Tag Archives: Scripture memory

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Fruitful Fear

It's the Only Way to Live

SYNOPSIS: The fear of the Lord doesn’t conjure up very a positive image. But to be God-fearing doesn’t mean to cower in terror because a capricious and vengeful Deity is fixing to squash you like a bug if you displease him in the least. Rather, while acknowledging that disobeying his law will bring painful consequences, it recognizes that obeying that very same law will bring life-giving benefits. In that sense, to live in the fear of the Lord is the only way to the blessed life. Too many people today are trying to live a God-blessed life without a God-fearing life. It can’t be done! But those who fear the Lord have nothing to fear! In fact, they have every good and perfect thing to gain.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Psalm 128:1-2

Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Fear!  The word doesn’t conjure up very positive images does it? These days in our cultural context, parents don’t usually teach their kids to live in fear of anything and teachers don’t instruct their students to be afraid.  So why should preachers stand in pulpits and preach the “fear of the Lord” to their congregations? That seems a bit incongruent with our image of a loving and gracious God.

The problem is that we misunderstand what the Bible means when it talks about this kind of fear. A better way to think of it is the old term used a generation or two ago: God fearing. That simply meant to have a deep reverence for God and a healthy respect for his laws. It did not mean to cower in terror because a capricious and vengeful Deity was fixing to squash you like a bug if you displeased him in the least. Rather, while acknowledging that disobeying God’s law would bring painful consequences (just try ignoring his universal law of gravity and see how that works for you), it recognized that obeying that very same law would bring life-giving benefits.

To live with a healthy and holy fear of God provided the foundation for a prosperous journey through this life as well as preparation for entering into the joy of the eternal kingdom in the life to come. The fear of the Lord was what enabled people to navigate daily challenges with good judgment and grace. And the icing on the cake for a fear-of-the-Lord approach to living was the promise that God would add fruit, blessings and prosperity to our lives.  That’s not a bad exchange:  Fear of the Lord for fruitfulness in life.

Too many people today are trying to live a God-blessed life without a God-fearing life. It can’t be done! Living without deep reverence for God and healthy respect for his laws, including awareness of the consequences of breaking them—will only produce the other kind of fear: fear that our past will catch up to us, high anxiety because of what we’re going through today, and terror of what might happen tomorrow.

But those who fear the Lord have nothing to fear! In fact, they have every good and perfect thing to gain.  If you can wrap your life around what it means to be God-fearing, this gracious God himself will give you the life you’ve only dreamed of—and even beyond that.

The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else. ~Oswald Chambers

Reflect & Apply: What kind of fear is your fear of the Lord? A healthy and holy fear, or one that is unhealthy and unholy? Spend some time today thinking about what it means to be a God-fearing person—and what changes you may need to make to be one.

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Recalibrate

Are You On God's Side?

SYNOPSIS: Whether it’s pursuing your personal goals (“building your house”), protecting your interests (“watching over the city”), earning a living (“rising early and stay up late toiling”), or raising your family (“a quiver full of children”), at the end of all your efforts, nothing of lasting value and eternal consequence will have been accomplished if the Lord has not helped; even more, if the Lord has not been the architect and builder of your pursuits!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Psalm 127:1-2

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was once asked if God was on his side. The president’s response was classic—and deeply profound: “It is not is God on my side, but am I on God’s side?”

That’s a great question to ask yourself in any of life’s endeavors—several of which are listed in Psalm 127. So whether it is in pursuing your personal goals (“building your house”), protecting your interests (“watching over the city”), earning a living (“rising early and stay up late toiling”), or raising your family (“a quiver full of children”), at the end of all your efforts, nothing of lasting value and eternal consequence will have been accomplished if the Lord has not helped; even more, if the Lord has not been the architect and builder of your pursuits!

And what is the best way to ensure the Lord’s help?  Not just to get the Lord on your side—that can be tricky business, given the exceeding craftiness of our own motives (Jeremiah 17:9).  Rather, the only surefire guarantee of the Lord’s help is to get on God’s side—and stay there.

Perhaps Lincoln’s question is a good one to ask yourself today: “Am I on God’s side?”  Are my goals God-given?  Are my interests dedicated to his purpose?  Is my work his work?  Is my family set apart for his glory?

If you are nervous about being able to answer those questions in a God honoring way, then wouldn’t you say it is time to recalibrate your life so that from the center to the circumference, you are aligned with God’s purposes?

I hope you will join me today for a little recalibration. If we can pull that off, we’ll be in good standing to get the Lord’s help.  And like the Apostle Paul, the testimony of our life will be, “But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.” (Acts 26:22)

“We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.” ~Francis de Sales

Reflect & Apply: What are the most significant pursuits occupying your time, energy and resources these days? Can you truly say of them, they are God’s agenda for your life? If not, let the recalibration begin.

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All-Sufficient Grace

You Are a Trophy of God's Grace

SYNOPSIS: God’s grace is sufficient—always. It was for the Apostle Paul, who wrote of how God’s all-sufficient grace empowered him even as he endured a season of debilitating weakness: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” And because he loves you just as much as he did Paul, God’s grace will be sufficient for you, too! Whatever your weakness is, God is going to use it to display his strength in you so that in reality, your life will be nothing less than a living, breathing trophy of grace.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you ever wonder why God allows you to struggle with certain things? Perhaps there is a physical limitation from which you have asked God time and again to heal you, but to no avail. Maybe there is a limitation in your ability to learn or speak or a lack of confidence in interacting with others that holds you back vocationally or relationally, and you have desperately sought for God to give you victory over it, but to no avail. Perhaps there has been a struggle with a particular sin over the years, and you have agonized in prayer that God would remove it, but your prayers seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Apostle Paul had something like that going on in his life, too. He called it a “thorn in my flesh”. He saw it as a direct assault from Satan. And he prayed intensely that God would deliver him from whatever it was. There has been speculation as to what the thorn in the flesh actually was. Many think it was a physical malady. Tradition tells us that Paul had plenty of physical limitations. Some think the “thorn” was a person who was opposing Paul and his work. Then there are a few who surmise that it was a temptation to which Paul was particularly susceptible. Who knows for sure, but what we do know is that it was really bugging Paul—to the point that he felt frustrated enough to get really serious before God about it.

One of the things I appreciate about Paul is his ability to gain an eternal perspective on things. He was able to re-theologize the negative circumstances in his life to where he could see the mighty hand of God aligning things for his benefit. Such was the case here. If God saw fit to leave this pesky thorn in Paul’s side, then God must have a purpose. And the purpose in this case, he finally figured out, was to keep him from conceit, since throughout his ministry he had been given so many unusual experiences in the supernatural dimension that it would have been easy to become spiritually prideful. Paul needed a little humility, and God gave him a thorn to keep him weak, and therefore humble, in a particular area.

But it wasn’t just humility for humility’s sake that Paul needed, God wanted Paul to come into a much more important understanding of how the Kingdom of God works. God wanted Paul to have a firsthand experience of grace. Paul was the Apostle of grace, so through this experience where all he could do to survive was depend on God’s unmerited favor, he learned to hang on to grace for dear life. Paul learned one of the most important lessons a Christian can ever learn:

Through grace, our weaknesses are parlayed into God’s supernatural strength, which enables us to achieve kingdom success that result in all the credit going to God.

That is why Paul could be grateful for his weakness. That is why he could tolerate his thorn. That is why he could turn his disadvantage into an advantage. Satan afflicted him with a thorn, but God watered it with grace and it budded into a rose. Charles Spurgeon wrote,

Soar back through all your own experiences. Think of how the Lord has led you in the wilderness and has fed and clothed you every day. How God has borne with your ill manners, and put up with all your murmurings and all your longings after the ‘sensual pleasures of Egypt!’ Think of how the Lord’s grace has been sufficient for you in all your troubles.

God’s grace is sufficient—always. It was sufficient for Paul. And because God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and because he loves you just as much as he did Paul, God’s grace will be sufficient for you! Start looking at your thorn from a different perspective. It might hurt a little—or a lot—but God is going to use your present struggle to achieve an eternal glory that will far outweigh any discomfort you feel in the present.

Never pray for an easier life—pray to be a stronger person.  Never pray for tasks equal to your power—pray for power equal to your tasks.  Then doing your work will be no miracle—you will be the miracle.~Phillip Brooks

Reflect & Apply: Offer this prayer, “Lord, thank you that in my weakness, I receive your strength!  Thorns may pierce me, but they drive me to you, and into a deeper experience of your grace than I would have known without them. In my weakness your sufficient grace is revealed, and I am strengthened to overcome.  You bring victory out of defeat in such a way that all the credit goes to you. Therefore I will boast all the more that in my weakness, I am strong in your strength.

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Remember

God Will Never Fail You

SYNOPSIS: If you are going to walk faithfully with God over the course of your life, you will have to get good at remembering. In fact, God himself calls you to practice remembering: Remember the trustworthiness of his character, the certainty of his promises and the track record of his faithful activity in your life. Failure to remember God’s unimpeachable ways in the past will lead to fear and faithlessness when you hit rough roads in the journey ahead. That is why he wants you to practice remembering that he will never fail you, that you will never be alone, that he will always keep his promises and he will always reward your faithfulness!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Hebrews 13:62

“So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? … Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

If you are going to walk faithfully with God over the course of your life, you will have to get good at remembering. In fact, God himself calls you to practice remembering: Remember the trustworthiness of his character, the certainty of his promises and the track record of his faithful activity in your life. Failure to remember God’s unimpeachable ways in the past will lead to fear and faithlessness when you hit rough roads in the journey ahead.

God calls us to remember so that we don’t forget. That is why he has gone on record time and again in his Word that he will indeed keep his commitments—all of them. God wants us to know that it is his nature to be faithful. God keeps every one of his promises!  He just can’t help himself. That is why Hebrews 10:23 urges us to,

“Hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful!”

Not only does God want us not to forget him, he wants us to know he will never forget us. God knows who we are, where we are and what we need.  He remembers us, he remembers his promises to us and he graciously acts on our behalf at the proper time. And just about the time we think he has forgotten, he invades our dark days and interrupts our desperate realities with the light of his loving plan—because God remembers!  Isaiah 49:15-16 beautifully reminds us,

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

Furthermore, God wants us to know that he will never forget our tenacious faithfulness to him. When it looks like God is absent, or that he doesn’t care, and we ruthlessly cling to our trust in the goodness of his character and fidelity of his promise, God’s heart is moved—and he rewards. Isaiah 40:31 says,

“They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

God wants you to practice remembering that he will never fail you, that you will never be alone, that he will always keep his promises and he will always reward your faithfulness! God’s promise to you is that you will never be forgotten, no matter what!

In the 1980’s, Tom Sutherland was taken hostage by radicals in Lebanon and held in captivity for 4 years, mostly in solitary confinement. He existed in deep darkness during that long ordeal. Sometimes he could hear is captor’s radio when they tuned it to the BBC, and Tom would listen intently hoping and praying to hear his name mentioned on a newscast. But he never heard it, so he figured that people at home didn’t even know he was alive, much less imprisoned.

Finally, Tom was released.  He flew back to the US and landed in San Francisco, and he was amazed as he got off the plane to see a huge crowd, people waving signs, cameras, reporters, and TV lights. He turned to his wife and said, “There must have been a famous person on this plane with us.  See if you can spot him.”  And she said, “Tom, they’re all here for you!”  Tom broke down and cried like a baby. And he finally said, “I thought everybody had forgotten me…I felt abandoned…I didn’t think anybody cared.  Thank God I was wrong.”

If you’re feeling forgotten at this moment, thank God you’re wrong!  God remembers you and will fulfill every single one of his promises at the proper time.

So remember not to forget that!

I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain ~John Henry Newman

Reflect & Apply: Use your Bible concordance to search God’s promises to remember his people. Find seven verses, one for each day this week, and reflect on them. That is what one of the ways you can practice remembering.

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Hilariously Happy

Designed and Built To Serve

SYNOPSIS: It may sound harsh to say we are commanded to serve, but it is what we were created, and recreated, to do. Christians serve! Like fish swim and birds fly, Christians serve. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God shaped us to serve him. God was there at the moment you and I were conceived, even before, deliberately engineering us to fulfill that purpose. And when we do, his joy will flow into our souls. We will be hilariously happy.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Acts 20:35

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Jesus was a different kind of leader than the world had ever known.   Instead of taking, he gave—even giving up his very life. Instead of seeking power, fortune and fame, he came to glorify the Father. Instead of insisting his rights as the Son of God, he came to incarnate a God who touched lepers, ate with sinners and healed on the Sabbath. Instead of being served, his very purpose in coming to earth was to serve.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

So when Jesus—or his apostles who led the early church and formulated the New Testament theology by which we now order our lives—calls us to serve and to give our lives away, we are not being asked to do anything that wasn’t authentically modeled for us. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-7, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God…took on the very nature of a servant.”

Jesus did that—now he asks us to do the same. We are called to serve, and quite frankly, the call is even stronger than that: it is a command. Jesus said, “I have set an example for you…now do as I have done.” (John 13:13-17)  Paul commanded in Galatians 5:13, “Serve one another in love.”

Now it may sound a little harsh to say we are commanded to serve, but it is what we were created, and recreated, to do. Christians serve! Like fish swim and birds fly, Christians serve! Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God shaped us to serve him. God was there at the moment you and I were conceived, even before, deliberately engineering us to fulfill his purposes.

Now there are a couple of very important results that occur when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose. First, we will begin to capture the world’s attention.  Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16, NLT) Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this will all men know that you are my disciples: That you have love for one another.”  By our authentic servanthood and sacrificial giving, we become living proof of a loving God to a lost world.

Roy Hattersley, a columnist for the Guardian (U.K.) and an outspoken atheist, laments, “It ought to be possible to live a Christian life without being a Christian.” But after watching the Salvation Army lead several other faith-based organizations in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, he wrote,

“Notable by their absence were teams from rationalist societies, free thinkers’ clubs, and atheists’ associations—the sort of people who scoff at religion’s intellectual absurdity… [Christians] are the people most likely to take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in helping others.  Civilized people do not believe that drug addiction and male prostitution offend against divine ordinance. But those who do are the men and women most willing to change the fetid bandages, replace the sodden sleeping bags, and—probably most difficult of all—argue, without a trace of impatience, that the time has come for some serious medical treatment.  The only possible conclusion is that faith comes with a packet of moral imperatives that, while they do not condition the attitude of all believers, influence enough of them to make [Christians] morally superior to atheists like me.”

The truth is, the spotlight never shines more brightly on Jesus than when Christians serve.  “By this, all will know…”

Second, when we begin to serve our God-shaped purpose, happiness is produced in our soul. When we serve we find it is indeed more blessed to give than receive. The word “blessed” here means “hilariously happy.” We are really serving ourselves when we serve others, because health and happiness gets produced in our inner core. You see, there is just something ennobling about serving others—and therefore joy-producing.

Karl Menninger, founder of the famed psychiatric clinic in Topeka, Kansas that bears his name, was once asked, “what would you do if you thought you were going crazy?” Without even having to think about it, he said, “I’d go out and find someone less fortunate to serve.”

Jesus said, “I’ve washed your feet…now go do that for one another.”  Did he mean that literally?  Probably not.  Washing someone’s “barking dogs” back then was akin to getting treated to a hour-long massage in our day. It is the spirit of the foot-washing that Jesus is wanting us to capture. He is wanting us to follow his lead, take the posture of a servant, give our lives away and allow his love to flow to others by doing so.

In return, his joy will flow into our souls.  And we will be hilariously happy.

“Serve God by doing common actions in a heavenly spirit, and then, if your daily calling only leaves you cracks and crevices of time, fill them up with holy service.” ~Charles Spurgeon

Reflect & Apply: Christians serve! Do you? If you want to experience the “hilarious happiness” that Jesus spoke about, find a need and serve in his spirit and in his name.

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Direct Access

New House Rules for Coming To God

SYNOPSIS: Jesus is our access card to the very throne room of the Father, where we can boldly and confidently use the authority of his name to let God know our needs. And when we ask in his name, Jesus promises both answers to our requests and a complete sense of satisfaction in gaining the Father’s provision (“and your joy will be complete”). But asking in his name implies two interconnected things: First, it implies that we are living under his authority. By that I mean we are giving his rule first place in our lives. Second, it implies we are asking in his authority. That is, we are under his rule, we are serving his cause, and we are acting as agents of his Kingdom interests. Asking in that sense is both the believer’s highest privilege and most powerful resource. With that in mind, let’s start asking!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // John 16:24

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

What Jesus revealed to his disciples about prayer was a completely new thing in Israel. Under the old “house rules,” people had to go through a priest to contact the Almighty. They had to bring a sacrifice—depending on the need, there were a variety of sacrifices required—which had to be offered in a proscribed way. There was no direct contact between God and people.

But a new day had dawned, and by Jesus’ once-for-all sacrificial death on the cross, complete, free, unlimited, direct and easy access had been opened up between people and God.  The writer of Hebrews so beautifully described it this way:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

Jesus is our access card to the very throne room of the Father, where we can boldly and confidently use the authority of Jesus’ name to let God know our needs.  And when we ask in his name, Jesus promises both answers to our requests (“ask and you will receive”) and a complete sense of satisfaction in gaining the Father’s provision (“your joy will be complete”).

Now asking in his name implies two interconnected things.  First, it implies that we are living under his authority. By that I mean we are giving his rule first place in our lives, we are learning to look at things through his perspective and we are considering our needs and wants in the light of their relationship to the Kingdom life. Truly living under his authority is the best guard against the selfish asking some would take this verse to legitimize.

Second, it implies we are asking in his authority. That is, we are under his rule, we are serving his cause and we are acting as agents of his Kingdom’s interests. We know who we are and who he is, which leads to a bold and unabashed confidence in coming before the Father to request the release of Divine resources to fulfill the needs of his ever-expanding Kingdom.

No wonder Jesus assured us that this kind of praying works, for in essence, as C.S. Lewis so cleverly wrote,

“Our prayers are really His prayers;
He speaks to himself through us.”

Asking in that sense is both the believer’s highest privilege and most powerful resource.  With that in mind, let’s start asking!

Reflect & Apply:  If you are like me, understanding prayer this way calls me to evaluate my life to see if I am living under his authority—and all that implies, and asking in his authority—that is, acting as an agent of his Kingdom’s interests. And, if you are like me, there is usually some realigning needed to bring my life—my thoughts, attitudes and practices—back into Kingdom alignment.

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The Rock

Reflect:
Psalm 18:2

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

William Gurnall wrote, “Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called ‘the rejoicing of hope.’”

Rejoicing in hope—that is what David did even as Saul was closing in on him with murderous intent, as we learn from the title of Psalm 18. As David stared death in the eye, he could sing and laugh and cry and sigh all at the same time. He could gladly declare, “I love the Lord… The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior,” (Psalm 18:1,46) because he knew Somebody greater than him and bigger than Saul was watching out for him:

“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:16-19)

Rejoicing in hope—that is what you can do when the Lord is your Rock! Aren’t you glad for that? I am so thankful that my trust is in the Lord. He is indeed a Fortress and a Deliverer. Not that I have been kept from all hardship and tragedy—neither have you. We’ve had our share, and perhaps will experience more in the future. As Jesus said, the rain falls on the just and unjust alike. But we know to Whom we can run when it’s raining—our loving Shield. We know where to go in times of trouble—our great Refuge.

That is one of the things I love most about the faith that I’ve placed in Jesus Christ as my Savior. No matter what, I win! When trouble hits, I win because God delivers me from all of my troubles. (Psalm 34:17, Psalm 41:1) Even when I or a loved-one goes through the tragedy of terminal illness, relational heartbreak, economic disaster, or premature death, I belong to a God who

  • Holds my hand … “never will I leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
  • Provides my daily bread … “My God will supply all my needs.” (Philippians 4:19)
  • Turns my tragedy to triumph … “In all things he works for the good” (Romans 8:28)
  • Trumps death with eternal life … “He who believes in me, even though he dies, will live again.” (John 11:24-26)
  • And one day will permanently turn my tears to joy and make everything new … “He will wipe away every tear.” (Revelation 21:4)

Even though life doesn’t always turn out as we have planned, we can rejoice in the Hope of our Rock. He has a track record of faithfulness and goodness going all the way back to the beginning. So determine now to trust him at all times, and when the tough times come around, don’t abandon the only one who will never abandon you. Make your plans now to run to the Rock!

“There is nothing more precious to God than our praise during affliction. Not praise for what the devil has done, but praise for the redeeming power of our loving heavenly Father. What He does not protect us from, He will perfect us through. There is indeed a special blessing for those who do not become offended in God during adversity. Furthermore, we become a special blessing to Him!” ~Robert C. Frost

Reflect and Apply: God troubles? Don’t focus on the size of your problem, focus on the greatness of your Rock.