A Lesson on the Fear of the LORD from Psalm 34:11-16

"Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 
Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. 
The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."  (Psalm 34:11-16)

In this Psalm, David notes the difference between those who fear the LORD and those who do not. Where the one is righteous, the other is evil.  One will see good in his days, the other will see evil in his days. One will be redeemed into eternal life, the other will be slayed by evil and given over to condemnation.  The truth of sowing and reaping is both a natural and supernatural law that is evident in God's dealing with the righteous and wicked.  Those who sow into good will reap good, and those who sow into evil will reap evil.  You may wonder why bad things happen to good people if this is true. I can't answer that now, but I would warn you not to see good and evil through human eyes. Try to understand that His knowledge of good and evil reach far beyond our limited understanding. We base our understanding of good and evil on what we believe to be naturally pleasing. To the unrefined mind, our understanding of good and evil has nothing to do with eternity or supernatural things. Our views are based on our senses.  Remember that Eve judged the fruit from the tree to be good, but in reality, it was bad to the core, and our fallen state is the result of her false judgment. In this fallen state, we are all subjected to tragedy as well as celebrations. That's a part of life, but there is a way for those who fear God that stands above the rest.

David's lesson on the fear of the LORD begins with a question about the man who "desires life and loves many days, that he may see good."  Why does David begin his lesson with a question? Because this is the man who should fear the LORD.  David is saying, "if you desire to be this man, you will choose to fear the LORD and heed what I am saying to you. If you desire otherwise, turn your eyes from Him, and He will set your face against you."

The man who would fear the LORD must "keep his tongue from evil, his lips from speaking deceit, depart from evil, do good, and seek and pursue peace." This lesson looks like a list of rules much like the law of Moses.  But what does this list have to do with fearing God?  Everything.  The fear of the LORD is a matter of viewing Him in your heart.  When you love Him in reverence and awe, the things that matter to His heart are important to yours. Then, you seek to learn to discern the things that God loves and the things that He hates, and you are able to view your actions how He views them.  He loves you. He loves us all as His creation, as a people He created for Himself. But he hates sin, evil, and wickedness.  No matter how much we love Him, we practice such things when we don't fear Him.  

When asked what are the greatest commandments, Jesus responds: "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 22:37-40).   One of the purposes of the Law was to teach people to walk in a holy fear of God. When you understand the place of man in light of who God is, it's not a difficult thing to fear Him, and the Law has been a constant reminder to Israel that God is unlike them and that He deserves reverence.  

Jesus says the second commandment is like the first. How can this be if one deals with God and the other deals with man? The answer is the very reason for Jesus' sacrifice.  God loves man.  That's the reason why we can't profess to love Him and not truly love our neighbor.  It's why David says to keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking deceit.  There is always a target for bad talk.  While it's okay to speak against a sin, it's not okay to speak evil against the person. God's heart is towards that person. If we honestly love God as we are commanded to do, evil speaking and deceit will be far from our lips. We would seek to do good and not evil to our neighbors, and we would pursue peace with them always.  Why? Because if we seek to slander and do evil to our neighbors, we have set ourselves against a person who God loves.  We have turned against God's heart for that person, and we are speaking death over someone who God desires to see live.  When we don't desire good for one another, we are making ourselves an enemy against God, because He desires good for us all. Our ability to receive this good is based on our righteousness in Christ which is linked to fearing God.  We cannot truly love Him without having a holy fear of Him. Both are necessary to walk out the love He desires.  The wrath of God is a fearful thing, and He will judge rightfully all things on the earth.  Evil will be dealt evil, and good will be dealt good. It's happening daily on the earth, and it will happen in eternity according to the law of sowing and reaping.  

Fear God: depart from evil, do good, and pursue peace.  The rest of the Psalm notes the promises to the righteous who fear the LORD. His eyes will ever be on them, to deliver them, to save them, and to redeem their souls.  It is a good thing to fear God as He is worthy of our reverence and respect.  It is also a blessed thing for He promises life and blessings to those who fear Him. 

He Is Faithful to My Heart Part 2 - Uprooting Offense

 The Jewish Fall Feasts were celebrated a month ago.  I’m growing in appreciation for these wonderful celebrations.  There is such a rich revelation of Jesus to be found within these feasts, and I believe the Body of Christ needs to give more attention to them.  But what does that have to do with His faithfulness to my heart (or yours for that matter)? Well, within the line up of the Fall Feasts is Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement.  According to the Old Testament law, once a year, the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the whole nation of Israel. While we know that Jesus is our atonement for eternity, there is a hidden gem in the way Jews prepare for this wonderful day.  From Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) until the end of Yom Kippur are the ten Days of Awe (or the High Holy Days). During this period, observing Jews examine themselves and take the time to repent to God and repent to one another to ensure that their names are written in the Book of Life. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have an assurance of our eternal salvation and can view Yom Kippur as a time to express our gratitude to God for the blood of Christ that has redeemed us.  While I think it is fairly common for us to confess our sins and repent to God, I don’t think we repent to each other enough for the hurts and offenses we’ve caused.

It is so important for us to remember the atoning sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. Without His sacrifice, we would not be able to commune with God.  When we ask forgiveness of God, we know He gives it to us because Jesus died for our sins. However, after reciting the model prayer, Jesus offers a nugget of truth found within the prayer, saying: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV). God extends so much grace to us with the desire of drawing us into relationship with Him and others through repentance and love.  Offense is a deadly poison that kills the body as well as the soul.  Offense has been the reason for the collapse of many great ministries and the fall of many great men.  The bible warns against allowing offense and bitterness to grow time and time again. It is so important that we draw to Him and one another in love, suffering the heartache that comes with relationships and forgiving when necessary. We need not only be willing to forgive, but our willingness must translate into action whether the other person is ready to hear and receive our pardon or not. The same goes for repentance. We need to have a repentant heart towards the LORD and each other when we sin. I also believe, at times, the offended needs to repent to the offender and God for allowing hurt to grow into bitterness and hate. Too often, we can only see the hurt inflicted on us and we blind ourselves to the hurt we inflict on others when operating with a bitter heart. But praise God! He is faithful to instruct us in the art of repenting and forgiving. He is faithful in highlighting the offenses within our hearts and drawing them out through forgiveness. He is faithful to shine His light of love upon our hearts, uprooting the darkness of offense and making us more like Him through humility in the process. When the offenses are highlighted and He prompts us to repent and forgive, we must act according to His direction. It will always be humbling, but it is very necessary. When we confess our sins to one another, our hearts are exposed, but it’s important that we do not allow offense to dwell within us.  He is faithful to reveal it, and we must be faithful to act on this revelation.  If we fail in the moment of prompting, there is an appointed time once a year for us to clean our hearts. Then we are able to enter into a new year free of the weight of offense and covered by the atoning blood of the Lamb.

He Is Faithful to My Heart Part 1 - Pain In Sanctification

I am consistently amazed at the LORD’s faithfulness. He is unwavering and uncompromising in sanctifying our hearts unto Him. Yeshua seeks a bride who is pure and spotless, and He will go at great lengths to pursue and win her to Himself. It is His constancy in love and commitment to the covenant He has made in His name that makes it so.

Oftentimes, the occurrences He allows in order to eternally secure our love cause heartbreak and sorrow for us. With understanding of these times, David writes: “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness, you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:75 NKJV). Other times, they force us to take a deep look at the blackness in our own souls. It isn’t pleasant, but it’s necessary. During these times, we can earnestly cry out: “I am dark, but lovely” (Song of Solomon 1:5). It is His very love that leads us to these places of introspection. The ultimate goal: to uproot the darkness that light may shine freely through us, that love may dwell within us, and that His glory may become ours. We must behold Him, and in the beholding, we are always faced with a decision: to continue beholding and allow the painful dying of our flesh to take place, or to turn away and try our hand at sanctifying ourselves. We will always fail at sanctifying ourselves, but when the beholding becomes too painful, turning away seems the best choice. However, if we wait patiently and endure the pain, we will be made a little more humble, a little more holy, a little more like the Love we seek. He enables us to endure this pain as the One who endured the greatest pain in death on the tree. He knows what we are able to bear and when we are able to bear it.

We need to seek the understanding of this mystery. With worldly eyes, we associate pain with death, but in His kingdom, pain leads to life. It is why, as he laments, Jeremiah is able to declare: “Great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:23). God is faithful to do what it takes to give us eternal life. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” In friendship, God will always speak truth. It will not always be easy to swallow, but He will always speak it in love and as an act of faithfulness to us that we might endure until the end. Without this type of faithfulness, though it may hurt, we would quickly be swept away by the fads of this world.

Abba is preparing a pure and spotless Bride for His Son and a holy people with whom He can dwell. Sanctification results in holiness. But there is often sorrow in sanctification. It means you let go of your way and the ways of the world to be set apart unto God. It means you die to pride, selfishness, personal gain, and other things the world totes as praiseworthy. It means you look foolish to those whom you may esteem. But what does it matter if our love for God is at stake? The truth is to all of us it means everything and nothing. We must die to everything we hold dear, and it hurts, but compared to Jesus and His sacrifice for us, it’s nothing. In Romans 8:18, Paul writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” I wholeheartedly agree. This verse shines the light of truth on our sufferings. They are nothing compared to the gift of eternity with God, and yet they are necessary to attain that gift He so faithfully gives. It is my heart to dwell with Him eternally in love and in truth, and I know, in the midst of the heartache, He is being faithful to my heart.

Be Reconciled To God

Paul writes:
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” – 2 Corinthians 5:19,20

I join Paul in this plea: be reconciled to God. What does this look like? Receive His heart for you. Accept His love for you. Believe that you are lovable and that God has given Himself to loving you. Acknowledge that you are a sinner and that you cannot do any good work without Christ. Gain understanding, knowledge, and revelation from God. Assume your true identity from Him. Believe that your sins have been forgiven and covered by the blood of Christ. This last one might be a bit confusing for some, but it takes Holy Spirit and a renewing of the mind to fully understand what it means to be covered by the blood of Christ.
When sin first entered the world, God required a blood sacrifice to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. Nothing has changed since then. This concept may seem foreign to many in the Western World, but the most obvious form in our societies is cutting by those who are depressed. In other cultures, animal, and sometimes human, sacrifices still persist. God’s plan has always been to provide the sacrifice for us. He provided a ram for Abraham when he was on the mountain with Isaac, and He provided a lamb for us in the person of Christ. Jesus took the wrath of God upon Himself, and in doing so, received the due penalty for the sins of every person to ever walk the earth. His death was the most brutal occurrence in all of history. He was completely innocent, and, yet, He did not utter one word of protest. Why? Because His love for you is greater than any pain that He could ever experience. It’s so much greater; many in the world will never come close to fathoming it. So many of us choose a lesser, fleshly love of the world instead of the true love that permeates the soul and restores a person to holiness. Why would the Father give His Son to be brutalized by the world? Because He loves us. The Father and the Son are One with each other and Holy Spirit. This is not something easily grasped, and a simplified way to understand it is that you yourself are soul, body, and spirit knitted into one being. God is eternal, and the relationship He has within His being is something we will spend eternity growing in the knowledge of. It’s pure beauty and true love. All Three believed it to be necessary to draw us into the center of Their heart that we might be reconciled to God and know them intricately and fully. It’s the Triune Heart that beckons us into reconciliation and draws us into love. The Father laid the greatest rescue plan of all time, the Son is the hero in this saga of time, and Holy Spirit is the guide leading us through the adventure of life into eternity. And who are we? Quite simply, we’re the damsel in distress, except many are unaware of the distress we are really in. We’ve tried on the cloak of self-sufficiency, not knowing that it’s as chic as the emperor’s new clothes. We fear being exposed, and we live every day of our lives wrapped in unveiled treachery. We betray God and each other. Self-sufficiency leads to destruction. It’s a branch of pride. Only those who seek God for their security receive life. You are nothing without Him.
He stands before you. Fiery eyes lit with passion; pierced hands outstretched. His face glows with love. What will you do? Will you enter His embrace and receive the love He longs for you to know? You won’t find it among your friends or your family. Not the love He gives. His love takes your burdens and gives you peace. His love shares in your sorrows and brings you unending joy. His love is a fortress around you and a light in dark places. His love is an all-consuming fire. His love never fails. Will you accept the life He so freely gives you? It costs nothing. It’s free. His desire to be reconciled to you is much greater than any desire that drives you. Your need to be reconciled to Him is greater than any need you’ll ever encounter in the world, whether you know it or not. Be reconciled to God. In His arms, you’ll find life eternal.

Life In Death

“Then Jesus said to the disciples: ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever desires to lose his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” – Matthew 16:24-26

There is true life in death. Jesus leads the way to eternal life. It is a hard thing for many to understand, even those who profess to live in the Name of Christ. This concept is profound. It’s beyond our human understanding. It is treasure hidden in the heart of God, and you will only begin to understand it when you walk it out with Him. This is not something to be understood mentally, then exercised. Rather, it is to be understood as you exercise it. I’m sure the disciples had no idea what Jesus meant when He spoke this. Even so, they believed Him, because His words contained life and their hearts stirred when He spoke. God speaks, and our innermost beings respond. We respond to the Uncreated, because it is by this very Word that we were created. We responded then, and we respond even now. However, now our responses are different, because we test everything with our understanding before we are willing to trust and believe in it. What is the understanding of man in light of the understanding of God? Our understanding is darkness when compared to the light of His magnificent understanding. Until we obtain His understanding, we remain in darkness. We obtain this understanding by saying “yes” to Christ and following Him to the cross. Some would call this blind faith. How do you follow God to the cross if you have no understanding of this principle of life in death? Because God is good, and He only has good planned for me (Jeremiah 29:11). There is no evil in God. The fullness of His being is good. My faith is in God, not in the road. If I focused on the road everywhere I walked, I would stumble over the next step and walk into things. That’s walking blindly to me. But, if my focus is on Jesus, the person leading the way, I will be able to walk without stumbling or bumping into things. I will be able to avoid the obstructions in the path, because He clears the way. Jesus clears the way to God in His journey to the cross. As I follow Him, I walk down a clear path to the presence of God and make way for others to walk without care to the Father. Trust God. There is life in death. We follow Christ to the cross. For there, we see the truth of our being. We are confronted with our weakness and the depravity of our sin. In that moment, He speaks. We respond. He created us with free will, and we have a choice. We can choose to die to our sin and self-preservation, and choose God. Or, we can choose to continue in our “self-sufficiency” and to gain the acceptance of the world. The truth is: you can’t serve God and the world, because no one can have two masters. Thus, you can’t love God and the world. When Jesus took up the cross and walked to Golgotha to be crucified, He died to the world. God is asking us to do the same. I don’t mean literally killing yourself, but turning from the desires of the flesh to know God. Dying to oneself means denying your physical desires and being obedient to where God is leading you. When Jesus died, He took upon himself our sins, our hatred, our feelings of worthlessness and condemnation, our pains, sickness, and disease, (etc.) and He died with all of these things upon Him so we would not have to live with them. When we die to ourselves, we are saying “no” to these things and choosing to live in Christ, who died and was raised again. This is not the popular path, but it is the only path to God. If you want to be popular, you will lose your soul. If you want to know God, not just know about Him, but have intimate knowledge of Him as a close friend of His, you must give the fullness of your being to Him. You must die to the things you love and are familiar with that oppose Him. You would not keep doing things that dishonored a friend if you knew he felt dishonored when you did those things. Why do we keep dishonoring God when He makes it clear to us what dishonors Him? Dying to oneself means turning from those things that dishonor God and choosing to honor Him in everything. When we do this, He promises to honor us with eternal life. We do not choose to be good for the sake of being good. This only brings glory to oneself. We choose good and not evil for the sake of Christ. We will only find life when we live for Christ’s sake. I chose to live for Jesus, and now, I truly live. Before, I went through life in a daze, walking out day-to-day life without any sense of purpose or fulfillment. Now, life has become an adventure, and everyday is full of excitement, because I am alive. I live with God, as Christ lives in me. He leads me in this adventure, and I get to experience my greatest joy: daily walking with God. In His presence, my heart is exposed: my wants, my desires, and my dreams. I examine them, and those that are not in alignment with Him, I die to that I might live more freely in Christ. I know my heart, and my flesh is weak, but God gives me the strength to continue this journey to life when I choose Him and not the world. The world perishes and those who live by it will perish with it. But, those who live in Christ find everlasting life with God. In Christ, we are immortal as we walk out the fulfillment of our purpose. We were created to know Him, the only true God.

He Rescued Me

Hosea 6:6 says: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” God is telling the people: “I don’t want your empty deeds; I want your heart.” Jesus died for your sins. God’s ultimate goal: to bring us into intimacy with Him and, thus, save us from eternal punishment. He did not desire to give His Son, but rather to show mercy to a rebellious people. His heart is for us. The moment Adam and Eve sinned, God counted the cost to reconcile our relationship with Him. He was ready to pay it and spent millennia preparing us for His sacrifice. We frown at God’s request of Abraham when He asks him to sacrifice Isaac. We quicken our compassion for Abraham’s situation and fail to see the Father’s heart. He rescued Isaac from Abraham’s hand. He did not rescue Jesus from His own. God desires mercy and not sacrifice. Jesus repeats this to the Pharisees instructing them to go learn what it means. He is telling them to have compassion on their brethren. It’s a hard thing for men to do, but how so, when a holy God has compassion on a fallen people? We stand in false righteousness believing ourselves not to be in as bad a state as the other. The truth: sin is sin, and nothing can satisfy God except a pure heart. But wait, how can this be when our understanding of purity is tainted by our own filthiness? We have no knowledge of good without God, and our righteous acts are as filthy rags. We are but dust, pitiful in our greatest exploits even when compared to the weakest moment of God.

“He is despised and rejected by men. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…He was oppressed and afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter…” Isaiah 53:3, 7

Why is it that we only need a pure heart to satisfy God? Because He already paid the price for our sins. He gave the sacrifice that wounded His heart. I often think of the pain of my Lord praying in Gethsemane. He was afflicted. He prayed for the cup to be taken from Him, but He knew there was only one way His beloved bride had the chance to enter into His arms. He had to die. He knew the depth of His suffering. He replayed it again and again as He prayed for strength. And, amazingly, with the full knowledge of the price He must pay, He remained silent and bore the cross. The Father saw His Son’s plight for it was His own: that the bride may be restored to truth and purity and His children may be set free to love Him. The Father’s heart ached as Jesus prayed in agony, but both knew what was necessary. They knew the cost from the beginning, and it was time for the payment. Jesus’ walk towards His death was painful, but the most traumatizing of His experience was the moment in which there was a break in the eternal fellowship of God with Himself. There was not a moment in all eternity in which God the Father and God the Son were not in complete communion as the One True God. In that moment, the omnipresent God was both in heaven and on earth orchestrating the greatest rescue in all eternity. He saw Himself on the cross and, in His anger towards the sin-ridden Being, He turned away. Oh, the heartache of both Father and Son as they endured the greatest suffering imaginable. Both sacrificed heart and life. Why would the God of the universe suffer so much when He has angels in constant worship of His magnificence and holiness? Because He loves you. It’s that simple. He loves you. To Him, you are worth the sacrifice. He forsook His holiness, clothed Himself with sin, and died for you. He is only asking for you to acknowledge your sins and recognize His sacrifice. He is asking for you to examine your heart and come to Him with pure faith in His love. A heart of purity is His desire. I was a sinner who gave myself to the lies of the world. I lived in deception and believed in a false notion of God. One day, He opened my eyes to the truth of His sacrifice and how He rescued me. Then, I saw and received His sacrifice without loving Him in return, and so I was not completely free. I knew my Savior, but I didn’t understand how He was my Lord until I began to walk down His path. It is a hidden path, and only few find it.