“An idol of the heart is anything that rules me other than God…. If God isn’t ruling my heart, someone or something else will.  It is the way we were made.”

“We all migrate away from worship and service of the Creator toward worship and service of the created thing.  This is the great spiritual war beneath every battle of behavior—the war for control of the heart.” 

(Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, pg66)

 Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
(Ezekiel 14:1-5 ESV)

 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 creeping things.
 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
(Romans 1:21-25 ESV)

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. (1 Peter 2:19 ESV)

How different life, and my perspective on it, looks when I am mindful of God.  Just sitting here with a few moments of focus on these words and I am humbled by just how often I am not mindful of God and the immediate impact it has on my thoughts, actions, and reactions.

And, when I am mindful of God — I find rest and assurance; a peace that passes understanding… and a contentment that He is all I need.  When I look up, I see my God who is really big, really strong and really wise; in fact He is perfect in each of these attributes.  My God is above all things and He reigns in holiness (pure transcendent perfection) and sovereignty (complete authority and control) and power (ALL powerful – there is no competing power (one little word shall fell him).

LORD, help me.  Help me to be mindful of You; moment by moment.  Thank you, in Jesus’ name.

I have cheated myself of the enjoyment of this passage in reaction to constant misuse within the church.  It isn’t and never was about prosperity for the enjoyment of our flesh… it’s focus is not and never was about the ‘gifts’ God offers us… even blesses us abundantly with.  I’ve found the words translated in the ESV provide help to better consider what God is promising here.

“For thus says the LORD¨ When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you¸ and I will fulfill to you my promise and I will bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” Jer 29:10-14

Even before these verses, the LORD is warning his people about the lies and deceit that is and will come from those in spiritual roles of authority (prophets, diviners).  They dream dreams that are not the Gospel, yet they offer them in Jesus’ name.

Prosperity, yes.  ‘Prosperity gospel’?  NO.  If prosperity is understood as ‘plans for wholeness and not for evil’ within the context of being exiled as Israel was and suffering/sorrowing as we often are… then YES, believe in Yahweh’s plans to prosper you.  But if prosperity is understood as ‘plans to prosper and not harm’ or plans to give you all your wants (riches, health and wealth) in this world and not let anything too bad happen to you or too discomforting happen to you, then NO.

God’s purpose in the exile and God’s purpose in our suffering is clear in verse 12, “Then you will call upon me… ME, YAHWEH… and come and pray to me, and I will hear you”.  When you are exiled and hurting/suffering, that’s when you will seek me and find me because you cannot provide or find help in circumstances and you will seek Me, Yahweh, with all your heart.

And when you have learned that Yahweh is your fulfillment, your wholeness, your prosperity, your future and your Hope, He will be found by you and He will pour out his blessings and restore all that He desires you to have and know.

Now, that may be here, in part; but it will most certainly be our future, in fullness.

This song provoked my thoughts down this road today.  Enjoy.

 ”I think that Constitutional allegiance is critical and most pressing.  Not because it is the Constitution; but, because the men who wrote it were men who constructed it with Biblical principles and with great prayer.

I believe that the wisdom reflected in it, reflects men who served and worshipped the God of the universe, who in turn gave them immense wisdom to craft the most enduring Constitution. This wisdom is evidenced by the fact that under our Constitution, America has become the longest on-going Constitutional republic in the history of the world!  Why on earth would we relegate it to the trash heap; LUNACY! The Founding Fathers were convinced that the Constitution alone was inadequate to govern America unless it was applied by leaders of faith and integrity. May our Constitution survive, but more importantly, may we have men rise up to stand in the venerable shoes of its writers.The Constitution is being ditched because the men of today are not the men of the Constitution days.”

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28 ESV)

Every time I hear ‘woe to you’ it strikes a chord of fear and shame in my thoughts because I can relate as the guilty party; as the scribe and the pharisee.  I can relate as the ‘hypocrite’.  Do I like these realities and these memories?  No…

BUT GOD– I thrill to the abundant grace filling up those two words!  ’But God’ has released me from the fear and the shame of my sin through the Wonderful Cross. And whether I hear it proclaimed in Ephesians 2 or here in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “…And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”, I respond with delight/excitement/gladness and my heart catches in my throat as joy floods in.  No more fear of punishment!  No more shame that would prevent me, ultimately (I still experience shame for my sinning), from running to my Redeemer for more grace… more mercy… more help.

The truth of saving grace poured out on me, rich in mercy, and perfectly complete in its plan, purpose and accomplishment is why I am no longer a whitewashed tomb or a cosmetically-primped corpse.  No– Jesus called me up from the grave and I will never abide there anymore.  Yet, though alive in Christ, I still live in this world, among the dead; and it can become easy to act like the dead (those patterns/ruts run deep, don’t they?).  I am often tempted to walk in my own strength… my own deadness… the old me and my old ways.  Those ways might be overtly sinful or it might readily be the fact that I’ve turned aside from walking by faith to working for acceptance from God, from others, and even from me — apart from the Cross.

So I take hold of more and the same good news… like this exhortation in Colossians 2,

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.  Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.  If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.   (Colossians 2:6-23 ESV)

I was dead.  I was brought from death to life by the love and grace of one Man, Jesus Christ– Son of Man and Son of God (the Sovereign God of All Eternity who came to earth and took on human form) .  For many years, I was dead; but now I have a ressurection story to tell…:)  “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ”   (Ephesians 2:1-5 ESV)

My after-death experience is an experience and a reality of life, new life, Real Life… Eternal Life through Jesus Christ, the risen and reigning Son of God and Son of Man.  Through His death for MY SIN, Jesus Christ paid MY DEBT for all my sin/sins  and I believe it!  I believe He did what He said he came to do… and I will follow this Savior who has forgiven my sin through His death and who has given me Life, through His own ressurection from the dead… victorious over sin and death.  Thank You, Jesus.  I don’t want my old life anymore.  No, I’m heading in a new direction because my heart now desires new things… eternal things… to Your credit, only and completely!

Won’t you come too, won’t you turn from Death to Life?  Won’t you believe the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus Christ died to pay the just penalty(eternal death/Hell) for your sin in order to set YOU free… forgiveness; not like you and I ‘forgive’, but like a Perfect God forgives, completely and perfectly.  You can be saved from eternal death/Hell to live eternally for the God who loves perfectly and who gives us the desires of our hearts…. delight yourself in God.  Today, call out to this God who saves, forgives and embraces… today.

One angel’s voice was not sufficient to offer praise… could this be true?  Well I think so because it happened this way.  Maybe it would be better said anyone’s praise can be acceptable, but no one person, angel or even mutlitude is sufficient to offer the praise that is due His name.

The Gospel, the Old Old Story, is going to resound and bring forth praise for eternity!

The song, The Love of God (1917) written by Frederick M. Lehman, with the third verse written by Rabbi Mayer (see note below) highlights this song will be sung not just by me and you in church, but by many of the insurpassable eternal love of God.

Today, Sunday, I will gather with the saints at Green Pond Bible Chapel and we will not be alone.  Saints from all nations, all tribes, all tongues and angels, cherubim and seraphim will offer praise to God, for He alone is worthy!!

1. The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the lowest hell; The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win; His erring child He reconciled, And pardoned from his sin.
   1. Refrain: Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure— The saints’ and angels’ song.
2. When hoary time shall pass away, And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, When men who here refuse to pray, On rocks and hills and mountains call, God’s love so sure, shall still endure, All measureless and strong; Redeeming grace to Adam’s race— The saints’ and angels’ song.
3. Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made, Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry; Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky.

Does my answer change if that man professes to follow Jesus Christ?

If we freely and knowingly support a candidate for the Office of President of the USA that has demonstrated a clear and ongoing disregard for the oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States are we not complicit and therefore guilty of the same disregard? 

And if, as citizens of the United States of America who enjoy the freedoms, rights, privileges and responsibilities afforded to us in this country, we knowingly join in supporting such a candidate; are we not then also guilty of treasonous disregard for the Constitution of the United States of America?

I am flabbergasted by the total nonsense being demonstrated at all levels in our government and private and public citizenry/media organizations.  It isn’t like we are blindly making a mistake in judgment.  No, the disregard (in most cases) is with sufficient knowledge, with antagonistic intent and with prejudice in the face of good governance.

Please read and consider the following two oaths and think carefully and prayerfully.  If we don’t speak up on issues (regardless of specific candidates) that are accelerating the decline in our country, we do a disservice to those who serve us in government (even if they are the offenders) and to one another (even in our complicity) and those who will come after us, namely our children and our children’s children.

Oath of Office of President of the USA

I, <name>, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the USA

“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the armed forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”

Speaking up where and when I can, even as I enjoy a heavenly citizenship… now in part, but soon… face to face.  Blessings!

I’ve been rescued!     I’ve been rescued from myself and I’m being rescued.  Redemption!!   “The Bible calls the change redemption.  We are not only changed, we are restored to God.  This is what makes all other change possible.”

I’ve been Redeemed!  And it makes odd sense to me that the words of the old hymn by Fanny Jane Crosby, Redeemed — how I love to proclaim it, and the music don’t match up properly.  Read the lyrics of the hymn…. there is exuberance, gladness, joy, giddiness… rapture, affectioned preoccupation.

Redeemed—how I love to proclaim it! Redeemed by the blood of  the Lamb; Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever, I  am.

Redeemed, redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the  Lamb; Redeemed, redeemed,   His child, and forever, I  am.

Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, No language my rapture can  tell; I know that the light of His presence With me doth continually  dwell.

I think of my blessed Redeemer, I think of Him all the day  long; I sing, for I cannot be silent; His love is the theme of my  song.

I know I shall see in His beauty The King in whose way I delight; Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps, And giveth me songs in the  night.

(Source:  http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/301#ixzz1iSRMLoCx)

We need a new score for these lyrics… well, at least I think so!

From ch1, pg16 –  Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

“As human beings, we cannot walk through life on our own.  We need rescue, healing, and forgiveness.  In short, we need God.  We need the good news, the news of the King who has come, making lasting change possible.  This alone is our personal hope and the basis of our ministry to others.

The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss.  It is the news of a Redeemer wh has come to rescue me from myself….”