"You are the living God"

A year ago today, Samuel, Kalen and I were in the air heading for Iowa. As we anticipated Kalen's surgery we each kept our thoughts pretty much to ourselves. But God knew everything, including those thoughts, and carried us through many "trials" both in Iowa and back home again. Here are some verses He gave me the night before Kalen's surgery.

Deut. 32:39 - "You are the living God, and there is no god besides You. You put to death and You bring to life, You have wounded and You will heal, And no one can deliver from Your hand."
Isa. 46:9 - "I will remember the former things, those of long ago; You are God, and there is no other; You are God, and there is none like You."
I Chron. 16:10-12 - "May we glory in Your holy name, O Lord. Let the hearts of those who seek You rejoice. May we seek You and Your strength; May we seek Your face always. May we remember the wonderful works You have done, Your miracles and the judgments You pronounced."

Today, Kalen is concentrating on writing a paper due tomorrow in his writing class at the community college! We almost lost him a couple times back in Iowa, and even today he still has multiple physical problems and limitations, but we thankfully "remember the wonderful works You have done, Your miracles.." and humbly acknowledge "You are God, and there is no other; You are God, and there is none like You." "May we glory in Your holy name, O Lord."

God's immutability and Prayer

I'm still working slowly through Stephan Charnock's book The Existence and Attributes of God. Here is an excerpt from one of the (long!) paragraphs speaking about God's unchangeableness being the ground and encouragement for our worship.

"When the highest promises are made, God expects they should be put in suit; our Saviour joins the promise and the petition together [Matt. 7:7]; the promise to encourage the petition, and the petition to enjoy the promise: he doth not say perhaps it shall be given, but it shall, that is, it certainly shall; your heavenly Father is unchangeably willing to give you those things. We must depend upon his immutability for the thing, and submit to his wisdom for the time. Prayer is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God; which dependence could have no firm foundation without unchangeableness. Prayer doth not desire any change in God, but is offered to God that he would confer those things which he hath immutably willed to communicate; but he willed them not without prayer as the means of bestowing them. The light of the sun is ordered for our comfort, for the discovery of visible things, for the ripening the fruits of the earth; but withal it is required that we use our faculty of seeing, that we employ our industry in sowing and planting, and expose our fruits to the view of the sun, that they may receive the influence of it. If a man shuts his eyes, and complains that the sun is changed into darkness, it would be ridiculous; the sun is not changed, but we alter ourselves; nor is God changed in not giving us the blessings he hath promised, because he hath promised in the way of a due address to him, and opening our souls to receive his influence, and to this, his immutability is the greatest encouragement." (emphasis added)

I realize the wording is a bit convoluted, but just take some time to chew on things a bit and you will be blessed. Have a great day, basking in the encouragement and comfort of God's unchangeableness!

Songs in the Night

From Spurgeon's Morning and Evening based on Job 35:10:

"Any man can sing during the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When money is in plentiful supply, any man can praise the God who provides an abundant harvest or sends home a loaded ship. It is easy enough for a tuneful harp to whisper music when the winds blow; the difficulty is for music to carry when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but it takes a skillful singer whose song springs forth when there is not a ray of light to read by. No man can make a song in the night by himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let everything go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them from the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and with what shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord without jewels? Let this voice be clear and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: Silence my tongue, put me on a bed of suffering, and how will I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself provides the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when everything is against him, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song from Habakkuk that filled the night when he sang, "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation."¹ So, since our Maker gives "songs in the night," let us wait upon Him for the music. Chief musician, let us not remain songless because we face affliction, but tune our lips to the melody of thanksgiving."
1 Habakkuk 3:17-18

"He giveth more grace" - James 4:6

In reading James 4:6, I was reminded of this song by Annie Flint that always encourages my heart.

"He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

"When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

"His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again."

---

Honoring God as holy

I was reading in Numbers 20 today where Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it. This act resulted in his not being allowed to enter the Promised Land. I have always looked at this in terms of disobedience alone, but D.A. Carson points out that it went deeper than that. "God does not say, 'Because you did not obey me enough...' but 'Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy...' There is, of course, formal disobedience: God said to speak, and Moses struck the rock. But God perceives that the problem is deeper yet. The people have worn Moses down, and Moses responds in kind. His response is not only the striking of the rock, it is the answer of a man who under pressure has become bitter and pretentious...What has evaporated is transparent trust in God: God is not being honored as holy."

I see this as one of my biggest problems - lack of trust. There is the disobedience too, but under- neath is the lack of trust from whence the disobedience springs. Prov. 3:5, 6 needs to be my constant companion and reminder!

Sacrifice

The last couple days in my reading in both the Old and New Testaments, I have noticed a repetition of the subject of sacrifice that is pleasing to the Lord. When the Lord has these things jump out at me, so to speak, and even repeats them within a short space of time, I know it is something I need some work on. Here are the verses.

Psalm 50: 14, 23 - "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High...The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"

Psalm 51:17 - "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

Psalm 54:6 - "With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good."

Hebrews 13:15, 16 - "Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

Tassels

I was reading this morning in Numbers 15 where the Lord told Israel to make blue tassels for the corners of their garments. The reason for these tassels was "for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes,...in order that you may remember to do all My commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD your God."

In the margin of my study Bible I have the question "What is my 'tassel' to remember all the commandments and be holy to my God?" It seems in my case I need all the reminders I can get! I am struck throughout Scripture how many memorials, reminders, word pictures, etc. the Lord gives us to keep us refreshed and renewed, and yet we still struggle (or I do, anyway) with forgetting. I'm so thankful He condescends to us even in something so simple as a "tassel" to keep us reminded of Him.

Perspective

Here is the quote from my Elisabeth Elliot flip calendar for today:

"Perspective makes all the difference in the world. If you catch even a glimpse of the divine design, you will be humbled and awed at least."

Psalm 47:2 - "How awesome is the LORD Most High, the great King over all the earth!"

Psalm 94:19

Last year, I picked up a used copy (3 vol.) of Twenty-Six Translations of the Bible. Actually it prints out the Bible, verse by verse, in the KJV, and then draws from 26 other translations to amplify each verse. I will give you a taste of it by quoting a verse that has been a special blessing to me, Psa. 94:19 – “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

“In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, thy comforts have refreshed my soul.” (Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer)

“In the multitude of my inward perplexities, Thy consolations shall delight my soul.” (from the original Hebrew – Spurrell)

“When doubts crowd into my mind, thy comforts cheer me.” (Moffatt)

“In the multitude of distractions within me, Thy comforts delight my soul.” (DeWitt)

“In the multitude of my cares within me Thy consolations delight my soul.” (Rotherham)

“When the cares of my heart are many, thy consolations cheer my soul.” (RSV)

“Amid all the thronging cares that fill my heart, my soul finds comfort in thy consolation.” (Knox)

“When my mind is burdened with worry, Your comforting encourages me.” (Harrison)

I guess this leaves me without excuse for any complaining, doesn’t it? How wonderful to be able to turn to His consolations and be truly comforted and delighted!