A Call For Thanksgiving And Praise

Psalm 100

This is a very short psalm, but one that many people love.  It is a psalm calling us to bring praise and thanksgiving to God.  Right from the very first verse the psalmist is calling for us to praise our Lord.  We don’t have to be great musicians to sing praises to God.  Here God says to just give Him a joyful shout (vs. 1).  Everyone and everything should join in the praise - all the land, both every person, and the actual land itself.

If someone truly and deeply loves another person, serving that person is a joy, not a chore.  Your desire is to make the person you love happy.   As a born-again child of God, I love Him.  He purchased my salvation with His Blood, and I will serve Him with gladness (vs. 2).  When we look at what God has done for us, our service should not be done begrudgingly or with grumbling.  He wants us to come to Him with a song in our hearts and on our lips.  When the stresses of the day start to mount up, listening to Christian hymns and worship songs, and singing along when I can, always brings me closer to the Lord.  It brings me into His presence.

God created us.  We didn’t “just happen” (vs. 3).  We didn’t create ourselves.  Since we were created by God and not man, who should have the authority in our life?  Naturally God should.  Yet so often we try to run things ourselves.  God knows us, as we are His people, His sheep.  We can trust God to know what is best for us, and let Him lead our life.  As God’s sheep we belong to His pasture.  Are we sheep looking longingly into the pastures of the world or of the enemy of our soul, the devil?  Those pastures may look pleasant, but in reality, once we wander into them, they are filled with poisonous plants, venomous snakes, plus holes and ravines to fall into.  Stay out of those pastures!  Stay in the pastures of the Lord God.  His fields are full of good, wholesome grass.  Our Good Shepherd is there to protect us from our enemy and any dangers.

Our Savior God calls us to draw near to Him (vs. 4).  In previous years, when kings and queens actually ruled, to be invited into the courts of a king was a great honor, and one didn’t just come strolling in without displaying proper conduct.  Yahweh is mightier than any earthly king, and though He is also our loving Father and Savior, He still deserves the proper awe and respect due to the greatest of Kings.  The psalmist tells us that we are to enter into His gates with thanksgiving.  As we prepare to approach God, are we thankful to Him for all of His many blessings, or are we just coming to Him with our requests and complaints?  

As we come into the courts of the heavenly palace of the Lord God, we are to do so with praise.  There are so many things in each of our lives that we can praise God for.  He is a faithful and trustworthy God.  As mentioned in the previous verse, we are His sheep, and thus He is a good and loving Shepherd to us.  When we worship Him with our praises, it helps us trust more and strengthens our faith.  Do we willingly and joyfully come into God’s presence to worship, or are we going through the motions and “playing church”?

Satan would have us believe that God is angry with and distant from mankind.  That is not true.  Verse 5 tells us that He is a good and merciful God.  When we think of someone who is good, we think of that person as being a virtuous person, that they are righteous.  We think that they have strong morals and that they are a person of integrity.  God is all of that, and even more so.  All of this is the basis of His character, and He cannot be otherwise.  Being a loving God is part of His Being.  All of these virtues is what He is.  Jesus, when talking to His disciples, emphasised that if a human father would treat his children with love, our heavenly Father does even much more so (Luke 11:5-13).   Our psalmist closes off this psalm with saying what a good, merciful, and truthful or faithful God we have.

God’s gates and the courts of His throne room are always open for His blood-bought children.  Let us enter them with thanksgiving and praise.

God's Special Treasures

Exodus 19:2-8

Today’s Old Testament reading from this week’s Sunday Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer takes us to the foot of Mount Sinai (also sometimes referred to as Mt. Horeb in Scripture).  Just weeks before the Hebrews were led by God out of slavery in Egypt, had seen His power in parting the Red Sea for them, and drowning Pharaoh's army.  Now they were camped at the base of Mt. Sinai.  Mt. Sinai is traditionally thought to be a mountain in the south central region of the Sinai peninsula, which was just east of Egypt.  It was here that several months prior, Moses had heard God speaking to him from the burning bush, and called him to go and lead the Hebrews out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1-6).  Now, just as God had promised in Exodus 3:12, they were back at the foot of this mountain where God would give them His laws.  Several months prior the people were slaves and Moses was just the caretaker of his father-in-law’s sheep.  God’s promise to Moses probably looked rather far-fetched.  Now the people were free, their enemies vanquished, and they were standing where God had said they would, His promises fulfilled!

In verse 4 God tells Moses how He carried His people out of Egypt, as if He were an eagle carrying them on His wings.  An eagle is one of the larger and stronger of birds, with mighty wings.  Other than man, they have very few natural enemies.  Basically, the only times eagles are in danger is if the eggs or newborn young are left unprotected, and that is rare with eagles.  If one could shrink down in size and hop of the back of a bird for a flight, an eagle would be a good choice as they fly high, are powerful and very majestic.  There would be no need to fear.  This is just the way God told Moses He was carrying His people.  He was carrying them high, above the dangers of their enemies.  He was strong and powerful, and they had no need to fear.  Are we trusting today that God is carrying us in just such a way?  His arms are strong, even more so than an eagles, and there is no enemy that can defeat God.

In verses 5 and 6 God speaks to Moses about the people.  Here He calls them a special treasure to Him, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.  This is pretty much the same thing God calls us believers in I Peter 2:9.  So, if we are God’s children through the Lord Jesus Christ, what are we to God?  Here He calls us a special treasure to Him.  Do you feel like you are God’s treasure?  In my house my children and I have some special objects, not of monetary but sentimental value, that we really like, and they are kept safe in a curio cabinet with glass doors so we can enjoy them and they are safe.  They are our “treasures”, and they are safe.  We are so much more special to God than that, so we can trust He will keep us even more safe.  My “treasures” were specially picked out, or given by someone who knew what I liked.  God has especially picked you out to be His treasure!

Just as Peter later said, God says here that we, as believers, are to be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation”.  Priests speak to the people for God.  One does not have to be specially ordained to do that.  We can all speak God’s Word to others.  Throughout the Bible God continually asks His people to tell others His Word.  We are all His priests.  Thirdly, God calls His children a holy nation.  The word “holy” means to be sacred and set apart for God’s use.  If we are God’s children, born-again believers, we are holy, and our lives are to be sanctified and set apart for Him.  When others look at us and observe our life, they should see that there is something different.  God has called us to be His priests, His representative, speaking for Him, and that we are His holy, sanctified, set-apart people.

Our passage closes up in verse 8 with the people promising God that they will keep His laws and obey Him.  Unfortunately, as we see throughout the Bible, the people of Israel did not obey God.  They repeatedly fell away and worshipped other gods.  I know that I have failed God many times in my life.  We all have.  The good news is that because of God’s Son, Jesus, we can confess our failings to Him, receive forgiveness, and promise to obey and serve Him.  Let’s pledge as the people did in verse 8, and say to God, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

Jesus's Final Words On Earth

Matthew 28:16-20

People are always interested in someone’s last words, whether it’s right before they die, before they leave for a long time, or before they retire.  We consider them especially important, as they usually contain what the person considers especially vital and critical.  This passage today is Jesus’s last words before His ascension and return into heaven.

About forty days has passed since the morning of Jesus’s resurrection, and now He he has taken the disciples to the Mount of Olives, where He will ascend back into heaven (vs. 16).  This group that accompanied Jesus were more than just the eleven remaining apostles, but also many other people who had followed Him during His ministry.  Most of them had come to believe in Him as the Messiah, but as Matthew records here, some of those in the group that day had some doubts (vs. 17).  This might have been the first time since Jesus’s crucifixion that they were seeing Him, and they were not sure if this was really true.  Perhaps those doubts were laid to rest after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven, or when the Holy Spirit came a few days later.  Or maybe, like some people, they never truly came to believe.

The time of Jesus’s humiliation at the hands of His enemies and of Satan were now completely over.  All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus!  This was the first thing that He reassured His disciples of before He left earth (vs. 18).  He has the authority, not Satan, nor any of the enemies of our faith.  When Jesus gave us His further instructions, we can rest assured that He can and will give us the authority and power to accomplish it.

Verses 19 and 20 are often called the Great Commission.  Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the whole world and witness to others, telling them of the Gospel, baptizing and teaching them, and that commission has now fallen on us.  We can go out in faith and trust to tell the world about Jesus.  He has given us His authority.  We need to be obedient and tell others about Jesus, and salvation in His Name.  It is a commission, not an option.  Also, our job doesn’t end the minute someone gets saved and accepts Jesus as their Savior.  We are to teach new converts as well.  So often people witness, the person comes to saving faith, and then they are left to flounder, never learning from His Word and growing in their faith.  Jesus had said we were to teach them what He had taught the disciples.

Are we witnessing?  Has there ever been a time for you when a very important piece of mail never made it to you?  It got lost in the mail?  God has an important message for the world, and we are in charge of delivering it.  This message is much more important than some piece of mail, and we must not hold on to it and fail to deliver it.  Also, would we warn a neighbor if there was a fire in their building, or there was a tornado warning they hadn’t heard?  Of course we would.  This is more serious than that.  We need to get this message out.  We can do it because Jesus is with us.

In verse 19 Jesus affirmed the truth of the Trinity - One God in three Persons.  Jesus referred to God as Father many times, one example being John 5:17-18.  Jesus Himself is referred to as Divine in John 1:1.  The New Testament, in Romans 8:11, credits the Holy Spirit with the Resurrection.  The Three are a unit, no one more or less important.  One God in three Persons.

Jesus closes His final words with the promise that He will be with us always.  Though He is not physically with us like He was when He was on earth, He is with us through the Holy Spirit which indwells every believer.  If we are saved, the Holy Spirit will never leave us!  What a blessed promise this is!  There have been numerous times in my life where things looked so bleak and terrible.  This promise has been a true life-saver, one I have clung to.  Knowing He is with me and will never leave me has carried me through those bad times.

Examining Our Faith

II Corinthians 13:5-14

Our Scripture passage for today are the final verses of the Book of II Corinthians, closing off the Apostle Paul’s letter to that church.  Paul had written them before, dealing with some sin problems that community of believers were struggling with.  There were some in that church whose response to Paul’s prior message was quite negative.  Paul dealt with that issue with this letter, this epistle.

Some there in the Corinthian church were angry at Paul, and questioned his leadership and his apostleship.  Here in this passage he countered with telling them to check whether their faith was genuine (vs. 5-6).  Since Paul was the one to first bring the Gospel to them, if he was bringing a false gospel, their faith was in something lacking substance.   Some there were accusing him of being a fake, so he turned it around to them.  Paul wanted the Corinthians to determine whether they were really true believers or fakes.  He knew that he and his associates were true believers.   If they know they are true believers, then Paul urges them to see that they are growing in their faith.

This is something that we should regularly check as well, like a spiritual check-up.  First, are we truly saved?  If we know that for sure, that we’re not unapproved and rejected, then are we growing in Christ and in our faith?  If we are not drawing closer to Him, then we will drift away.  It is good to make sure that we are growing in our walk with Jesus by examining to see if we are becoming more like Him.  Are there sins we need to eliminate from our life?  Do we need to develop a more Christ-like behavior to be more like Jesus?  We all need to often clean ourselves up, both our outward actions and our inner heart-attitude.

Paul called on the Corinthians to do what is right, honorable and honest (vs. 7).  If they were doing what was right, living godly lives, according to God’s Word, Paul would not have to come with his apostolic authority (vs. 8-10).  That would make him rejoice.  He wanted them to grow and become mature believers.  They would be “strong” in their walk, and he could appear “weak” in his authority.  There were some in that church who had questioned his apostolic authority.  “Who is Paul?”, they questioned.  “Who is he to tell us what to do?  I can do what I want!”  We still find some who do the same today, questioning the leadership of the church, especially when it comes to discipline.  “Who are they to tell me what to do or how to act?”  God has set our church leadership in their position, and if we know that they are men or women of God, then we should accept their authority, even when it comes to godly discipline.

Paul urged the Corinthian believers to apply what they knew from God’s Word (vs. 11).  This is something we also need to follow.  As James also said, be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer (James 1:22).

The final verse of our passage and of this book is one of clear declaration of the Trinity (vs. 14).   The Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are all presented here as Deity and as equal.  We have grace from Jesus, love from the Father, and fellowship or communion from the Holy Spirit.

How serious is our faith?  Is it just a temporary pursuit, or is it a permanent commitment?   If we aren’t growing in our faith, we can be easily led astray by erring preachers, false doctrines, or cults and pagan religions.  As Paul urged the Corinthians, examine ourselves, being sure we are in the Lord and not castaways, and then living for Him.

Let Everything With Breath Praise The Lord

Psalm 150

Our Psalm for today is a rather short one.  Though it is short, it is full of praise to God.  It is an excellent and fitting end to the Book of Psalms, the Bible’s hymnbook.

Verse 1 starts right off in telling us that God is to be praised everywhere.  We are to praise Him in the sanctuary, our places of worship.  That’s not the only place where we can bring our praises to Him, though.  We are to praise Him from the earth to the sky.  Wherever we are, we are to praise God, the Creator of everything we see.

People may ask us why we should praise God.  Verse 2 answers that question.  We praise Him for the greatness of His being.  Yahweh is great and wonderful, worthy of all of our praise!  He deserves praise, also, for the great and mighty things that He does, both in the world at large, and also for us personally.   Every day we should come up with at least several things that we can praise God for, and then spend some moments doing just that.  The Bible doesn’t say that everything has to be going great in our life in order to praise Him.  As a matter of fact, when things are going wrong, that is a good time to praise God.  Our praises to God put the devil to flight.

Verses 3 thru 5 explode with loud sounds of instruments, each calling us to join them in praise to God!   Many of the Bible translations say to praise Him upon the trumpet or cornet (vs. 3).  The word used in the original Hebrew was the shofar, or ram’s horn, which was used as a call to worship on Holy Days.   Then the psalmist calls for praising God on both the lute and the harp.  The lute was any stringed instrument with a neck that had an opening in the body with a sound hole, and that was plucked to play, the precursor to the guitar.  The harp here would be a smaller one than is typically seen in orchestras today.  It would be one that could easily be held in the lap and played, either with a pick or fingers.  Praise to God on both wind and stringed instruments.

Verse 4 tells us to praise God upon a timbrel.  That instrument would correspond to our modern tambourine.  The psalmist then speaks of praising the Lord God upon all stringed instruments, any ones that weren’t included in the previous verse.  The next instrument that we are called upon to use in our praise to God is the flute.  The word also included reed instruments and pan-pipes.  In this verse we also read that the psalmist calls upon praising God with dance.  This was what King David did in II Samuel 6:16.

Verse 5 calls upon God’s people to praise Him with cymbals, loud, clanging, rattling cymbals.  We can praise God with every sort of instrument.  If done with reverence and respect to God, all musical instruments, and dance can be used to praise Him.

Singing and making musical praise is an important part of worship.  Jesus and the apostles sang hymns.  The Gospel writer Mark mentions on one occasion right before Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion when He and the apostles sang a hymn together in Mark 14:26.  Twice the Apostle Paul encourages believers to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, in Ephesians 5:19 and in Colossians 3:16.

Verse 6 closes up this psalm, a call of praise to God.  Here the writer says who it is that should be praising God.  The answer he gives is very simple - everything that has breath is to praise Him.   Everything that is alive, both plants and animals, breathe, though not in the same way.    Plants praise God in their own way.  The beauty of flowers praises Him.  The majesty of the mighty oaks and redwoods praise Him as well.  The beauty of the butterfly praises Him, along with the whirring sound of the cicada.  The song of the birds sing their praises to God, along with the trumpeting sound of the elephant.  Every animal has breath, and each praises God in their own way.  Do you have breath?  Are you breathing today?  As long as each of us has a single breath left in us, we are to be praising God.

The Trinity In Creation

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

Today the Church celebrates Trinity Sunday, and the first reading from today’s Lectionary is the Creation account from Genesis.  Let’s see what we can learn about our great and wonderful God through this account in His Word.  Only God can create something out of nothing.  There is no distinction made between “God” and the “Spirit of God”, which we read in verse 2.  That is because the two are one.  The Holy Spirit is as much a part of the Trinity as is God the Father, and His Son, Jesus, both of whom are also active throughout creation.

In verses 3 and 4 we read that God created light.  This light was distinct from the sun, moon, and stars created on the fourth day.  One might wonder how there could be light before the sun or stars were created?  Jesus is the Light of the world, as we see in John 1:9 and in John 8:12.  Jesus was from eternity past, and will be for all time.  He will be the Light in heaven, where there is no sun (Revelation 21:23-25, and Revelation 22:5).

Throughout the first chapter of Genesis we read, “And God said”.  God spoke and creation came into being.  He didn’t have to sit down at a drafting table and sweat out designs, with piles of crumpled, discarded papers around Him.  He spoke, and it was.  His Word is all-powerful!

Who was God speaking to when He said, “us” in verse 26?  He wasn’t speaking to the angels, nor any of the animals He had just created.  He was speaking to Jesus.  Throughout this chapter the word used for “God” is the Hebrew word “Elohim”, which is the plural form of our word “God”.  In His Word, God is indicating that He is a Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   Jesus was a very active part in creation.  We see that both in John 1:1-14, and most specifically in Colossians 1:16-17.  If you have a chance, be sure to read them.

Of all creatures that God created, only human beings are made in His image.  Not any of the animals, birds, or even angels, only mankind.  We are made in the image of God, and thus we have worth.  Our worth isn’t based in any wealth we might have, or in our talents or abilities, or in how popular we may be.  It is in our being created by God and in His image.  People judge an artist by the works they create.  In the same way God can be judged by what He made.  The world He made is a beautiful creation.  What about the pinnacle of His creation?  Since we are the image-bearers of God, we are to be people of integrity.  We should never bring shame to Him.

In verse 27 we see that God made both man and woman.  Later in chapter 2 a more detailed account of the creation of man and woman is given, like examining it through a magnifying glass, rather than a casual overview.  Here in verse 27 a general account is given.  They were the grand finale of His creation.  Neither one is better or worse than the other.

God made the world good and beautiful (vs. 31).  We need to be careful in how we take care of it.  Everything God made was good, very good.  All creation functions smoothly.  The seasons, Earth’s rotation, its exact position from the sun, down to the smaller parts of creation like bees which collect pollen to pollinate the plants for them to continue on.  This shows there is an Intelligent Mind in our Creator-God.

God is distinct from His creation.  We are not to worship anything created - animals, plants, the stars, moon or planets.  God created them all.  We need to worship only Him.  Since He created everything, we can be reassured that He is in control of everything.  We don’t need to seek the stars or planets to see what will happen to us.   God created them, and they can’t tell us anything.  We don’t need to worry about anything.  God didn’t just create everything and then just walk away.  He loves us and all of His creation, and He will watch over us.

Commissioned By Jesus

John 20:19-23

Our Gospel reading for today takes place on the evening of the day of the Lord’s Resurrection.   The disciples were gathered together in the upper room behind locked doors for fear of the Jews who had recently killed their Savior.  Suddenly Jesus was in the room with them (vs. 19).  His resurrection body was not limited or restricted like His prior human body had been.  Jesus could appear suddenly, disappear, pass through doors and walls, seemingly defying physics and gravity.  The disciples had been gathered together, hiding for fear of their lives, and in the next moment suddenly Jesus had appeared to them!  The first thing He does is to bless them with His peace, and then shows them His hands and side, to prove that it was really Him (vs. 20).

Jesus then gave the disciples their commission, the job assignment for their lives (vs. 21).  “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”   Jesus had been sent by the Father to bring salvation to the world.  That was His mission, and He did not veer from that to the right or to the left.  He stayed on the course.  Now, we have an assignment as well, and that is to spread that same Gospel message of salvation through Jesus to the world.  Since it was Jesus who instructed His believers to go out and tell others, we go in the authority of God.  He has commissioned us.  Are we fulfilling our commission and bringing the Light of the Gospel to the lost?  As the Father sent the Son, so now He sends us.

In verse 22 we read that Jesus breathed on the disciples, bestowing the Holy Spirit upon them.  This was an anointing of the disciples prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.  Prior to the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit only came temporarily on people that God chose for specific tasks.  After Pentecost the Holy Spirit indwells believers.  This anointing of the Holy Spirit that Jesus breathed upon the disciples that evening of the Resurrection was a foretaste of what was to come several weeks later at Pentecost.  It was Jesus’s pledge that He would be sending the Holy Spirit permanently upon them.  The believers, and us as well today, have been commissioned to do His work.  We should not try to do that work in our own power.  Instead we need to do all work for God in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit.

Why did Jesus decide to breathe on the disciples, bestowing an anointing of the Spirit on them?  God’s breath gives life.  In Genesis 2:7, God breathed life into Adam.  Here Jesus breathed spiritual life into the new believers.

If we know Jesus as our Savior we have been sent by Him, sent to bring the Gospel of salvation to the lost.  Are we going?  If so, are we trying in our own power, or are we relying of the Holy Spirit which has been given to us, and indwells us?  Let’s be at work with the task we have been given!