Inside 537

Psalm 116:10, 11

I believed, even when I spoke, "I am greatly afflicted"; I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars." (Psalms 116:10-11 ESV)

We all fall down.  Repeatedly.  What would a good dad do when his child is learning to walk and falls?  Don’t think of your own father, who may have been broken a thousand different ways and passed that on to you (unless your father WAS the perfect model of a perfect “dad.”)  But how would you expect the perfect father to act?  My idea is, first comfort.  I would expect the perfect father to reassure me and help me up, then encourage me and help me right into my next steps.

In these verses, the psalmist falls.  He succumbs to discouragement, feeling sorry for himself, and lashing out at those around him.  Yet he confesses that he knows better, even in the midst of his complaint.  He says, “I believed...”  His heart was still with God even though his physical being was not acting in faith.  Here in the Old Testament is the very dilemma Paul writes about in Romans 7.  The struggle is an ancient one.  But so is the victory.  From Romans:

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:15-25 ESV)

O.K., granted, that can tie your brain up in knots if you don’t read it slowly and carefully.  But the parts I highlighted show that this is someone whose intense and deepest desire is to follow God.  This is not the person looking for an excuse to sin.  This is not for the “once-saved-always-saved-so-what-I-do-doesn’t-matter” crowd.  That is a dangerous error because while it is true that WHAT I DO DOESN’T SAVE ME, it is NOT  true that WHAT I DO DOESN’T MATTER.  What I do matters very much.  It is a revelation of where my heart is.

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. (Matthew 12:34 ESV)

Jesus is using the act of speaking here quite literally, but also as a metaphor.  It stands for actions.  We speak and act from wherever our heart is.  Look at the word, “abundance.”  It implies that the heart is overflowing into actions.  This is exactly how we are.

But when the psalmist slips into his “self-mode” he recognizes it.  He has a close enough relationship with God that he recognizes what he’s done.  Not long ago a friend met me for an appointment.  His first words were, “I’m a hypocrite.  I don’t practice what I preach.”  He went on to tell me of a confrontation with someone that morning in which he’d acted out from his “flesh” instead of from the fruit of God’s Spirit.  Now there was a rift between them and he was going to have to make it right.  He was right at the end of Romans 7.  He was right in the middle of Psalm 116:10, 11.

This part of the psalm is a condition of the heart.  It is whenever we speak or think without passing our actions through our “new creation filter.”  We are being recreated, cleansed, brought back to life from death.  We’re learning to make new choices.  On the way we stumble sometimes.  But, like Paul, our true heart is not in it.  We are immediately ashamed and driven back to God.  His response is to immediately accept us and fold us back into His arms.

In a small group study a friend once asked, “How do I know when I’m on the straight and narrow path?”  The answer is, you know because you keep falling off.  That’s a strong sign.  It’s narrow.  We don’t walk straight.  So we slip off.  But when we do we feel those scarred and powerfully muscled hands reaching down to grab us, hoisting us back up next to His side.  We see the compassion in the face, the smile.  We hear the voice that melts us with the words, “Come on, I’ve got you.  Don’t look down.  I know this path.  Stay in me.  Let’s go.”

Our hearts cannot help but respond, “Thank-you, Lord.  Forgive me.  I don’t ever want to do that again.  I love you.  I want to stay here beside you.  Thank you for pulling me back.”

Then that smile again.  No need for words.  The arm goes around us, folding us in.  We begin to walk, steadier, secured.  This is what it feels like to be home.  This is how the perfect Father loves.

Psalm 116:3-9

The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!" (Psalms 116:3-4 ESV)

Here is the beginning of Broken In.  When we come in the door on the first night, we have been under heavy attack by the enemy’s Spirit of Death.  Depression, anger, bitterness, anxiety, despair, addictions both physical and emotional, are all powers under his purview.  The main meaning of the word translated, “snares,” here is “ropes” or “cords” in the form a noose.  But the same word  used in 1 Samuel 10:5, 10 is there translated, “company,” or, a group tied together by a common purpose.  In this Psalm the context is clearly one of being surrounded and besieged.  Sheol is said to “lay hold” on the psalmist.  While this is usually taken as metaphor, these words seem to indicate beings or entities more than ideas.  Within the context of spiritual warfare it makes a great deal of sense.

The writer is surrounded and the enemy is closing in to the point of literally grabbing ahold of him.  When I read these words I get a picture of being surrounded by a living darkness that is ready to tear me apart.  I have indeed felt like that many times.  I can identify with this psalmist’s straits.  These are real demons, literal agents of darkness.  Their job is to cause suffering, distress, anguish, etc.  If you have felt these attacks in your life then you and I can both identify strongly with this psalm.  It is written for us.

From the middle of this dark attack the writer calls on the name of YHVH.  It’s important to remember that this psalm begins with the writer acknowledging that God has heard him already.  There is a relationship previously established that the author is relying on.  It begins with faith borne from previous experience.  He fully expects YHVH to hear and answer because He has done so before.  He cries out, “YHVH, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful. The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. (Psalms 116:5-7 ESV)

God’s response is given in the immediate praise and thanksgiving of the psalmist.  I love most the line, “The Lord preserves the simple...”  That’s me exactly.  That word, “simple,” means “stupid,” and I take it personally.  When I do stupid things without thinking, or even when I think and do them anyway,  God, in His unbelievable grace, righteousness, and mercy, saves me.  There is no judgment here.  He doesn’t condemn me in spite of the fact that I deserve the consequences that are now bearing fruit.

I realize that God doesn’t save me from all the consequences of my stupidity, but I would be ignorant if I denied that He has saved me from MOST of them.  And the ones I’ve received have certainly been less than they would have been had I not called on Him.

The writer then calls on his soul to rest.  The distress is gone, his anxiety relieved.  The companies of death and Sheol have slunk away.  He reminds himself of how generous YHVH has been in spite of his stupid behavior.  My immediate connection is to Psalm 103:10, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”  God does not treat us as we deserve to be treated.  He doesn’t even treat us as we expect to be treated.  How different is this from the general concept of God held by unbelievers!  God is always the guy who is ready to pounce and condemn every slight, every deviance from His arbitrary, antiquated rules.  He is the author of pain and misery, of bigotry and prejudice.  This concept does not come from Scripture.  Here the picture is of a God whose  mercy stretches the imagination to the snapping point, a God who is actively looking for a reason to bless us in spite of ourselves and the damage we’ve done, and who finds that reason in His Son.  Because of what Jesus did, no evil entity can raise a finger and say that God isn’t being fair, nor that He isn’t serious about sin.

For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. (Psalms 116:8-9 ESV)

Here is the climax.  I began by declaring my love for YHVH, based on how anxious He is to hear my voice.  I cried out to Him from the midst of heavy fire from the agents of darkness, in spite of how unworthy I felt or how much I didn’t deserve His attention.  From His enormous heart of grace, righteousness, and mercy He delivered me from those evil creatures, dried the tears from my eyes, and set me back on the path next to Him.  Now I declare my new determination to walk in His presence, no longer as though I were dying, but with new and confident strides in “the land of the living.”

O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55 HCSB)

Never let your feelings of unworthiness delay your cry to the Lord for forgiveness, grace, and mercy.  Your sin does not break His heart as deeply as your hesitancy to turn away from it and return to His arms.  I cannot emphasize this in print the way it deserves, so I will try again:

Your sin does not break His heart as deeply as your hesitancy to turn away from it and return to His arms. 

Do not wait.  Call on him NOW.

Psalm 116

I’ve been making a lot of noise about the power of Psalm 116 over the Spirit of Death and his attacks on us in the form of depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, and despair.  It seemed like it might be a good idea to break it down and look at some of the “weapons” hidden in it.  So here goes.

I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalms 116:1-2 ESV)

Jon Courson  makes a beautiful point in his Application Commentary regarding the first words, “I love the Lord because...”  For us, he points out, there is always “because” connected with our love for God; because He loves us, because of what He’s done, because He hears and answers our cries to Him.  It is the latter that this psalmist draws from, and that rings so deep within me.  I am left speechless that this Creator cares about what makes me cry, laugh, what moves me, what I need, and even want.  It awes me into the kind of reverent silence usually reserved for cathedrals even though there is no cathedral in sight.  His name alone is cathedral enough.  I find that I must bow at the wonder of it.  That He deigns to grant me a reason to love Him is enough bring me to my knees.  I was too blind to see it for most of my life.

But there is no “because” connected with God’s love for me, other than simply “because I am.”  He created me solely as an object of His love.  Adam awoke in a state of pure intimacy with God the Father. What must that have been like – to have the Creator of the universe as much a part of his being as an arm or an eye?  As moved as I am through contemplation of His presence in and around me, I cannot begin to fathom the closeness that Adam and Eve experienced with Him.  I can therefore understand His love for Adam, even though, like me, Adam had done nothing to “earn” or “deserve” God’s love.  He simply woke up in it.  So did I one day far too late in life.  But unlike me, Adam had done nothing to hurt God either.  Not yet.

By hearing me God set a precedent.  Now I know He will hear me again.  And again.  And again.  The word, “inclined” in Hebrew has the visual imagery of “stretching out,” of “bending over deeply” in order to bring Himself close to me.  God goes out of His way to listen to my cry.  What happens next?  I love this part.  It takes me to Psalm 18:

In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. (Psalms 18:6-7 ESV)

When I cry out to God for help, especially when I’m under attack from the enemy, stuff happens in the realm of the spiritual universe.  I’m not sure exactly how dark angels and demons respond when the anger of God shakes their cosmos, but I can guess.  I know how I would.  The cry of His chosen people stirs the Papa Bear in God.  The imagery in Psalm 18 gets even more intense as the passage unfolds.  I can’t imagine many demons standing around waiting for an opportunity to badger me after that.  Not for awhile.

This response from God stirs a deep response within me.  I have experienced His response in my own life.  I’m going to call on Him again when I’m hurt, fearful, angry, confused, etc., because I know He hears.

Try it.  Repeat these two verses often over the next few days.  Pray them to God Himself.  Include Psalm 18:2-7 in your meditation.  Memorize and repeat it again and again as a counterattack to every enemy assault.  See if it doesn’t make a difference.

Becoming One (sermon notes 6-6-10)

In Matt’s sermon today (June 6) he made the point from John 15:19 that we are not of this world.  We are set apart.  The question he gave us to ask ourselves was,  “How am I set apart?” 

This has such special significance for us in Broken In.  It speaks of God’s ability to “work all things for good” to those of us who love Him (Romans 8:28).  For us, in our application as uniquely broken lives and hearts, it is the very thing that has broken us that sets us apart.  I am set apart to help and relate to all those who have been wounded as I have been wounded.  When they look to Him for healing, He brings me, because He has set me apart for them, to show them what He is able to do for them.  My pain gives them hope because they can see that what happened to me drove me to Him, and that I love Him and am loved by Him in spite of my circumstances.  If I can draw near to Him, then so can they.  They know that I know how it feels to be broken that way.  They will trust me because I have felt what they have felt.

So it is my wounds that have set me apart.  It is that which I have been delivered from that sets me apart.  For the man Christ healed by the pool of Bethesda, it was the bed that held him down for 38 years; the bed that he now carried with him – his “cross” – that set him apart.  That bed to which he had been “enslaved” was now his declaration of freedom in Christ.  For us, God can make those wounds that He has delivered us from “work for good” because we love Him.

Then Matt told the story of one man who got it.  This precious man had suffered a deep and wounding loss.  And because God’s people gathered around him at the time of his greatest pain he could say, “Through my loss I want to become a better friend.”  Because God’s people loved him, God will work this man’s pain for good in the lives of those he chooses as his “better friends.”  What would our church be like if we all purposely followed that same path?

Then came John 17:26.  Jesus had just prayed to His father His desire that we would be one with each other as He and His Father were one with each other (John 17:22).  Try to get some sense of how intense that is!  How intimate is Christ with His Father?  Can I be that intimate with every other believer who loves God as much as I do?

Yes.  Because Jesus prayed this for us.  And God answers the prayers of His Son.  But how is that accomplished?  How do we become so ONE with each other?

I saw the answer to this question in John 17:26.  Look at how Jesus ends His prayer:

I made your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known; so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I myself may be united with them." John 17:26 CJB)

Always watch for phrases like, “so that”  when you’re reading God’s Word.  Then balance what has just been said with what comes after.  We love each other perfectly when Christ’s love is perfectly within us, when we are united with Him.  Look at what comes before “so that”  in this passage.  “I made Your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known...”

This implies that there is something about knowing God’s name that puts His love within us and makes us ONE with Him and each other.  We have missed something huge here as modern Christians.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe. Proverbs 18:10 ESV)

God’s name is much more than just a label with which we identify Him as the subject of a sentence.  I strongly believe that God’s very presence dwells in the declaration of His name.  He responds to us when we call on His name.  It is so powerful and so important to Him in His relationship with us that He put it into His moral law:

You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 AMP)

It is essential to our salvation:

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' (Acts 2:21 ESV)

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12 ESV)

So it’s not just a label.  It goes much deeper.  It is hard for us to understand in our culture because names don’t have the significance they had in times past, especially for those in and before Christ’s time and in Hebrew culture.  But as hard as it is, it is a worthwhile endeavor.  The name of God is the stamp of His character.  It more than describes who He is, it IS who He is.  When we take on His name we take on all that He is, the fulness of His Being.  We need to pursue what this means.

Many people have testified to the change wrought in their lives when they began to study and learn the names of God.  I looked up a few books randomly on Amazon.com that had to do with God’s Names.  I have read none of these, but what was interesting to me were the customer reviews for them.  It is worthwhile seeing the effect that such study has had on people.  Here are a couple:

“Lord, I Want To Know You” by Kay Arthur

“I AM: 365 Names of God” John Paul Jackson

There are many more.  But much study can be done on line.  An outstanding place to start is the website, “Hebrew for Christians.”  This website contains audio files and much written material on the names of God.  There are many more and some are better than others.

My own experience has been one of a growing nearness to God and to His people.  My prayers have changed.  My devotional time has deepened.  When I repeat and meditate on His names people respond to me differently.  I am more aware of God’s presence, and that influences everything I do.

We are set apart in our deliverance.  We are set apart from the world, but not from each other.  Calling on God’s names draws us together and influences how we treat each other.  It is the most powerful and significant place to start in finding each other and becoming ONE.  Try it.  Taste and see that the Lord (YHVH) is good.

Baby Steps, Part 2

I am deeply indebted to a terrific website authored by a man named, John Parsons.  It’s called “Hebrew for Christians” and is full of incredible insights into God’s first earthly language.  In addition there are audio files of meditations, psalms, prayers, and instruction in Hebrew.  One of these that caught my eye in the theme of this Journal was this one:

The theme of the Jewish High Holidays is teshuvah, a word often translated as "repentance," though it's more accurately understood as turning back (shuv) to God. In Modern Hebrew teshuvah means an "answer" to a shelah, or a question.

God's love for us is the question, and our teshuvah – our turning of the heart toward Him – is the answer. Teshuvah is one of the great gifts God gives each of us – the ability to turn back to Him and seek healing for our brokenness.

This so harmonizes with our theme at Broken In, it rang through my brain like a bell choir.  Broken In also begins with a question.  Remember it?

“Do you want to be healed?”

That is God’s love for me right there.  His love begins with that question, inviting me into eternal life with Him. Our third baby step, “Teshuvah,” (Repentance) is my answer to Him.  I answer the invitation not with words, or even intentions, but with action.  I turn all of my attention back to Him.  I turn my back on the temptation that is in the middle of beguiling me; on that “urge” to fill the God-shaped hole inside with the enemy’s cheap and temporary counterfeit, my “fix.”  I turn.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist [take a firm stand against] the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7 ESV)

That verb of command, resist, is translated from a Greek word that means, “to stand against.”  It is the antonym of “agree with.”  After agreeing with God (confession), I demonstrate my disagreement with Satan (repentance).  Jesus’ model was:

Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'" (Matthew 4:10 ESV)

He commands the enemy to leave his presence by the authority of Scripture.  For us this involves both word and action.  So our third baby step has two parts: declare a stand against the enemy, and turn back toward God.  Repent.

Obedience is step four.  You can see how these steps actually bleed into each other.  There’s an element of submission in every one of them, and obedience as well.  That’s because it is submission and obedience that most directly effect restoring us to our original design.  Our natural human resistance to both is due to the absence of God in our fallen “souls.”  It naturally feels to us that putting God back in where He is designed to fit will be restrictive to our freedom.  Obeying is what slaves do.  Submitting is for losers.  This is why Christianity is such an ironic religion.  The last is first.  The first last.  To cherish one’s life above all else, is to lose it forever.  To give it up is to “find” it for all eternity.  To enslave one’s self to Christ is to be free.  To wrench one’s self free of God’s control is enslavement to death (like the lightbulb).

But turning back to God is like buying a new car.  The designer writes a manual to show you how the thing is supposed to work.  There is an advantage in cost to putting water in my gas tank instead of fuel.  It’s much more convenient to get (I have a hose at my house), and it’s considerably cheaper.  But the damage it will do is very difficult to reverse.

Return to the body.  It’s most urgent requirement to run correctly is air.  If I replace that air with the smoke from any number of plants, I will do damage that is very difficult to reverse.  It’s next greatest need is water and food.  Replace these with pseudo-satisfying substitutes such as sugar and junk foods, and it will do damage that is very difficult to reverse.

With my apologies to smokers, I must use this example because it is the easiest and most obvious one.  If you know me you know that there is absolutely no condemnation in my heart toward you.  The point to make, however, is simply that obeying God by not smoking is NOT a restriction of freedom.  It is an enhancement of it.  There is considerably more freedom in health than there is in infirmity.  And yet, to quit can be a painful process for most people.  But it is a healing pain as opposed to the “death-warning” pain of cancer, emphysema, heart attack, stroke, and other diseases.  There is in fact very little freedom to be found in denying my body its fair allotment of air.

This pattern is also true for the mind, the emotions, and the spirit.  We are designed to be nourished by certain things that increase the power of these elements within us.  Focusing the mind on things that God warns me against can do damage that is very difficult to reverse.  It is not a restriction of my freedom to avoid pornography.  It is an enhancement of it.  Memorize this: THERE IS NO TEMPTATION THAT FEELS AS GOOD AS FREEDOM FROM IT.  Make a bumper sticker out of that.  Put it on your refrigerator.  Stick it on every new carton of cigarettes.  Stick it over your computer screen.  Remember Bob the lightbulb.  Obedience to God means living according to my original design.  THAT is freedom.  THAT is how I repent, teshuva, and turn the other way.

The last baby step has two related parts: PRAISE, AND THANK.  Like the others, these are not arbitrary.  They are part of our original design.  One important thing to remember is that when we do these things, we make God’s day.  We actually bring Him joy.  Meditate on that.  It’s the only thing you can give the Guy who has everything.  The one thing He doesn’t have – until you give it – is your thanks.  Your praise.

Do not base your praise on feeling.  Instead  follow  your praise to the feeling.  The act of declaration comes first.  Peace and joy, even in the midst of misery, will follow.  The problem is, when you are in the midst of misery, it’s very hard to come up with words adequate to the task of Praising Him.  That’s why He gave us Psalms (and a lot of other stuff).  They are a source of words from the mouth of God Himself.

A good place to start is Psalm 103.  Another one is Psalm 51.  Some others are, 139, 142, 116, 23, 32, etc.  But after these, start fishing around on your own.  Pray these Psalms out loud to God as thought they are coming from your heart.  Memorize them using the technique you learned in Broken In.  That is exactly how you get them into your heart.  Repeat them often enough and they begin to counter the lies the enemy has foisted on you for decades.  They become part of your daily prayers.  I can tell you from the personal experience of spending a lifetime hating myself, believing that God’s love was not personal, believing that the world would be a better place without me, these words from God’s Word will change you life indelibly.  Why?

Because you were designed to Praise and Thank Yahveh.  It is the first essence of who you are.  It is the lightbulb safely fastened into the socket.  It is the breath, the water, and the food of FREEDOM.  I wish everyone could feel the freedom, the peace, and the joy that comes over me whenever I persist in Praise through the relentless attacks of the enemy.  But to experience it for yourself, you have to follow the steps.  And you have to do it in the middle of the storm when you least feel like it.  Find a partner in your small group who will agree to hold you to these steps.  Call each other often (or text, or email, or whatever) and lean on each other.  Stand together against evil.  Learn to forgive.

These steps, then, are the path to understanding forgiveness.  Follow them in this pattern:

Declare

Act

Praise

Repeat

And don’t wait to feel.