Crouching Sin at Your Door

Today has been quite an extraordinary day. This morning a few members from our congregation met together to pray for the nation we call home. Our nation has been going in a direction that is heading straight for destruction. Things scripture clearly tells us is sin our nation wants to support and pass laws allowing such things. Among those things are abortion and homosexual marriage. The shows on television make light of divorce, gay marriage, cohabitation, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. Our very culture tries to make the immoral normal. What we do not quite grasp is what our sin truly does to God. God sent Christ to die for the very sins we watch on television and laugh at. That is twisted and seems to me, very wrong. In thinking about this I wanted to look back, way back, back to the beginning of where all of this stems from.

Looking through scripture at the fall of other nations and people groups and seeing what happens to nations that follow this pattern of rebellion, it is not looking like a very bright future for our home land. When we look back to the garden and see the beginning of sin in the human realm (I say this because I truly believe Satan holds the depressing record of the first sin ... pride and wanting to be God, in which God immediately threw him out of the Kingdom of Heaven). We see Eve being tempted with envy. She is tempted to want something she cannot have. Then we do not really see any sin until we come to Cain and Abel. It says that Abel's blood cried out to God from the ground. Just a few verses before in Genesis 4:6-7 "The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.'" Cain was angry and his face had fallen because his offering was not accepted by God yet his brother's was. Cain's offering was from the already cursed ground and Abel's offering was from the livestock. What gets me here is the last half of verse 7 "sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Sin will crouch at our door. It desires us. We have to rule over it.

When I think of the word crouch I think of the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, I have not seen this movie so there is no analogy using the movie just the name ... hehe. But even the title gives me this image of a tiger getting ready to attack its unsuspecting prey. A tiger is waiting in the brush near by as a deer grazes on the grass. The tiger inches closer and closer until it is close enough to attack. It pounces and has its dinner locked in its jaw. This is how I view Genesis 4:7. Sin is waiting at our door, it wants us, and it wants to rip us to pieces and eat us for dinner. Even though tigers have great precision in catching prey there are always the deer that get away. These deer are super sensitive and are watching out at every corner, knowing that it could be attacked at any point. We can be that deer that gets away. Sometimes we allow sin to seep into our lives and spread through us like cancer. But there are times that it sneaks up on us and we are its unsuspecting prey. Cain wanted his offering to be accepted by God but it wasn't. Why? Good question, my guess is that it was from the cursed ground, then again I cannot say for certain. I do know that the more Cain dwelled on it the more angry he became. The more angry he became the more the seed of hatred for his very own brother grew. That hatred grew into murder. It grew into the actual physical murder of his brother. His brothers blood cried out to God. Sin was ruling over Cain and not the other way around.

In the New Testament we see similar wording (well in English we do, I am not sure about the Greek or Hebrew... need to do some research on that) as that of Genesis 4:7.

"So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as insturments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."                                                                                                                          ~ Romans 6:11-14

We have the God given ability to have master over sin. Does this blow your mind as much as it does mine? Think about it, if you are a truly born again Christian you can have master over sin. The song Whip It comes to mind right now (probably not the best song to use but I hope you get the point). We are told we can choose not to present our members to sin. There is so much goodness in this passage in Romans I could write a book about it, no worries, I am not going to write you a chapter book on this post. Maybe later though ... JUST KIDDING! Look at it again, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions." Do not let it reign in your body. Give it no leg room to move about or even wiggle.

So going back to the beginning of this post, our nation has come to a point where we not only let sin wiggle and move but we tell everyone they should join in and do it too. It is our turn. We need to challenge ourselves to follow God. Let Him take control of our lives and whip sin into submission. Do not obey the passions of sin. Remember it is waiting and is just outside crouching at your door waiting on you. There is hope, so much hope in Christ. Christ beat death. He beat sin. He is the savior of all.

A Force to be Reckoned With

You know what I find interesting? I find it very interesting that James 3:8-10 says what it does. It tells us that no human being can tame their own tongue. It tells us that out of the same mouth we bless and curse others. We tear apart our brothers and sisters with the same mouth that we praise our Lord and Savior with. I mean, am I missing something here. Does that seem awful to anyone else? Psalm 50 says "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; your own mother's son." James tells us "...no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison." Wow!!

When I think of a mouth full of deadly poison I think of a deadly venomous snake. A snake that slowly kills you from the inside and causes an unbearable amount of pain. What I don't realize normally is that our words have that same affect on those around us. We can build each other up or tear each other down. Words are far more powerful than we think. "With it we course people who are made in the likeness of God," James 3. We don't think about it like that, well ... at least I don't think about it that way. When we talk someone down or when we slander their name or when we use words to bully others, we are beating up those with the very likeness of God. Us, the very likeness of God. That brother or sister you just talked bad about or said mean things to, they are the very likeness of God. God made us in His image. He chose people, not deer, not sharks, not even fluffy bunny rabbits to be the likeness of God; NO He chose people of all things. He tells the mountains to only grow so high and they grow no higher. He tells the waters to only come up so far and they go no further. He tells man to know Him and we say we do not want to. He chose us and continues to choose us everyday. He gave us freedom of speech in the most unique of ways. He gave us the freedom of thought and the freedom of choice in what to believe. He does not force us to choose Him. He did not create us to be mindless robots, He created us to have a desire for something. That something is Him.

It says that no human being can tame the tongue, but God can. Coming to know Christ and grow in Him continually is a taming of the tongue. I do not speak the same way I did before I knew the Lord. My desires changed, my tastes for things changed, my speech changed. I fall into sin all the time. Ok, let me rephrase that. I do not "fall" into sin, I choose to sin. For example, when something frustrates me I choose to complain about it. I didn't fall into that, I choose it. People fall into holes that they didn't see, that I could see coming and simply chose not to deal with. I let sin creep into my life and I let it sit and fester. Not cool. Matter of fact, I am pretty sure that should be the definition of not cool. Anyway, that was an interesting rabbit trail. Just as a wild horse cannot tame itself, nor can we tame our own tongue. This has to be a God thing. We have to trust that God will tame our tongue and we have to make actions toward doing so. God has the ability to just zap us and say "tongue be tamed" and it could be done. He chooses to do things differently. If we were not learning from things we would expect everything to be done for us.

One thing my father has taught me very well is to work hard. This is learned behavior for me. It is something I have been taught my whole life. Just like having a tame tongue is learned behavior. God has done many things in my life to show me I need to work hard at having a tamed tongue and ask Him for His help since it is obviously not something I can do on my own. There have been times when I have said things and then later when the person found out I would have to apologize and be super embarrassed that I said such things. Even to this day I still catch myself saying things that have no business being said. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Proverbs 25:11. Somehow I think this could be a reason for our well known phrase "think before you speak". Doesn't that just make you think more about what you say? Do you realize scripture tells us we are accountable for what we say? I think if I thought that every time before I opened my mouth, my mouth would shut shortly after opening with no words spoken. Most of the things that escape my mouth are meaningless. Many people in my life can attest to this. Yet somehow some way ... I still talk, alot matter of fact, I talk alot more than any one person should ever talk about anything. Thank You Jesus for grace and mercy!!

Our tongues are such a force to be reckoned with. God's word is a tool for refining what we say and do and a tool to get to know Him better. He wants us to know Him more. The things I often talk about have absolutely nothing to do with God. Another one of my favorite phrases is, "the things you talk about the most are the things you truly love". Wow, not sure I want to know what I talk about the most. Then again, it would show me how I view God.

Do you love God? The things you talk about most are the things you love the most. So if you are not talking about God or if you run away from people who talk about God ... you might want to re-evaluate your love for Him. Peter was asked by Christ 3 times if he loved Him. The Greek word for love the first two time sChrist asks him is the word agapao. Agapao is a spiritual love. A sincere love that is outside the sensual. The third time is the word phileo. This means to have an affection for or to like alot. So the first two times Christ is saying "do you really love me". The third time He is saying "do you like me alot"? When Peter heard Christ ask Him the third time he was grieved. It hurt him because he realized his love for Christ was not on the same level as Christ's love for him. He was not loving Christ whole heartedly. But when you read in Acts you see that Peter is the ring leader and pushing everyone toward Christ. Christ lit a fire under him and set him a blaze. Peter denied Christ three times and told Christ he loved Him three times with the same mouth. He blessed and cursed the Lord with the same mouth. He too was made in the likeness of God. God has put so many wonderful examples in scripture for us to ponder over. It really makes a person think about what their words say about their relationship with God.




So what do your words say about your relationship with God?

Cold Hard Facts

According to Webseter's Dictionary the word fact means "something that actually exists; reality; truth; a truth known by experience...". So let's explore a few facts for a moment.

Fact: God is the creator of all. (Genesis)

Fact: There is no unrighteousness in God. (Psalm 92:15) 

Fact: He has experienced all things. (Gospel-Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts too)

Personal Fact: I put God in a box.

Personal Fact: God likes to break out of boxes

The reason behind those five facts in particular shows my sin and my lack of faith in God. God has created all things, He is the creator of the heavens and earth and birds of the air and things in the sea and man and woman. He made it all. He has no unrighteousness in Him. He has experienced all things in the purest way. He is, was, and will always be God. Even if we refuse to believe He is who He says He is. 

Lately I have been reading Christian Atheist by Craig Groschell. Each chapter begins with "When you believe in God but ...". Yeah, it is not an easy read because it gives me the uneasy feeling of realizing the sin in my life. So often I choose other things over God not realizing that God was the one who put me here and gave me options. Those choices are like bricks and those bricks are building a path and that path pulls me further away from my dear sweet Lord. The very same Lord who came and died. The very same Lord who chose to live a humble life eager to share the Word to others. He has no unrighteousness in Him. In all He did He did it perfectly, sinlessly, holy. He created all things to glorify Himself. One day all things will sing praises to His name. "And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying 'To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever'" (Rev. 5:13). People in all three places will be singing God's praises at one time. How beautiful a sound?! 

We were created to bring glory to our Father in Heaven. When we blatantly rebelled against Him He sent His Son to live and die a holy and righteous life/death so that we could have another chance. Through this Christ experienced all human things (God has always been perfect and holy, do not think that I am saying this is the first time God experienced human things. He is God, He created "human things"). Yet, through all of this I still put God in a box. My misunderstanding of who God really is disables me in a most inconvenient way and drives me toward a lack of faith. But, God always breaks through the tiny little compartmentalized boxes I am so often putting Him in. If I think my financial situation is too much for me, He breaks through. If I think problems with my friends are too much for me, He breaks through. If I think this, or if I think that ... God is always busting out of the poorly pieced together boxes I put Him in all the time. He shows me more of Himself in ways I would never even expect. The main problem with all of this is me. When I am focused on me instead of focusing on Christ it is easy to put God in a box because my view of God is way off. My ignorance of who God really is stems from a lack on my part to get to know God for who He is. 

Just think about this for a minute. When you like someone or even just want to try and be their friend what do you do? You spend time with them, you try to get to know them, you ask them questions, etc. Why does our relationship with God look so much different than that? Getting to know the creator of the universe does not have to freak us out and make us shy away from it, rather, it should intrigue us and make us want it even more. Why don't we ask questions and start searching scripture to see what God says about Himself? Questions like "why was I created" or "why was the book of Numbers put in the Bible" (I am quite fond of some of the stories in Numbers, random ... I know) or even "what does it mean to be someone who follows after Christ"? All good questions to get us digging into God's word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, gory as  of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:1-2; 14. The word "Word" here is referring to Christ. Christ is the Word of God. He became flesh and lived among us. When we read scripture we are not only reading about Christ but we are reading Christ. How trippy is that? I thank God that I do not have to understand that 100%. But I do appreciate that God gave me something tangible, readable, and comprehensible. Scripture reminds me all the time that it is not about me. It is a reminder that my sole purpose is to know God and make Him known. It is a reminder of the question a sweet friend asks me "what are you doing with your life?" Granted when she asks me she is usually asking in a way that is "what are you doing" or "what are you up to. But when that question is asked it reverts me back to that purpose. Am I living out my purpose? God has given us all a common purpose but He has also given us other purposes as well. Some may be called to share the Gospel in Africa while some of us may be called to children's ministry at a local church. Where ever we are, God has called us to Himself for a specific purpose. He has given us all a gift or talent to be used to glorify Him with. 

All of that in mind, are we living lives that show the cold hard facts that God is the creator of all, that He has no unrighteousness in Him, and that He has experienced all things? Do we live our lives as if we truly believe in God, that our choices affect others and either push them closer to or further away from God? What are you doing with your life?

Daily Fight

For a couple of years I refused to watch the Harry Potter series for personal reasons. As an assignment for work, my boss asked me to be part of a 10 day long summer camp for international high school students. In my agreement to do so I was asked to take 33 students to see the latest Harry Potter movie. So I decided to catch up on the ones I had not seen. Please know I am not suggesting everyone watch these movies. Please deal with God before making any movie choice, especially one with things such as witch craft and violence (the entire series is based off of these two things). However, I must say after watching movies 1-4 there is a huge theme of good vs. evil. Within this battle it becomes very obvious that those on the side of evil have chosen to do so for some form of false promise. These promises include fame, fortune, and power. All of the people that are on the "dark side" have been told by Voldermort (the dark lord) they would receive such things.

Think about todays society. Satanists choose to be satanists because they believe they will get something from it (i.e. fame, fortune, power, etc.). All of which are sorely disappointed in the end. In the movies Voldermort does not die (well, I haven't finished the series but up to this point). Evil is still lurking in the world but believes to be put far enough away that people can go about their lives and live freely. Just like in our world evil never really goes away. We may not look at something and think that it is particularly evil but we also do not realize what those very things are costing us. For example, workaholics do not start out thinking "muahahaha, I am evil and plan to destroy my entire family by completely ignoring them." No, it often begins as a good intention. There is a saying that goes something like this, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions." Think about that for a second. Realize that although your intentions may be good to work late every day and be the first person to work and be the bread winner for your family. Realize that your family is missing out on something great, you! You have robbed them of your role in the family (mother, father). See it easily starts out with good intentions and goes sour very quickly. Unlike the movie, where things are very black and white, good and bad, in our world we choose to see things as shades of grey and pushing limits.

Harry on many occasions throws himself in front of others and acts as a savior to those around him. His very life was proof (in the movie) that love conquers all, even death. Harry portrayed a hero but was fairly common to those around him. There is no true spiritual content in the movie, yet I didn't have to dig deep for what I saw either. How you view this movie is up to your own conviction. I will tell you that I do not plan on going to buy these movies, going to the theater dressed in my closest resembling Hogwarts gear or even rehearsing spells that were said in the movie. I do however, understand that this shows a neat picture of spiritual warfare. Evil is something that we have to daily fight off. As Christ followers we are not in bondage to sin, but we sometimes build imaginary prisons for ourselves and tell ourselves that we cannot escape. Until we realize that we have been sitting inside some imaginary fence wearing an imaginary shock collar and whenever we leave that little bondage bubble we are imaginarily shocked. Here is the thing, that is a lie that Satan tells us to get us to believe we cannot be more like Christ. We can be more like Him. We can actively choose everyday to put on the new self and follow Him into battle. Or we can choose to put on the old self and choose to be on the other team.

You only have two options here, follow Christ or don't. Within that same realm of thinking your actions can do one of two things. They can either push people closer to Christ or they can push people away from Him. So what are your actions doing? What are you choosing to do everyday?

Lusting After the Wind

This little shpeal is a hard one for me to write. This one bears a little more of my soul and my heart. Recently I started going to a new Bible study or class at church on Wednesday nights. This class is for young adults and we are studying the book of James. God has used this to teach me much about Himself and what He has called me to. This past week we were going through James 1:12-18, but this part of scripture is not particularly what I want to share with you. A comment was made that I hadn't truly thought about. The guy teaching the class made a statement about lust that I hadn't really ever thought of before. He was talking about when he is at work in the office, he would lust after being somewhere else such as the lake. At that moment I realized that day in and day out I have a major lust issue. I am not content with where I am. I long to be in the mission field a bazillion miles away. Not just long for, but lust after. I want that more than anything. But here is the thing, I have two dreams and sadly lust after both. I lust after marriage and lust after missions.

Wanting something is not bad. The definition of lust (according to Noah Webster's New International Dictionary) is a longing desire; an eagerness to posses or enjoy. Wanting things is not bad, but when that want turns into a longing desire that is eager to posses or enjoy ... when you put that want before your love for God, there in lies the problem.

So, when he made that brief little statement about lusting to be at the lake when he is working, yeah let me tell you ... that hurt. It still is wearing on my heart. My desire to live a godly life, turned to lust? Really, wow ... how did I let that happen? God's word says as we are going we are to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Christ has called us to live a life that is radically different than what we consider following after God. My heart sank when my friend and teacher made that statement, not just sank but I realized I had turned something God had put in me as a pure desire into something so ... so ... so disgusting and sinful. My heart is to go to a place that most missionaries do not dare dream of. Only 1% of the world's missionaries go to what is known as the 10/40 window. This has been on my heart since Christ draw me to Himself. Uhh! I get so mad at myself when I think about turning a Christ-like desire into something so gross!

Currently I am reading a book called Christian Atheist: Believing in God, but Living as if He Doesn't Exist, one of the chapters is titled When You Believe in God but Don't Think You Can Change. The whole chapter was about how we do not believe God can change us. We do not believe that God is powerful enough to change us to be more like Him and to know Him, which is our ultimate purpose. Here is the thing, knowing Christ and being like Him is what we will be doing for all eternity. If you don't like knowing God or even being Christ like, eternity is going to be miserable. Any how, back on track. Craig Groeschel, the author, goes through what it looks like to change and let things go. I only mention this because, although I caught myself in the act of lusting after a dream I also caught myself thinking that I could not change and that it is something that I would do forever (turn godly things into not so godly things). God can use all things for His glory. Let me say that again, God CAN use all things for His glory. It is not just that He can do it but that He will do it. Although my behavior is sinful, God will make it glorify Himself. So there is a little hope there, but I want to live in a way that is honoring to God and by turning a godly desire into a selfish and lustful one does not seem to be the way to go about that. God can change my lust and bring me back to a place of God glorifying desire. To be completely honest, I am not there yet but am working toward that goal and praying God changes me. A key part of that is it is not just God that does the changing but we have a part to uphold. We have to want it, what do we do when we want something? We go for it. So how am I going to go for it? I am going to labor in prayer and seek God's word for wisdom. I have simply been lusting after the wind rather than running after the God of the universe.

Well, I hope all of this rambling makes some type of sense.  ... oh who knows!

A Heart like David

"O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken."

~ Psalm 15  

 Howdy! Well this has been quite a busy month so far and we are only 8 days in. But, before going to bed tonight I decided to read the two Psalms for today and both of them ... wow! God has convicted me on who I am to be and some major character flaws within myself. It is a little after 11 pm that I am starting to write this and neeeeeeeeeed sleep but I wanted to let this soak in to not only me but anyone who might read this. (I am planning on posting about Psalm 16 as well not sure it will be tonight though). Anyway... to get on with the story.

O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? 
David asks a question here, which is a very valid question. Who is allowed to abide in the dwelling place of God? Who gets to dwell at His holy hill? Sadly I have not ever just sat down to contemplate such a deep thought. To me, this is a loaded question because it means that most likely the answer will describe someone that is ... well... not me.  But just as David asks the question, he gives an answer.

He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart. 
Well, the word integrity is from the Greek word tummah which means "simplicity," "soundness," "completeness," and is also rendered as "upright," and "perfection." Uh that is a packed word. That word means complete and is rendered as perfection. So the first thing seen here is those that may abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill are to walk in completeness/perfection. Hmm ... well that isn't hard to do, YEAH RIGHT! The next thing we see is that those who may abide and reside are those who walk with works of righteousness. Now, in case you are unaware, righteousness means justification. Justification is opposed to condemnation. Then we see that those who are able to abide and reside have to speak truth in their heart. So 1. perfection, 2. not condemning, and 3. speaking truth within the heart.
This makes me very thankful that I follow the Lord that paid for all of my sin: past, present, and future. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20. Christ has exchanged His record for those who follow Him. So, if you are a follower of Christ, God looks at you as though you are holy. You have the blood of Jesus Christ on you and have been claimed as one of His. "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1. Those of us following Christ are not to condemn others just as Christ does not condemn us. We are set free from the law of sin and death. He has made us perfect in His eyes and He chooses not to condemn us. The last part here (speaking truth in his heart) I can only take it for what it says. I looked up commentaries and couldn't find anything. But when I read that it makes me think of "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Joshua 1:8. That is a whole different blog post waiting to happen, just saying ... forget how much I love that verse. But think about it, it just reminds me how much I need to be putting God's word into myself. Feeding myself with God's word and less of the world (the book of James has quite a load to say about the world). So those that get to abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill show perfection, no condemnation, and a constant self in pouring of God's word. 
But wait, there is more!


He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; he swears to his own hurt and does not change; he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. 
Not going to lie, looking up some of these words I see how much I have to learn. These words hold so much weight and I can barely even grasp the smallest of concepts here. I do, however, understand enough to tell you that this is an awesome yet weighty piece of scripture. This tells that those who are allowed to abide in His tent and dwell at His holy hill do not slander others with their tongue and does not do evil to others and the Lord does not find fault in them. He honors those who fear the LORD, which makes me think he respects his elders (usually they are the ones that fear the Lord and live their lives accordingly). When he loans out money he does not gain from the repayment, doesn't charge others interest for borrowing which also makes me think he is a very willing giver. It also says that he does not take a bribe against the innocent. So to be one that gets to abide in His tent and gets to dwell at His holy hill, this is what it looks like. The man described here lives his life with eternity in mind. This challenges me because it shows me that I do not defalt to eternal minded thinking. Just meaning that my first thoughts are not considering others as higher than myself but I seek self gain more than that of others. This is not a requirement but these are qualifications to some degree to dwell with the King at His holy hill and abiding in His tent. This passage just shows me how much I have to learn and how much I truly need my mind to be transformed daily (Romans 12:2). Sadly, I have to admit that my life doesn't match up to this fully. But God is still shaping me. Every day is another day to make choices to live for Him and to choose to live this life building up heavenly treasure and thinking about eternity. As a girl I struggle with the things that escape my very lips. (Be looking for another post called A Force to be Reckoned With sharing what scripture has to say about taming our tongue). Anyway, there is so much hope in the next line of the Psalm.

He who does these things will never be shaken.
All of this is concluded wonderfully with this statement. God makes us a promise, that if we live our lives selflessly for Him, putting others before ourselves we will never be shaken. All through the Psalms there are passages like this one. Passages that say that He will not let our foot slip and passages that say that we will not be put to shame in following Him. This is an awesome hope to hold on to. Ohhhhhh such a sweet thought!

This was David's heart, to be like God. He did not want to be God but he wanted to be like Him. We were made in the likeness of God. We were made like our Daddy and David wanted to be like his heavenly Daddy. Who could blame him, with a dad like that? Scripture tells us that David was a man after God's own heart. God loved him dearly. In an earlier post I worte about having a Heart like Hannah. David also had a heart to grow closer to the God he loves (present tense because David lives on with Him for all eternity).

Planted by the Water

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and  night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

~Psalm 1

So I am slightly addicted to Psalms! The writers just pour out their hearts before God and every time I read through them it gives me a heart to do the same. David was said to be a man after God's own heart and he poured out his heart before God. Every complaint, joyous moment, sad day, or uplifting song he poured his heart out like water before the Lord and God still said he was a man after His own heart. I want to be like Christ so I want to know more about this whole thing and am diving right into it.

This Psalm is filled with so much wisdom and packs a heavy punch it shows us a whole new way of thinking about the words success and blessed. It gives us a comparison between righteous and wicked. It gives a great analogy by using nature. So let's look at it with all of that in mind.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;"
He says blessed is not walking in the counsel of the wicked or standing in the way of sinners or sitting at the seat of scoffers. We are blessed when we walk in the counsel of the righteous and stand in the way of the saints and sitting at the seat of those glorifying Christ. Those things bless us. They make us more like Him so we are blessed to become more like Him. Most the time we look at blessings as things that are monetary or things that are beneficial to us here on earth. This is a completely different blessing. This is an eternal treasure, an eternal blessing. This is a timeless treasure that carries over to our life after ... our life (hmm funny but true). "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke 12:34. The next part of this line opens up much more.

"but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and  night."
So the blessed man finds delight in God's word (the law of the Lord). Not only does he delight in it he meditates on it day AND night. When we find delight in something it gives us great pleasure and enjoyment. So the blessed man enjoys the law of the Lord, he enjoys it so much that he is contemplates God's word night and day. Uh I am doing well if I spend time with God once in a day. If I contemplated on this all day long ... night and day, day and night, everyday ... my life, values, everything would be completely different.

"He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers."
In all that he does, he prospers. Wow! This man loves the Lord. He delights in the law of the Lord, he meditates on God's word day and night, and the analogy here is that he is a tree planted by streams of water yielding fruit in due season with its leafs not withering. Dang, awesomeness! The analogy is what gets me here. Think about it, trees need water to grow. If you have ever planted anything you know that you have to keep it watered, but you can't water it too much at one time because you can drown that plant. So a tree that is planted by a constantly flowing body of water is getting fresh water all the time. It is able to take in rich nutrients from that water and grow big and tall and strong. That fresh water pumping through the roots and veins of the tree are producing fruit and keeping the leaves alive. Let's break the analogy down a little more, shall we. Think of that fresh, clean, flowing water as God's word. A man grounded or rooted in God's word is going to have a passion for the things of the Lord. Thus the law of the Lord pumping through his veins. This particular man wants to see the things of God played out in his life. He produces the kind of spiritual fruit we read about in Galatians 5:22-251. He also will want to produce fruit that multiplies into the lives of others in the way of discipleship and sharing Christ with the lost. Right after it talks about yielding fruit in season it says "in all that he does, he prospers." The prosperity here it is talking about has everything to do with spiritual prosperity, hello! he is yielding fruit. Gosh, I want to live planted by streams of water and boy do I want to yield fruit and live a life where my leaves do not wither and I want all that I do to prosper. 


"The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish."
So the man walking in the path of the righteous is prospering. But we see here that "the wicked are not so." The wicked are like chaff. Ok, so chaff (if you didn't know) is " the husk of corn or wheat which was separated from the grain by being thrown into the air, the wind blowing away the chaff, while the grain was saved. The carrying away of chaff by the wind is an ordinary scriptural image of the destruction of the wicked and of their powerlessness to resist God's judgments." (definition pulled from bible.cc). The wicked are basically weeded out of this and will not stand in the judgment. Yeah, those are not my words but God's words. God says that the wicked are driven away and will not stand in the judgment and sinners are not able to stand in the congregation (or in the presence) of the righteous. God knows everything about us. He knows where we go, what we do, what we think, the words that escape our lips ... He knows E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! We cannot escape God. No, you cannot hide under your covers from God. God can still see you. God is the only one who truly knows who the goats are and who the sheep are. We cannot say someone is lost or saved, we are not God which means that we cannot judge others hearts. I do, however, like that in this passage there is no in between and there is only righteous and wicked. There are only two types of people, lost and saved. There is no in between. Do you get that? If the world ends right now and Christ does not know you (Matthew 7:21-23). We all know that God exists. We all have the opportunity to follow Him or reject Him. But we do not usually consider this thought of "does Christ know me?" We live in a place where it is all about us. Our relationships with God often revolve around us more than Christ. We sing songs at church that are touchy feely songs (you know, the kind of songs that make us feel good about ourselves). --Ok so I could go all day on that so ... stopping there before I go on a 5 day tangent -- Any way, the point is if you do not know Christ and you aren't sure if He knows you there is hope. God sent His son to come and die so that we do not have to. It pleased God to crush His own son for the sin of the world. Our sin was paid for by God. He paid our debt. That absolutely blows my mind and I rarely take the time to sit and meditate on the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ made for us. The all knowing, all powerful, loving, merciful, grace giving, just God that we were created for sacrificed the greatest price so that we could have the opportunity to live in eternity with Him. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). He loved the world so much that He gave His son to die for you. Yes, you. You sitting there reading this right now. You would not give your own child, would you? Really, would you? I highly doubt you would. God gave us hope, our hope is in Him. "The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." So it sounds sad but there is a ton of hope! 


Yeah so this is a long one and I pretty much restate the Psalm but there is so much packed into it I just had to. 








1. Galatians 5:22-25: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.