God Laughs at the Nations' Rage

 “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?” – Psalm 2:1

This Psalm views all the rulers of all the nations on earth with both rage and a strange unity in their rage. They rage because they hate God and His Messiah, or Anointed One. Humanity rages and wages war on one another, uniting in a singular cause in their passionate opposition of God. The raging nations of war devotedly seeks to break the cords from God and rule themselves. Ever since human intelligence crafted tools to make their work easier, the depraved mind of humanity sought clever ways to use it in a rage against another human being. What are nations but such a collection of such human beings, and what are rulers but ordinary sinners with a collection of tools to be used in a rage?

Such rage and such warfare is met with a riveting response by the Almighty: God laughs (verse 4).  What a laughable thing for creatures to gather in revolt to our Creator! It is utterly insane to attempt to match human rage with divine wrath, earthly war with the might of the Lord of heavenly hosts.

This Psalm promises that God’s chosen Messiah will be King on His holy hill ruling the nations. All must kiss the Son of God to have God’s wrath turned away, for “blessed are all who take refuge in [the Son]” (verse 12). The Psalmists warns kings and rulers of earth to “serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling” (verse 11).

Christian, today’s headlines are frightening. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine again meets east and west as the nations continue to rage. A people who simply desired to live in freedom from communism now must defend their land from superior firepower. To laugh at Putin’s rage seems wildly inappropriate. Yet, our heavenly Father laughs. Psalm 2 is not making light of momentary but intense afflictions. On the contrary, God’s laughter leads to the Son of God being a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and carrying our burdens. This is how the wrath of God turns away from sinful humanity: having love for the Son of God who is our rightful King, and serving Him with fear and trembling.

My personal reading lately has been I Peter. “In this you rejoice,” wrote Peter, “though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (I Peter 1:6). In what do we rejoice? There is a coming Kingdom that does not rage, a coming King who is our everlasting Prince of Peace. “Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (I Peter1:8). Our inexpressible joy is looking forward, even when the pain is intense now.

The nations who rage now have a coming Deliverer, Christian. He is coming with the clouds to cease all war on earth (Psalm 46:9). Beloved child of the Lord most high, do not fear the raging nations with trembling. Have a trembling fear of God who laughs at the raging nations. A healthy fear of God dismisses all earthly fears including war. Pray God to come and vanquish His enemies, which He will fully and finally do in the coming of Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess He is Lord.

Heavenly Father, we confess to be frightened by the raging nations. With great pain do we cry out to You. Our hearts break for Your people both in Ukraine and in Russia. Bless them and bless us with Peter’s extraordinary vision of Your coming imperishable, undefiled, and unfading Kingdom and comfort us in this truth. Provide our hearts with Your peace and joy, o Refuge of our souls, as we wait for it with patience. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Speaking Grace in our Homes and Local Churches

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” – Ephesians 4:29

The New Testament uses family language to describe the local church. We are brothers and sisters, the household of God, and as Paul says in Ephesians 4, “we are members one of another.” We belong to one another and labor with great care the building up of this household for God’s pleasure. Our heavenly Father commands your mouth, which He created for His good pleasure, to speak grace toward the ears of His beloved church to build her up.

The reality of Christ’s cleansing of your heart is displayed in the purity of our speech (Luke 6:45). Our Lord commands your mind renewed and heart pure to love His church, and He sanctifies His beloved by His truth to put away “all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander along with malice” and “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).

In this new year, make this doctrine an emphasis in your home. Encourage your household how to think purely and speak about purely the other households in the church of Jesus Christ. This means our marriages and homes must be atmospheres which greatly discourage corrupting talk and commands repentance for corrupting thoughts of other members of the local church. This also means we must cultivate homes with the foundation of Christ’s peace to speak only what is good for building up and speaking grace to one another.

There is something beautiful in speaking blessing to one another. Whether another family in our church family is struggling or well, communicate blessing to their ears to hear. “God bless your home with His peace, brother,” is something that must resound in the hallways of a church building far more than criticism. May God grant you wisdom, restore peace and joy, comfort you and your home, protect you for the evil one, remind you and your home of His steadfast love and mercy. 

To speak a blessing, not simply as the act itself but from the heart, can only come from a Christ-like love and care for each other with tenderness and forgiveness (vs32). A genuine love from someone being matured in Christ to labor and build up His church in peaceful unity (Ephesians 4:12-13). May God bless you and your home by His truth that you may bless the other members of Christ’s church. May He build us up for His good pleasure.

Heavenly Father, forgive our hearts of any corrupting thoughts and purify our hearts and minds by Your truth. As You have forgiven us in Christ, grant us tenderness to forgive others in Christ. Grace our mouths, which You have created for Your good pleasure, to speak grace in our homes and toward one another. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Love One Another

In the upper room on the night Jesus was betrayed, our Lord shockingly put on the form of a servant and washed His disciples' feet. Soon after, Judas Iscariot leaves the Passover Meal and makes his way to members of the Sanhedrin to receive payment in exchange for betraying Jesus.When Judas leaves, Jesus tells the remaining disciples God is about to glorify Him. Our Lord gently calls them "little children," telling them He is to be with them only a little while longer, and where He is going they cannot come.

"A new commandment I give you," Jesus proclaimed (John 13:34). Think about this. Jesus, Lord and Judge of the universe proclaims a command to His followers. Jesus, who is described in Revelation as having "eyes like a flame of fire" and a "voice like the roar of many waters" and "from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength" (Revelation 1:12-16). He is commanding you and me as Judge and Ruler with an expectation to obey.

"Love one another," the Lord ordered. How?

Jesus continued His mandate, "As I have loved you, you also are to love one another." How have You loved us, Lord, that we may love one another in the same way?

Love is patient and kind
Love does not envy or boast
Love is not arrogant or rude. 
Love does not insist on its own way
Love is not irritable or resentful
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  
Love bears all things
Love believes all things
Love hopes all things
Love endures all things.
                                (I Corinthians 13:4-7)

The church is the bride of Christ, and as our Lord took on the form of a servant and washed His disciples' feet, He washes His bride whom He died for with the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:25-26). When our Lord had finished washing His disciples' feet, He said, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you." Our Lord has given us an example of loving service He is commanding you and I to obey in His church.

This is what a church is to look like who is "bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-7). To disobey the love one another command in rebellion to the Head of the Church is to disrupt her Spirit-given unity and peace.

As described in I Corinthians 13, love in the church bought by Jesus Christ who loves His church is a patient, long-suffering love brimming with kindness towards one another. There is no air of arrogance or rudeness. No voice of boasting how much better we perform our Christian duties than others. Love does not demand from each other to accomplish our preferences and get our own way. Love dispels any and all tension of irritability or resentful desire to injure others. Love rejoices in the truth, not at wrongdoing.

Charles Spurgeon comments, "This love both covers and bears all things. It never proclaims the errors of others. It refuses to see faults unless it may kindly help in their removal. It stands in the presence of a fault with a finger on its lips. It does not attempt to make a catalog of provocations."

Spurgeon said in reference to "believing all things," 

To our fellow Christians, love always believes the best of them. I wish we had more of this faith abroad in all the churches, for a horrid blight falls upon some communities through suspicion and mistrust. Though everything may be pure and right, yet certain weak minds are suddenly fevered with anxiety through the notion that all is wrong and rotten. This unholy mis-trust is in the air, a blight upon all peace: it is a sort of fusty mildew of the soul by which all sweet perfume of confidence is killed. (Source)

 Instead, this love which believes all things

believes good of others as long as it can, and when it is forced to fear that wrong has been done, love will not readily yield to evidence but will give the accused brother or sister the benefit of many doubts. Some persons habitually believe everything that is bad about others; they are not the children of love.

The Apostle Paul concludes this thought in his letter to the local church in Corinth with this, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

In his book, Charity and its Fruits, the Great Awakening preacher Jonathan Edwards writes,

Do not make an excuse that you have not opportunities to do anything for the glory of God, for the interest of the Redeemer's kingdom, and for the spiritual benefit of your neighbors. If your heart is full of love, it will find vent; you will find or make ways enough to express your love in deeds. When a fountain abounds in water it will send forth streams.

Let God's love which is poured out into our hearts send forth streams of love for Christ's church. Brothers and sisters, let our love be genuine and love one another in obedience to Christ, our loving Bridegroom. For our Lord's love for us bears all things, is patient and kind with us. He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Psalm 86:15). We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19). Praise be to God for His great love and amazing grace for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Peace From, In, and With God

“Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” -Romans 5:1

What could win peace for my anxious heart which is riddled by so many demands and plagued by inability to hold it all together? We tend to think of peace as something we must work on or perform. “Peace with myself,” or “if I can only find some peace.” We also think peace is simply something between people in relationships. Yet our need for peace is deeper; by grace, His peace is deeper.

Paul says we enjoy peace with God through Jesus. All our wrongs are made right, or justified, by Jesus and we receive this by faith. Oh, but there is gained for our anxious, broken hearts everything in heaven by this faith! We not only are relieved of the burdens we carry, we have an active peace! Peace to rejoice in our sufferings and persevere by His grace to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:1-5).

Jesus left us this peace, not as the world gives, but a peace which gives this word: "Let not your hearts be troubled" (John 14:27). This is Christ’s peace given to us! This peace guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7), in Whom we have peace with God. This peace, sovereign to Christ, is commanded to rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15). Christ’s peace is not something He gives when we need it beyond our own works, but a peace to rule in our desires and to make His church one.

This peace belonging to Christ which rules our hearts and rejoices in all things is learned (Philippians 4:11-12). Paul said he learned the secret to this satisfying peace. We go through trials, afflictions, and day to day life beyond our abilities to hold it together to learn this secret of Christ’s peace.

The peace of Christ which rules the hearts of His united people is the secret to forgive and be forgiven, turn away from captivating sins, learning patience, courage, boldness in speaking the truth in love in the bond of peace given by the Holy Spirit.  

How is this peace won for us and learned? It isn’t in finding peace with ourselves or finding peace in circumstances such as better paying jobs or managing relationships so I don’t become anxious or angry. This peace is found only in God, and this is won for you and given to you through Jesus Christ who justifies the wrongdoers. What marvelous grace our God has for us!

Heavenly Father, forgive and heal our anxious hearts. We let preferences or opinions rule and determine our peacefulness and peaceableness with others. Heal our anxious and broken hearts by Your sovereign peace given to us, not by our works, but by Christ. May we drink fully of Your grace and be satisfied and enjoy Your peace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.