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Enduring Love

Sound Bites of God’s Love

If you are one of those who dislikes modern worship, think about this psalm the next time you are tempted to get a little grouchy about your church’s song service. If you want to be critical of your worship leader’s “shallow” or “repetitive” song selection, then line up the psalmist too, and take your shot at both. You see, he repeats himself a lot—but that’s only because he can’t get over God’s enduing love.

Read: Psalm 136 // Focus: Psalm 136:1

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever.”

One of the critiques of modern worship choruses is that they are too simple and overly repetitive. The great hymns of the church, on the other hand, are deeply theological and majestic both in lyric and music. I truly love both—the modern worship the Holy Spirit has birthed in the contemporary church as well as the hymns of our historic faith. Both move me to joyful worship of Almighty God.

Psalm 136 is akin to a modern worship chorus. In each of the twenty-six verses that comprise the psalm, you will notice simple, sound bite phrases that recall the goodness of God as both creator and redeemer, followed by the same line twenty-six times: “His love endures forever!”

So if you are one of those who, frankly, just dislikes modern worship, think about this psalm the next time you are tempted to get a little grouchy about your church’s worship. If you want to be critical of your worship leader for his or her song selection, you might as well line up the psalmist right beside them and take your shot at both of the psalmist and the song leader!

Or you could do what this psalm calls you to do: Focus on the goodness of God throughout the history of the world, and throughout your personal history as well. God has been faithful in all he has done, and merciful, too. He is the loving Creator and Redeemer—he always has been; he is right now, and when you wake up tomorrow, and the next day, and every day after that, he still will be.

O give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever!

Now—don’t you feel much better?

Making Life Work:Read this psalm out loud from beginning to end. Now see if you don’t sense God’s enduring love a little bit stronger than before.

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You Can Trust Him

God Is Good, God is Great, God Does As He Pleases!

No one stands in God’s way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. He does what he pleases—thank God!

Read: Psalm 135 // Focus: Psalm 135:3,5,6

“Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good…I know that the LORD is great…The LORD does whatever pleases him…”

God is all-powerful. He does what he pleases. He blesses; he punishes. He sets up; he tears down. He rewards; he judges. He is the great God, the Creator and Sustainer of all, and he will accomplish his purposes for all that he has created.

No one stands in his way. Just ask Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Pilate, or Caesar, or Satan! No president or judge or politician; not the wealthy or powerful or famous can thwart his will. God will accomplish his purposes. No human being will get his or her own way—including you and me. God will get what God wants!

That can be a little frightening—and it should promote the fear of the Lord in our hearts—but keep in mind the first line of this selected psalm: God is good. He will never do anything that is not saturated in his love for mankind and his perfect plan for the eternal ages. No matter what, whether he is blessing or punishing, setting up or tearing down, rewarding or judging, God is always good, and therefore we can trust him.

As someone has profoundly observed,

God is too wise to make a mistake,
Too kind to be cruel,
But too wise to explain himself.

And keep also in mind the second line of the selected psalm. The Lord is great. At the end of the day, every human being, friend and foe of the Almighty, will bow before him and declare, “You are great, O God! Impeccable are you in all your ways.

We may not always understand what God is doing, or why he is doing it, or how good can come out of difficult and hurtful experiences, but based on his Word and his track record of goodness, we can trust him. He is good! He is great! So go ahead God, please do as you please!

Yes, God is good—all the time!

Making Life Work:The assignment for today is pretty simple: Lift your hands to God and offer him yourself—and of course, you praise.

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Reach For The Sky

Why You Should Lift Your Hands In Praise

“Thou shalt lift thy hands when thou singest” is not the Eleventh Commandment. The Father wants worshipers who worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) God-pleasing worship must come from the heart, not the hands, yet true worship requires all of us—spirit, mind and body—and yes, perhaps even raising your hands. So go ahead, reach for the sky!

Read: Psalm 134 // Focus: Psalm 134:2

“Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.”

Raising your hands in worship is not a pre-requisite for God-pleasing praise—not necessarily! There is no rule that says, “Thou shalt lift thy hands when thou singest.” The Father wants worshipers who worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) In other words, God-pleasing worship must come from the heart, not the hands, and in a way that is congruent with Scripture—authentically.

Yet true worship requires all of us—spirit, mind and body. Obviously, our must hearts reach out to God when we worship him, otherwise our worship would be nothing more than heartless ritual (and there is already far too much of that among his people today). God wants not just formulaic expressions of worship; he wants it to come from the overflow of a loving and grateful heart.

Our mind should be engaged in worship as well. If we park our brains in neutral when we praise, our worship is incomplete—and open to all kinds of weird and wild expressions that sometimes occur among certain groups of believers. To worship in truth means to worship with theological knowledge of the One being worshipped, and that is most pleasing to him.

Yet can we truly worship in spirit and in truth if we don’t engage our entire being? Authentic “spirit and truth” praise must even include engaging physically as well. Balanced worship honors God with heart, mind and body. (I Corinthians 6:20) That is why you will find various physical expressions of praise throughout Scripture: Singing, shouting, clapping, kneeling, prostrating oneself, dancing, and, yes, quite frequently the raising of hands.

Perhaps you came to Christ in a tradition that expressed worship without physical demonstration. I would encourage you to challenge that assumption. The next time you gather with the body of Christ and the singing starts, try lifting your hands to the Lord. I think you will find it quite freeing. In fact, you may want to practice in first in your own private worship time just to get used to the action.

When my children were small, they would often come to me and lift their hands, hoping I would pick them up. Of course, I would. In that moment, they would have yet another indication that I loved them. And of course, I was delighted to know they loved me, too—with all of their being.

Don’t you think that is true of your Heavenly Father as well?

Making Life Work:The assignment for today is pretty simple: Lift your hands to God and offer him yourself—and of course, you praise.

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Blessable Unity

What God Insists On Blessing

Unity may be difficult to define, and even harder to achieve, but when you and I do our part to arrive at unity in the body of Christ, look out! Good things will happen. Like Vance Havner said, “Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic.” So can we—when we have unity.

Read: Psalm 133 // Focus: Psalm 133:1

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”

Unity! I’m not always sure what it is, but I sure know when it ain’t!

And I know when it is. Where you have unity between people—at work, in school, in home and at church—there you will find that life is pleasant. And that’s how God meant for life to be—especially for his people.

So how can we achieve and maintain unity? I think first of all it requires us to understand how important it is to God. In his final prayer before the cross, knowing what awaited him in the hours ahead, Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers in John 17:20-23,

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

What a person prays for in their final prayer reveals what is of utmost importance to them. For Jesus, that was our unity. The next time we have opportunity for disunity, we ought to stop and think about that.

Then it requires humility. For unity to occur, I must subjugate my desires and needs to what is good and best for others. Speaking of unity, the Apostle Paul exhorted us to follow Christ’s example in Philippians 2:1-4,

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others…[an attitude] that was the same as that of Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, unity will be achieved when we submit ourselves to the spiritual leaders God has placed over us, whose primary task is to equip us to carry out God’s purposes on Planet Earth. And those purposes include the body of Christ being build up and coming to full unity of the Spirit. Paul taught about this in Ephesians 4:12-13,

[Spiritual leaders are called] to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Finally, unity will have its best chance when I make unity my personal responsibility. How do I go about that? Once again, Paul hits the nail on the head in Romans 12:9-21. Take a moment to read his checklist for unity, but verse 18 encapsulates it well:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Yes, it may be difficult to define unity, but when you and I do our part to achieve it in the body of Christ, look out! Good things will happen. Like Vance Havner said, “Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic.”

What do you say we stop some traffic this week!

Making Life Work: Pastor David Jeremiah suggested the following six rules for achieving greater unity in our relationships:

1. Agree more—Argue less
2. Listen more—Talk less
3. Produce more—Advertise less
4. Confess more—Accuse less
5. Laugh more—Fret less
6. Give more—Receive less

Would you say that is “more or less” correct? Which of those six do you need to work on? So, get after it. You will find do it will be good and pleasant for you and those you care about.

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Taking Care of God’s House

Get Zealous For Your Church

We live in a day when passion for the physical house of God is downplayed. For many, it is downright unimportant. Now there are some good reasons for focusing on the spiritual house of God over the physical, but still, if the literal house of God was important to King David, and the Son of David, King Jesus, should we have a little passion for the physical house of God, too—or a lot.

Read: Psalm 132 // Focus: Psalm 132:3-5

“I will not enter my house or go to my bed—I will allow no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

David had a passion for the house of God. He couldn’t tolerate the thought that as king, he would be able to build himself an unbelievably opulent palace while God’s dwelling was just a simple tent, the tabernacle, that had been used since the days of the exodus.

Then there was the time David publicly danced with delight as the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem to its resting place at the tabernacle. (II Samuel 6:14) The king’s pubic display of affection for that which represented the Divine Presence was so extreme that his watching wife despised David for it. But David didn’t care because he was passionate about the house of God.

David wanted desperately to build God a permanent structure—a temple. He knew God deserved the best. So he located property for the building, but rather than throwing his royal weight around to get a good deal for it, he insisted on paying full price. David wasn’t into immanent domain apparently, like too many politicians today. He said, “I won’t offer the Lord something that has cost me nothing.” (II Samuel 24:24) David had a passion for the house of God.

God had other plans, however, and told David that it would be his son, Solomon, who would build the temple. So what did David do? He set about to make all the preparations for construction in order for Solomon to have a good head start when he was inaugurated as Israel’s king. (I Chronicles 22:5) David was passionate for God’s house.

The Son of David, Jesus, was passionate about God’s house, too. Although he predicted that not one stone of it would be left upon another because of God’s judgment against the impure worship that took place there (Matthew 24:2), he did his best to bring purity to it. He drove the moneychangers from the temple—and not with gentle persuasion either. He made whips—and used them. He overturned the tables they had used to carry out their shady commerce. With an illustrated sermon that no one would ever forget, Jesus cleansed the temple. (John 2:13-16) Jesus was passionate about the house of God!

Of both David (Psalm 69:9) and Jesus (John 2:17), the Word of God says, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

In the house of God there is never ending festival; the angel choir makes eternal holiday; the presence of God’s face gives joy that never fails. (Saint Augustine)

We live in a day when passion for the physical house of God is downplayed. For many, it is downright unimportant. Now there are some good reasons for focusing on the spiritual house of God over the physical, but still, if the literal house of God was important to King David, and the Son of David, King Jesus, should we have a little passion for the physical house of God, too—or a lot.

So how about you? I’m not suggesting you take a whip to worship with you next weekend, but what I do hope for is that the same zeal for God’s house that consumed David and the Son of David will consume you. Me, too!

Making Life Work: Take some time this weekend while you are at your church to acknowledge before God that it is his house. Then thank him for it, because many believers around the world don’t have what your spiritual family has—a physical place to worship. And many believers don’t have the freedom to show up for worship without the threat of persecution, or even death, for simply worshipping Jesus. Finally, ask God to give you zeal for his house.

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Room For Only One God

Let God Be God

There is room for only one God in your life, so let God be God. He has a great track record in that role, you know—and you don’t!

Read: Psalm 131 // Focus: Psalm 131:1

“My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”

There is only One who is God—and that’s not you! Basically, that is what the King David is saying of himself in this brief song of assent. The Message translates verse one this way:

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost,
I don’t want to be king of the mountain.
I haven’t meddled where I have no business
or fantasized grandiose plans.

Yet this business of godship is more prevalent than we care to admit. You see, when we fret and worry over matters we can’t control, when we meddle and manipulate to get our plans fulfilled, when we come to God after the fact for help, when we pray as a last rather than a first resort, when we cut corners in our financial stewardship because we can’t afford to give to the Lord’s work, and when we put our hope in government (or anything else) at the expense of our trust in God, in effect, we have removed God from his rightful throne.

There is room for only one God in your life, so let God be God. He has a great track record in that role, you know, and you don’t.

And by the way, when you allow God to be God, good things happen for you:

• You become the recipient of greater grace. Recognizing God’s rightful role takes true humility (the opposite of pride and haughtiness), as David describes, “My heart is not proud, O LORD,my eyes are not haughty”—Psalm 131:1a. Of course, the Bible repeatedly tells us this is always the catalyst for greater grace. (Proverbs 3:34)
• You become the recipient of greater security. You put things that are above your pay grade back into the hands of the only One wise enough to handle them—what David calls “great matters or things too wonderful for me”—Psalm 131:1b (See how Paul describes them in Romans 11:33-36)
• You become the recipient of greater confidence. Someone else is running the universe, which means you don’t carry that great weight upon your shoulders. David says, “But I have stilled and quieted my soul”—Psalm 131:2a … which is possible only when you first walk with the Shepherd who leads you beside quite waters and restores your soul.
• You become the recipient of greater contentment. David describes it “like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content”—Psalm 131:2b (MSG) Paul says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (I Timothy 6:6)
• You become the recipient of greater hope. “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore”—Psalm 131:3. It is by Biblical hope, as Paul teaches, “we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” (Romans 8:24) “Hope” as Paul says in Romans 5:5, “does not disappoint us…”

Hmmm…grace, security, confidence, contentment, hope. I think I’ll let God be God!

Making Life Work: Have you told the Lord lately that you have no God but him? Maybe you should do it now!

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God Doesn’t Keep Lists

Your Sins—Even Your Worst Ones—Are Utterly Obliterated Through Confession

God doesn’t keep lists. Aren’t you glad for that? Unlike some of us who keep track of others’ offenses, our gracious God doesn’t! When we confess our sins and repent of our offenses, the Lord remembers them no more.

Read: Psalm 130 // Focus: Psalm 1303-:4

“If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.”

God doesn’t keep lists. Aren’t you glad for that? Unlike some of us who keep track of the mistakes and offenses of others, our gracious God doesn’t! When we confess our sins and repent of our offenses, the Lord remembers them no more. The Apostle John wrote, “When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse of from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)

King David, who not only knew a great deal about personal sin, but Divine pardon as well, spoke in Psalm 103:3 & 12 of a God, “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” How amazing is that! God takes the worst sins of the repentant sinner and obliterates them from his record. He wipes them from his memory banks — “as far as the east is from the west”—which, the last time I checked, was a long way.

One of the most moving and poignant descriptions of this forgiving God was penned by the prophet Micah. He spoke of God not just in terms of his willingness to forgive, but even more, of his passionate desire and aggressive search for ways to extend forgiveness to sinners. Take a moment to absorb this mind-boggling truth from Micah 7:18-19,

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

No wonder the psalmist called us to “fear” the Lord in response to God’s unmerited forgiveness. To fear the Lord meant to reverence him, and to offer him a heart of gratitude, praise and love. Obviously, that is the only right response to a God who goes out of his way to forgive people who have gone out of their way to offend him.

I am so grateful for a God who forgives my transgressions—and remembers them no more. There is no other god like him, and I will be eternally indebted to his mercy and grace. When I think about his “unfailing love and…full redemption,” (Psalm 130:7) I am simply undone. How about you?

What love, what mercy, what grace…what a God!

Making Life Work: Are you in need of divine forgiveness? Why not ask God to forgive you—right now. After all, he delights to show mercy!