Our Light and Our Salvation

 

Psalm 27 is part of my reading today, it being the 27^th of July. This is an old, old friend and is ever sweeter as the years pass, sweeter as we spend time together.

 

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread” (27:1).

 

In that Day there will be only one Light, that of the Father and the Lamb (Rev. 21:23; 22:5). If this will be the case then, why not live in that Way now? Why not learn to live in the Light of Christ and the Father, and only in that Light?

 

This requires “Yes” to Jesus Christ and “No” to competing lights and voices and ways of life. The most dangerous competing lights are those which look good and seem reasonable. People may understand when we reject things that are obviously evil, but they seldom understand when we reject things that appear reasonable, good, and even “Christian.”

 

Are we asking ourselves, “Where is Jesus in this? Where is the Cross? Do I see Jesus?” Paul writes, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

 

“For my father and mother have forsaken me, the LORD will take me up” (27:10).

 

This may be true of biological parents, but it may also be true of the traditions and cultures within which we are raised. The tradition in which Jesus was raised not only forsook Him, it tortured and crucified Him. The hierarchy of the religion in which Jesus was raised plotted His death and sought to destroy His followers. As they have done to the Master, they will do to His disciples, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20).

 

This can be a very hard thing, choosing Jesus over tradition, choosing Jesus over the pragmatic, choosing Jesus in the midst of religious peer pressure. However, if we are seeking His Face, if we have declared, “Your Face, O LORD, I shall seek” (27:8), then we really have no option. We are as Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

 

My sense is that an element of our pilgrimage is to constantly ask whether we are walking in the Light of Jesus or in lesser lights, including lesser “Christian” lights. Are we hearing the Voice of the Father saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased, hear Him!”? (Matthew 17:5).

 

As we lift up our eyes, are we seeing only Jesus? (Matthew 17:8).

More Than A Face In The Crowd

 

 

What is the largest crowd you have ever been in?

 

Perhaps a college or NFL game? A Major League baseball game? Maybe a parade in New York City? Maybe your town’s 4^th of July parade?

 

My dear brother-in-law Rod, who is now in the Presence of Jesus, once drove from his home in Iowa to visit us when we lived in Baltimore. He had been with us two or three days when we arrived home from work to find a note from him which read, “Too many people here, going home.”

 

“Home” was the town of Luther, Iowa where he and Vickie had grown up. It had about 300 people when they were growing up, and in 2026 it has about 150 people.

 

The world population is about 8.3 billion people right now, and the United States has about 350 million of those people. When I was born in 1950 the USA had about 150 million.

 

Sometimes I’ll hear someone talk about feeling insignificant when they look at the heavens, or when they consider just how many people there are. No wonder a psalmist asked God, “What is man that You take thought of him; and the son of man that You care for him?” (Psalm 8:4).

 

When I hear talk of insignificance, I immediately think of just how special that person is to God, of how much God loves that man or woman or young person. When we gaze into the heavens, rather than think that we are insignificant, we have the opportunity to think that the Great God who created those heavens loves us, knows us, and deeply desires that we know Him in a loving relationship.

 

Have we forgotten that “God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16)?

 

Yet, even when we read this statement, we may think, “Well, God may love the world, but I am only a face in the crowd, one person out of a huge population, one person out of all the people who are living and who have ever lived and who ever will live. I don’t matter. God doesn’t know I exist.”

 

“He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them” (Psalm 147:4).

 

The European Space Agency says that there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way (our very own galaxy), and that beyond the Milky Way there are millions upon millions of other galaxies. There are many more stars than people, and I have an idea that God gives each star a unique name – if a star is named “Bob” that star is, I imagine, the only “Bob” in the star population.

 

You may recall that Jesus says that He will give those who are conquerors with Him “a new name” written on a white stone, “which no one knows but he who receives it” (Rev. 2:17). I hope I’ll be able to pronounce my new name! The point is, of course, that while God has special names for all the stars, He also has special names for you and me. As much as I appreciate the late George Foreman, God isn’t naming us George 1, George 2, George 3.

 

For years I heard it said, “If you were the only person on the planet, Jesus would have come to die for you.” I heard it said many times, and I said it to lots of people. It sure sounded good, and it sounded really great when I told others, but did I really believe it? Did I really think that if I was the only person on earth, Jesus would have come to suffer and die for me, bearing my sins and my deeply sinful nature which was in rebellion against God?

 

Since I was a young disciple, one of my core verses has been Galatians 2:20; we can know something and not know something; we can think we know something but not really know it, not truly “see” it.

 

Almost 30 years ago our church was doing a series of ALPHA courses, using Nikki Gumbel’s marvelous DVDs. I had watched the series so many times I was on autopilot this particular evening, sitting in the back of the group by myself in our fellowship hall, with most people sitting at tables together. My mind was wandering…when Nikki quoted Galatians 2:20:

 

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

 

All of a sudden, my ears, mind, and heart were captured by the words, “Who loved ME and gave Himself up for ME.” I let out a whoop and a holler and a “glory!”

 

“Me! Me! I shouted to the group. He loved ME and gave Himself for ME!”

 

It was true after all…I had recited that verse for decades and never seen it – what assurance! God didn’t just love the world, God loved ME! He loved me and gave Himself for ME!

 

And my dear friend, He loves YOU and gave Himself for YOU!

 

You are more than a number, than a face in the crowd; much more than an accident looking for a place to happen – God has an eternal plan for you to be wrapped up in His arms of love; He loves YOU with every beat of His heart!

Jello Molds

 

Treating the Bible Like Jello

 

Do we treat the Bible like Jello?

 

When we read and teach the Bible do we pour the text into our distinctive molds? Do we add fruit to it? How about toppings?

 

Do we make our own core identity the core of the Bible?

 

A friend of mine once did a sermon series on “the Presbyterian view of spiritual formation as seen in the Gospel of John.”

 

I thought, “Really?”

 

Why not teach the Gospel of John as it is written?

 

Or, if you have a pastoral sense to focus on spiritual formation in the Gospel of John, then why not simply approach it as, “Spiritual formation as seen in the Gospel of John?”

 

Do we want our people to be Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, or Christians? Well, the pragmatic answer is that we want them to be in the mold of our tradition, whatever that might be. Should we want this? I can’t see that we should want it.

 

Would we not be better Baptists or Pentecostals if we were Christians first – disciples of Jesus Christ first? Men and women and young people being formed into His image first and foremost?

 

How many treasures of the Word and of Christ Jesus do we miss when we treat His Word as Jello? On the other hand, if we would learn to receive the Word as it is written and made alive by the Holy Spirit, then the possibilities are infinite because of our Lord Jesus is infinite.

 

My friend was just doing what he was taught, and he was just doing what most of us do…and what most congregations want their pastors to do.

 

I wonder how many Jello molds I am still using?