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Lord Have Mercy!

The Only Reason You Can Even Read This Post

God’s mercy is not getting what you deserve; God’s grace is getting what you don’t deserve. God has given you both—no thanks to you; all thanks to him. Now would be a good time to offer up your gratitude!

Read: Psalm 123 // Focus: Psalm 123:2

“As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.”

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.

I don’t know how much thought you give to God’s mercy, but frankly, without it, you wouldn’t even be reading this devotional blog today. And you are not alone—apart from Divine mercy, I wouldn’t have written it.

No one captured our utter dependence on God’s mercy better than the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote,

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
(Lamentations 3:21-23, NKJV)

What is Divine mercy? Simply this: Not getting what you rightly deserve. Grace, the other side of your utter dependence on God, is getting what you don’t deserve. Out of God’s great love and compassion, he has extended his grace through salvation, by which he lavished upon you all heaven’s riches at Christ’s expense. Keep in mind that none of that was due to your own merit.

Yet before you could even receive his grace, God first had to unleash his righteous wrath upon Christ as he hung on the cross, bearing the just and deserved punishment for your sins. Mercy—not getting what you rightly deserve—was made possible only through Christ’s death.

What that means for you is that every single day, every minute of every day, each second, each breath and each heartbeat is a gift of God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord. And for that, you ought to be continually and eternally overflowing with gratitude!

Yet not only is God’s grace and mercy undeserved, unmerited gifts to you, they are also your privilege once you become his child through faith in Christ. That is why, as the psalmist has done here, you can appeal to God for a specific extension of his mercy in your time of need. And that, my friend, is a very good thing indeed, since coming to the Father by virtue of his mercy requires you to remember the very reason for your righteous standing before a holy God: Christ’s atoning death.

When you remember, understand, and make your appeal to Divine mercy, your being exudes love, gratitude and humility, and that becomes a sweet smelling and irresistible fragrance to your merciful and gracious God.

Making Life Work: Since God has shown undeserved mercy to you—his unmerited, un-repayable loving-kindness—how about offering the same to someone who deserve your judgment instead.

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Loving The City God Loves

Pray For Her Peace and Prosperity

God cares for all cities, but he has a special love for the city of Jerusalem. It is special because God chose it as the physical place that would house his uncontainable presence. And since Jerusalem was once the physical address of the Great House of God, as it will again one day be the home of his holy temple, we ought to do everything we can now to contribute to its prosperity.

Read: Psalm 122 // Focus: Psalm 122:6-7

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”

Why should we pray for the peace and prosperity of a city that is not even in out country? My goodness, don’t we have enough to worry about in my our own community much less one that’s clear across the ocean! And why should Jerusalem get singled out for special attention? What about London or Moscow or Pretoria or Sao Paolo, or for heaven’s sake, Washington, DC? Aren’t those cities important to God?

Courtesy of Debbie Martin

Photo Credit: Debbie Martin

Well yes, those cities are important to God—all cities are! But Jerusalem is special. It’s special because God chose it as the physical place that would house his uncontainable presence. He selected the land of Canaan as the place where his people would live, Jerusalem to be the city where his temple would be constructed, and the sanctuary of that temple would serve as the central location for his people to worship him.

And even though there is no longer a temple, it is very clear from Scripture that Jerusalem will feature prominently in God’s grand plan for the eternal ages, where once again, Zion will be the central place in the entire universe, in all creation, where redeemed beings will gather to worship Almighty God.

That should be reason enough to love Jerusalem. That is plenty of motivation to pray for the city above all others. Since Jerusalem factors significantly with the people and purpose of God, we should go out of our way to be protective of it. (Psalm 122:8) And since it was once the physical address of the Great House of God, and one day will be again, we ought to do everything we can to contribute to its prosperity. (Psalm 122:9)

praying-for-jerusalem-near-holy-of-holies

Prayer for Jerusalem at the excavated site near what is believed to be the Holy of Holies. Photo Credit: Sheryl Landis

Perhaps you have never been to Jerusalem, and maybe you don’t give the city much thought. I want to challenge you to rethink that—on both levels. Do what you can to go there—make plans to go there at least once in your life. And in the meantime, consciously pay more attention to its goings on, keep your eye out for news about it, attend functions in support of it, and most of all, pray for it!

Do all that, and sooner or later, you will fall in love, like I have, with a city. There’s no place like it!

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing,Hosanna, in the highest, hosanna to the king. By the way, when you take care of the things God cares about, and he very definitely cares for Jerusalem, then you will find this major blessings coming back upon your life: God will care for the things you care about!

Making Life Work: Make it a practice, today and every day, to pray for the peace and prosperity of the city of the Great King.

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Your Life Is In Good Hands

Somebody's Watching You

If you belong to God, you are in God, so nothing can get to you that doesn’t first have to pass by him. That doesn’t mean you won’t experience difficult circumstances; what it does mean is that no matter what, you win!

Read: Psalm 121 // Focus: Psalm 121:7-8

“The LORD will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

According to this psalm and a whole host of other Scripture, when I am in Christ, I am kept from all harm. But doesn’t that seem like a huge overstatement to you? It does to me! I mean, you and I and a whole lot of people we know have experienced harm—car wrecks, lost jobs, disease, divorce, and… well, pick your poison.

Ah, but is it really harm, child of God? It might hurt, and hurt a lot, but don’t we know by now that our Heavenly Father turns what is meant for evil into that which is good? “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20)

Doesn’t our Lord take all things—even really bad things—and turn then into things that reveal his glory in our lives? “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Hasn’t he promised to never leave us nor forsake us? “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Joshua 1:5)

Will he not be true to his Word and walk with us even through the valley of the shadow of death? “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

And when we die, didn’t Jesus himself promise that we really wouldn’t die? “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

It sounds like no matter what, we win! Nothing can come to me that first doesn’t have to pass through the One who constantly watches over my comings and my goings. And to get to me, it first has to pass the Divine Purpose Test: If it can’t be used for his glory in my life, he prohibits it from harming me.

I like that, don’t you? He is watching over you and me, and the people we care about. So we can quit worrying and just relax in the safety of his hands. The German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was held in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, and finally martyred by hanging, wrote from his prison cell before his death, “Much that worries us beforehand can, quite unexpectedly, have a happy and simple solution… Things really are in a better hand than ours.”

The Lord is watching over you like a Heavenly Hawk, and nothing will escape his loving eye—not even one little detail. So be assured today that everything that comes your way—good and not so good—will be used in his great transformation project to turn you into the image of his dear Son.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:28-29)

Yeah, I like that!

Making Life Work: What difficulty are you going through? By faith, pray this prayer: “God, use this to shape me!” In your current circumstance, that might come off as the weakest prayer you’ve ever prayed, but pray it anyway—it is the highest form of trust you can offer to the One who watches over you!

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A Stark Contrast

A Sanctuary of Peace in a World of Hostility

Like me, are you sick and tired of having to endure a culture God never intended for mankind—a world of deceit and hostility? One day, sooner than we think, the Son of God will break through the clouds and call the people of God to their eternal home where truth and peace are as close as the air we breathe. What a day! But in the meantime, God has given us a place to which we can run and find truth and peace—the sanctuary of our church. What a place!

Read: Psalm 120 // Focus: Psalm 120:6-7

“I am tired of living among people who hate peace. I search for peace; but when I speak of peace, they want war!”

Perhaps you scratched your head when you read this psalm, as I did, unable to pull out much application from it other than the psalmist’s upset with the deceitful, hateful people he was forced to endure. But digging into the title of the psalm sheds some much needed light on the rest of it.

This is what is called a psalm of assent. There were fifteen of them, and they were songs to be sung by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem (the city had a relatively high elevation for the Promised Land, sitting at 2,700 feet above see level). These psalms were written in a time when Israel had only one central location for corporate worship—the sanctuary of the tabernacle/temple in Jerusalem—and they were required to go there three times each year for one of the religious festivals proscribed in the law of Moses.

As they made their journey, they were to worship—not a bad idea for you and me as we make our way to weekly worship at our church. In this particular psalm of assent, these pilgrims had to make a long journey since they lived in Meshech, way to the north in Asia Minor, and Kedar, which was in Ishmaelite territory in Arabia. (Psalm 120:5) Both places were known for violence, and in each godless location deceit (Psalm 120:2-3) was an acceptable way of life.

So now we see how this psalm of assent is a little more applicable to our lives. We, too, live in a culture that stands in stark contrast to the culture of God. Hostility and deceit are simply a way of life, even if you don’t live all that far from the church where you worship. That godless culture forces its way into your life every day through the television, radio, or through your computer, and of course, through the people with whom you must interact. And like me, you are probably sick and tired of having to endure a culture God never intended for mankind.

One day, we will no longer have to endure such hostility and dishonesty. One day, perhaps sooner than we think, the Son of God will break through the clouds and call the people of God to their eternal home where truth and peace are as close as the air we will breathe. And what a day that will be!

But in the meantime, God has given us a place to which we can run and find truth and peace—the sanctuary of our church. There God’s Truth is proclaimed, and there through our worship, the peace of God transcends the chaos from without and guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) And best of all, you aren’t limited to three times a year, you can go at least once each weekend to get your defense shields recharged as you gather with the rest of God’s children to offer your worship and receive his grace.

Now that the psalmist has reminded you of this stark contrast between culture and church, perhaps you ought to sing a song of assent on your way to worship this coming weekend.

Making Life Work: On your way to worship this week, worship. And when you get there, allow the Holy Spirit to baptize you in his strength and peace—you’re going to need it for the next seven days.

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Your Divine Guidance System

How Never To Get Lost, Confused Or Distracted

Someone once quipped that the Bible is simple our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. That’s true. And that’s why, today and every day, you should stand upon the Word of God, the B. I. B. L. E.

Read: Psalm 119 // Focus: Psalm 119:24>
“Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.”

As you read through all 174 verses of Psalm 119—the longest chapter in the Bible—you will notice the repetition of the phrase, “according to”. In fact, it is found twenty times—once every eight or nine verses. Obviously, it is an important phrase to the writer, since he repeats it so often.

But what is of particular import is that the phrase is describing the one whose life is lived “according to” the Word of God. And to the one who so orders their life, the rest of the psalm is mostly a detail of the various benefits that follow. And of all those wonderful benefits, perhaps the greatest is that these holy statutes serve as a personal counselor—a Divine Guidance System, if you will.

What a comfort! The counsel that comes to us when we live “according to” God’s Word lifts us far above our limited, shortsighted, earth-bound perspective and provides a heavenly view of life as we journey through it. The Word of God becomes, as Timothy Dwight described, “a window in this prison-world through which we may look into eternity.” It is, as Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “God’s chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbour is, and how to reach it without running on rocks and bars.”

That’s why we must invest the first and best part of our day (Psalm 119:147) to reading, studying, meditating and applying God’s Word. Psalm 119:130 reminds us that “the unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” As you can see, not to give full devotion and highest place to the Word of the Lord would be nothing less than foolish.

If you have chosen to read God’s Word each day, whether through this blog or in some other form, I congratulate you. There is no better investment. Psalm 119:89 says the Word of the Lord is eternal—nothing else in this world can lay claim to that distinction—so while all else around you is being shaken, because you have delighted in his laws, you won’t be!

As Psalm 119:165 promises, “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” That’s what you get when you follow your Divine Guidance System.

Making Life Work: Open your Bible today and read! Meditate on it, Memorize it. Master it. Minister it. Hands down, it is the very best thing you can do today.

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The Central Point

In The Exact Middle Of God's Word You'll Find The Exact Center of God's Will

Want to find God’s will for you? Go to the very center of the Bible—literally! 594 chapters from either the front or the back will bring you to Psalm 118:8, and there you’ll find the best advice ever: Go with God! Don’t put your hopes in a politician or a celebrity or a sports star or anyone else for that matter. God alone is eternal and dependable and perfect in all his ways!

Read: Psalm 118 // Focus: Psalm 118:8

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD tan to trust in man.”

This isn’t original with me, but I thought you might find it interesting nonetheless:

The shortest chapter in the Bible is the previous reading—Psalms 117. The longest chapter in the Bible is the one to follow—Psalm 119. Today’s chapter, Psalm 118, is the literal center of the Bible.

There are 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and there are 594 chapters after Psalm 118. If you add these numbers up you get 1188.

What is the center verse in the Bible? None other than Psalms 118:8,

Far better to take refuge in God than trust in people; Far better to take refuge in God than trust in celebrities. (The Message)

Does this verse say something significant about God’s perfect will? Obviously, it does! So the next time someone says they would like to find God’s plan for their life and that they want to be in the center of His will, just send them to the exact middle of His Word, and there they can read for themselves the central point of God’s purpose for mankind:

It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. (NKJV)

Now isn’t it odd how this worked out, or was God at the center of it?

Making Life Work: Write out Psalm 118:8 from your favorite version. Post it where you can see it throughout the day for one week. Memorize it, meditate on it, pray it, share it, thank God for it and most of all, live it!

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God in a Nutshell: Love and Faithfulness

You Are Eternally And Unconditionally Loved!

There is nothing you can do to make God love you more! There is nothing you can do to make God love you less. God loves you! And when you truly “get that”, your life will be radically and eternally transformed—for the better.

Read: Psalm 117 // Focus: Psalm 117:1-2

“Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.”

They say that dynamite comes in small packages, and so does one of the most powerful truths in all of Scripture. Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the Bible, but how profound these two verses are. The entire message that God has graciously communicated to mankind through his Word be summed up right here: God’s love toward us is great, and his faithfulness is unending.

Love and faithfulness—that is our God in a nutshell. He loves us unconditionally. We did nothing to deserve or earn his love. In fact, we have gone out of our way to repulse his love for us. (Romans 5:8) Yet he has stubbornly persisted in loving us.

And what can diminish his love for us? Nothing—not even our best efforts to drive him away. (Romans 8:38-39) He is faithful morning after morning, with each new day, to extend mercy, cover us with grace, shower us with goodness and embrace us with everlasting love. His love endures forever.

No wonder the authors of these psalms would often exclaim after writing of God’s great love and enduring faithfulness, “Praise the Lord!” What else is there to say.

Why don’t you join me today—at this very moment, wherever you are—and give a heartfelt “praise the Lord” shout-out to our loving and faithful God!

Praise the Lord!

Making Life Work: I dare you: watch this video and see if your day doesn’t get suddenly better. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2mn86HdQFY&feature=related