Marking Iniquities

“If You, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” –Psalm 130:3

Painful human conflict is a fruit of sin God lists for Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. Our enmity with God in our sin commits spiritual adultery in our enmity with one another. No matter how healthy a marriage is, there is a threat of keeping a record of wrongs by both the husband and wife which feeds conflict. Good friendships formed over time can grow cold and distant over an angry word.

The temptation is to think we can fix conflict in our relationships by only talking with one another. “Against You and You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight,” cried David after adultery and murder (Psalm 51:4). The conflict which rages in our hearts is not made clean by talking about it to each other, but is only cleansed by the power of God.

Pleading to God for mercy “out of the depths” (vs 1) forces me to look upon God as holy and my standing before Him.  If God should mark my iniquities, watching and marking down each sin of thought, word, and action, how could I stand His wrath? “But with You there is forgiveness,” trusts the one pleading for mercy (vs 4).

When I go to God harboring any enmity with others in a prideful unforgiving heart, I am not met with practical tools to smooth over my relationships. I encounter a God of tremendous holiness demanding perfection from a pitiful little creature like me. The Psalmist makes a great point: how could I stand against the fury of God’s anger if God kept a record of all my wrongs? God has every right to mark my iniquities. He is perfectly and eternally holy.

Yet, with God there is forgiveness. I look to the cruelty Christ suffered on the cross. There God displayed His intense hatred of sin; yet, also His love for me. In Christ who died this sinner’s death, I am not treated by God as my sins deserve. If God should mark my iniquities, I could not stand His fury. Since in God there is forgiveness, I enjoy His peace.

Though I had offended God’s holiness, I can stand before Him forgiven in peace. How then, pitiful, sinful creature, could I plead for mercy from God and mark others’ iniquities against me? Like the unforgiving servant, would I dare leave the King’s courtroom forgiven of an unforgivable debt only to be unforgiving toward others?

Having received mercy, the Christian is a student of the mercies of Christ. What causes conflicts and quarrels amongst us? Desires at war within us, says James 4:1. The peace between us as humans is tied to the desires in our hearts. If you notice tension, fits of rage, words said in anger in your relationships, go before God and you will study His holiness and your own wickedness. What is the desires of your heart you want so badly that you fight others to get it? God’s holiness will show you.

From the depths cry out to God for mercy, encounter God whose wrath you could not stand if He should mark your iniquities, find forgiveness in Him, and have your desires in your heart changed by mercy.

Heavenly Father, against You and You only do we sin. Our conflicts You see, angry words You hear, wicked thoughts You know. If You should mark our iniquities, we could not stand. In Christ whom You sent to endure the cross for us, we have forgiveness. O Lord, may Your mercies be a teacher for Your people to be merciful. We praise You for Your forgiveness and power to save. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Turning from Dead Idols to the Living Christ

“Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.” -Jeremiah 10:5

The sights and sounds are familiar to me. Joyful singing with shouts of “amen” and “hallelujah” fills the air. A pastor prays and opens the Bible, explains the text and helps his people understand and apply what is read. There is baptism and taking the Lord’s Supper together. Yet, as I sit here in the front row of Nepali Revival Church, I am overwhelmed with the thought that the multitude around me rejoicing in Christ’s gospel together were not long ago devout Buddhists and Hindus. For a few of them, just hours ago.

We sinners have become master idol makers in our running from God. We either craft and carry ornate statutes like Hindus or craft a god with our opinions and emotions. Either way, such idols must be informed of identity and cannot walk or speak. Idols have no quality to be feared; however, idols are dangerous.

The Apostle Paul commands the church in Colossae to put to death the earthly desires in you “which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). What makes idolatry dangerous isn’t simply the moral failure, but that idolatry is the reason the wrath of God is coming (vs 6). Our covenant making God has a holy, pure jealousy demanding our singular devotion and joy (Exodus 20). And Christ’s gospel welcomes those who are far off, no matter their nation or language or tribe, into the Lord’s salvation that the nations would be glad (Psalm 67:4). 

Whether I sit in this room filled with Nepali Christians, or I am back at Allison Avenue, I am surrounded by former idol crafters, carriers, and worshipers. As Paul says “you too once walked” (Colossians 3:7). When our Nepali brothers and sisters call for Hindus and Buddhists to smash their idols and turn to the living God, calling for repentance, they are speaking of the Way in which they have found: Jesus is alive. He does not need to be crafted and carried. He is to be feared. He can do harm or good. Turn to Him and have everlasting life enjoying our gracious God forever.

When we tell the world and each other to smash the idols of “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” we speak as those who once worshiped and carried those idols. Allow me to encourage you, my beloved church family, with the boldness and joy of our Nepali church family. Much like the church in Thessalonica, be encouraged of seeing how they have turned from idols to the living and true God (I Thessalonians 1:9-10). Be bold and joyful as you speak Christ’s gospel to idol worshipers around you. Jesus saves. His gospel is the power of God to save.

Heavenly Father, how we rejoice in Your salvation we enjoy through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! How You have called us to turn from our idols and worship You, the living and true God. Grant us boldness and joy as we proclaim this good news in Christ to the idol worshipers around us that they may turn from their idols and escape Your holy wrath and be invited in to enjoy You forever. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

God's Purpose in Christmas

Jesus said, "For this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." - John 12:27-28

Christmas time conjures up so many sentimental images and memories in our minds. A large family meal, red and green sweaters with little white snowflakes on them, and the family gathered in the living room to hear the Christmas story in Scripture. We hear of angels filling the sky singing to God’s glory. God is glorified in sending His Son Jesus into our world as an infant in humble settings on earth.

Jesus came to earth as an infant for God’s glorious purpose. Jesus explains in John 12 that His coming suffering and execution makes God look great: “Father, glorify Your name.” God is glorified in Jesus obeying God’s purpose in sending His Son into the world.

For what purpose did God send Jesus to suffer and die? How did this make God look great?

The Apostle Paul knew our heavenly Father’s purpose to send His Son: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” God is glorified, as the hymn “To God be the Glory” says, in Jesus saving “even the vilest offender.”

Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Savior, glorified God. Jesus was born for the purpose of the hour of His suffering and death to save sinners. God displays His greatness in saving sinners through Jesus, and by faith in Jesus we receive His peace on earth and goodwill; divine joy forevermore as children in God’s family.

So, as we gather with our families this Christmas, let us remember the purpose of Jesus’ birth: to glorify God by His suffering and death to save sinners that we receive the fullness of joy in God’s family, and life everlasting as Jesus defeated death by His resurrection. Just as the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!”

Heavenly Father, we thank you for sending Jesus into our world, to bear our guilt and sin to the cross, to die our death. What glorious purpose, and what joy we receive in Your salvation! Glorify Your name in us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Grumpiness

“Love is not rude. Love does not insist on its own way. Love is not irritable.” – I Corinthians 13:5

Grumpiness. I hate the feeling. I hate how being grumpy hurts my wife’s feelings. I hate how being grumpy makes me sharp towards others. I hate how being grumpy makes the day seem longer. It seems that on days I am grumpy my memory of the bed I wake from is all I look forward to. Grumpy days are days I want to just end.

The word for “irritable” in this verse means to be provoked. Meaning, love does not respond to provocation with grumpiness, rudeness, and demanding our own way. God is love (I John 4:8), and the desire of the follower of Jesus is to be like God. God is long-suffering; His fuse is long. Not mine. My fuse is short. I get grumpy because I insist on my own way, and I harbor prideful rudeness in my heart when I don’t get my way. When I get tired, or feeling bad, or I’m in a hurry, or I’d rather be doing something else, and I don’t get my way, I get grumpy and rude. 

To fight for joy, we must first be reminded that rudeness and grumpiness is unlovingness that is rooted in prideful sin. Confess your bitter attitude and grumpiness as pride, insisting your own way, as a sin before God. We must ask ourselves what is “our own way” that we are demanding that is making us rude, negative, and grumpy, even if we must stop in the middle of a sentence and take a breather to do it. We must ask what is the way of love found in the Bible? We must repent and walk in the Spirit and bear fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). Do I trust that God has the power to deliver me from being grumpy and rude and more like Jesus?

God will finish the good work He began in us (Philippians 1:6), and He is at work in those days when we are grumpy and demand our own way. We must lay aside that selfishness and be a people known by God’s love, a love that is not rude, insisting our own way, and grumpy. Seek the Savior to deliver you from these bonds, knowing the gradual but glorious work to lay aside grumpiness for love is a fight for joy.

Heavenly Father, we confess our pride, wanting our way rather than Your way, wanting our way rather than to love. Forgive us, and through Jesus reconcile us to Yourself and to others we may have harmed in our selfish rudeness and grumpiness. We are clay in the Potter’s hands. Mold us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Be a Light in Darkness

“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.” –Matthew 4:16

God describes the very good world He created that is spun into sin and brokenness and “darkness” and the place of the “shadow of death.” This dark place is home for us. It is familiar to us. We are accustomed its chill, its cold silence, its brokenness. So, the world thinks it normal that the hatred, violence, pride, death, and the splitting humans into categories is a good thing.

Christians are all blind people who have had their vision restored now walking in light (Ephesians5:8). We see the darkness for what it is: evil and blind. With heaviness in our hearts do we traverse this valley of the shadow of death, pushing forward with the Bible as light in the path of this dark world and knowing God is with us.

Our temptation is to yell into the darkness and command the world to stop being broken, or perhaps like our spiritual forefathers, place a king over us like the nations to set things right. King Jesus didn’t tell blind Bartimaeus to open his eyes to see; He healed him. We didn’t come to Jesus with wisdom and a good heart, we came broken, needy, ignorant, and wicked. He forgave us and gave us the eyes of faith.

As God’s people, we now tell those in darkness the excellencies of Jesus, the Great Light (I Peter 2:9). The God who spoke the sun into existence from nothing speaks through our lips when we proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ (IICorinthians 4:6). Yet, we experience the brokenness and death awaiting to be fully healed in the completed Kingdom (Revelation 21:1–8). Our trials and sufferings are used by God to display His majesty as well (I Peter 1:6–7).

Rejoice, O Christian! For our great God has mercies for your journey through this darkness. Possess faith in our Savior and greatly rejoice with a painful, yet hopeful, joy! We have seen the glory of this Great Light, we proclaim Him to all people, and long for His completed Kingdom with great anticipation. Let us be found faithful to display and proclaim the excellencies of Christ until our final breath.

Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the might of Your salvation in Christ! You have given us eyes to see and wisdom by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Strengthen our hearts to repent of pride and open our lips to speak Your gospel of grace. We rejoice in Your goodness and grace. Be glorified in us. Amen.