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Tag Archives: Good news

Affectionate Hearts

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Far too often we allow our hearts to live like Pharisees; content to put on a show of love and affection for God that does not really exist. We feel obligated to perform out of fear of criticism and rejection from others, or even from God. Many times we perform to gain the admiration and respect of God and others. The modern remedy says to “suck it up” and do it whether you “feel” like it or not. But God is not impressed with how well we can perform, and our performance will never change us from the outside-in. “Doing the right thing” will never change our heart.

Praising God with eloquent lips will never give us affectionate hearts. Rather, trusting God by faith for all that he is and all that he has done for us in Jesus Christ will give us an affection for him that cannot be contained. A heart of love will erupt in a life of joy and words of praise to our great and good God.

Adoring God Through Praising God (Part 2)

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Psalm 28:7 says, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart leaps with joy, and with my song I give thanks to him” [my translation]. Let’s look at the first part of the verse first; “The Lord is my strength and my shield, in him my heart trusts, and I am helped.” David’s satisfaction is in God and all that he is; in particular his heart trusts in the Lord for his strength and protection. Before becoming king of Israel David was pursued by king Saul. Saul wanted to take David’s life. David learned early on to trust God for his very survival.  As king of Israel, after his affair with Bathsheba, David’s house was divided. His life and his throne was constantly under attack from his enemies; even from his own son. David knows that he cannot rely on himself. He does not live his life in his own strength. He realizes that their is only one person who he can truly trust his life with; that person is God.

How does he rely on God for strength and protection? By faith, David says, “In [God] my heart trusts, and I am helped.” David totally and completely trusts God by faith. He doesn’t set his heart at rest on the size of his army or even on the loyalty of his friends. David’s heart is at rest, by faith, in the strength and protection that only God can give. He trusts that God is not only capable of keeping his promises of protection and blessing, but willing. So David’s soul rests in the promises of God.

What is the result of such faith in God? “My heart leaps with joy, and with my song I give thanks to him.” First, David’s heart “leaps for joy.” The Hebrew word here is “exult.” It paints a picture of a person jumping for joy in triumph. Because of David’s faith in God and his unfailing promises, his heart is jumping for joy. He is taking true delight in God. As his affection for God grows into a joy that is produced by faith, David is led to “bless” God in song. His heart is overjoyed in the satisfaction of trusting God by faith; this is worship. Such worship of God from the heart leads David to praise him with the words of his mouth.

Adoring God Through Praising God (Part 1)

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Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” David understands the connection between words of praise and a heart of worship. He does not simply pray that the words of his mouth be acceptable, but that the meditations of his heart as well.

How can David’s words of praise be acceptable to God? By God making the meditations of David’s heart acceptable. Notice how David refers to God in his heart. He calls God, “LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” The meditations of David’s heart are on God as his sovereign Lord who is the strong, stable and true redeemer of David’s life. As David meditates on God’s sovereignty, surety and kind compassion as redeemer his heart is welled up with affection for his God. With such a heart so lovingly devoted to God it would be impossible for David’s words not to be acceptable.

How God is Blessed

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .” – Eph 1:3

Three times in this short verse Paul uses some form of the Greek word εὐλογέω (yoo-log-eh’-o). This word is where we get our modern English word “eulogy.” When someone dies, it is usually the responsibility of a close relative or friend to give a eulogy at the funeral. They will say something nice about or speak well of the deceased. In a sense, they are “praising” the person as having lived a “good life” as a “good person.”

When the ancient authors of the New Testament wrote Greek they put the words that they wanted to emphasize or the words that were most important at the beginning of the sentence. While the English translators of the Bible translate the sentence correctly, the English sentences sometimes fail to communicate the importance that the original writers intended to convey. The first word Paul uses in the sentence is “Blessed” (εὐλογητός). He wants his readers to understand what is so significant about their God. Eὐλογητός is actually made up of two words “εὐ” (eu), which means “good”, and λόγος (logos), which means “word.” So this compound Greek word can literally be translated “to speak a good word” or more loosely, “to praise.”

Another word that we get from εὐλογέω is the English word “adorable.” I have often used this term many times to describe my own nieces and nephews. However, the original meaning of this word has changed over time. The word “adorable” comes from two words meaning “able to be adored.” We use the word “adore” a lot in modern English. I’ve heard young teenage girls say something like, “I simply adore him” when referring to their favorite pop star.  This is actually getting closer to the original meaning.  To “adore” something means “to have a strong affection for.” Little children are adorable (able to be adored) because often their innocence stirs our hearts with love and affection for them. Young teens “adore” their favorite pop stars. Their hearts prize and value them very highly and often more than anyone else. For us it is God who is to be adored, treasured, and worshiped above everything and everyone else.

The Word & Worship (Part 2)

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In Psalm 19:7-8a, David echoes the very same truths of the Apostle Paul. He says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.” God’s Word is perfect. It does not contain any errors or mistakes. Whenever it speaks it speaks the truth. God’s Word is trustworthy and reliable. We can put our trust in it and it will never steer us wrong. God’s Word is just. It is authoritative on everything is speaks about. It is fair and final in everything. Because of all this, God’s Word revives our soul and gives us strength. It opens our eyes to behold the glory of God and savor it. It gives us the grace and wisdom we so desperately need to live our daily life. It causes our hearts to rejoice in soul satisfying joy. Knowing and experiencing God comes through knowing His Word. David trusts the Lord because he trusts His Word.

As God’s Word becomes more and more a part of our life, the more we appreciate the words of Jonathan Edwards:

“There is a difference in believing that God is holy and gracious, and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of its sweetness.”

We don’t want to just know that God is lovely; we want to experience His loveliness. We don’t just want to know about God, but experience his him. In experiencing God we experience his love, and in return, we love him more. Love for God will overpower any desire for status or stuff that the world has to offer. We experience God’s overpowering love by faith as we renew our minds with the Word of God.

The Word & Worship (Part 1)

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I loved playing with train sets as a kid. I remember clearly one Christmas when I was 10 years old getting my first train set. When I took it down to the basement I opened the box to set it up, and much to my horror, I couldn’t find the instructions. Somehow this box had made it to the shelves of our local retail store without a set of instructions. My insides panicked. How was I going to play with this train set and enjoy all the excitement and pleasure from it if I didn’t know how to make it work?

Much like that train set, if we know that true worship is finding our satisfaction in God and we earnestly desire to find it in him but are never told how, we can easily be tempted to panic. Fortunately for us, Paul wrote for us Romans 12:2:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

There are actually two commands in this verse and we will take them one at a time. Paul’s first command is “Do not be conformed to this world.” This is a summation of the first part of this chapter. Conformity to the world is living like they live. Paul is not saying we can’t wear the same clothes or listen to the same music. He is saying we can’t find our ultimate joy and satisfaction in the things that the world does. The world says sex, money, popularity, position, friendships and recognition will make you happy. Paul tells us not to believe a word of it.

However, there is also a second command. Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” What is that? To be transformed is to move from pursuing ultimate joy in the world to pursuing ultimate joy in Christ. How do we do that? Through retraining our thinking with the word of God. Renewing our minds means strengthening our faith in God. Fortunately Paul shows us how in Romans 10:17: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Just like the world lies to you, the Word of God speaks the truth. We combat lies with God’s truth; His Word. Through the prayerful reading and meditation on God’s Word we renew our minds and transform our hearts.

In essence, we could say that Paul’s message is, “Do not be like this world that tries to find ultimate joy in status and stuff, but become like Christ by finding your ultimate satisfaction in all that God is for you in Christ. Discover who God is and what he has done through his Word.”

Continue with part 2 tomorrow . . .

Identity Crisis: Stuff (Part 3)

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The clearest example of how this is true (what you treasure and look to for satisfaction and joy will be what overtakes the affections of your heart) can be seen in Mark 10:17-27.

“As he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: “Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.”’ And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’ And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’”

Notice something here. The rich young ruler wants to know what he must “do” to inherit eternal life. He comes to Jesus with a question loaded with assumptions. He assumes that eternal life is attained by something he must do. Jesus immediately takes aim at his heart. He exposes the man’s self righteous, self-reliant heart using the law by quoting him the Ten Commandments. But the rich young ruler, blinded by his self-righteousness, defends his moral prowess by proudly declaring that he has perfectly kept the law.

Jesus is not fooled by the young man’s reply, he presses in further by challenging the young man to act on what he has professed to be true. In essence Jesus is saying to the man, “If you have kept all the commandments, you must have kept the first one that says not to have any other gods besides Yahweh. So then, since you do not love all the stuff in your life more than God, go sell it all and come follow the Son of Yahweh.” Of course we all know what happened next. The young man goes away very sad “for he had great possessions.” The truth is, this rich young ruler was putting his faith in himself (status) as being able to “do” something to inherit eternal life, and, as a result, his heart grew to treasure his “stuff.

Jesus summarizes this seen in Matthew 6:24 when he says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The young ruler didn’t just love his stuff more than God, he loved himself and his stuff so much that it made his love for God look like hatred. His treasure was his himself and his wealth; he valued and treasured them as more satisfying than anyone or anything else.

Identity Crisis: Stuff (Part 2)

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In Psalm 115:8 the psalmist says: “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.” We’ve all heard the phrase, “You are what you eat.” While I’m not sure whether or not that is true, the Bible clearly says, “You are what you worship.” Whatever your heart treasures the most will consume your thoughts and life. You will do everything and anything to have what you treasure. The psalmist is making the point that the idols cannot speak, hear, feel or walk. They are lifeless, foolish lumps or clay. All who trust in them will become like them, lifeless and foolish. This is an echo of Paul’s words in Romans 1:21-23:

“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

You are what you worship. Worshiping things that will never do what only God can do makes you foolish.  Jesus addresses the problem of worshiping stuff in Matthew 6:19-21. In his  sermon on the mount, Jesus says:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

At first glance we may think that Jesus has it backwards. Shouldn’t he say that where your heart is, there your treasure will be also? But Jesus does not make a mistake here. His point is exactly that, whatever you treasure, whatever you prize, whatever you value, whatever you believe will bring you ultimate satisfaction will inevitably rule the affections of your heart. Laying up treasures is equivalent to pursuing joy in material stuff. A person who pursues joy in God as his greatest treasure will have a heart that is ruled by Christ.

Continue with part 3 tomorrow . . .

Identity Crisis: Stuff (Part 1)

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Besides status, people also worship stuff. They treasure earthly possessions above all else, sincerely believing that things can bring joy. The writer of Psalm 115 continues in verses 2-9:

“Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.

They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.

They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat.

Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.

O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.”

Those who do not trust in God trust in idols. The picture of a modern day businessman, athlete, or scientist bowing down before a graven image can seem a little comical. Our world is becoming less and less “religious.” However, what is not so funny is seeing the businessman bow before the idol of wealth, the athlete bow before the idol of fame and glory, and the scientist bow before the idol of knowledge.

There is nothing inherently evil about wealth, popularity and knowledge. Abraham was so wealthy he had his own personal army, Solomon was not only the wisest, but riches and most famous man in the world in his day. However, it is the love and pursuit of these things as treasured possessions with the hope and belief that they will somehow produce satisfaction and joy that is sinful; it’s called idolatry. Treasuring anything other than God with your heart’s highest affection is idolatry.

Continue with part 2 on Monday . . .

Identity Crisis: Status (Part 2)

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The Corinthians were also guilty of pursuing their joy and soul satisfaction in status. They sought to “one-up” each other’s status by identifying themselves with different apostles; all for the purpose of elevating their own status.  Paul writes to them:

“When one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

The Corinthians are trying to attain a certain level of status for their own benefit. They have set themselves up as the god of their own world and seek for others to worship and admire them. But Paul says that in so doing they are being “merely human.” Because Paul and Apollos are simply servants, there is no status to be gained by identifying with either one of them; they are simply one’s who plant and water. Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything. So, in a twist of irony, the Corinthians were rightly identifying with Paul and Apollos; they were both nothing and so were the Corinthians! But they had missed the fact that the glory should have gone to God for doing that which only God can do. God is the only one who is anything. When our identity is in him, we have no need to seek satisfaction in a higher status; our identity can never be greater than it is in God.

In Psalm 115:1, the psalmist writes:

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

This is the heart cry of people who live by faith, trusting in Christ for all of the joy and satisfaction there is in God. “Do not give glory to us! Give glory to God!” They know that putting their trust in created things rather than the Creator can never bring true joy.

The antithesis of this is seen in the life of the disciples. In Luke 22:24-27 it says,

“A dispute also arose among [the disciples], as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And [Jesus] said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”

The disciples wanted to debate who was the greatest. They were jockeying for position and recognition. They desired status to be able to demand the respect of their fellow disciples. But Jesus shows them that the way up is down. The way to greatness is lowliness. Exaltation begins with self-humbling. True greatness begins with humble serving. Jesus didn’t just give this as some theoretical command, he made his life demonstrate and model it. Jesus was great because he was a servant; his greatness is found in his humility.

CyberChimps