Something to Ponder

"...rationalization is the homage paid by sin to guilty knowledge."

J. Budziszewski

From his book, What We Can't Not Know

Musings in Samuel (5)

Now Samuel did not yet know Yahweh, nor had the word of Yahweh yet been revealed to him. So Yahweh called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that Yahweh was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh, for Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Then Yahweh came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”  (1 Samuel 3:7 – 10).

Even though Samuel had been dedicated to Yahweh, even though he was living with the priests and living at the Tabernacle, he did not yet know Yahweh, nor had the word of Yahweh been revealed to him. Proximity to a person does not always equate to knowledge and understanding of that person. Proximity to the things of God does not equate to knowledge of God and relationship with God. Going to church does not make a person a Christian, nor does graduating from seminary make a person a Christian or a Biblical pastor or priest. Being ordained as an elder, or into another Biblical office, does not mean that the one ordained knows the True and Living God.

In 1 Samuel 3:1 we see that “…the word of Yahweh was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.” God’s Word is alive and vibrant (1 Peter 1:22 – 25; Hebrews 4:12); when His Word is living in the hearts of His people they “see” His Word with the eyes of their hearts (Ephesians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 3:12 – 18) and they are transformed into that Word in Jesus Christ.

I think that our collective eyesight has been blinded by compromise with the world; by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:15 – 17). Our desire for “relevancy” and acceptance has superseded our fidelity to the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word. The visions that we promulgate are often focused on the perpetuation of our own agendas.

Is the Word of the Lord a rare thing with us and our churches? Do we teach with God’s authority, as the oracles of God – or as modern-day scribes and Pharisees? (Matthew 7:28 – 29; 1 Peter 4:10 – 11).

When God speaks to us, do we hear His voice? When we hear His voice, do we recognize it as the Voice of God? (John Chapter 10; Acts 9:5).

For all of Eli’s faults and sins, Eli guided Samuel into hearing the Word of Yahweh. Furthermore, for all of Eli’s faults and sins, when Samuel told him the Word that God had spoken, a word of judgment on Eli’s family; rather than attack Samuel, rather than reject the Word that Samuel brought him, Eli accepted God’s message through Samuel, “It is Yahweh, let Him do what seems good to Him.”

There must have been a Divine spark of ministry yet in Eli when Samuel came to him that night. Perhaps there was even a sense of joy when he realized that God was speaking to Samuel. Perhaps Eli thought, “I have lost my sons to sin and debauchery, let me yet help young Samuel in the Way of the Lord. Let me yet do one good thing before God’s judgment falls on my family.”

There is an irony in that Eli judged Hannah as drunk when he first saw her (1 Samuel 1:14), while it were his sons who were drunk and shameless in their “ministry” at the Tabernacle. While his sons were rejecting the Word of Yahweh, Hannah’s promised son, Samuel, was learning to hear and respond to that very Word. With Hannah Eli acknowledged his error in judgment and encouraged her; with Samuel Eli guided the young boy (or man) into the Word of God.

As bad as things were with Eli, there remained a vestige of calling, a spark of Divine service – and what he could not give to his sons, he would give to Samuel.

Eli could have told Samuel that Samuel had misunderstood God. Eli could have attempted to form Samuel into Eli’s image of what Samuel should be. Eli could have tried to manipulate Samuel. Eli could have resented Samuel and considered him an upstart.

How often do leaders and institutions quash the Word of Christ in younger people? How often do we refuse to listen to others who come from different perspectives? How often are we territorial with authority, influence, teaching, initiative?

Are we guiding others into what it means to hear and obey the Word of God? Are we teaching others to see Christ in the Scriptures? In all of life? Are we teaching others to hear Christ, to sense Christ, to speak Christ?

Eli has much to teach us by both good and bad examples. I imagine that can be said of most of us. Let us flee his bad examples and take them as severe warnings. Let us also not fail to learn from his good example – are we teaching others to hear the Word of God and obey it? Are we inviting others to speak the Word of God to us?

Psalm 103 (3)

“Bless Yahweh O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; who satisfies your years [or desires] with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” Psalm 103:2 – 5 NASB.

Where do we seek satisfaction and fulfillment? Where do we seek renewal?

We need more than food for our bodies to eat, we need food for our souls to eat. We not only need to nourish our bodies; we need to nourish our souls. Where do we seek such nourishment?

What does it mean that God “satisfies your years [or desires] with good things”? Does this mean that whatever our desires are that God is the source of their fulfillment? Does this mean that God will fill our years, our lives, with the good things that we want?

We see in Ephesians 2:10 that “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them”.

It seems to me that one of the challenges of the Christian life is to, by God’s grace, remain on the Potter’s wheel so that our hopes and dreams and desires are molded into the will of God. We are to present our bodies, our entire selves, as living sacrifices, well – pleasing to God; and our inner persons are to be transformed so that the will of God will unfold in our lives to His glory (Romans 12:1 – 2).

When we repent of having ourselves at the center of the universe and submit to Jesus Christ as our Lord, as the center of our universe, we relinquish what we want for what God wants. Then our lives, our years, become not a quest to fulfill what we want, but rather as our desires are displaced by God’s desires and our God’s desires become our desires – we then experience fulfillment because we are living as the sons and daughters that God called us to be.

The years of our pilgrimage are not to be years seeking what we, outside of Christ, might want, but are rather to be years seeking the will of our Father and Lord Jesus. Those who call Jesus Christ “Lord” are called to say with Paul, “I have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision” and to say with Jesus, “I have glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.”

As the will of our Father unfolds in our lives, as the desires of God become our desires, as our years are lived “blessing the LORD” and living in the light of God’s redemption and forgiveness, then our years will know the satisfaction of good things and our youth, our vitality, our inner person, will be renewed like the eagle’s – for we will be increasingly living in the eternals, in the things of the Holy Spirit of God.

“…though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day,” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (see also 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Proverbs 4:18).

What does this look like in your life today?

Musing in Samuel (4)

“Now the sons of Eli were worthless men; they did not know Yahweh…Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting.” 1 Samuel 2:12, 22.

Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were polluting the offerings of God, were using the priesthood for their own gain, and were profaning a sacred place by violating women of Israel. They did not know God, yet they were priests. They were priests, yet they were violating women. They were using the things of God and the priesthood for their own pleasure and gain.

A survey of Jude’s NT letter, and of Peter’s second NT letter, demonstrates that the enemy of God constantly seeks to destroy true worship by bringing filth into the community of believers, thereby damaging the faith and witness of men and women and children. It has always been this way, and it will continue to be this way until our Lord Jesus returns in all of His glory to bring an end to the present age and the image of Daniel Chapter Two.

Eli tolerated the apostasy of his sons rather than hold them accountable. Where was Eli during all this? Why was not Eli ministering to the people of Israel when they came to worship? Why wasn’t Eli protecting the women who worked in the precinct of the Tabernacle? Was he focused on eating, then eating some more, and then eating some more – he could not help getting old, but perhaps had he been active in the priesthood he might have avoided getting fat (1 Samuel 4:18).

What are we to think when we see sexual scandals in the professing – church? Why has there been virtually no accountability? Why cover-ups? Why putting money and reputation and public relations before truth? Why no care and concern for those who cannot speak for themselves and defend themselves?

Where is accountability regarding sound Biblical doctrine and the authority of the Bible? Where is accountability concerning the centrality of Jesus Christ? How many churches and groups of churches are condoning, and even promoting, teaching and behavior every bit as disgusting as that of Eli’s family?

Make no mistake, every time someone in “Christian” leadership uses worship for his or her own means and ends; every time such people divert worship from God to themselves; every time the people of God are made merchandise of – we have the family of Eli among us.

We ought not to read the account of Eli’s priestly family and say, “Look at them.” We ought to read the account and say, “Look at us.”

Psalm 103 (2)

“Bless Yahweh O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; who satisfies your years [or desires] with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” Psalm 103:2 – 5.

We lure people to church, and keep them in church, by preaching and teaching a “bless me” mentality. It is all about me, all about you, all about us. Not long ago Vickie and I were in a church service (I can’t really term it a worship service) in which every single song was about “me, me, me”. What a shame, and I do mean shame.

As we will see, it isn’t that we are not to be aware of God’s blessings, and of His desire to bless us; it is rather that our focus is to be the True and Living God, that we are to love Him and worship Him, and to give thanks for His blessings. In fact, we are to give thanks no matter what may be going on in our lives – for He is worthy to be worshiped and praised. After all, are not our lives to be living sacrifices?

We are not to forget the many blessings and benefits that our Father bestows upon us, including pardon, healing, redemption and lovingkindness and compassion. We are pardoned from our sins through Christ; our inner person (all that lies within us) is healed in Christ and is being healed, this will be ultimately manifested in the redemption of our body in the resurrection; we have been redeemed from the pit by and through Christ, from the abyss of sin and Satan; and we are being crowned with lovingkindness and compassion – that is, our Father is constantly showering us with His kindness and goodness.

Consider the image of being crowned; a crown rests upon the head, it encircles the head. Can we sense our God, the Holy Trinity, bestowing His grace and mercy on our minds, in our thoughts? Do we know the peace that passes understanding, the peace that is guarding our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus? Do we experience “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on You, because he trusts in You”?

Our kind heavenly Father desires to bestow His goodness on our hearts and minds – He is crowning us with lovingkindness and compassion – are we receiving this crown? Or, will we not sit still long enough to receive the gracious goodness of our Father and His Son? Are our minds elsewhere?

Receive the crown of lovingkindness and compassion in our Lord Jesus, and share the same with others today.

Psalm 103 – A Meditation (1)

“Bless Yahweh O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”

The psalm begins the way it ends, and it ends the way it begins – “Bless Yahweh O my soul.” (Let’s remember that when we see the word LORD capitalized, that it is the Hebrew Covenant Name for God).

Is there a better way to begin and end each day? Ought we not to arise blessing our God? Ought we not to enter into sleep blessing our Father and Lord Jesus?

My soul, the very depth of my being, is called to bless my Father. Every fiber of my being, all that I am, “all that is within me”, is called to bless His holy name.

Let us not forget that His name is holy. Let us not forget that the name of Jesus is holy for it is the name of God, just as Yahweh is the name of God – indeed the name Jesus means “Yahweh saves”.

We live in a world that seeks to deaden our souls, to make them numb and dumb – souls that cannot speak, that cannot feel, that do not express themselves. The world would strangle our souls so that they can neither bless God nor humanity.

We are called to bless our Father and Lord Jesus, day in and day out, night in and night out; as we live lives of worship we resist the pressures of the evil surrounding us – otherwise we will be crushed by the weight of sin and rebellion around us, we will implode, and though our candle wick may not be completely extinguished, it will but smolder and produce smoke rather than light.

Bless the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit O my soul! Let this day be a life of worship. Let everyday be a life of worship. Let my soul be an altar of worship, my body be a temple of worship – as I bless His holy name let the blessing come from a holy altar, a holy life – and let my life be a living sacrifice on the altar of this life, on the altar of my soul.

Bless the LORD O my soul!

All For Christ

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course…” Acts 20:24a (Paul).

Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jim Elliot, Fenelon, George Will, Tyndale – my missions professor at seminary Christy Wilson…and many more women and men who have touched my life, either in “real time” or through their writings; all of them saying in their words and deeds, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself…” (I recall that the I.R.S. audited Christy Wilson, who had served in Afghanistan, because they couldn’t believe that anyone would give away such a large percentage of his income).

But what of today? Can I say with Paul, “I do not consider my life of any account…”? Where do we see examples of this in our preaching, teaching, writing, and congregational life? Where is the local congregation that embraces the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ as a way of life? Where is that people who can say, “But we do not consider our lives of any account as dear to ourselves, so that we may finish our course in Jesus Christ”?

Where is the Bible College or seminary that says with Paul, “We do not consider the life of this institution of any account…”? Where is that place of godly instruction that teaches its men and women to take up their Cross to follow Jesus Christ?

Where is this in our small groups? In our mentoring? Is this a prerequisite for service in our churches and other areas of ministry?

Or…have we succumbed to the ethos of “the pampered-self”?

Search my heart Lord Jesus.

What about you?

A Throne of Destruction

“Can a throne of destruction be allied with You, one which devises mischief [trouble, misfortune] by decree? They band themselves together against the life [soul] of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.” Psalm 94:20 – 21 NASB.

Proximity to power is intoxicating. Some professing-Christians, who have strong opinions about the dangers of alcohol, freely imbibe the intoxicating elixir of political and economic power. They drunkenly stagger about without a sober sense of the fear of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and the mercy of God. The innocent are condemned to death in any number of ways and voices closest to the throne are not raised in their defense.  

Many other professing-Christians treat politics and economics as if it were a football game, rooting their political and religious proxies on with the sole purpose of seeing them win…win no matter what. How policies affect those who have no voice for themselves; the unborn, those without decent food and shelter, those without medical care, those without the opportunity of gainful employment, those fleeing violence and oppression, those persecuted for their faith (whether here or abroad), human trafficking; these things, these people, do not matter – the only thing that matters is winning, and not just winning, but vilifying and beating down the opposition.

I think that perhaps the fear of the Lord and a passionate love for Jesus Christ and our neighbors may be all that can preserve us from being caught up in the poison of our nation and much of the professing – church.

A “throne of destruction” seems to be having its way in our land and in our institutions – regardless of political persuasions or theological directions – the work of this destructive throne can be found most everywhere. We celebrate power and fame and pornography and wealth; trampling on ethics, morality, decency, mercy, and kindness. We celebrate the “art” of lying, and call it “spin”, ripping into shreds the notion of truth.

We make Israel’s insanity with the Golden Calf look like a five-year-old’s birthday part.

Let those of us who cry out to God be encouraged from Psalm 94:

“Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Yahweh, and whom You teach out of Your law; that you may grant him relief from the days of adversity…for Yahweh will not abandon His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance…Your lovingkindess O Yahweh will hold me up. When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul…Yahweh has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.”

Our Father and Lord Jesus can use the pressures surrounding us to purify our hearts and make them faithful and devoted to them. Our God can teach us out of His Word, and in His Word we can find relief from the insanity around us.

We can live in the assurance that God will not abandon those faithful to Him, and that in Him we are more than overcomers. While those around us may celebrate darkness, we can celebrate Light; while they exalt lies, we can exalt the Truth; while they glorify themselves, we can glorify God in Christ. While they speak words of destruction and show no mercy, we can speak the Word of life, comfort, hope, and purpose – and we can show love, mercy, and grace to all men and women and children.

In Christ, we can show the world a better way.

Let us not live in vitriol, let us live in Christ.

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as light in the world.” Philippians 2:14 – 15.

What are we proving ourselves to be? What are we appearing to be?   

Musings in Samuel (3)

Hannah’s Song

“My heart exults in the LORD.” 1 Samuel 2:1 (Hannah).

“My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” Luke 1:46 (Mary).

“Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry cease to hunger.” 1 Samuel 2:5 (Hannah).

“He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty – handed.” Luke 1:53 (Mary).

The songs of Hannah and Mary certainly belong in the hymnody of the People of God. In both instances we are with these women as they are caught-up in the Holy Spirit and speak the prophetic Word of God. We need not wonder the circumstances surrounding these psalms, for both psalms are born out of life in the True and Living God. Both women are speaking things that the “natural” man or woman cannot see.

“Those who contend with the LORD will be shattered; against them He will thunder from the heavens.” 1 Samuel 2:10a (Hannah).

“He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones…” Luke 1:51b – 52a (Mary).

These women are seeing beyond the visible into heavenly realms.

Consider Hannah’s words (1 Samuel 2:10b), “And He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed.” What is Hannah seeing? There is no king in Israel yet, Israel is still led by tribal elders and the Judges. No king has yet been anointed; in fact, her very son who she has dedicated to the LORD, Samuel, will be the one who God commands to anoint first Saul, and then David – and when Hannah sings this psalm Samuel is yet a boy. What is Hannah seeing?

I wonder if we might enjoy “spiritual songs” (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16) if we were to worship God the way Hannah and Mary worshipped God? I wonder what latent words of glory to God and prophetic vision and portrayal are buried within the hearts and souls of God’s people, awaiting the rain of adoration, worship, praise, and sacrificial offering?

Ponder the Song of Hannah. Ponder the Song of Mary. What did these women see? What do we see? What do you see?

Trust Christ. Surrender to Him. Praise Him! And see what song within you He has already written that is ready to be released for His glory!