Sweet As Incense

“«A Psalm of David.» LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense; [and] the lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice.” (Ps 141:1-2 AV)

As a retired altar boy (I got saved, praise God) I know a bit of what incense smells like.  It is a fragrance you never forget.  Your nose tells you that you shouldn’t like it.  Your nose tells your brain that this is a fragrance that should be avoided.  You cannot help it.  The odor is so captivating.  It lingers forever.  The only thing that got it out of the hair, skin, and clothes was a good washing.  Incense was very serious to the Old Testament tabernacle and temple.  God provided the recipe for the incense, and it was not to be duplicated nor improved.  When two priests offered their own concoction, God killed them.  This recipe was not to be sold in the market.  The priests made up the batches, and they were reserved solely for temple worship.  If the incense of the altar was commercialized, God would kill those responsible and bring judgment on the nation.  This incense was unique.  There was nothing else like it.  For the writer to ask that his prayers be like the incense of the temple, that was no small thing.

Remember that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.  One would think this odd.  After all, prayer is a conversation with God.  Why would grown men need to learn how to have a conversation.  That is for another time, but suffice it to say, they didn’t know how to have one with God.  So, Jesus gave us the LORD’s prayer as a pattern to follow.  Not a prayer to be repeated.  It is an outline.  It contains the main ideas of what daily prayer should contain.  This shows us that prayer that God appreciates does not come naturally.  It must come from God to man then return to God again.  Incense that has gone bad does not smell very well.  Only a master could concoct a perfect recipe for a memorable fragrance.  Jesus showed us how to pray.  This brings us to our main thought.  How much of our prayer is filled with things that do not please God?  Not that He would refuse all prayer unless it were perfect.  He listens to us all the time.  If we have confessed our sin, then He hears us. What the writer is driving at is purposely offering pray to God which would smell sweet and pure.  Free from the contaminates of our own mind or selfishness, these prayers would be offered to honor God first and foremost.

The older I get, the more self-conscience I am becoming when offering prayer to the LORD.  It is a battle.  No wonder Paul tells us the Holy Spirit must help us pray because we rarely know how to.  He assists us in checking our heart and choosing proper words.  I don’t know about you, but I want my prayers to be that sweet-smelling incense.  May the Holy Spirit help me to empty self from the words that are offered and only give my LORD the best!  Pure prayer, free from any self-interest, has to be the sweetest thing God can hear.

How Would You Like that Love?

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (Joh 14:21 AV)

This verse has the potential of being contradictory and confusing when compared to other truths.  We know the Bible tells us that we love God because He first loved us.  If we forget this point, we may be led to believe that God only loves when He is loved first.  That love, as stated above is proven by obedience.  However, it would be good to also remember there are different types of love and different levels to those different types.  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  He did this even while the world hated Him.  God loves with an everlasting love.  Paul tells us that we cannot be separated from the love of God.  Nothing can come between the love of the Father toward His children.  So, what is the meaning to Christ’s words?  There is obviously some type of love that is withheld from the child of God if he or she does not love God by obedience to His commandments.  The type of love spoken above is agape love.  Agape love is the highest form of love.  It is faithfulness and sacrifice toward an object or person without expectation of reciprocation.  Just when we thought we had it figured out!  But this type of love can only work this way.  From the saint to the Father, agape love is the purest form of love by which we obey Him without the demand for love to be shown in return.  So, how does that figure into the seemingly conditional love above?  Perhaps we are not seeing it quite right.

A child can obey his father for several reasons.  The motive is not limited to one.  Perhaps the father made a promise that if he picked up his room, then would go fishing.  He is motivated by the reward that comes from obedience.  Perhaps the child straightens his room because if he doesn’t, he will bear the consequences of disobedience.  That motive is fear.  If the child picks up his room because he wants his father to acknowledge and affirm him, then the motive is for the emotional benefits of obedience.  Maybe he sees that picking up his room is a good idea because he would know where everything is, his room would be safe and clean, and he could entertain others in his room.  There is the motive of risk and reward.  It benefits the child in a practical way.  Regardless of any motive stated above, his father loves him no less or more for his obedience.  His love for his son does not diminish if he disobeys.  His love is manifested by rebuke rather than gratitude for his disobedience.  But Dad still loves his son still the same.  However, what if the child knew his father was going to tell him to straighten his room, and before his father told him to, he did it?  The only motive was to show his father how much he was appreciated.  He obeyed his father before being told because he knew the look on his face that was forthcoming.  What would be the father’s ethical obligation to a son who lived to please him?  Would in not be to love him in a different and deeper way?  Dad loves his son.  Nothing would change that.  Now that the son had pleased dad without being asked, dad is moved to show his love toward his son in newer and deeper ways.

This is the understanding Jesus is conveying.  As a child of God, we are loved with an everlasting love.  Nothing will change that.  However, if we live in obedience to His word and seek to please Him with our whole life, the moral nature of God dictates a more intimate relationship will be the result.  God will not love us any less if we live in disobedience.  He will love us still the same.  However, there is a level of intimacy that can be had by the child of God as he or she learns to love God with the whole mind, heart, soul, and body.  As we learn and strive toward pleasing the Father for no other reason that it pleases Him, there awaits a relationship we cannot comprehend.  It is beyond words.  The question is: how do we want to be loved and how much do we want to be loved?

Mindful Peace

“For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.” (Ro 8:6 AV)

That second half is precious to me.  Not that I have always been spiritually minded, but knowing that if I am, then life and peace are to follow.  It is the peace that is of particular interest to this saint.  Peace is a vaunted treasure to me.  Life is great.  But life without peace may be worth living.  It just won’t be enjoyed as much.  If I had to pick one or the other, peace it would be hands down.  Paul tells us the secret of this peace.  It is to be spiritually minded.  But what does it mean to be spiritually minded?  To be spiritually minded is for the mind to be acclimated toward spiritual truth and reality more so than carnal things.  When we speak of carnal things, we usually limit them to issues of gross immorality.  But that is not the biblical understanding of the term.  To be carnally minded means to think as a natural beast.  The natural beast is limited to things of this life.  It is limited to natural things that are not necessarily eternal and absolute.  To be carnally minded is to limit one’s thinking to only that which can be observed with the five senses.  Therefore, to be spiritually minded is to free the mind beyond what can be observed and think on that which cannot be naturally defined.

When looking at a clock, what does one see?  We see the lovely woodwork that encases such an instrument.  We see the brilliant colors of the polished metalwork.  We see the antique-looking numbers, lines, and symbols etched on the dial.  We hear the tick-tock of the movement.  We might even hear the chime every hour, half-hour, or quarter-hour.  We know the history of the piece.  Perhaps it is a family heirloom.  To this day, I remember my grandparents’ clock sitting on a shelf, and for the size of it, the chime was rather loud.  You could hear it throughout the house.  It chimed every quarter hour.  I still remember the tune.  It is a classic and in many timepieces still produced today.  Upon further inspection, one might notice a little corrosion around the edges of the dial.  He might notice a nick or two.  But to a clockmaker, what he sees is far more.  When taken apart, this once lovely timepiece lay in dozens of pieces.  A master clock maker knows what each part does as it relates to other pieces.  I am amazed when watching a master work.  There are dozens of dials and a few flywheels.  The master clock maker doesn’t need blueprints or plans to put it back together.  What he sees is far more than what most of us see.  He sees relationships.  He sees things that cannot be seen with the eye or touched with the fingers.  He sees the concept of time, which all the pieces, once assembled, broadcast to the viewer.  He knows things that give definition to what can be seen.  To be spiritually minded is to be minded on things beyond normal observation.  Truth is such a construct.

Paul promises us that the more mindful we are on things that cannot be seen, the more we enjoy life and peace.  The more our minds are acclimated toward the LORD and the things of spiritual reality, the more peace will rule in our hearts.  If we are worried, frustrated, anxious, envious, or any other disquieting emotional state, it is because our minds are not spiritually acclimated.  If we cannot enjoy life amid the troubles and trials that come upon us, our minds are not spiritual.  We are failing to remember things that matter far more than anything that happens in this life.  Perhaps this is why Paul ends the eighth chapter of Romans as he does.  We have to be reminded of one of those basic truths that is hard to observe.  The love of God keeps us and blesses us.  Nothing can separate us from that love.  If God loves us, then no matter what is happening, we will be ok!

No Longer Servants

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” (Ro 6:17 AV)

Note the tense of Paul’s words.  The past tense implies a present tense.  We were the servants of sin.  However, we have obeyed the doctrine of salvation from the heart and are no longer servants of sin.  Period.  Not that we are perfect servants of righteousness.  But we are definitely not the servants of sin. We don’t always feel this way.  We have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, or even bad years.  We often feel far more of a failure than we are a success.  Yet Paul states we are no longer servants to sin.  Mic drop.  There is no debate here.  If we cannot get over our sin, it isn’t because we are enslaved.  Some feel trapped not realizing they have been freed.  What wonderful news to know we are no longer a slave to that which destroys the soul.  Whether we feel it or not, we have been liberated.

We have a dog.  This dog is awesome.  The best breed ever!  We put a fence up between the living room and the upstairs.  There is carpet there, and we didn’t want him to piddle on the carpet.  Once that gets into the carpet, it is hard to get out.  It has been up for eight years.  It is retractable, so we can come and go.  But Toby stays put.  Lately, the screen has become a bit tattered.  It seems like it has met its end of life.  The thing is, I still don’t want Toby on my carpet.  It might remind him far too much of the grass outside.  The funny thing is, habit has become the way of life.  With or without the fence up, Toby will go no further until he is called.  Whether the barrier is there or not, he stays.  He doesn’t realize there is an entire upstairs he could explore.  He has to be given permission, and the new reality of liberty has to be trusted.  Then Toby can live a life he never lived before.

Not that we are dogs, but we have learned behavior as well.  We have lived so long in sin that it is hard to remember we are no longer servants to it.  Like a dog chained to a tree his whole life, if the chain is not there, he lives as though it were.  The saints often live the same way.  We live in sin because we have not learned as yet just how free from it we truly are.  The fence has been retracted.  The chain of restraint has been snapped.  We are free to live a life of righteousness.  We are no longer entrapped.  We are free!  The challenge is to accept that truth by faith.  Part of being entrapped is a lack of faith in the liberty to which Christ has called us.  We had become comfortable in the box called wickedness.  We have become familiar with the dark side.  Now the door of God’s righteousness has been thrown open, and the light of God’s holiness beckons us.  Yet we are a bit apprehensive.  What lies ahead?  What kind of life would God grant?  What if I leave that to which I have grown accustomed and trust the righteousness that comes by God’s grace?  Living holy is a step of faith.  The first step is to accept we are free from sin!  Period!  It is finished.

Fear In The Balance

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD [men] depart from evil.” (Pr 16:6 AV)

This is one of my favorite verses.  Partly because it is so poetic and succinct.  But what really speaks to me is the beautiful simplicity coupled with the hope it brings.  It is right and common to read the verse as a rebuke or challenge.  But being a simple statement of fact with little to no emotion contained therein, the truth above can be taken in several ways.  One of them is hope.  There are two ingredients to holy living and the definition of those two combined into one.  There is mercy and truth.  Combined they become the fear of the LORD.  Working backwards, the fear of the LORD is not mere terror at His greatness and our vileness.  Rather, to fear the LORD here means to understand Him in such a deep and profound way that we become undone, yet full of faith all at the same time.  To have the fear of the LORD as stated above, one must hold mercy and truth as equal in quantity and application.  In other words, if iniquity is to be purges and evil to be departed from, then the saint must understand God as a God of both mercy and truth.  He must understand it far more than academically.  He must understand it practically and in its fullest.

Mercy and truth, while at first seem opposed, cannot exist without each other.  Truth may seem like an independent construct with no need for mercy.  It is plain to see that mercy cannot exist without truth.  If there was no truth, then there wouldn’t be a violation of that truth.  If there is no violation of truth, then mercy need not exist.  Herein we see the dependent relationship between the two.  When God alone existed without any created universe or beings in that universe, truth was inactive.  God is truth.  Truth is God.  God and truth remained possessed within the Godhead, yet not reaching the fullest potential of truth.  For truth to reach its fullest potential, there must be objects upon which to apply truth.  The concept of gravity exists with or without celestial bodies.  But it took God to create the universe for gravity to be active.  This is true of all truth.  Truth needs application.  If truth is applied to creation, then there must of necessity be mercy.  Truth is not always followed by virtue of self-determinate beings dwelling in God’s creation.  Therefore, truth and mercy are dependent upon one another for their application.

Now that we got our theology in order, let us consider the real-time application to the saint.  Both mercy and truth must be seen as equally important.  We often err toward one and away from the other.  Balance is the key.  It is hard for some to accept God’s mercy and live in the reality of truth.  We are overly condemned and do not give God the fear that comes from exercised humility and mercy.  We live in the truth and, at times, being condemned through it.  Because we are constantly condemned, we have no motive to purge iniquity.  However, if we are the saint who abuses God’s mercy, then we see no reason to change.  After all, God forgives and forgets everything, right?  Keeping these two in balance is what is needed.  God possesses all of His attributes equally and infinitely.  Because He does, truth cannot be seen as more important that mercy, nor mercy more valuable than truth.  But are equally indispensable.  As we strive toward Christlikeness, the fear of the LORD (holding truth and mercy equally) is the only way to attain it.

No Shows Show No Harm

“And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee.” (Ac 28:21 AV)

Paul came hot and ready to defend himself in the courts of Rome.  However, when he finally arrived, the Jews which resided there told Paul there was neither letter nor individual from Israel ready to prosecute him.  Lysias, Felix, nor Agrippa sent letters to Caesar’s court to accuse Paul of insurrection or any other crime.  The simple reason would be there was no crime committed.  If any of the three sent baseless accusations against Paul, they would be guilty of wasting the time of the royal court.  It would have been better for them to merely send Paul along with no record and let Rome sort it all out.  What is surprising to me is that no one else made the trip to Rome to stir up the Jews who resided there.  No one came and made Paul the lightning rod for Rome to kill the Christians.  Perhaps that was the design.  If they limited the problem of Christianity to one man’s ministry, it would continue even if that one man were dead.  By letting Rome deal with it, they made Christianity the problem and not Paul.  Either way, we can take comfort in that perhaps the threatenings of the enemies of God are not as dramatic as they might seem.

There is a subtle pattern throughout the book of Acts.  It is founded upon the declared mission of the church.  Jesus tells His saints that they ‘shall be’ witnesses throughout the world.  He does not tell them they might be if they want to be.  Rather, the statement is a statement of fact.  Not a statement of probability.  So, there must be divinely sent circumstances that bring this statement of fact to pass.  Therefore, there are many times we see the saints fleeing from one threatening situation to the next.  In the interim, the LORD uses them to build ministry.  In fact, if we were to read a bit further in our passage, Paul’s ministry in Rome was successful because he fled to Rome.  Since there were no official charges regarding his behavior in Jerusalem, many Jews came to him to hear of the good news regarding their Messiah.  What seemed like a huge problem and one to fear turned out to be an opportunity for Paul.  It is typical of the enemies of God.  The react far more then they need to in order to accomplish what they think was a desired end only to help the saint along the way.

This reminds me of a situation my partner and I faced while knocking on doors.  In fact, this happens quite a bit.  One evening, we knocked on a door, and a drunken man answered.  He was madder than a wet hen.  He went off on us with a profanity-laced tirade and threatened physical harm.  It was very violent language.  We did what we were told to do and brushed the dust from our feet.  We went to the next house.  The next house has a group of about six or seven people enjoying the outdoors.  They were drinking, but they were not drunk.  They saw and heard the whole thing.  Rather than jump on board, they apologized and allowed my partner and me to give them the gospel.  Down the street, a young man was walking.  He saw the whole thing too.  He was headed for the home of the drunken Nabal.  He saw what happened and stated he was not about to go into that house and continued to walk.  I don’t know why he was going there, but it appeared the LORD used the whole incident to open the door for the gospel to others and save a young man from great harm.  The point is simple.  Sometimes the enemies of the cross don’t want to destroy you.  They just want you gone!  Look for opportunities.  They will come.

All of It

“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:” (Ac 24:14 AV)

This is Paul’s confession before Felix.  He has been brought from Jerusalem to Caesarea to stand trial before Felix the governor.  Having been accused of insurrection, which is interesting in and of itself, he is harbored to Felix because Felix is the next in line of authority.  The accusers also threatened to have Paul killed on his way to Lysias, chief captain of Jerusalem.  They were feigning a false trial and then planned to have him killed as he was being brought to Lysias.  Knowing this, Lysias arranges a force of 480 men to escort Paul to Felix.  It is the details of Paul’s remarks that stand out this morning.  Note here the definition of heresy.  Paul states that any deviation from the entire word of God that causes division among God’s people is considered heresy.  Now the definition of heresy does not necessarily make a belief heresy.  Paul believed the truth.  Those accusing him of heresy did not.  Because they made the accusations, then they define what is and is not heresy according to their system of belief.  Being labeled a heretic is only bad when considering who it is that is labeling you!  Second, note exactly what it is that Paul is accused of.  He believes everything written in the law.  And there is the rub.  Any time a saint strives to believe it all, there are those even of their own stripe who will not agree.  To be clear of conscience before God, this cannot matter.

It amazes me how those who choose to believe God in all things are ridiculed by those who do not.  And I am not writing about the lost versus the saved.  The word of God is relevant from the first word to the last.  The word of God is perfect.  It was inspired perfectly and without error.  It was and is preserved perfect and without error.  And since we have many instances of active translation occurring within the pages of scripture itself, we can say with certainty that God can and does provide His word perfect and without error even in the process of translation.  Yet the scholars will ridicule those who hold to these scriptural and self-evident truths.  The same is also true of other tenants of the faith.  Separation is perhaps one of the major stumbling blocks for the uncommitted saint.  Scripture itself teaches separation from day one!  Adam and Eve were told to separate from the one tree they were forbidden to eat.  They failed, and all of mankind fell with them.  The dietary laws of the Old Testament speak loudly of separation.  The production of clothing, the sowing of fields, and the alignment of the twelve tribes of Israel all show a separation and distinction between things.  Yet if today’s believer chooses to teach and live according to these standards of separation, he or she will be labeled with unkind titles.

Paul chooses to believe all the Bible.  Not just those parts important to his accusers.  All of it.  Like us, he did not always live it.  He made one of the biggest blunders of his life toward the end of it.  But success in living according to the Bible is related, but not fatally so.  One can believe all the Bible and still fail to live it from time to time.  However, if we do not believe it, then we definitely will not live it.  I admire old Paul.  He has a lot of courage.  He had nothing to lose.  He was willing to stick his neck out for those truths of the Bible that his colleagues refused to embrace.  If you’re going to believe the Bible, you may as well believe it all!