Category: devotional

Leviticus 10:1-3 – 10:1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.
.

I’ve spent a good deal of time lately at a couple of different events as a worship leader instead of simply a “preacher.” During that time, I have noticed a particular attitude among many of God’s people regarding worship. Many groups will disagree with one another as to what is proper in a service of worship. Some will argue that we should lift our hands while others think it inappropriate. Some think we should sing hymns while others want modern songs. Some think we should be formal while others want things to be loose.

It does not disturb me that there are disagreements between people as to what things in worship are most appropriate. At least these people, in many cases, care about what we do in order to honor our God. What disturbs me is the attitude that some people display in which they say something like, “Well, it doesn’t really matter what we do as long as it’s for God.” Such an attitude is very—and I mean very—dangerous.

In Leviticus 10, we see two of the sons of the high priest get an idea for a new kind of worship. They had just seen God demonstrate his power by sending fire down to consume the ordination offering. Nadab and Abihu really get into the excitement of the service, and they offer an offering to God which God did not authorize. What was the result? Fire came from the Lord and killed them both instantly.

Now, I’m not one of those guys that says that since the Bible did not mention guitars or electricity we ought not use either. However, I am one who understands that the service of worship is a very serious, very sacred thing. We dare not play it off-the-cuff and make things up as we go along. We dare not assume that any old thing we want to offer God is OK. God cares what is offered to him, because he is holy and demands that we see him as holy.

How does this all apply? I can’t really say for you. Perhaps God wants you to read this little section and simply learn to take his worship seriously. God’s holiness is deadly, and we ought handle worship with care. Perhaps God wants you to rethink some of the practices that you bring into worship, questioning whether or not such practices are things that God wants you to do. For sure, God wants you to look at worship and to realize that God deeply cares about both our hearts and our actions when we approach him in worship.

Psalm 39:4-5

4 “O Lord, make me know my end
and what is the measure of my days;
let me know how fleeting I am!
5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
.

Above is a prayer that, I’m guessing, few of us have prayed anytime recently. However, if we would grasp the depth of this portion of the word of God, we might pray it a bit more often. The prayer is simple. David asks God to help him to realize how short his earthly life is. He wants God to remind him that he is on this earth for what seems like no time at all. And in that prayer, David demonstrates for us a focus that we often miss.

As I have been preaching through the Gospel According to John, I have found myself repeatedly returning to the theme of eternity. John points us toward eternal life, and we find joy in the concept of heaven awaiting us. However, if we truly get a glimpse of what it means for us to think eternally, we will live and think differently.

How long is your life going to be? Perhaps you will live to be only 25. Perhaps you will live to be 100. What is either of those numbers in the light of eternity? When we compare our lives on earth to the forever that we will exist, the time on earth is a mere blip on the screen, a mere breath, a mere blink of an eye. God did not create us so that we could focus on a mere 70 year period of time; he created us for eternity with him.

What is the difference between thinking in a this-worldly way and thinking in an eternal way? When you think in a this-worldly way, you get very caught up in such things as being comfortable, having people like you, climbing the corporate ladder, or taking vacations. When you think in an eternal way, you become more focused on sharing Jesus with those who do not know him, on honoring God in such a way that he will reward you eternally, on the fact that our sufferings last for but a moment in this life.

I’m not saying that we should never enjoy this life. I’m not arguing against taking a vacation, planning for the future, or making friends. But what I am calling us to is to have an attitude that always remembers that this life is very brief. This life will pass. What will remain is eternity. Let us learn to pray as David did in Psalm 39. Let us learn to ask God to help us to see just how short our time here on earth will be. Let us learn to live with our hearts on forever as we honor God in the here and now.

Exodus 20:18-20 – 18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”
.

Fearing God is a concept that has fallen out of common use in many of our churches. We have worked so hard to present to the world the loving nature and gracious ways of our God that we have robbed the church herself of the idea of trembling at his holiness. Many of our more modern worship songs talk of us boldly declaring our desire to see God, to touch him, to climb up in his lap and call him daddy, or to embrace him. Several modern songs are sung in worship, but could easily be used as popular love ballads if only we would replace “God” or “Jesus” with “baby.”

In contrast to our present condition is the word of God which draws for us a very different picture of one group of the people of God in his presence. Immediately after God first spoke the Ten Commandments to Moses in the hearing of the people who stood at the bottom of the mountain, the people of God reacted fearfully. They saw the lightning and smoke and heard the thunder. They heard the voice of God and felt the earth quake. And when the people of God heard the voice of God and saw a manifestation of the presence of God, there was no thought of glibly sliding into God’s presence for a handshake. Instead, the people trembled and begged that they not hear the voice of God again. It is not that they disliked God or wanted to turn away from him; rather, they feared the Lord, knowing that to be in the presence of such holiness and power is incredibly dangerous.

Neither God nor Moses condemned the people’s fear. Moses did not respond to the people by telling them not to be afraid or that God may sound tough but he’s really just a big teddy bear. Moses did not give the people a false sense of their own righteousness or offer them a cheap form of grace without repentance. Instead, Moses simply told the people that God was testing them, showing them his holiness to cause them to fear him. That fear, Moses indicated, would be good for the people because they would avoid sin so long as they truly feared God.

Now we sit, reading this ancient text through our modern lenses, and it seems incredibly strange to us to think of anyone fearing God. Most certainly a look at our society would not indicate that we as a people have any fear of God whatsoever. We often live lives that are oblivious to the presence of God for all but a few hours of the week (and those lives are lived by the churchy folks).

The question must be raised: Is there anything to fear about God? Let’s just ponder that for a moment. God is holy, absolutely perfect in every way. God is just, and cannot ignore our sin. God is infinitely powerful, the Creator of all the universe and of all people. And when you combine all those things, God’s holiness, justice, and power, we all should tremble. All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). All of us should be able to realize that we have earned for ourselves God’s wrath. So, yes, there is something to fear: the infinitely devastating wrath of an infinitely holy and just God.

Thanks be to God that what we should fear in him is exactly what he has provided for in his love. God sacrificed Jesus in our place, as our substitute, in order to justly satisfy his wrath toward our sin. All who come to God in repentance through faith in Jesus Christ have their sin completely forgiven.

So, let’s draw the final conclusions. If you stand before God and have not yet received his grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you have much to fear as you have God’s infinite wrath to fear. But if you have been forgiven by God, you need not fear his wrath because your sin has been forgiven. Yet, there is something to still be said for showing God the respect and awe due his name. Let us learn from the Israelites’ trembling before the mountain that our God is indeed a mighty and terrifying God even while remembering his great love and grace for all who come to know him through Jesus.

Psalm 19:12-14

12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
.

The verses leading up to this portion of Psalm 19 point out first that God’s glory can be glimpsed in all of creation, in all nature (in general revelation). Verses 7-11 declare the word of God, the Bible, to be God’s perfect tool for changing and perfecting our lives. As a good Southern Baptist, I love that section as it champions the infallibility, inerrancy, and sufficiency of God’s holy word. But, a proper question might be asked of any of us who uphold the Bible with such vigor: So what? What should we do now that we know God’s word to be fully inspired and perfect and life-changing? Should we sit around and pat ourselves on the back for this knowledge? Well, just look at what David asks to close the psalm after declaring the value and perfection of God’s word. And don’t just look, let David’s point of application of God’s word and revelation lead you to respond to God’s word in the same way.

“Who can discern his errors?” David asks who truly knows their own heart. Who truly knows all that is right or wrong in his or her own soul? The clearly understood answer is that no one knows their own heart, and no one can discern their errors or their right living apart from God’s holy word. Without the scriptures, you and I would be like a pagan who prays to any and all gods, never knowing when we have said, eaten, or walked on something that might earn for us the wrath of the unknown deity.

David’s realization that he does not even know, on his own, his own errors along with his understanding that the word of God is God’s perfect revelation of himself and his statutes leads David to pray what we read in these final verses. He first asks God to declare him innocent, forgive him for his hidden sin. David knows, when looking into the perfect word of God, that he has failed to live up to God’s commands in a thousand ways, some of which he knows and some of which he does not. So, he asks God to grand him grace, to count him as not guilty of those hidden flaws in his heart that not even David himself can discern. And, he has confidence, because of what God has revealed in his word, that God has made a way for him to be forgiven of all his sin.

David then asks God to protect him, to hold him back from presumptuous sin. He wants God to guard him from arrogantly crossing the line and committing great transgressions before God. He asks God to keep those kinds of sins from having dominion over him, because he knows that once you begin to sin boldly before God, such sins can conquer your life and enslave you to their destructive power. But, if God keeps him back through the guarding and protecting power of his holy word, David will be innocent of presumptuous, arrogant, bold, insolent sins. That is correct, God is telling us in his word that, while we may regularly need to be forgiven of things we did not see in our life until he reveals them to us, we can, as his children who obey his word, be free from boldly crossing the line and breaking his commandments. Christians, you are no longer slaves to sin.

And David closes with the beautiful prayer of verse 14. He asks that his words and his thoughts, the things he says and the things just deep within his mind, would be pleasing to God. He is asking that God would help him to please God in every aspect of life. And, let me simply point out that this desire can only be rightly prayed after someone truly grasps the glory of God’s revelation in his word—a word which Hebrews 4:12 tells us reveals the thoughts and intentions of men’s hearts.

For you and me the call here is simple. God’s word reveals to us his ways and his commands. It shows us that our hearts are very tricky, deceptive, and full of hidden faults. We need to ask God to forgive us of those, but also to show us, as we study his word, where those flaws are in order that we might repent of them. We also can ask God to aid us in staying away from presumptuous sins, those things which we know are clearly dishonoring to God. And, we have the confidence that by his power and through his holy word, we have the ability to resist such temptation. Then, as we have examined ourselves in the light of his word, we cry out with David, begging God to help our words and our thoughts be pleasing to him in every way.

Praise God that he has revealed his glory in the heavens. Never let such a gorgeous picture of the power of God pass you by. Never lose the wonder of what you can see of God’s glory in general revelation. But praise God even more for his written word, his special revelation. Even more wondrous than the sky and all of outer space, the Bible reveals to us who God is and what he commands of us. The Bible helps us to come to know God, to be forgiven by God, and to see our own hearts for the deceitful little things they are. And, it is through God’s graciously given word that we can seek forgiveness for hidden flaws, step back from intentional sin, and seek that all we think, say, and do be pleasing to the God who created us.

Love the God whose glory is glimpsed in the sky. Love the God whose ways are written in his word. Thank him for both forms of revealing himself to you. Follow him according to his word. Treasure his word. And seek to please him in all that you do.

Acts 2:23 – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
.

Do you want to ponder something that will absolutely stretch the limits of your understanding? Then think about this: God planned the sacrifice of Jesus. You say, “Of course he did.” But wait, think. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, while something we embrace as the source of our salvation, is also the cold-blooded murder of the Son of God. It is a crime committed against the infinitely holy God. It is the worst crime ever committed. The murder of Jesus is the greatest sin ever committed by man, and it was brought about by the plan—not only the foreknowledge, but the actual plan—of God.

How can it be that God would actually plan the acts of the lawless men who crucified the Son of God? My only answer is that I can’t explain it completely. However, there are some truths that we have to affirm from this text if we are to truly and rightly follow the scriptures.

First, let us affirm that God is not the author of sin. God did not sin in planning and bringing about the crucifixion of Jesus. Our Lord is holy. He does not force any person to sin. He does not, in one sense, want anyone to sin. So, we cannot say that the heart desire of God was for evil men to commit the most heinous act of human history.

Second, we have to affirm that the most heinous act of human history was not only foreseen by God, but was his plan. God planned and brought it to pass that Jesus would be crucified by evil men while not at the same time forcing men to sin. Our sovereign God allowed evil men to do what they would most naturally do by their own hearts’ desires, but never losing his own control. There was absolutely no chance involved. There was no chance that the Son of God would not be crucified by evil men. It was God’s plan. Yet those men did exactly what they wanted, and were most certainly accountable to God for their actions.

So, what do we conclude? We have to conclude that God is sovereign, and that man is free within God’s sovereignty. God is sovereign, meaning that God is in control and nothing, absolutely nothing, happens without his allowing it to occur and even planning for its occurrence. Nothing goes on over which God is not sovereign. At the same time, man is free within that sovereignty, meaning that man is free to act in how he desires under God’s sovereignty. No man will ever behave in a way that will contradict or even challenge the sovereignty of God.

What is the appropriate response? We should praise our God, honoring him for his sovereign power. Our Lord is in control. He is the Mighty One who is over all. We may be free, but not so free as to ever trump his control. And his control is not merely knowledge of what will happen; God plans and rules over everything. Of course, this leads us to say that we cannot understand why God does all that he does, but that should not be a surprise. On the other hand, there is great comfort and joy in knowing that our lives are under the control of our great and wonderful God who came to earth and sacrificed himself for our sin.

Genesis 3:4-5 – 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
.

One of the Devil’s most crafty arguments is the one that he used in the very beginning. When Adam and Eve fell, they fell from grace by falling for a clever deception that still catches us today.

Take a look at the verses above. The woman was tricked into thinking two things, both of which get us today. First, the serpent told her that, no matter what consequences God had threatened for her actions, they would surely not happen to her. She would not surely die. If the woman bought into that statement, she would have to assume that God was a liar, or that he was incapable of imposing the threatened punishment for defying his commands.

The other thing the woman believed is that God was not offering her the best. The serpent convinced the woman that God was holding out on her. Though she had knowledge of good already, she was missing out by not knowing about evil. The woman assumed that the higher good would not be for her to obey God, but for her to elevate her own intellect. And thus the human race was plunged into pain, sickness, suffering, murder, rape, racism, and all the rest of the greatest evils of the world.

When you think of the fall, recognize that you are still tempted today like the woman was years ago. When you sin, what are you thinking? You have to be thinking both that you will face no consequences for the wrong you do and that what you want to do is somehow better than what God offers you. Both are lies. Both are what the devil used in the garden. And, if we will learn to identify these evil thoughts that we get in our hearts as we make the decision whether or not to sin, perhaps we will see that we are in danger of falling into the same old destructive trap.

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
.

It’s a new year, and with a new year comes a fresh look into the word of God. And though many of the passages that I read this morning captured my attention and imagination, it seems only fitting that I take a moment to ponder the depth and beauty of the very first verse in all of the scriptures.

The truth is, if Genesis 1:1 is true, everything that the Bible has to say to us makes perfect sense. If Genesis 1:1 is not true, then everything that the Bible says is meaningless. This verse, though perhaps not the most important of all (hard to say which verse of infinite importance is more infinitely important than another), Genesis 1:1 is a verse that is a foundational pillar of everything we believe. This verse establishes for us many major truths; among these would be God’s priority, his right of ownership, and his power.

First, ponder with me for a moment the fact that Genesis 1:1 introduces to us God’s priority. God exists prior to the very beginning. If God created the universe in the beginning,, the only logical conclusion that we can come to is that God existed before the beginning. God has no beginning. He eternally exists. This is why, when giving us his name in Exodus 3:14, he calls himself “I Am.” Thus, Genesis 1:1 is crucial to our establishing an understanding of our God as the always-present, ever-existing, eternal Lord of all. Nothing and no one is before him. No one can say to God, “Hey, I was here first.” God is God, and he is God for all eternity past, present, and future.

Second, ponder with me God’s right of ownership. If God created everything, he holds in himself the right of ownership of everything. IF you or I fashion something, taking materials that we buy with our hard-earned money, and shaping them into a product of some worth, we assume that we own said product. We do not think, not even for a minute, that the product has right over us to tell us how it should be used. IF this is true in small when thinking of you, me, and our craftsmanship, how much more true is it in large when thinking of God who created the universe out of nothing. God did not rely on another for the building materials. Nothing existed other than God at the point of creation. God created a universe by his own power, by his own will, and for his own glory. As the Creator of all, God holds right of ownership over all the universe. No one and nothing in the universe has the right to say to God that he does not have full right of ownership over him, her, or it. If you were created by God, and you were, you are his property. He has the right to do with you as pleases him.

Third, ponder with me the power of God as displayed in creation. I made reference, earlier, to making something as a craftsman. That, of course, is a ludicrous illustration, as I have absolutely no talent for fashioning anything into anything else. I’m barely qualified to make snakes out of Play-dough. I certainly do not have the power to sculpt a living human from the dirt. Nor do I have the power to call a massive, flaming star into existence with my words. God’s creation of everything out of nothing should convince us that his power is infinite. He can do anything he wants. All the miracles, all the amazing things in the Bible, are clearly all true, because God has the power to do anything he wants.

What do these ponderings cause in us? I pray that they cause us to worship our God. He eternally exists. He is the owner of everything, including us. He has the right to do with us as he pleases. He has the power to accomplish anything he desires. He is an amazing God. He is worthy of our worship. He is worthy of our lives. Praise be to our God, the Creator of all!