In God's word this A.M.

Got into several passages of Scripture this morning, and they all challenged and enlightened me, but in different ways. If I wrote it all down, it would take me the entire day, so I've decided to hit the highlights in bullet format. Here are some thoughts on the passages I read:

1) Being a Godly Man (Psalm 15) - God desires fellowship with all of us, but He wants us to be holy as He is holy. Consequently, He asks us to participate in the sometimes painstakingly slow process of becoming more like Him everyday. What does the Godly man look like? This Psalm gives a good synopsis. When we come through it to the place where He would have us be, we will be standing firm on solid ground, immune to the uncertainty that plagues those who don't have that strong foundation.

2) God loves Justice (Psalm 45) - God hates, hates wickedness and wrongdoing. That's bad news for us, largely because we like to do that stuff a lot of the time. The good news for those in Christ is that we can know that Christ has covered our sin, and is making us new even as we speak. One day all the wrong will be gone, and we'll have perfect peace as we're covered in perfect love, enjoying perfect fellowship with a perfect God.

3) Pride is the anti-God state of mind (Psalm 75) - C.S. Lewis penned this phrase, and I couldn't help but think of it when I read this Psalm. Something else worth noting: it doesn't matter how hard you strive to put yourself on a pedestal; God will exalt whom He will in His proper time. That's because His plans get priority in His book, and if ours don't match up, well, tough cookies for us.

4) God is faithful, and active in our lives (Psalm 105) - This Psalm is a synopsis of the story of how Israel came to be in Egypt, how they were made captives, and of how God set them free and eventually gave them the Promised Land. A really powerful example and reminder of how God is faithful, even though his time table is not ours. Israel was in Egypt for 400 years; I wonder how many generations it would take us to doubt the promises of God? I wonder if we would even make it 40 years...

5) God deserves our praise and blessing (Psalm 135) - The author of this Psalm lists all of the things God did for Israel, and consequently makes a case for why He deserves the praise and blessing of His people. Other gods are just trinkets made by the local gift shop. Our God is the God who rescued Israel from Egypt, gave her the Promised Land, and whose name is everlasting.

6) Marriage is forever, and it's better that way (Matthew 19:1-12) - The Pharisees once again try to trap Jesus into giving an unpopular answer to a controversial subject: divorce and remarriage. Not much has changed in the 2,000 years since Jesus gave us the answer found in this passage - we still argue about this topic. I've come to firmly believe that there really is no exception clause here that allows for divorce. Let me explain. If you look at vv. 4-9, Jesus affirms that man and woman are one flesh once married, and that God has done this. Therefore, let no man try to separate what God has made one. Furthermore, the only reason divorce happened in the first place is because God allows for man to choose wrongly, and in the hardness of our hearts, divorce our spouses. All things may be permissible, but not all things are profitable. Now for v. 9. Is there an exception clause? I don't think so. The only thing I think we can correctly draw from this verse is that except in cases of adultery/immorality, if you remarry you're committing adultery against your former spouse. But this does not mean that it is thereby o.k. to get a divorce in the first place. It just means that if you are cheated on by your spouse, and you divorce the offending spouse, you're not committing adultery if you remarry. I have my thoughts on why that's the case, but that's another topic for another day. The point is, that even if your spouse hurts you by being unfaithful, God still will hate your decision to get divorced, if that's the route you take. And if our orientation as followers of Christ is love Him and the Father through obedience, while being led by the Spirit, how can we really ever say that divorce is something that brings Him honor and glory? I just don't think we can.

7) The Gospel according to Jesus (Matthew 19:16-30) - Recently I've been pondering about just what the Gospel is. What I mean by that is not that I don't understand that Christ died for me, that His death and resurrection are the only means by which my relationship with God can be made right again, and that I have to turn away from my other gods (i.e., my sin, my self, etc.) and trust that He knows best what's best for me, and actually follow Him through faithful obedience. No, what I mean when I say I've been thinking about what the Gospel is, is that I've been wondering about what Jesus said it was. When I was reading Matthew 19 this morning, I found this passage in which Jesus shares with us the core of the Gospel. Jesus meets a rich young ruler that has tons of money, prestige, and piety. He has property, status, and according to Jewish standards, a great spiritual walk. But there were two things he was unwilling to do: sell everything he had, and follow Jesus. Why? Because there was something ultimate in his life, but it wasn't Jesus; it was his money. Later Jesus tells the disciples that those who have given up everything for Him will inherit much, much more in the Kingdom to come. But the key here is not that we give up everything; Jesus is not calling us to abandon everything we have for the sake of being poor. What Jesus wants from us is the willingness to give up everything if He asks us to, because such a willingness reveals that He is our ultimate object of devotion, and nothing else comes close. So how do we know if Christ is our God? We should ask ourselves the following question based upon the following proposition: Call whatever you love the most in your life (other than God) x. Now ask yourself this: If I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was asking me to give up x, to the point that I would never see, experience, hold, enjoy, etc., x again, would I be willing to leave x behind, and run behind Jesus to the wherever He was taking me? That is the gospel according to Jesus in Matthew 19. I think it's one of the most challenging passages we can read, when we really begin to understand just what He might ask us to give up for the sake of knowing Him. But the great thing is that once we do give it up, we will be able to say with Paul that we can count all things as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.

8) There is no place for egos in the building of God's Church (1 Corinthians 3) - There's too much to post here at one time, but one of the things that really struck me was just how foolish it is for us attribute any importance to any particular person in the process of doing the work of the Gospel. It is all up to God! God is the one who does the growing! Why do we try and give praise to men?!?!? And furthermore, let us be faithful in our proclaiming of the Gospel, so that when our work is revealed and tested in that final day, ours will stand as a testimony to the greatness of God, rather than be consumed as a testament to the poor quality that comes from a lack of faithfulness to the task at hand.