Tag: redemption

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God’s Poem

Daily Reading

Ephesians 1-3

Daily Thought

I was a kid taking guitar lessons, and Jack was my teacher. Jack was a master on the classical guitar. Torroba’s Sonatina, Etude #5 by Villa-Lobos, Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie, I practiced and I played as best I could. Then I would hand the guitar to my teacher. Jack would perform the same music–full of plunks and scratches when I played–in his hands something beautiful, heavenly. The guitar was in the hands of the master now.

Paul, in verse 10 of Ephesians 2, calls us God’s workmanship, which is in the Greek, poiema. You can hear our English word, poem. God the poet, and “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). In the hands of the Master now.

Notice it does not say “you” or “I,” but “we,” we together, and not merely by being human, it is the work of Jesus Christ in us. We must be placed in the hands of the Master, and then, we together, the body of Christ, his church, become something beautiful, heavenly, the majesty of God. Every artist has their masterpiece, and God is an artist, and we are his poem, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Daily Prayer

Father in heaven, You are wonderful. Truly wonderful. What a world. What a creation. The heavens, the oceans, the mountains. Fabulous. And me, too. Fearfully and wonderfully made in Your image.

As I return myself to Your hands, making You master of my life, may I respond to Your leading and reflect Your wisdom and truth and love. Mold me again into a vessel for Your glory. Make my life count because it is lived for You.

Amen

Daily Question

How has God made you better?

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Take the Deal!

Daily Reading

2Corinthians 5-9

Daily Thought

Paul’s life is shaped by his awareness that this is but his first, his earthly life, and there is eternity to come, “for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2Corinthians 5:1). “You only live once” has been oft said and never true. We are not long for this world is Paul’s point, so don’t settle in. I resonate with the words of Paul, more in my sixties than when I was sixteen, and look forward to eternity, “for in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2Corinthians 5:2), and there is nothing wrong with that. 

But not so fast, there is work to be done.

“We are ambassadors for Christ,” says Paul, “God making his appeal through us on behalf of Christ’ (2Corinthians 5:20). An ambassador is a citizen of one kingdom living in another, representing his home country to a foreign land. Jesus is King and eternity is our home, but there are many who still make this world their home and do not know there is more yet to come.

There is good news and bad news, however. Bad news first. Between now and eternity stands judgment–“we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2Corinthians 5:10), and that is bad news because none of us have been all that good–not good enough for a heavenly dwelling. Now, the good news, and as God’s ambassadors, we bring it. For our sake God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2Corinthians 5:21). That is the Gospel, God’s offer to anyone who will receive this gift: Jesus gets your sin and you get his righteousness, and it is in his righteousness you stand before the judgment seat of God. It is an incredible offer, profoundly unfair, and you win. 

Take the deal!

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You are holy and good. Your Son has taken the penalty of death for my sin and given me the reward of life through his righteousness. Thank You so much!

May I rid myself of the desires, the thoughts, the habits of old. May I put them to death. Help me kill them. I don’t want to think and act the way I used to, but rather, to live the life You created me to live, a life of service and love, of goodness and peace, that gives You glory and pleasure. Make me one who gives those on earth a taste of heaven.

Amen

Daily Question

Why can’t we be good enough for heaven on our own?

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Our Redeeming God

Daily Reading

2Chronicles 2-5

Daily Thought

King David was a man after God’s heart, but that does not mean he was without sin. “I have sinned greatly” (2Samuel 24:10) was David’s confession to God after commanding a census. By God’s will David was chosen king, and by God’s power David attained the throne, but when he counted his people he was counting his soldiers, relying on his own strength to rule his kingdom. Repenting of this sin, David purchased property on Mount Moriah where he built an alter to worship the Lord.

A greater sin yet was David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. Again, David repented, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:3-4). There were consequences, but this was true repentance and out of this sin, David married Bathsheba, and later they had a child, naming him Solomon (2Samuel 12:24).

David’s sins came with great cost, but even in the darkest of sin shines the power of God’s redemption–“where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). From the remnants of sin, God produced a man, Solomon, and a mountain, Mount Moriah, and “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah” (2Chronicles 3:1).

This does not justify sin but displays the power of grace and reminds me to trust God’s salvation. Satan would have me deflated by failure, but I am made large through God’s salvation. I will, therefore, trust Christ’s cross and press on confidently.

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.” ~Psalm 51:12-13

Daily Prayer

Holy God, how great a salvation. As your servant King David asked, “O Lord, who am I that You care for me,” I am amazed by Your grace, that You turn your attention toward me. I keep turning my attention away, yet You look upon me and care about me and restore me.

God, may my focus never waver. May I dwell on my sins less and your redemption more. Keep me from being distracted. May I look to You first, may I seek Your kingdom, your goodness, You always.

Amen

Daily Question

What has more power over your life, your own sins or God’s grace?

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Our Redeemer

Daily Reading

1Chronicles 6

Daily Thought

Our God is a redeemer. He takes what is bad and brings good, out of evil he delivers righteousness, and in this case, turns rebellion into song. 

The genealogy of Israel continues in 1Chronicles 6, a long list of names, and beginning at verse 31 is found “the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord” (v 31). It is easy to read the first name and skim the rest, but there are stories of God found in these names. The first of these worship leaders mentioned is Heman the Singer (v 33) and if you trace deep in his genealogy you find a man named Korah. It’s somewhat a surprise because Korah had staged a rebellion against Moses and Aaron as they led the Hebrew people toward the Promised Land. 

Korah gathered 250 leaders and challenged Moses’s right to lead the people of Israel, “Is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, that you must also make yourself a prince over us?” (Numbers 16:13). Long story short, since God was the one who made Moses prince over them, Korah was really questioning God, not Moses, so “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods” (Numbers 16:32). Apparently, however, not all Korah’s household, because “the sons of Korah did not die” (Numbers 26:11). They did not stand with their father so they did not belong to Korah’s rebellion. Character is not determined by birth, it is decided in life, and Korah’s sons made good choices and followed God when their father did not.

Among the 150 psalms recorded in the book of Psalms, eleven are written by “the sons of Korah” (Psalm 42, 44-49, 84, 85, 87, 88).

For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness. ~Psalm 84:10, a Psalm of the Sons of Korah

They became leaders of worship rather than rebellion. “These are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord” (1Chronicles 6:31).

Daily Prayer

Heavenly Father, You seek to save, You delight in redemption, You loved me before I loved You. I was rebellious against my own Creator, wanting to make my own choices, take charge of my own life, and before I even changed, Your Son had already died for my sins. Your irresistible grace saved me. Thank You.

This world offers many passing pleasures, but there is a joy that is forever, surpassing all that the world offers. It is to be Your child, to know my God, to follow my Lord and Savior. You are my God and I delight in You.

Amen

Daily Question

When has your choice to follow God gone against the crowd around you?

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Forewarned

Daily Reading

Revelation 4-8

Daily Thought

The reign of Rome was trying times for the persecuted churches, and lest they wonder where is God and what is he doing, the apostle John is given a “revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1). John enters “a door standing open in heaven” (Revelation 4:1) to discover a throne cascading “flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God” (Revelation 4:5). Upon the throne sits God, holding a scroll “sealed with seven seals” (Revelation 5:1), each unfolding a certain future, “what must take place after this” (Revelation 4:1), and Jesus alone, at the same time the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God, is able to open the scroll and usher forward what is to come.

Enter now the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, the white horse of conquest leading the bright red of war, the black of famine, and the pale horse of death. The imagery is wild and wonderful, promising both wrath and redemption; and redemption arrives first. Twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel and “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” stand before the throne, clothed in white, and cry out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10). Then follows wrath upon the rest, a proper wrath from a righteous God upon a rebellious humanity. Seven angels blow seven trumpets of destruction, and this book of Revelation is a forewarning, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 8:13).

There is a Latin proverb, Praemonitus praemunitus, and it means “to be forewarned is to be forearmed,” but to be armed against the coming wrath of a righteous God is not to stand against the Lion of Judah and prepare for battle, but to kneel before the Lamb of God and prepare for peace.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. ~Jude 24-25

Daily Prayer

Jesus, Almighty God, Savior and Lord, conquering Lion, redeeming Lamb, you are worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! Open my eyes to see Your wonder. I kneel before You, and in Your amazing grace, You lift me up. You give me what I need to live confidently now, preparing for eternity. I know You hold the future, so I know the future holds righteousness and peace for those who belong to You.

Thank You, Jesus.

Amen

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Hope

Daily Reading

Job 17-20

Daily Thought

T.S. Eliot wrote,

The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Two kinds of fire. One consuming. We name it “despair.” This fire burns out into emptiness. Another fire purifies. This is “hope.” This fire burns on, it burns eternal. We have a memory of eternity. God put it in our hearts, but it was buried deep by sin. It is a hope now hidden. We live today in the tangible moment, consumed in pleasure and power and passion. But moments don’t last.

These are the two fires: one momentary, consuming. The other eternal, unseen.

Job discovered that hope is a gift found in suffering. Wrestling with despair, he suddenly explodes, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth!!” (Job 19:25). He had opened the gift. In the middle of a fire that was consuming him, he found the fire that saves.

T.S. Eliot’s epitaph, his own words, “In my beginning is my end. …In my end is my beginning.” Apart from Jesus, all of life points at an ending. A bad one, actually. Despair. Open the gift of salvation, the end is no longer ominous, but the beginning of eternity. “My redeemer lives! I know it!!”

Daily Prayer

My Father, my Creator, my Sustainer, my Ever-Present Help in Time of Trouble, my Joy, my Life, my Passion, my Love. May the desire for you consume me.

I seek first your kingdom, your way of life, your righteousness. I have confidence that everything else is best placed in your hands.

Thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, my Savior, my Hope.

Amen

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Redemption

Daily Reading

2Chronicles 2-5

Daily Thought

King David was a man after God’s heart, but that does not mean he did not sin. “I have sinned greatly” (2Samuel 24:10), was David’s confession to his God after commanding a census. By God’s will David was chosen king, and by God’s power David attained the throne, but when he counted his people he was counting his soldiers, relying on his own strength to rule his kingdom. Repenting of this sin, David purchased property on Mount Moriah where he built an alter to worship the Lord. 

A greater sin yet was David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband, Uriah. Out of this sin, David married Bathsheba, and later they had a child, naming him Solomon (2Samuel 12:24).

David’s sins came with great cost, but even in the darkest of sin shines the power of God’s redemption. “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). From the depths of sin, God produced a man and a mountain, and “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah” (2Chronicles 3:1). This does not justify sin but displays grace and reminds us to trust God’s salvation. Satan would have us deflated by failure, but we are made large through salvation and must press on confidently, because we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37).

Daily Prayer

Holy God, how great a salvation. As your servant King David asked, “O LORD, who am I that You care for me,” I am amazed by Your grace, that You turn your attention toward me. I keep turning my attention away, yet You look upon me and care about me and restore me.

God, may my focus never waver. Keep me from being distracted by things. May I look to You first, may I seek Your kingdom, your goodness, You always.

Amen

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The List

Daily Reading

Ruth 1-4

Daily Thought

Genesis 19 reveals the bawdy beginnings of the nation of Moab, “the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day” (Genesis 19:36-37). The Moabites became an enemy of Israel and to bring God’s curse against Israel (Numbers 22:6), but instead were themselves cursed by God, “No Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, …because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you” (Deuteronomy 23:3-4). Yet, God delights in redemption and, thus, the story of Ruth is in God’s Word. Ruth is a Moabite. And Ruth is faithful to God and displays her faithfulness in her most memorable words to her mother-in-law, Naomi, “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). People follow God when they find someone who follows God. Be that someone.

Central to this story is a person called a kinsman-redeemer. In ancient Israel, the brother of a man who dies childless would marry the widow left behind and father a son to carry on the dead man’s name and care for his family (Deuteronomy 25:5-9). The kinsman-redeemer in our story, however, refused to fulfill his role, because he did not want to put his own inheritance at risk. He wanted to keep it for himself and the children who would take his name, not his brother’s. His name was important to him.

There is a list of names found in Matthew 1, a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. “The List” chronicles the family tree of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus. From the book of Ruth are five people whose names are included in “The List,” Ruth, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and David. One guy, however, did not make “The List.” The would-be kinsman-redeemer chose, rather, to cling to his wealth, and thus his wealth consumed him. We do not even learn his name.

Daily Prayer

Our God, You are All in All. Your Name, “I Am That I Am,” proclaims who You are. You are Creator, the First and the Last. Simply put, there is nothing more important, more valuable than knowing You. You are most worthy of my attention and praise.

God, my desire is to stay focused on You, to hold loosely all things except You, to seek first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness, to leave my name in Your hands and to hold onto Your Name.

Amen