Monthly Archives: February 2010

Jeremiah 1:6-8 – Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” [7] But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;

for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,

and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

[8] Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

declares the Lord.”

Any work done for God is a work that is too much for us to do. The believer who thinks he/she has everything that they need in order to serve God is a fool of immense proportions. It is better, by far, to look at oneself and say “I cannot do this” than it is to look and say “bring it on, I can handle anything.” Self confidence can be a great millstone about a person’s neck if it becomes presumption and leads to laziness, prayerlessness and bravado.

On the other hand, it is no less a matter of sinful pride to conclude that we cannot do as we are commanded since we are so incompetent, for whatever reason. To do nothing out of a sense of regret that we are not more gifted or because we think that it takes great ability to serve God is equally as offensive to God as the sense of independence. In fact, they are both the same thing. One says that he can serve God since he is so talented. The other agrees with him that great talent is the secret ingredient and that since he does not have any there is nothing he can do. They both ignore God.

If we read our Bibles with our eyes open at all then we will see that the incompetent is who God calls the most. Murderers, cowards, schemers, fearful, … . In short – us. And why is it that they accomplished so much? They looked up. They obeyed. They trusted Him, rather than themselves or their ability to see just how everything was going to work out.

We think our churches are small due to our lack of talent. We think that the reason the big names in Christianity are big because of the great things they can offer God. None of us are exempt from this. There is something in all of us that thinks that if only our circumstances were different, or if only this thing hadn’t happened or if only another thing had happened. None of it is true.

We are called by a great God to do a great thing for Him, no matter what it is, or, as I heard one preacher put it, “God has no small works.” What are you called to do? If it does not strike fear into your heart, then you should be very concerned, because you are not up to the challenge. But if the fear does not drive you to Him then you are wasting it. Trust Him. He does not call you to something that He will not equip you to accomplish. He will be with you if He has called you to this thing. And the evidence that He has been with you is your perseverance and attempting to do that for which you know can only be done by Him.

God’s answer to Jeremiah when Jeremiah complained that he was too young and too ignorant was not to contradict him. God did not say “There, there, Jerry, You’re special because I don’t make no junk.” No. What He did say was “I am with you”. In other words, “OK, so you’re young and ignorant. Big deal. I am not and I am going to be with you wherever and in whatever I send you to do.”

What is your handicap? Do you think that it hampers the Almighty? Can He accomplish whatever He has called you to do through even you? Jeremiah entered into a ministry of immense hardship and pain and opposition. God never promised him easy. But He was there for him. And He is there for you, if you obediently submit to Him.

There are other things that need to be considered as we look at obeying God’s call upon us and we’ll have a look at some of them next week.

Matthew 9:36 – When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

I try to go to a mall that is near our church, every Tuesday afternoon just to look for opportunities to talk to people and possibly share some Gospel truth with people that I meet. I have no desire to be famous but I do want it known that I am the pastor of the church next to the police station and I want it known that I am a happy part of the community in which I pastor and live. I want it known that the church next to the police station is a welcoming place with people who care for the community. I want it known that the church there is a people who really believe what they say they believe, and that they know the God they preach about, and that they live accordingly. I want it known that we take the Bible seriously and live for the glory of the God we worship. I want it known that we are real followers of Jesus Christ. And I want them to know Him.

I do not meet people easily. I am not a gregarious guy. For me to meet strangers takes a very large effort. I am outside of my comfort zone. But it is part of my calling and I am glad that I am able to get to the mall and give it a go. As I walk over to the mall I always pray that the Lord will put people in my pathway with whom I can engage in some meaningful conversation. I remind myself of a plaque on a friend’s wall that says “Lord, make me right. You know I am not going to change my mind.” I feel a little like that when I am praying on my way to the mall.” Lord, give me someone to talk to. You know I will not make it happen on my own.”

I do not envy those who meet people easily. I revel in the experience of God overcoming in me the natural tendency to get away from people and be alone. If this came naturally to me I do not think I would be as understanding of the fear that grips so many believers who have trouble witnessing of their faith. I am hoping that the fact that I do this even though it is not my nature, will be an encouragement to them to do what is right even if it goes against the grain. Also, when I talk to people, I know that it is a power beyond me that is enabling me to do it.

God answers my prayers in ways that never cease to amaze me. The last four visits to the mall He has put people in my path with whom I was able to talk and steer the conversation to spiritual things. These answers to prayer always amaze me and when the conversations are over I always feel invigorated, which I would not if I had followed my natural inclinations.

On Tuesday this week I had bought my coffee and was reading a book when I spotted them; a married couple who came to the church twice last year and then just stopped. They both have mental problems. He is bi-polar and she suffers from depression. They are poor. She was helping him get his suspenders adjusted and running to McDonalds to get coffee. They were the answer to today’s on-the-way-to-the-mall-prayer. I fought the pull to simply walk away and say nothing. They didn’t recognize me at first but once I told them who I was they did – kind of. They have their reasons for not coming to church which have nothing to do with us. Past experiences have caused him to not trust clergymen. His mental state prevents me from pushing too hard on that one. I encourage them to read their Bibles, which they believe to be true. I encourage them to pray for God to make Himself known to them.

I leave that conversation with an ambivalent heart. On the one hand it is bursting with joy that I have been able to speak just a little bit of spiritual truth to someone. It is bursting with joy because while this man is ill mentally and his wife has her own demons to deal with, her love for him is obvious. She watches him with a compassion and affection that cannot be hidden. She is a gift to him in many ways. I see them leaving the mall later and she is leading him by the hand. She is not put out. She is not complaining. There are rich, intelligent, sane people who should want to give up everything they have in order to experience the love that these two problem defined people share.

On the other hand my heart is crushed at the brokenness of these people’s lives. I was with them for twenty to thirty minutes and they spoke of how hard life is, how they are maintained by medication, how the building they live in is unsafe because of drug dealers and violence of other kinds, how they are kept up all night by the drug induced parties next door. My heart aches because they are far from the only ones in this mall and in this community whose lives are broken and filled with pain and sorrow and whose minds are sending funny signals that they believe are true.

Our community is economically depressed and has an inordinate number of people with mental illness, partly because the low rental apartments are a convenient place for them to be placed by various welfare agencies. I look around the food court and I see single moms with over active kids. I see old men who gather every day in that court to philosophise. I see the security guards escorting people out amid screams of “brutality”. I see people in oversized clothes that were probably obtained free from some clothing bank and clothes that are too big are better than no clothes at all. It is difficult to watch people so obviously living on the edge, standing in line at the lottery booth with a vain hope of getting rich and getting out of the horror that they now call life. I see groups of people who gather at table according to language and culture. I think of the man with whom I tried to engage in conversation the last time I was here. He said he could speak four languages. When I told him I could speak only English he laughed at me and walked away. I see women who if they were downtown would be called bag ladies and I see people who you know are just surviving. I see armed police guards at the liquor store because of the number of times this particular store has been hit by robbers. I hear language that would peel paint. I hear parents railing on their children. I hear couples swearing at each other. I hear the philosophers losing their tempers on each other. It is heart breaking. And they congregate in this mall every day and find it to be a place of safety. No one pays any mind to the signs that say the limit at a table is twenty minutes. No one, not even the mall management seems to care about that.

I love this mall. I love coming here. There is community in action. There are people who feel welcome. They come here everyday and they laugh and they greet one another and they seem genuinely glad to be in each other’s company again. They are finding help in hard lives. I go to the coffee shop and do not have to tell the owner what to get me. She knows. And she knows the way the person behind me takes her coffee and the man behind her. What a mixture of emotions fills this place.

I cannot imagine anyone who claims to know Christ who is less like Him than I am, but I think I understand a little bit what He was feeling when He saw the crowds that were following Him. He was moved with compassion when He saw them because they were helpless and harassed like sheep without a shepherd. And then he turned to His disciples and said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He will send labourers into his harvest field”.

O Lord, I thank you for sending me into this harvest field of harassed and helpless people. Help me to see them as Jesus did; as Jesus does. O Lord, they are so broken. Sin, sometimes theirs and sometimes others, has put them into an awful state. Help them. Heal them. Give them hearts and minds to receive the truth that will liberate them even as they suffer. Help me to give them the Gospel in ways that they will understand. I thank you for not putting me in a place where people have money and resources and opportunities. But Lord, O Lord, reach down and rescue these people, and use me as you do – please. Lord, surely I do not love these people as much as you do. Help them to know the wonder of knowing the Creator of all that is, and may that wonder be a great joy for them. Put real joy in their hearts. Thanks for the visit Lord. Help me not to be over scheduled next week and miss the joy and heartbreak of this place.

Jeremiah 1:1-5 – The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, [2] to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. [3] It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

[4] Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

[5] “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

What is the point of God telling Jeremiah that He had chosen him before he was conceived? Is it mere fuel for those who want to score theological points regarding the sovereignty of God? Well, hardly, although it needs to be said that the theological point is there to be made. The point is related to Jeremiah’s reluctance to take the mantle of prophet upon his shoulders. Jeremiah does not want to take the mantle that God is putting on him because of his youth and his ignorance. God’s telling Jeremiah that he was chosen before he was conceived amounts to saying that youth or not, Jeremiah is here by God’s design and if God caused him to be born for this purpose then He certainly will equip him to do the work that God caused him to be born to do.

If God can cause a conception for the purpose of a call then He can certainly cause the one so born to accomplish the purposes for which he chose him. Youth and ignorance are not obstacles for such a God.

The issue for us is this: were you chosen by God from before the time of your conception to be the servant of God that you have become? Of course. And the commandments of God to you cannot be ignored or disobeyed because of youth or fear or any other thing. You are not an accident, no matter what the details of your birth are.

Any arguments you make regarding why you should not do what God is calling you to do amounts to saying that you know better than God what you are capable of. God’s response? I caused you to be conceived. I have chosen you for this purpose of mine. Don’t be so silly as to think that I have made a mistake or that I will not enable you to do it.

Jeremiah is not the exception to the way that God works. God does not tell us this so that we can make theological points with those who have different views than we do regarding the sovereignty of God. He tells us this to encourage us to do all that He calls us to do for Him. His commandments to us are not beyond us to keep – not because we are so capable, but because He is so sovereign. We look to Him when embarking on a task that He commands us to do. Accomplishing it is as possible as the One who calls us to do it.

Look up dear ones, look up. He who calls you is faithful and He will do it (I Thess. 5:23).

Psalm 46:1-11 -

[1] God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

[2] Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

[3] though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

[4] There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy habitation of the Most High.

[5] God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

God will help her when morning dawns.

[6] The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

he utters his voice, the earth melts.

[7] The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

[8] Come, behold the works of the Lord,

how he has brought desolations on the earth.

[9] He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

he burns the chariots with fire.

[10] “Be still, and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!”

[11] The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

God is our hiding place and our ability to handle great difficulty. Why isn’t He our escape from trouble? Why, if He is so great, is He not our Preventer of bad things from happening to us? The Bible is crystal clear that God is in sovereign control over everything. Everything. Why doe He only help us in trouble then, and not stop the trouble from coming in the first place?

1) Who are we to talk back to God? – Romans 9:20.

2) A faith that cannot stand the troubles of life is no faith at all and our trials are meant to be a strengthening of our faith – I Peter 1:7.

3) Jesus suffered much in order to bring us to God and we are called to follow Him – Mark 8:34-35.

4) Sin has messed up the world big time and it will not be completely without trouble until Jesus returns and sets everything right again – Matthew 24.

5) Easy living is bad for the soul. If there were no troubles there would be no believers at all – Luke 18:25.

6) The absence of trouble would be a sin free world and it is not time for that yet – Acts 14:22.

7) If all believers led trouble free lives the rest of the world would want to believe for all the wrong reasons. They would want the easy life it brings and that is not true faith.

8) Tragedies thrust people to God in ways that nothing else can.

Sin has messed up the world big time and the mess will not be cleaned up until Jesus returns and sets everything back tot he way it was meant to be in the beginning. This is the certain and sure hope for those who believe and it is better than if everything went the way we want it to all the time and it is better than a perfect world now without a return of Jesus necessary to come and fix things.

Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” [29] But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. [30] And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [32] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

[34] And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

[35] And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. [36] And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.” [38] And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

The angel Gabriel is sent to a virgin. That some people who believe in God can reject this account because of its impossibility is a very odd thing. If God can create the world He can cause a virgin to conceive. Belief in God necessitates belief in the miraculous. To be a Christian and not believe in miracles is an oxymoron in action. They are not nearly as prevalent as some people think (if miracles are common place, then they are no longer miracles) but God can violate the laws of nature if He chooses to. Did Jesus have to be born of a virgin? Probably not. But He was and it is important that He was. Why? Here are a few reasons, probably not all.

1) The virgin birth erases all doubt regarding the specialness of Jesus. Doubt could arise regarding whether He really was who He said He was. The virgin birth does not erase all doubts, but it does get a major one out of the way.

2) The virgin birth is God in action. Everything about our salvation is about God doing what we cannot and the way He was conceived is very much a part of it. Christians are chosen by God (Eph. 1:4). They are born again by God (John 3:3-8). They are given faith by God (Phil 1:29). They are gifted by God (I Cor. 12). They are kept from drifting away by God (I Peter 1:3-5). They are empowered by God (Eph. 6:10). They will be retrieved by God (I Thess. 4:13-18). The virgin birth is just God saying – “you can’t do this. I must do this for you.”

3) It is a beautiful combination of the human and the divine. Jesus would have been fully human and fully God regardless of how He cam into the world but this is a grander demonstration of both of His natures. He comes into the world in the usual way, by all appearances, and yet it was a miraculous birth of an eternal being who did not need normal biology to come to the planet.

There are no doubt more, but that will do for now. We believe in this event. It fuels the faith.

Luke 1:46-55 (ESV)

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

[47] and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

[48] for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

[49] for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

[50] And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

[51] He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

[52] he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

[53] he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent empty away.

[54] He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

[55] as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

The Magnificat (from the word “magnifies” in the first phrase). Rudyard Kipling said that if you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs and blaming you then you will be a man, my son. By such a definition Mary, the mother of our Lord, was truly a very great man.

This hymn that the Holy Spirit inspired her to recite and write down is a marvelous example of the grace of God at work. Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth. Has Joseph already learned about her pregnancy and told her that he is going to divorce her? Did she tell her parents and have them plead with her to give up this far fetched tale of a visit from an angel and a conception by the Holy Spirit? Is she visiting Elizabeth to get away from the gossip at the community well every morning? As she has kept things in her heart and pondered them there, how many questions have come into her mind that no one seems to be able to answer? We don’t know the answer to these questions. But they are all possibilities.

It has been said that every Jewish girl wanted to be the mother of the Messiah. This is no surprise. The Magnificat is a song of rejoicing that out of all the women God could have picked, He picked her. But it is much more than just “I win, I win!!” See the second couplet:

Luke 1:48 – for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

Then see verse 51 – “he has scattered the proud”. Verse 52 – “brought down the mighty; verse 52 – exalted the humble”.

Just as most people thought the Messiah would come as a great military liberator, so too, it must have been thought that the family that the Messiah came from would be royalty, wealthy, socially and politically significant. The fact that God chooses an unmarried, insignificant, poor woman engaged to a poor man, has stunned Mary. So it should.

But this is what we see of God’s dealings with mankind in His grace, all the time. Jacob is a liar and a schemer and not in line for the family blessing and inheritance. Joseph is the second youngest son. Moses is a fugitive murderer. David commits murder and adultery. Gideon is threshing wheat in a wine press for fear of the enemy. Samson is a womanizer. Jehoshaphat is rash and stupid. Peter is rash and stupid. The other of the twelve are cowards, failures, thick headed. Paul is a murdering zealot for his anti-Christian cause. Timothy is timid. The Corinthian church is a collection of unimportant, unknown and, if absent, unmissed individuals.

But we do not get this. For all the ways that the Scriptures illustrate this truth, and it illustrates it in very many ways, we still don’t understand, or believe it. Mary gets elevated to a sinless being who should be worshipped. We wrestle to understand the sins of David and Moses and Paul as if the high positions they held and the great things that they did were incongruent with their obvious flaws. We seem to think that somehow there is something about these people, and other of our heroes, that deserved the blessings they received from God. But none of them did.

Their lives are not about how good they were and therefore God came to them. Their story is that of people who were visited by God and therefore became good. And some of them fell pretty hard even after they were chosen. All of us, including Mary and David and Moses and Paul, are saved by unmerited grace. He is pleased to save and work through those we would never think He would. It is not a matter of how much potential we have. It is about how much love He has. And He has a bundle.

Psalm 37

1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

2For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

What is the solution to worry? And what if what you are worrying about is serious and life threatening? Psalm 37 is a great tonic for understanding how to respond when people are, shall we say, not very nice. Sometimes this happens from believers who are very well meaning. Sometimes it comes from less than such noble purposes. In any case, it hurts, it causes pain and hardship and anxiety. Psalm 37 tells us:

1) Don’t fret. “Easy for him to say.” But it probably wasn’t. David’s life was marked by incredible hardship and life threatening situations and he is no doubt writing here after (or during) some horrifyingly bad event of one kind or another. But the “don’t fret” is only the beginning. In fact, if that is all you have to say to someone who is in distress because of the opposition of others do them a favour and don’t say anything at all. But it is an excellent place to start. You’re fretting. Don’t do that. There are better ways to handle it than this. And that is what the Psalm is saying. It is showing us what to do instead of fretting. Worry is such a wasteful emotion. As Jesus said, it cannot add any height to our stature. It can only hurt. But if all we do is try not to fret then that in itself will become fretful. The question that must be asked is: what should I do instead?

2) Verse 3 – Trust in the Lord. If you are fretting you are not looking up. You are looking around at all that is going on and getting into a lather about it. The problem with worry is that it pretends to be able to tell the future. When Jesus taught His disciples about worrying over their food and clothing He referred them to their heavenly Father who cares for birds and flowers and will certainly care for them. Worry causes us to forget God. Let us not forget also, that trusting God here is a command. You must consciously strive to do it. The sinful nature does not naturally gravitate toward God. It needs to be pushed by a power within us that God puts there and is indeed God Himself. You do not have to fret, but you must exert effort in your battle against it.

Verse 3 – Do good. Instead of moaning about how bad you have it and worrying about what bad things are going to happen to you, get up and do something for someone else. You might still be opposed by others and you may get hurt, but you will not regret it. It is far better to get hurt while doing one of thousands of things that can be done for others instead of getting hurt while worrying about getting hurt. Die with your boots on. The reward awaiting you will far surpass any sacrifice that it took to do the good. Not only that, but the busyness of spending yourself on others will put the opposition of others and its results, on the back burner to a certain degree. This works folks. Don’t knock it.

Verse 3 – Don’t run away. Just be faithful where you are. Focus on being faithful.

Verse 4 – Find your greatest delight in God, and not in lesser things, like personal safety and comfort. So many people think that verse 4 means they can get great riches and health from God if they only delight in Him. That is not what the verse says. It says that if you delight in God you will get the desires of your heart. Well, if you delight in God what will the desire of your heart be? Right – Him. This means that while you are in all kinds of trouble you will still be able to have joy and peace and great delight. Why? Because you have that which no amount of trouble can take away – the Creator of the universe. You’d have to be a fool not to want to get in on that.

Don’t fret. There is just far too much other stuff to do with your head and heart than waste those precious gifts on worrying about people who don’t like you.

Psalm 39:1-3 (ESV)

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

I said, “I will guard my ways,

that I may not sin with my tongue;

I will guard my mouth with a muzzle,

so long as the wicked are in my presence.”

[2] I was mute and silent;

I held my peace to no avail,

and my distress grew worse.

[3] My heart became hot within me.

As I mused, the fire burned;

then I spoke with my tongue:

You have been involved in a dispute. Someone has slandered you. Perhaps the tension is chronic. You encounter them everyday at work. The relationship with a spouse is tense. Someone in the church doesn’t like the way you minister. There are people who just don’t like you. The temptation to lash out at them is great. You could couch it in soft language such as “I love you brother but I have to say …”, or “I have remained silent for far too long now …”.

The result from such things is rarely positive. When we are with them the tension rises and when we are not we think of what we could have said and what we should have said. We bemoan the fact that we didn’t think of this real zapper of a comment while in the debate, but we assure ourselves that next time we won’t be so negligent. “As I mused the fire burned” (verse 3). He’s stewing. The opening resolution is very wise. Hold your tongue.

Of course, holding one’s tongue means that you won’t be able to make your infallible arguments to your opponent. It means that he might win. It means that things may not develop the way you wanted them to. But there is great wisdom in the resolution.

Words spoken out of the angry resentful fires that burn in the heart are rarely what needs to be said. They are gasoline on an already incendiary situation. The urge to speak the oft rehearsed words of attack or defense comes from pride. We are angry that our point of view was not received. We are angry that our opponent thinks he has won when we know that these words would cause him to see his folly. We want to see him surrender. We want to get our own way.

This of course does not mean there is never a time to speak or make your point. But we need to know that there are bigger issues involved than our triumph over those who oppose us (verses 4-6).

There are times when correction, rebuke, instruction are required. But we need to know that such times are reserved for when our motives are right and we are not merely trying to win or show that our viewpoint really was the better one.

Christianity is not mostly about doing great exploits for God that will cause people to marvel at your faith and stamina. It is mostly about little unseen and unknown acts of faithfulness to God that will never make anyone stand up and take notice. The kind word, the good work done in secret. The predominance of humility, lack of vengeance, and pursuing greater goals than winning a debate are where the real battles in the Christian heart take place . We lose them far too often, it seems.

Let us resolve to guard our ways so that we will not sin with our tongues, especially when the wicked are in our presence. Who knows what blessings for eternity God will give because we valued Him over the sinful pride of triumphing over those who do not see our point of view all the time? Thank you Lord, for putting such a reminder, so relevant and timely, into our lives.

Psalm 46:4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

Several writers, all smarter than I am, understand the river in verse 4 of Psalm 46 as the grace of God or as God Himself, and the city of God as the church. The point then is that God’s grace brings great joy to His people. The church is the habitation of God. Hard to argue with that.

But I also wonder if we could not understand the city of God as the dwelling place of God in heaven, and not just as the church. It seems legitimate to me to see in this Psalm the fact that the marvelous grace of God brings great rejoicing to all who dwell in heaven. Jesus taught that when one sinner repents there is great rejoicing in the presence of the angels in heaven. In the parable of the Good Shepherd Jesus concludes:

Luke 15:7 – Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

At the conclusion to the parable of the lost coin Jesus concludes:

Luke 15:10 – Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

And at the conclusion to the parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus closes the parable by having the father say to the embittered older son:

Luke 15:31-32 -”‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. [32] It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ “

Follow the progression of these three parables (which may all be just three different aspects of one parable). In the parable of the Good Shepherd Jesus says that there will be rejoicing in heaven. In the Lost Coin He says that there will be rejoicing before the angels. And in the Prodigal Son the father says “It was fitting to celebrate…”.

Who, in that parable is celebrating? Everyone except the older son. Who called for the celebration? Who is the most excited? Who is leading the way in rejoicing over the return of this wayward son? The father himself. When a sinner repents there is rejoicing in heaven, before the angels, by God Himself.

Back to Psalm 46. “There is a river” – the Gospel, “whose streams make glad the city of God” – The Gospel accomplishing what God guaranteed it would results in God Himself rejoicing. God rejoices over the victory, the power, the saving goodness of His work in saving sinners. God Himself rejoices when sinners repent. What a stunning thought this is!

Dear believer. Meditate on this astounding truth: God rejoices over the power of His Gospel. And God rejoices in the love of the Gospel. And God rejoices over the product of the Gospel – you. Your coming to faith in Christ and repentance has made Him glad. He has thrown a party. He has dressed you in the best robes in the household – His. And He will allow nothing or no one to detract from the celebration that your coming to Christ in faith should cause.

Then think of this: if this is how God responds when just one sinner repents, what must heaven be like every day when tens of thousands of lost people put their faith in Jesus Christ?

Now then – how can you not serve a God like that with everything you have? How can you not love that God with all your heart and soul and mind? May the fact that God is glad for you cause you to serve Him with great vigour today.