Precious Bedtime!

“Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.” (Ps 4:4 AV)

Bedtime is the most precious part of my day.  Both falling asleep and rising in the morning are special.  It is where the world comes to complete silence and my spirit is unabated as I ascend the holy mountain into the presence of God.  Bedtime is when deep examination of the heart takes place.  It is the time when the Spirit has my undivided attention and conversation comes quite easy.  Bedtime is the silence that keeps all other voices silent and the voice of God speaks.  Bedtime is when the LORD allows me to share all that I think and feel while He responds in a still small voice.  The quietness of bedtime is when the Spirit has freedom to bring to my mind scriptures which I know, but seldom draw upon.  It is when He can remind me of truths that He has taught and by which He has led me.  The quiet time of late night and early morning is what the Adversary is the furthest, the flesh is not yet enlivened, and the soul is uncaged to pursue the presence of God.  It is when sin becomes clear, confession becomes concise, and forsaking becomes consummate.  The stillness of the late evening and early morning is the most profitable, and by far, it is when the LORD does his most significant work

I grew up in a large family.  This meant we never had a room of our own.  We shared it with a at least two more siblings.  What this also meant was that bedtime was a time when we had conversations, we didn’t want our parents to hear.  When we were young, the conversations were foolishness and often got us in trouble.  As we aged, our conversations became more intimate.  School problems, family issues, parent frustrations, or girl trouble were common topics.  Perhaps we were fighting a battle at our part-time job or needed to negotiate our shared living space.  In the night, when our parents were not around, we could speak of things that were intimate and often made us vulnerable.  It was during those times when the closeness of siblings became even stronger.  We share what is on our hearts knowing there is respect and affirmation coming from the bunk below or above.  Sibling rivalries seem to melt away when there is a tear or two coming from your brother’s eyes because the girl he really liked decided he wasn’t worth her time.  Fear was abated when your older brother affirmed that you would be just fine.  He went through the same thing and turned out ok.

Each night is a special night.  There have been tears but also joy.  Rebuke and correction come.  But so does affirmation.  The presence of God is far clearer when the lights go out and all one hears is the breath of your spouse as they fall into sleep.  There might be a chuckle as the LORD reveals just how ridiculous I am being at the moment.  There is Spirit lead teaching as He shows me how to look at a situation or doctrine a bit differently.  In the quietness of the night and early morning hours, when upon my bed I lie, the presence of God is something I ache for.  The Spirit of God is a reminder of what awaits in glory!  The quietness of the night brings heaven infinitely closer, and the soul reaches out for the presence and glory of God.  He is so real when the world becomes silent.  He is so real when the mind, heart, and soul are completely focused on fellowship with Him.  His voice is so clear.  The word of God is so vibrant.  The quietness of the bed is when God often does His most significant work.

No News Can Be Good News

“And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.” (Ge 8:12 AV)

Sometimes, no news is good news.  Noah sent out two types of birds.  He sent out a raven.  The raven never returned.  This would make complete sense.  The raven survives on dead tissue.  The earth being covered with water would no doubt have some carrion floating on the surface.  The raven had no need to return.  This was the first indication that it was not yet safe to exist from the ark.  The earth remained full of death and disease.  Even if the earth had begun to dry, it would not have been safe.  The dove returned after her first release with a fig leaf in her mouth.  God sent the dove to Noah as an encouragement that the waters had begun to abate.  The leaf was good news.  The leaf meant there was a future outside the ark.  Eventually, fields could be planted and homes could be built.  When the dove failed to return the second time, Noah knew she had found materials sufficient to build a nest.  The absence of the dove was good news.  No news was good news.

Ignorance is not a good feeling.  We want to know as much as possible.  Many years ago, my son and I came across human remains.  We were turkey hunting in the Kentucky woods, and a bleach-white dome was glistering in the sun.  Then I saw very clean sneakers.  Immediately, I knew what I was looking at.  Upon further inspection, it appeared as though this poor soul met an untimely end.  We called the authorities.  Two county sheriff offices, the state troopers, and a federal agency arrived.  There were quite a few law enforcement officers present.  A bit intimidating.  The body was right on a county line, which probably explains why it was in the woods for almost two full years.  After a bit, we did some research.  We found the name of the individual and tried to follow the case.  A phone call to the detective was made but never returned.  We wanted closer.  We wanted to know how this poor man met his end and if there was foul-play involved.  Not knowing was troubling.  Ignorance is not comfortable.  However, there are times when not knowing is a good thing.  There are times when things resolve themselves without our knowledge of the details involved.  Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

Noah sent out a dove.  He sent the bird in the hope that it would not return.  There was no proof of what happened because she did not return.  Maybe she met her end at the hands of the raven.  Maybe she lit upon some decaying flesh, caught a disease, and perished.  Maybe she exhausted herself and perished for lack of energy.  Maybe she could not find suitable water and died of thirst.  Who knows?  These are the roads we go down when we don’t have as much information as we wish we had.  This is when faith takes over.  God promised Noah that he would disembark on dry ground.  He sent the dove, not as a means of anxiety over possibilities.  Rather, he sent the dove out with an expectation that she would not return; thus making the promise of God effectual.  No news was good news.  We don’t need all the answers, and sometimes, lack of detail is exactly what we need.  Faith is the key!  Information will always be limited.  We will never have enough evidence.  Faith is the evidence.  Not unlimited information.

Are You an Answer to Jesus' Prayer?

“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession.” (Ps 2:7-8 AV)

David utters a prayer request that is both practical and prophetical.  David, as king of Israel, wishes to solidify the nation of Israel into the nation God intended.  He is surrounded by Gentile enemies who frustrate that purpose.  When he seeks the heathen as an inheritance, he desires the heathen to know the LORD.  Military conquest will not force them into faith.  But it will provide the best possible environment by which they can exercise faith.  David is seeking to provide a situation where those willing to believe in the one true God can do so without impediment or fear.  His verse above is also a prophetical one.  This is obvious to the most casual reader.  The Only Begotten, and capitalizing Son should be obvious.  The Father has granted to the Son the heathen for His inheritance.  This began at the cross of Calvary and will commence at the return of our Savior.  The heathen will be given the same opportunity David sought.  The world will be given the opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior without impediment or persecution.  The Devil is locked up for 1,000 years, and the LORD will rule with a rod of iron.  Never before will mankind have such an opportunity.  I, for one, and thrilled for the promise of the Father to the Son.  One day, in the distant past, Jesus brought this heathen to a day of faith.  Faith in Him and LORD and Savior.

The coming of our Savior is inevitable.  The consummation of all things is promised and guaranteed.  God did not create that He might have perpetual rebellion.  There will come a day when the kingdom of our LORD and Savior will commence without sin or fault.  Peter tells us that when the LORD destroys and recreates, there will be no sin or fault allowed.  This means there will be no creatures present that can, will, or desire to sin.  All that God possesses and recreated will be for His glory and praise.  The promise above will be completed one day.  One day in the future, all those who reject the grace of God will be cast into hell forever.  Those who accept will live with God forever.  What I see in this promise is a promise of God’s grace to all people.  The Father may have made a covenant with the Jewish people, but He did not reject the heathen.  In the Old Testament, there were provisions for the non-Jewish individual to trust in the one true God.  He could repatriate himself to the Jewish nation and, over time and generations, become fully Jewish.  In fact, the nation of Israel was instructed to be kind to the stranger (non-Israeli) because they were once strangers in Egypt.  Isaiah tells us of a day when Jews and Gentiles alike will willingly be governed by Jesus Christ.

When I read of the request and promise above, that request and promise included me!  When Jesus prays for His present and future disciples in John 17, His prayer includes me.  What a thought!  Knowing how much I would rebel against Him, hate Him, and curse Him, the LORD still asked that I might be in His inheritance.  Knowing all that He knew and what I would be, in eternity past He still prayed for me to the Father.  One day, that prayer was answered.  The question is, will you accept Jesus as LORD and Savior so that you, too, can be an answer to His prayer?  When the Father gives to the Son the heathen for an inheritance, will that inheritance include you?  Jesus prayed for you millions if not trillions of years ago.  Before there was time, the Son asked for Your soul!  He will not save you against your will.  You have a decision.  The prayer cannot be answered in the affirmative unless you believe.  Will you?  Will you be an answer to Jesus’ prayer?

Clothes of Compassion

“Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” (Ge 3:21 AV)

I found this especially precious this morning.  A perfect picture of the imputed righteousness of Christ.  Adam and Eve did their best to cover the consequences of their sin.  Being husband and wife, they were not in sin being naked before one another.  What sin did was pervert what God gave.  God gave intimacy between a husband and wife to be enjoyed and edifying.  Yet, the devil turned it into something perverse.  God provided the means by which Adam and Eve could dwell with one another and among mankind in a modest and righteous way.  As they stood by and watched an innocent lamb or lambs slaughtered for their sin, it had to affect them that something died that they might be covered.  What I see above is the tenderness of God by providing the means to His creation by which they might be acceptable to Him and one another.

There is a service being advertised lately.  I haven’t seen it in a while.  It is for those of us who might be fashionably challenged or who simply cannot shop successfully for clothes.  They are the wrong size, or they simply do not lay straight.  This service offers outfits on a rotating basis.  The client enters measurements and body type, style choices, and other information.  Then the service designs a look for you, ships out the clothes, and shows different combinations that work.  The outfits are tailored to the individual.  Whether a service like the above, or a suit that needs tailoring, it is a special thing to have clothes that are made just for you.  I have bought many suits over the years.  The tailors who altered the suits varied in ability.  There were some that were perfectly tailored.  I have one that wasn’t done well.  It makes a big difference when clothes are made just for you.

Jesus is that person who clothed us in His righteousness.  This robe of righteousness was made just for you.  It fits who you are and what you have done.  Each of us is different, but each of us is the same.  We are all sinners.  We all come short of the glory of God.  Our sins might be different, but in nature they are the same.  Compared to the sinless perfection of God, we are all horribly sinful.  So, the Father decided to impute our sin to His Son and His Son’s righteousness to us.  The tenderness that is evident is special.  I don’t imagine that when the LORD provided animal skins to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve that He did so dispassionately.  I imagine there was tenderness as a parent who dresses his child.  I imagine when the LORD imputed the righteousness of His Son upon this hopeless sinner that the same tenderness was evident.

Simple Yet Difficult

“Teach me to do thy will; for thou [art] my God: thy spirit [is] good; lead me into the land of uprightness.” (Ps 143:10 AV)

If prayed sincerely, the first six words above are life-changing.  It takes a humble and broken spirit to pray this prayer with perfectly pure motives.  We may seek the will of God because experience tells us the opposite can be painful.  We are tired of the circumstances of our sin and wish to learn to do God’s will because it is easier on the conscience and life.  Seeking to do God’s will can be motivated by desiring a better outcome.  Or perhaps we seek to do God’s will because we want the liberty that comes with it.  Seeking to learn and do God’s will solely for His pleasure is the greatest of all motives.  The other motives are not a bad thing.  They are good reasons for the desire of God’s will.  They are often sufficient.  The greatest of all motives is for the pleasure and glory of God.  The motive of the writer is seen in the phrase following the request.  He has surrendered to the sovereignty of God.  He accepts God as his God, not merely out of mental assent.  It goes deeper than that.  He accepts God as his God that he might worship and honor Him as his God.  This is not a creator who us conquered against his will by the Creator.  This is a creator who knows he is created by the Creator and that the Creator is worthy to be worshiped and honored.

When we pray the above prayer, how well thought out is it?  To do the will of God is not limited to a desire.  There are many components to the will of God.  My father commanded that our room is to be picked up.  We did the best we could do, but when inspection time comes, we find where we failed.  Not necessarily where we succeeded.  Why?  Because we cleaned it to our standard and not his.  We would make our beds and put away our clothes.  Yet, our desk was still unorganized, or the floor needed sweeping.  Then, he would inspect it again.  Dust was still visible on horizontal surfaces, our closets were unorganized, etc.  What was he doing?  He was teaching us his will regarding a clean and organized room.

Many pray for obedience.  We want to please the LORD.  Yet the pragmatic manner in which we go about remains idle.  There are no planned steps to obedience.  There is a general desire.  But the steps are not implemented.  Action requires smaller actions.  Learning God’s will is like learning to write.  Remember those worksheets?  Page after page of single letters.  Then we graduated to combinations of letters.  Soon after, there were words.  The same is true with the learning of God’s will.  We want to jump to the big decisions, yet we haven’t learned the smaller steps to simple obedience.  The writer’s desire is simple.  All he wants to do is learn how to walk in complete and perfect obedience to his God because He is God.  That’s it.  Existence is no more complicated that this.  As Solomon says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man.” (Ec 12:13 AV)

Strengthened By Infinite Strength

“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;” (Col 1:10-11 AV)

Walking as we should walk is difficult.  The flesh is stronger than we imagined.  Temptation lingers, and we relent.  At times, it feels like a hopeless battle.  Desires of the heart are simply too great to overcome.  If that is the case, then Paul’s words above are not true.  According to our beloved Apostle, we are strengthened with all might.  This statement is made in the context of walking as to please God with righteousness as our principle.  Paul does not say that we have all might.  The word ‘strengthened’ suggests a process and not an event.  Paul does not suggest that once we receive the gift of salvation, we are a virtual superhero that can defeat all enemies.  What Paul is saying is that might is ‘all’ because it comes from an almighty God.  We are strengthened by a God who has all might.  Paul is not saying we possess, at any time, ‘all’ might.  Rather, the supply of strength that we must draw from is infinite and divine.

Knowing there is infinite supply is a strength all by itself, whether we chose to tap it or not.  I know I have used this example before, but indulge me.  In the southern part of the Finger Lakes region is a place known as Watkins Glen.  Most know it because there is a well-known racetrack there.  NASCAR races there as well as the international Grand Prix.  However, Watkins Glen did not get its name from a racetrack.  Rather, there is a glen or small gorge that got its name from Dr. Samuel Watkins, who promoted and developed the area in the mid-19th century.  He bought up land, established businesses and industry, and opened the glen to tourists.  Later, it became a state park.  The park features a 1.5-mile-long gorge measuring 400 feet deep.  It contains 16 different waterfalls.  It was one place my father frequented.  He was an avid photographer, and during my teen years, I followed in his footsteps.  About a third of the way up, on the northern face, is a small copper tube.  It protrudes from cliff face, and out of it runs a constant stream of water.  The weather never determines if this water runs or does not run.  It runs all year round.  Regardless of rainfall or temperature, there is a steady stream of water coming from the rock face through a small tube.  This is great comfort to the hiker.  He knows that no matter how deep our need for hydration is, there is a source of water that never stops.

Knowing there is an infinite source of strength by which we might live to please Him does not mean it is being used.  Like that fountain of water that never stops, it is only profitable if we access it and use it.  To think we are helpless against the trials of faith and temptations of sin is not accurate.  God is greater than anything we could face, and therefore, can overcome all adversity.  When Paul states that we are strengthened with all might, he is not suggesting God will impose His infinite strength without us desiring that strength.  It is there.  There are no bounds.  If we can to all things through strength, then strength must be accessible.  And it is.  There is no obstacle we will face that an infinitely mighty God is subject to.  When Paul uses the term ‘all might’, he is speaking of that which is accessible and not that which is possessed.  We must tap the infinite strength of God.  We must avail ourselves of all might.  It is there.  He we do is ask and receive.

Kind Correction

“Let the righteous smite me; [it shall be] a kindness: and let him reprove me; [it shall be] an excellent oil, [which] shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also [shall be] in their calamities.” (Ps 141:5 AV)

This verse, although it might seem a bit uncomfortable, is actually just the opposite.  Correction is coming.  It comes from all directions.  Babylon and Assyria were used in correcting Israel.  Yet they were not righteous.  God uses various means to correct the saints.  The kindest of all is from the righteous.  The writer knows that when correction comes, and it will come, it is better if it comes from the righteous than from any other source.  Note also the willingness of the one needing reproof.  Twice he uses the word ‘let’.  Twice he opens his heart to the possibility of kind correction.  This has application to both the one needing reproof and the one giving reproof.

For the one needing reproof, this is an easy one.  We know that correction is part of life.  We learn in many ways, and the hard way is most often the common way.  What we do find difficult is being that righteous friend who will intervene and say something that can help a friend.  We don’t like to be confrontational.  We don’t like to be the one person who makes someone uncomfortable.  We see reproof as ending unsavorily, which breaks the friendship we once had.  So, the individual who needs help continues on and suffers because we are too afraid to say something.  The key is that one little word used twice.  Let.  The humble heart of the one needing reproof determines if reproof is offered.  By surrendering to correction from the heart of a righteous saint, the erring one has opened the door to receiving correction.  The challenge is to be that person that will offer it.

I feel for doctors.  They are underappreciated.  We visit them with the understanding that they must offer critical opinions of how we live our lives.  Next month, I will have my yearly physical.  I am sure my blood work will come back telling the tale of someone who needs to make changes.  I will be told to exercise more, diet, and cut back on sugar.  Drinking more fluids will also be discussed.  I will be prepared beforehand, knowing there will be no stickers on my report card.  Yet, what is the usual response?  We should thank the doctor.  We should appreciate all the schooling he or she went through for the opportunity to tell us to shape up.  Most of us don’t.  We leave with a bit of skepticism or scoffing.  He or she is only doing a job they are called to.  They offer their advice because they care.  However, if we go in with the understanding that we need to hear the bad with the good and that we are grateful for the input, our reaction will be much different.  When we are children, we welcome criticism because we want to learn and improve.  Once pride sets in, it is harder to take.  We need to be that person who is willing the hear hard things.  But we also need to be that person that offers hard things as well.