) often express thoughts and feelings that we can identify with. There is praise and worship and heartache and loneliness and raw emotion. My Bible is full of underscores, dates, and notes – markings to remind me of who I am and whose I am and what God has done. I can find myself in pretty much every chapter. I have been the little lamb in the care of the Shepherd (Ps. 23) and I have been the contrite sinner (Ps. 51). I have taken refuge under the feathers of His wings (Psalm 91) and I have walked the path with only His Word to light my steps (Psalm 105).

This morning, I find myself in Psalm 107 – a psalm of thanksgiving. I encourage you to grab your Bible and read the psalmist’s words – perhaps you will see yourself here too. I have wandered in desert wastelands (v. 4) and been hungry (v. 6) and He led me to a place where I could settle (v. 7). I have sat in darkest gloom, in a prison of my own making (v. 10-11), but He brought me out of the darkness and broke away my chains (v. 14). I have been a fool and a rebel and suffered because of my sin (v. 17) yet God sent forth His Word and healed me (v. 20). I have been lost in a storm and cried at my wit’s end (v. 25-28) and He stilled the storm to a whisper and guided me home (v. 29-30). He has poured his showers of blessing out on me when my heart was parched and dry (v. 33-35); and when I was needy and afflicted, He lifted me up and filled my life with Joy (literally) (v. 41-42). I give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for me (vv. 8, 15, 21, 31).

God has been so good, so kind, and so generous to me. How can I do anything but give Him thanks when I consider His great love (v. 43)? I pray that as you move through this day God brings to mind the many wonderful things He has done for you. I pray you are overwhelmed by his unfailing love. And I pray that when this day is done, Beloved, your heart is filled to overflowing with gratitude and Joy.

(P.S. Who are the movers and shakers of the church? What events and people shaped the Christian faith? Get ready friends – we’re going to history class – that is the history of the Christian church. We’ll start with an overview of Acts and then move beyond. Join me here on Mondays for this exciting study!)

Hebrews: Believe God

I was 31 years old when my son was born. I was considered “high-risk” because of my age. It’s not so uncommon now, but thirty years ago it was a cause for concern, for good reason.  He and I both faced several serious health issues before we brought our baby boy home. Old people shouldn’t be having babies. Abraham knew all about that.

Hebrews 11:12 said that “. . .from this one man, and he as good as dead came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” Abraham was seventy-five and childless when God declared that he would become “a great nation” (Gen 12:2,4). Twenty-five years later Sarah bore Abraham, at a hundred years of age, a son. One son. But that one child was enough for God’s promise to be fulfilled. Fast forward several hundred years and Abraham’s descendants were making their escape from Egypt. The Bible says “There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children” (Ex. 12:37). Scholars figure more than two million people made that journey. From one son. From an old man and woman who were “as good as dead.”

In those twenty-five years between the promise given and the promise fulfilled, Abraham had a choice: believe God or give up. He did stumble in his faith when he agreed to Sarah’s plan of surrogacy, but ultimately, “[Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:20-21).

As I meditated on that verse just now the Spirit brought another to mind: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, not any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38). The word “convinced” is almost identical to the phrase “fully persuaded.”

You and I need something constant upon which we can build our lives. Abraham was persuaded that God is able and faithful to fulfill His promise. Paul was convinced of the unfailing love of God. Beloved, are you?

Morning Prayer

Sharing my prayer this morning. I invite you to pray with me:

Holy Father,

This is the day that You have made, and I will be glad and rejoice in it (Ps 118:24).

Your name is exalted high above the earth and the heavens. You are great and worthy of praise. You are mighty, glorious, wonderful, awesome, good, righteous, gracious, compassionate, eternal, and faithful (Psalm 145). You are my fortress, my stronghold, and my deliverer (Psalm 144:2).

I have awakened to new opportunities and new mercies (Lam. 3:23). Yesterday’s failures are buried. Today is a new slate, bright and clean.

I do not face this day alone; You are present with me (Matt. 28:20).

You are my Shepherd (Ps. 23:1).

You are my Father (Matt. 20:17).

You are my Peace (Heb. 13:20).

My Comfort (2 Cor. 1:3)

My Rock (Ps 18:2).

My Strength (Ps 19:14).

My Shield (Deut. 33:29).

Lord, when my heart and mind are focused on You, the worries of my life seem small because You are so great. Oh, help me keep my eyes fixed on You all through the day.

Gracious, mighty, sovereign God what an extraordinary thing that You sang me to sleep last night (Zep. 3:17) and You sent me word this morning of Your unfailing love (Ps. 143:8).

I make one plea in this early hour – the angels declare that the whole earth is full of Your glory. (Isaiah 6:3). Give me eyes to see Your glory all around me today.

I give You thanks O Lord because Your love endures forever (Psalm 136).  My hope is in You and in Your Word (Psalm 130:5, 7). One day I will see Your face (Revelation 22:4). Until then I will wait and trust. I will watch the skies and listen for the sound of trumpets (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

In the mighty and holy and perfect name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. Amen

God loves you. Yes, you.

I’m taking a “Counseling and Spiritual Integration” course this semester and we are our clients. This week I worked on the feeling I struggle with the most: accepting love. The issue is rooted in my childhood.  The Holy Spirit drew my mind to the verse I pray over my granddaughter every day: “I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18-19).

I dug into that verse and examined the dimensions that Paul used to try to express this love. I thought about the highest thing I knew – outer space, and the longest thing – eternity, and the deepest thing – the ocean, and the widest thing – the arms of Jesus stretched out on the wooden crossbeam. His love is higher and longer and deeper and wider than that. I thought about how God’s love doesn’t depend on me. It’s all Him – God is love (1 John 4:16). It’s perfect love (v. 18) so I can’t mess it up no matter what I do or don’t do. It’s a love I can rely on (v. 16). God doesn’t love me because I love Him, He loves me because it is His very essence (v. 7,10). I thought about how God is so generous with His love. John said that He has lavished His great love on me and had claimed me as His own child. (1 John 3:1). The truth is, I don’t deserve God’s love, but He gives it to me anyway.

I’ve been in teaching ministry a long time and one of the most consistent issues Christians struggle with is feeling unloved. It affects us in every aspect of our lives, in our friendships, marriages, raising children, working and community relationships, and it’s rooted in our relationship with God. We can’t give what we don’t have. But when we are “rooted and established” in the unfailing, unending, unshakable love God has for us, the fruit will be all the sweeter as we share it with others. Beloved, hear this clearly and receive it deeply: God loves you. Yes, you.

Beloved

If there is one consistent theme throughout the Bible it is that God loves people. From every tribe, nation, and tongue God loves human beings – the pinnacle of His creation. He doesn’t love one gender more than the other. He doesn’t love one race more than the other – in truth, there is only one race – the human race – and He loves them all. I love Psalm 107 because it is all about the love of God for mankind. The first verse says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever.” The last verse says, “Consider the great love of the Lord” (v. 43) and in between the Scriptures speak of ”His unfailing love” four times (vs. 8,15,21, 31).

The Psalmist describes people who are poor and desperate, people who were imprisoned by their sin, people who have foolishly rebelled against God, and people who are “at their wits’ end” because of life’s storms. I think that pretty much covers all of us. I know I fit in at least a couple of those. The point is, God’s love is for everyone. No one is exempt or excluded. No one is cast aside or rejected.

In each scene, when they “cried to the Lord in their trouble,” He “saved them from their distress” (vs. 6, 13, 19, 28). He led the poor to “by a straight way to a city where they could settle” (v. 4). He brought [the prisoner] out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains” (v. 14). He “sent forth His word and healed [the rebel] and rescued them from the grave” (v. 20). He “stilled the storm to a whisper and hushed the waves of the sea and guided [the distressed] to their desired haven” (vs. 29-30). They all “gave thanks for . . . His wonderful deeds for men” (vs. 8, 13, 19, 28).

Where do you fit in these scenes? Are you desperate, bound by sin, rebelling against God, or distressed and anxious because of a storm in your life? God loves you. He who makes springs in the desert, who feeds the hungry, who lifts up the humble and desperate,  loves you. Yes you.  And now you understand why I call you “Beloved.”

Will God Give up on Me?

I love the power of God. I love the truth of God. I love the sovereignty of God, the grace of God, the wisdom of God, and the goodness of God. I love the kindness of God, the strength, creativity, and mercy of God. But you know what I love most? I love the stubbornness of God. I love His tenacity, His persistence, His doggedness. Because God doesn’t give up on those He loves.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had people who once said they loved me to give up on me. I became too much for them – or in the case of a broken marriage, too little. But God has never and will never. Oh, I am sure I have disappointed Him, frustrated Him, and made Him sigh. If God has a last nerve, I have no doubt I’ve gotten on it more than once. But He has never even contemplated walking away from me no matter how rebellious, foolish, reckless, and just plain stupid I’ve been.

Listen to His promise in Isaiah 54:10:  “‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord who has compassion on you.” Nothing in all the world can make God stop loving His children.

Pastor and songwriter Frederick M. Lehman wrote a beautiful song simply entitled, “The Love of God.” The third verse, which is my favorite, is said to come from a cell wall, written by a prisoner some 200 years before Lehman wrote the first two in 1917. They are a translation of an Aramaic poem, “Haddamut”, written in1050 by Rabbi Meir of Worms, Germany.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

No, Beloved, God will never give up on you because His love will never fail (1 Corinthians 13:8). It is the most certain thing in all the universe. God loves you. Let your heart rest in that assurance today.

What Kind of Love is This

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss

To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul

To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

This old hymn is the gospel message, the glorious proclamation of wondrous love. 

God loves people, He created us and wants a relationship with us. But we are bound to sin and sin is an offense to God. The penalty for sin is death. Someone, the sinner or a substitute, has to die. Rather than lose us eternally, “[God] sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). What kind of love would do that? Holy love. 

We did not love God. In fact, the Bible says we “were alienated from God and were [His] enemies” (Colossians 1:21). I don’t know about you, but I gave Him a thousand reasons not to love me, but none of them have ever changed His mind. He loves me anyway. His is perfect love.

God’s love for us is never-failing, never-ending, flawless, and more certain than the earth itself.  He says, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken” (Isaiah 54:10). It is a greater love.

This is the message of the Gospel: that God’s heart would be so tender toward mankind – toward you and me – that He would give His own Son to save us, even though we turned away from Him.  Only love could make such a sacrifice.

What wondrous love is this? A holy love. A perfect love A greater love.  This love is Jesus.

Love, Sweet Love

“What the world needs now

Is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing

That there’s just too little of

What the world needs now

Is love, sweet love

No, not just for some

But for everyone”

This 1965 hit song, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and first recorded by Jackie DeShannon is the cry of every person’s heart. And it’s not a new concept. It’s an age-old yearning. The Bible says, “What a man desires is unfailing love” (Proverbs 19:22). We clamor for it, run after it, turn our lives upside down for it, and sadly, even kill for it. And we miss it unless we look to Calvary.

Love, sweet love, is only found at the cross of Jesus Christ.

Paul said “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Even when we did not love God, He loved us and sent His one and only Son to die that we might live forever with Him. What sweeter love is there than this? Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). What greater love could you ask for but the love of God in the death of His Son for you?

We’re just a few days away from Valentine’s Day when we express our romantic affections for our beloved with flowers and chocolates. But God expressed His love for you and me one dark Friday afternoon on a hill just outside of Jerusalem. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). That’s love, sweet love. For everyone.

God Loves You

Do you believe that God loves you?  The Bible says He does. That ought to be enough, but for some of us, because of a past filled with mistakes and rejection, it is so hard to accept. The Hebrew word the Bible uses to speak of God’s love for us is hesed and it means that His love is:

• Unfailing – “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken” (Isaiah 54:10).
• Loyal – “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6).
• Devoted – “By day the Lord directs His love, a night His song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8).
• Merciful  – “The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion” (Numbers 14:18).

Paul tells us “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). That is the kind of love that you and I need. A love that never turns away, never dies, and never gives up. A love that lasts for all eternity. This is the love that God has for us. It is steadfast and sure – and there is nothing you can do to affect it. You can’t be good enough to make Him love you more, and you can’t mess up enough to make Him love you less. He loves you because He is love.

God’s hesed was perfectly expressed at the cross of Jesus Christ when the Son of God took on your sins and mine and died that we might know the love of God now and in eternity.

Do you know why I call you “Beloved” in these devotionals? It’s because that’s who you are. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Out of His own nature, He has lavished you with His unfailing, loyal, devoted, merciful love. So, I’ll ask you again – Beloved, do you believe that God loves you?