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Look up to the skies above, and gaze down on the earth below. For the skies will disappear like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a piece of clothing. The people of the earth will die like flies, but my salvation lasts forever. My righteous rule will never end!
My younger brother had a thing for garage sales. Every weekend would find him scouring through other people’s cast offs for ‘bargains’. When his life on earth ended suddenly as the result of an accident, those of us left behind had the task of going through his things. Apparently, my brother had a thing with shoes, tennis shoes in particular. All of us has that pair of shoes that are full of holes, worn out, and…comfortable. You know the kind. The kind you hate to throw away. My brother had boxes of them. We can only imagine that the shoes that many wives finally convinced their husbands to sell at a garage sale ended up in my brothers garage!
Nothing lasts forever, right? We outgrow that favorite sweater; get tired of the shirt grandma gave us; walk one too many miles in that pair sandals, or spill on that Easter dress. What’s true for clothing is true in other areas of our lives as well.
The flame in our marriages gets drowned out by bills, kids and familiarity until the honeymoon is a distant glow on the horizon. The new job becomes as full of monotony and drudgery as the old one. Our mid-life crisis car becomes the victim or cancerous rust.
Nothing keeps it glitter forever, right? But what about our faith? As I write this, I’m looking out my window at a Maple tree blazing with fall color. I’m reminded of the seasons and how they never change. Tonight the stars will shine brightly just like they’ve done for centuries and tomorrow morning the sun will rise above the horizon…just like always.
And, one more thing. God’s love for me will be the same for me tomorrow just as it was yesterday and will be for me for eternity. Eternity never grows dim. Eternity never loses it’s luster. Eternity never says, “I’ve had enough.” God’s love for us is eternal. So, while our love wavers from day to day and circumstance to circumstance, one thing, and only one thing, remains the same. God’s love will never fail.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” That favorite pair of shoes in the closet? You’re going to have to throw it someday, but you’ll never lose God’s love for you.
PRAYER: Father, there are so many times I take you for granted. So many times this temporary life clouds my realization of your eternal love for me. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for loving me so well. Amen.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16
There’s a small house down the road from us. I’m not sure when the grass was mowed last and since it’s in the country, there are no ‘rules’ to govern its upkeep. I’ve never seen the blinds or drapes open. The yard, what you can see of it, is cluttered with a couple old cars and some other debris. The siding doesn’t match. In fact, in a few places plywood patches damaged siding.
I’ve never seen anyone at this house. For all I know it could be abandoned except that on rare occasions there is a vehicle parked in the driveway. A nice, shiny, very expensive truck that I confess I’ve coveted on occasion!
While I know nothing of the story of this building and it’s inhabitants, it’s obvious to me where the priorities may lie and they are not on a dwelling place. I’d hesitate to step foot on the very property much less enter the building.
Paul writes to us about another kind of building, a spiritual and physical building that we take with us every day. I confess to you that I wish I would/could live every moment of my life with the realization that my body is the dwelling place, the house of the most high God. Even more amazing to me is that his dwelling is the place he has chosen.
There are some that teach (by lifestyle, if not verbally) that there is a separation of the spiritual and the physical; that what we do and what we believe don’t have to completely agree with each other. The spiritual me and the physical me can’t be separated though. We are one.
All across our nation fitness centers are springing up. Even the smallest of towns will have a place where people can come to care for their bodies. It’s ironic that we spend millions of dollars on churches every year to provide beautiful, comfortable places where people can come and ‘worship’. Yet, in reality we are a nation that is physically obese and spiritually starved. We don’t care of our souls work I really God dwells
Now, before you think that I’m pointing fingers, let me tell you about me. I’m 25 pounds overweight, don’t exercise nearly enough and wish I could find more time for study of God’s word and prayer. I often find myself saying things and doing things that, if God were standing beside me, I’d think twice about.
The point is, I’m not perfect. I’m far from perfect. Yet God. THE God. The creator-sustainer of the universe indwells me. Even more amazing is the fact that he CHOSE to indwell me because of his love for me, not because of how I take care of his home.
If we truly believe in this God we claim allegiance to, let us together strive to put a priority on his dwelling place, our hearts.
PRAYER: Father God. I thank you for your love for me. I praise you for the fact that even though I don’t always care for your dwelling place the way I’d like you still love me. Empower me with your Spirit to live in such a way that reflects your glory. Amen.
Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and prayed, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 1 Chronicles 17:16 (NLT)
It had been a long trip. Over 40 years since that day when the young shepherd boy had been called from the fields to meet the prophet. He still got goose-bumps, after all these years, as he remembered returning to the field and having the prophets words sink in. He would be king of Israel. He! David son of Jesse!
He remembered the adrenaline that flowed through him as the giant fell at his feet. He could still hear the cheers of the army behind him, the slaps on the back from his brothers and the other soldiers who’d been cowering in faithless fear.
Then there was the complicated situation with his very best friend in the whole world, Jonathan. The adventures those two shared together were amazing, yet bittersweet as David’s relationship with Jonathan’s father, Saul, grew increasingly volatile. A knot formed in his throat as he remembered when he heard the news that Jonathan had been killed in battle.
Now, he sat in his palace. His position as King solidified. His nation was at peace. His family content. The most important symbol of his God, the Ark of the Covenant, secure in a tent within the city. Life was good. Very good. In spite of all the adversity, pain and frustration, David could look back and say “I’ve made it. I accomplished everything I could ever have imagined and more.”
That’s when it hit him. Maybe you’ve had the feeling, maybe not. That feeling that says, “I’m so blessed, and I’m so unworthy.” Maybe you look back at years of addictive behavior and realize you haven’t had an urge in years. Maybe years in an abusive relationship have brought you into a relationship where you finally feel secure, loved, valued. Maybe you’ve worked hard your entire life and have seen career goals come and go, and now you can relax as a result of your labors.
When David got to that point in life he realized two things. One is that he was totally unworthy of all the blessings he was enjoying. The other thing he realized is that it was only because of his God that he was able to endure the trials of life
On the other hand, maybe you are still waiting to be sitting in your palace; still waiting to have that feeling of success, safety, value, appreciation. Life is hard. One crisis follows another. Hope is nothing more than a four-letter word reserved for the haves, and you’ve long ago realized you are a have-not.
David would tell you, if he were here, to keep on. Keep on trusting God for the little things and the big things. Keep on trusting God when you fail because he’s promised to forgive you. Keep on enduring the attacks because they just make you stronger. Keep on, and never forget that it’s God that will see you through.
PRAYER: Father God. I don’t have a palace. I’m not the ruler of some empire. I’m not famous. Yet, when I look at where I am today and where I deserve to be I can only say Thank You. Thank you for bringing me this far. Amen.
Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 1 John 4:10
When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.” Genesis 3:8-10 (NLT)
Our finite minds won’t allow us to come to a full understanding of what it was like in the Garden of Eden when the first man and the first woman walked with God. Scripture tells us that Adam and Eve walked with God as three friends, not as creator and creation. The only relationship they knew with Jehovah God was a face to face, arm in arm, friendship.
After the first couple ate from that dreaded tree, the relationship was severed, but the love was not. That’s important! It wasn’t the lack of God’s love that drove Adam and Eve into the trees; it was a misunderstanding of their relationship with the father.
In the years that followed, if we read the stories of the Old and New Testament carefully, we realize that from that point forward, the Heavenly Father’s purpose was not to punish mankind for their rebellion, but to gain back the relationship he so badly wanted. The very purpose of him creating mankind and the universe that surrounds us was so he could love us. God’s love was the motivation for all he did. Since then, everything he does is an effort to regain the love relationship he had with us in the beginning.
It wasn’t just physical nakedness that drove Adam and Eve (and us) away from a loving, merciful and graceful creator; it was the exposure of their own ability to live up to their part of the love relationship. Guilt and shame built a wall between the lovers. In the garden, God sought to cover that shame with the temporary clothing of an imperfect sacrifice; on the cross he destroyed the barrier once and for all through the Messiah, Jesus Christ!
The problem for us becomes the fact that we still are deceived into thinking that because we fail; because we are unable to fulfill our end of the love relationship we can have no part in the pure forgiveness of the perfect sacrifice. Nothing is further from the truth.
Our ability to love God has never been a prerequisite for living in a love relationship with the Father. Our only response is to accept his love freely based on our own repentance and confession that Jesus Christ is Lord.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the enemy of my soul continually bombards me with the lie that I can never love you enough and therefore I can not love you. Based on your promise I realize that my love for you has never been a prerequisite for your loving me. Today, I claim your love for me based on the perfect sacrifice you gave on the cross. Amen.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2:19
Mom’s amaze me. Sit and listen sometime to a group of mother’s talking about their ‘babies’. They compare their pregnancies, the stages of development of the child, whose member of the family they resemble the most. I love the “She has her daddy’s [nose, eyes, ears, hair]. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy, but I never could figure that one out.
It must have been an incredible scene in the stable that night. Mary, a young, unwed mom. She was in the hometown of her husband, miles from anyone she knew; having just endured what must have been a grueling donkey ride, especially being nine months pregnant! Scared, uncertain, alone, even though she was in the presence of the man she loved.
Joseph. A young carpenter. The last thing he thought he’d be doing is marrying a pregnant woman. The last place he thought he’d be was a stable in the middle of the night, playing mid-wife to his soon-to-be bride!
Yet there they were. Confused, yet in awe. Can you imagine the journey to Bethlehem? Discussing over and over again the conversations they’d had with their respective angels? Wondering what all this would mean? What would happen if the baby were born in Bethlehem, or on the way!
Then the shepherds showed up. Mary’s first visitors. A bunch of smelly, rough, simple shepherds with an angel story of their own. I would guess they were a little apprehensive to tell their angel story until they found out that Mary and Joseph understood all too well about angel visits in the middle of the night!
But all that activity paled in comparison to the gift that night. The gift of a tiny infant that symbolized the great love the Father has for his children. God with us. God among us. God as one of us.
The angels proclaimed it above the dark hillsides of Bethlehem. Glory to God! Glory to him in the highest, who was and is and is to come. The king has come in the form of a pauper to lead us to new life in him. It was an amazing proclamation of worship and praise.
In the stable, Mary worshipped as well. One little phrase that we attribute to the manger scene, but as with any mom, it was a phrase that would follow her entire life: “Mary pondered all these things in her heart.”
Ponder: To reflect, to remember, to keep near you, to consider quietly, deeply in your mind.
Some of the gifts we’ve been given will be broken, used up or forgotten before the tinsel is down and the lights are put away for another year. But the most important gift of all, the baby in the manger is one that should be a ‘pondering place’ throughout the year.
The angels worshipped God in an awesome display of light and song. Mary worshipped in the quiet solitude of her heart. Worship involves both expression and introspection; revealing itself over time and depth as our relationship grows with the Father.
PRAYER: Creator God, I am in awe of your love for me. I am amazed that you left your throne and became one of us so we could find life in you. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 