Month: June 2019

Enough

Ephesians 2

2

Every Sunday since before I was born, my family has gathered at my grandma’s house for an after-church lunch. It’s a grandiose affair with a lavish spread of food, a fancy tablecloth, and ALWAYS dessert. My littlest cousin, Greta, prides herself on being Grandma’s helper in the kitchen each Sunday. By no means is she qualified to even step foot in a kitchen—she tries to lick the frosting off the chocolate cake, has a fair share of spills, and screams when not allowed to cut the watermelon. Despite her lack of skills and tact, she is the most willing and enthusiastic helper. While my grandma certainly doesn’t need her help, I think her heart bursts into a million little pieces when little Greta pulls up her stool to the counter with wide eyes and ready hands.

Sometimes I feel a lot like a toddler in the kitchen, like I’m not enough. The truth of the matter is that I wasn’t enough.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

The story doesn’t end there. I am made enough because of who God is and what Jesus did for me.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.(Ephesians 2:4-5)

We can choose to wallow in our inadequacy, or we can embrace grace. I’ve seen the joy that comes when we let go of the burden of not being enough in the beaming smile of a little girl with chocolate frosting on her nose. You are so enough that God wants to use you for His Kingdom.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.(Ephesians 2:10)

No matter the lies the world whispers in your ear, never stop pulling up your stool to the counter. Roll up your sleeves and do all the things God prepared for you. He’s more honored by your attempts than He is concerned about your results. Frankly, He could go infinity gauntlet style and snap His fingers to accomplish anything He wanted to by Himself. That same God is head-over-heels in love with you.

My friend, you measure up. You have what it takes. You’re enough. Now go do something.

-Mackenzie McClain

Live in Unity

Ephesians 1 

1

Churches split. Friendships break. Families fracture. Some people seem to be water and others oil. We are surrounded by division. Fortunately for us, Jesus’ mission is to unite everything in heaven and on earth.

He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.  –Ephesians 1:9-10

Unfortunately for us, Jesus’ undertaking won’t be complete until he comes back to earth to establish his Father’s Kingdom. In the meantime, however, he invites us to join him on this mission. It’s a great honor to play a part in Jesus’ task, but it’s hard to know where to begin in such a broken world. When it seems like there’s not enough Elmer’s glue to hold the world together, here are some key ways to preserve unity:

See people how God sees people. I think nearly every problem in the world would disappear if we saw people from God’s perspective. If we viewed each person as intentionally and brilliantly designed by our Creator for a unique purpose, division would have no foothold. Pray that God would change the way you see people and you’ll see a change in your relationships.

Dwell on unity. Do you have a friend that you agree with 99% of the time, but the 1% has created a rift? I once had a heated debate with a friend, Luke, on the right way to eat a Little Debbie’s Nutty Bar. After 30 minutes of quarreling, it was clear neither of us were going to budge. While most issues threatening relationships are bigger than a Nutty Bar, it is still silly to dwell on them all the time. Whether you differ on a specific doctrine, a political view, or a football team allegiance, spend more time focusing on your similarities than differences. As Christians, we are more alike than different.

Seek reconciliation. We’ve all said and done things that we regret, but our true character is revealed in how we handle the hurt. Humbly admit when you are wrong, give grace when you’ve been hurt, and diligently deal with the cracks in your relationships. There is no weakness in forgiveness.

Consider the cost of division.  Unity is costly in terms of effort, but the results of division cost much more. I’ve seen the nasty effects of broken friendships, strained family relations, and hurting churches. Remember that a rope is stronger than a single string. We were made to do life together—in unity.

 

-Mackenzie McClain

Fit to Rule

PSALMS

psalm 99 5

 

This week we’ve been looking at seven different types of psalms: wisdom, royal, lament, imprecatory, thanksgiving, pilgrimage and today we look at the 7th type: enthronement.

The enthronement psalms celebrate the important truth that God is king over all of his creation.  God cares for his people as a good king/shepherd is supposed to care for his people.  Psalm 23 is a kind of enthronement Psalm as David, who is himself the shepherd king of Israel, ultimately looks to God as the true shepherd king.

Psalm 99 is a good example of an enthronement psalm:

Psalm 99

1 The Lord reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.

4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.

6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the Lord
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.

8 Lord our God,
you answered them;
you were to Israel a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds.
9 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord our God is holy.

 

This psalms celebrate God as worthy to be worshipped, so it contains elements of worship similar to psalms of thanksgiving, but here the focus is particularly on God’s sovereign rule over all creation.

The Lord reigns.  Often we look at our world and see how seriously screwed up our political leaders are and how badly they botch up their duties as leaders.  But we must remember that they are mere humans, flawed men and women just like us.  There is only one who is truly fit to rule in righteousness over all of creation.  There is only one of us both holy and just but also merciful and forgiving even in his judgment.  It is the LORD, YHWH.  He is God and he alone is fit to rule over all of creation.  The enthronement psalms are a joyful way of acknowledging that God is in control of everything.  My mom used to have a sign on her refrigerator that said: Relax, God’s in Charge.  The enthronement psalms remind us that God is in charge, we are in great hands.

As we close out this week of psalms I hope that you come to appreciate the depth, diversity and richness of the psalms.  There is literally a psalm for every occasion.  For learning and growing, for giving thanks, for traveling, for worshipping, for complaining and asking for help in times of pain, and even when you’re angry and feel like getting revenge against those who have hurt you.  There’s a psalm for every occasion.   I hope that you will read them, and pray them (you can also learn how to sing them) and make them seep into your spirit and become a part of your prayer language and your life, just as they were for Jesus, who frequently could be found with the psalms on his tongue as he spoke and prayed.

-Jeff Fletcher

 

On Your Journey

Psalms

Psalm 121 1 2

 

We’re discussing seven different types of psalms and how to make them a regular part of our worship.  Today we consider pilgrimage psalms.  A pilgrimage is a journey to a place that holds special spiritual value to the person making the pilgrimage.  In ancient Israel those who lived outside of Jerusalem would make several pilgrimages each year to come to Jerusalem to worship at the temple and celebrate various feasts which commemorated important elements of Israel’s sacred story.  We know that Jesus was arrested and crucified at the beginning of the Passover celebration.

As people made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem they would sing joyful and festive psalms that would help them recall God’s goodness.  If you’ve ever travelled to a special place and event like Fuel, or General Conference, Christian Worker’s Seminar, or summer youth camp, you know that the excitement builds as you journey and get closer to the event.  Sometimes people sing some of the songs that gave meaning and joy to their previous times at those places.

Imagine as the pilgrims get closer to Jerusalem.  As Jerusalem is on a mountain they can see it from a distance.  As they climb Mt. Zion to get closer to the city and the temple of God their excitement grows and they begin enjoying an attitude of worship by singing and recalling God’s blessings.

Psalm 121 is a great example of a pilgrimage psalm:

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

This serves as a reminder that as you journey on your way, God is with you.  God is your helper who watches over you wherever you go.  How comforting and assuring to know that God is with you on your journey through life.  Even during those times where you might not know what’s waiting for you around the next corner or over the next hill, God is there, and he doesn’t go to sleep on the job.

-Jeff Fletcher

Don’t Forget – Give Thanks

FREE THEME WEEK – Psalms!

Psalm 150 6

This week we’ve been looking at seven different types of psalms, musical prayers that have been used for thousands of years first by the people of Israel and then by the Church as part of our worship and devotional life.  The first two types of psalms we looked at were wisdom and royal psalms.  The second two types of psalms were lament and imprecatory, these were a bit more challenging- not all of the psalms are about happy themes.

Today we are going to look at much happier psalms, the psalms of thanksgiving.  These are, perhaps, some of the better known psalms as they speak joyfully in praise of God.

The very last psalm, ends the psalms in a resounding crescendo of praise and thanksgiving”:

Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  These psalms speak for themselves about the joy of worshipping our great and powerful God.  God is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving.

Romans 1:21 gives the consequences of one who fails to offer to God the thanksgiving God deserves: “ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”  How tragic to fail to give to God the glory and thanks he so richly deserves.  A number of Biblical theologians see in this passage Paul’s reference to the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden, who failed to show thanks to God for the good gifts of creation and chose instead to listen to the voice of the serpent calling them to aspire to be like god.  Failure to give thanks to God is the original sin of humanity.  It may also be referencing Israel’s original story of the Exodus.  After God frees Israel from slavery in Egypt, they enter the wilderness, and while God is giving his instructions to Moses on Mt. Sinai, his people are down below making a golden calf to worship.  They trade the worship of God for idols made by human hands.  When we choose to worship anything in place of the one true God we are guilty of idolatry.

Throughout the psalms we are called to reject the original sin of not giving thanks to God and to worship God alone.  Worship is one reason that the Church gathers regularly.  We are not to forsake gathering as the Church for the purpose of worshiping God (Hebrews 10:24-25).  The psalms provide a rich and extensive songbook for us to use in our worship, both as a Church when we gather and in our times of private worship.  I read the psalms everyday as it helps me to join that several thousand year old congregation that joins together to worship and give thanks to God.

-Jeff Fletcher

 

Mercy & Grace – OR – a Cosmic Butt-Kicking

FREE THEME WEEK – Psalms!

Psalm 69 24

This week we are looking at seven different types of psalms.  So far we’ve seen wisdom, royal and lament.  Today we are looking at, perhaps, the most difficult of all, imprecatory.  Imprecatory means, quite simply, to call down a curse upon another.

Now, this is kind of tricky for Christians.  After all, Jesus taught us that we are supposed to forgive as we want to be forgiven.  We are supposed to love our enemies, right?  So how exactly can we justify praying imprecatory psalms as Christians?

Let’s look at an example of an imprecatory Psalm 69.

1 Save me, O God,
for the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in the miry depths,
where there is no foothold.
I have come into the deep waters;
the floods engulf me.
3 I am worn out calling for help;
my throat is parched.
My eyes fail,
looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without reason
outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause,
those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore
what I did not steal.

 

It starts out quite similar to a psalm of lament, as we discussed on Tuesday.  “Help God! Things are going badly.  I’m sinking.  Everyone is out to get me!  I’m all alone!”

He goes on to appeal to God for help.

19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed;
all my enemies are before you.
20 Scorn has broken my heart
and has left me helpless;
I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
for comforters, but I found none.
21 They put gall in my food
and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

Again, this has a familiar ring to it.  The gospel writers used this scripture to point to Jesus on the cross- remember when he said he was thirsty and they gave him vinegar to drink?

So far, we are still lamenting.  It’s dark, but it’s about to turn darker:

22 May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.
24 Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.
25 May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute those you wound
and talk about the pain of those you hurt.
27 Charge them with crime upon crime;
do not let them share in your salvation.
28 May they be blotted out of the book of life
and not be listed with the righteous.

 

Yikes! It just got real!  The person doesn’t just want God to save him, he wants God to crush his enemies.

“Pour out your wrath on them!”  “May they be blotted out of the book of life.”  Wow!  That’s pretty intense.

“May their place be deserted.”  Luke quoted that verse in the book of Acts when he talked about the need to replace Judas as one of the 12 Apostles.

How does this kind of call for God to damn your enemies fit within the overall message of the gospel of Jesus’ love and forgiveness?

Time and space doesn’t permit the kind of deep digging we might need to do to really get this, but I’ll take a stab at it.  When people hurt us, I mean really hurt us, our normal reaction is to want to hurt them back.  The desire to get revenge and retaliate when wronged is pretty normal, if we’re being honest.  So what do we do with that hurt, that anger, that pain?

Well, we know that some people take a gun and go shoot people at school or at work.  Some people take to social media and try to destroy another person’s life and reputation.  If you’re Carrie Underwood: “I dug my key into the side
Of his pretty little low Mercedes Benz
Carved my name into his leather seat
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires
And maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats.”

Sure, who among us hasn’t wanted to do that, and worse?

But as Christians we’re supposed to love our enemies.

Paul says in Romans 12

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Yes, there’s a lot in there about how we are supposed to not pay people back, we’re supposed to love.  Sandwiched in the middle of it all is “leave room for God’s wrath.”  Yes, God is a God of tremendous love, grace, mercy and forgiveness and he offers even the worst of sinners the chance for mercy and forgiveness- but he also knows how to do wrath.  He knows how to punish the unrepentant- and the Bible makes it clear that he will do so.

I don’t know who deserves mercy and grace and who deserves a cosmic butt-kicking, and neither did the Apostle Paul, and neither do you.  So we leave it to God.  Imprecatory prayers are simply ways that we say to God,  “I’m hurting and I want to hurt back, but I’m not going to.  I’m going to trust you to deal with this person the way you choose. (but here’s my pain and rage-fueled suggestion for how I’d like you to do it)”

-Jeff Fletcher

 

Alone?

FREE THEME WEEK – Psalms!

Psalm 22 1

This week we are looking at seven different types of psalms.  The first was a psalm of wisdom and the second was a royal psalm.  The third type of psalm is a lament psalm.

Life is not always easy.  I know that’s a real shocker for most of you but it is true.  Bad things happen.  People fail tests.  Relationships go sour.  People get hurt physically, emotionally, spiritually.  Sometimes people suffer in unimaginable ways and sometimes people die.   Sometimes it’s hard to find the words to express our pain during difficult times.  Sometimes this is true for individuals and sometimes it’s true from communities.

There are musical styles that express pain.  The blues are all about coping with pain.  Taylor Swift has written a song about every breakup she’s ever had.  Play many a country music song backwards and you get your truck back, your dog back and your woman back.

God doesn’t expect us to ignore pain or paint a pretend smile on our face and act like everything’s great when it isn’t.  Fortunately, God provides us a language to help us work through pain.  Psalms of lament.  The Bible is full of psalms of lament both for individuals and for communities.  The book of Lamentations is an entire book of laments after the fall of Jerusalem and their exile into Babylon.

Psalm 22 is an example of a psalm of lament.  I won’t include the whole psalm here but I’ll share enough for you to get the idea:

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.

This is a person who is clearly in pain.  Their pain is multiplied by the fact that they feel that God is no-where to be found.  “God, where are you?”  “God I’m hurting.”  “God can’t you see how badly I’m suffering here?”  “God, why aren’t you listening to my cry?”  “God, I need you, O I need you!”

If these words sound familiar to you, it may be because these are the words that Jesus cried out while he was being crucified.  Jesus suffered every way that we suffer and his greatest suffering came when he felt God’s absence.  There are times in our lives when God seems so close and so real and those times are wonderful.  But there are also times when God feels so very far away. Psalms of lament take our feelings of suffering, of abandonment, of God’s absence and help us to give words to them.  It also helps us to know that we are not alone in feeling alone.

9Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

The one who is suffering here pleads their case before God.  “You’ve been there my whole life”  “I’ve trusted you since I was a baby”  “God, come here… I’m scared, I’m all alone.”  Whether it is physical pain, emotional pain, spiritual pain or often a combination of all three, it hurts when you feel like you’re all alone. The Psalms of lament help us to find the words to cry out to God out of a mixture of faith and fear.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

Even though his situation feels hopeless… even though it seems like she is doomed, yet there is hope.  As bad as it feels, as alone as she seems, as desperate and lost and needy and broken, there is hope that one day things will be better, that one day there will be a chance to testify about God’s faithfulness.

Bad thing happen to God’s people too.  We don’t have to pretend that everything’s great when it’s not.  Don’t just read the happy psalms.  Just like Jesus committed Psalm 22 to memory so that when he was at the point of deepest agony he had the words to pray his pain to God, learn to pray the psalms of lament, both for yourself and for those you love who may also feel alone in their suffering.

-Jeff Fletcher

 

You can read the whole beautiful Psalm of lament here – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+22&version=NIV

The Winning Side

Psalm 110 1

FREE THEME – Psalms

This week we are looking at seven different types of psalms.  Yesterday we looked at a wisdom psalm.  Today we are looking at a royal psalm.

The Psalms were written at a time and in a culture where kings ruled.  Israel was governed by either David or his heir.  David was hand chosen by God to be God’s anointed king.  They literally poured oil over the king’s head and face to symbolize being anointed by God to rule.  This anointed one was literally the Messiah or messianic/anointed king.  When God set David apart as king God promised him that his heir would rule over God’s people forever.  This rule would begin at Jerusalem or Zion but would extend ultimately over all the earth.

Psalm 110 is a promise that the anointed king would rule, that God would give him victory over God’s enemies.

Vs. 4 makes a curious statement- this king will also be a priest, but not the typical priest.  In Israel, to serve as priest in the temple one had to be a descendant of the tribe of Levi.  But David and his family were descendants from the tribe of Judah, which was the ruling tribe.  This descendant of David would be a different kind of priest.  Just as Melchizedek was a priest in the time of Abraham, long before Levi was ever  born, this kind of priesthood was a greater kind of priest than the Levitical priest.

All of this finally makes sense when we understand how Jesus fits into the picture.  Jesus is the fulfillment of this psalm.  He is an heir of David, he will rule as King, he is also a priest but not in the temple of Jerusalem.   As a priest he offers up his own body as a sacrifice to God.  He doesn’t enter the holy of holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, he ascends to the heavens and enters into the immediate presence of God, where he continues to serve as our priest, until the day comes when he returns to the earth to rule over all the earth following the final battle when the kingdoms and kings of the earth will all bow before Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  This royal psalm points us to Jesus.

Everyone wants to be on the winning side.  This reminds us that if we choose to follow Jesus and give our lives to Jesus, we will be on the winning side at the last battle.

Psalm 110

Of David. A psalm.

1 The Lord says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”

2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
“Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
3 Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning’s womb.

4 The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
“You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.”

5 The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
7 He will drink from a brook along the way,
and so he will lift his head high.

Just Two Choices

A Free Theme Week into the Book of Psalms

Psalm 1 6

Greetings!  I’m introducing a week of devotions based on the Psalms.  There are 150 psalms in the Bible. (Note there are Protestant Bible translations and Catholic Bible translations.  The psalm number has a variation in Catholic translations.  I’ll be following the psalm numbering in Protestant versions ie. NIV, KJV, NRSV etc…)

The word psalm comes from the Hebrew word “mizmor” and means melody.  When translated into Greek it is “psalmos” which means song for the harp or the plucking of strings.  The key is that they are musical pieces.  Just as we sing hymns and praise and worship songs in church, the psalms were written to be sung as part of worship.  Most of the Psalms have been used in Jewish and later Christian worship settings for over 3,000 years (and you thought Frank Sinatra or the Beatles was old music).

Not all psalms are alike.  Different commentators call them different things and they are grouped differently.  I like the following 7 groupings:  1.Wisdom, 2. Royal, 3. Lament, 4.Imprecatory, 5.Thanksgiving, 6. Pilgrimage, 7. Enthronement.  During this week I’ll focus on a different type of Psalm and give the description and brief example each day.

Let me also talk to you a bit about how I incorporate psalms into my daily worship.  For hundreds of years men who live in monastic communities or monks have used the psalms as part of their daily worship.  In many communities they sing/pray/chant through the entire Book of Psalms every month.

A few years ago I came across an idea for going through the entire Book of Psalms every month using 5 psalms a day.  On the first day of the month read Psalm 1, 31, 61,91 and 121, the next day read Psalm 2,32,62,92,122.  Whatever day of the month you are on, read that, and then add 30 and keep going up by 30.  That way, in 30 days you will read all 150 psalms.  I break this up during the day: one when I first get up, one mid-morning, one at lunch time, one at supper time and one at the end of the day.  This way I surround my day and fill my day with these prayers and songs to God.  You don’t have to do it that way, but you might want to try it, or whatever way works for you. (On months with 31 days I just pick a few of my favorites for day 31).

The first type of psalm is a wisdom psalm.  It’s a kind of teaching psalm pointing out the way to live a Godly life.  An example of a wisdom Psalm is Psalm 1.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

 

This psalm is a simple but clear message about the choices we have in life.  This theme has been taken up by many through history.  Robert Frost talked about having a choice to take one of two paths and he took “the road less travelled” and that it made all the difference.  Jesus talked about wide gates and narrow gates and the importance of following his path “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  Even the classic rock band Led Zeppelin sang “yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on.”

This psalm teaches us that we do have choices.  We can follow the path of the righteous or we can follow the path of the wicked.  The path of the righteous is the “right or correct path.”  This path is the path of one who follows God’s instructions.  The law of the Lord is not so much a law like a legal code as much as an instruction about the way to live.  Jesus showed his disciples/students how to live a life that was faithful to God.  Those who follow this path delight in following God’s instructions for life and spend time meditating upon, praying about, thinking about God’s instructions.  What do you spend your time thinking about, focusing on, absorbing?  The person who is fully absorbed in God’s ways will live a fruitful and prosperous life.  That doesn’t necessarily mean they will be financially wealthy, but they will be successful in the way that God defines success, they will be godly, they will have life.

The other path is the path that leads to destruction.  This is the path that does not end well.  If I told you that there was a fork in the road: if you go right, you’ll end up at Disney World and a lifetime of fun and adventure, if you go to the left, you’ll be at the garbage dump and there’s no turning back.  I’m guessing you’d choose Mickey over a trash heap.  It all boils down to a simple choice.  If you feel like you’re currently heading on the wrong path, there’s good news “there’s still time to change the road you’re on.”

-Jeff Fletcher

Live Like New Creations!

Galatians 6

Galatians 6 9

In keeping in step with the Spirit, we can’t ignore sin.  But we don’t just condemn the person either.  We are supposed to restore that person.   And beyond that, Paul says:

2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Now, this seems a little contrary to what he says just three verses later that each person should carry their own load, but I think it is not. We are responsible for ourselves.  But as members of the body of Christ, we can help each other out to make things easier for our brothers and sisters.

The next paragraph is encouraging!  Don’t give up – something better is coming!

9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Paul wraps up this book by going back to the topic of circumcision that was causing divide.

15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.

Do it or don’t do it – it doesn’t matter.  We are under a new law of freedom now.  This may not be an issue that causes divide amongst Christians today, but we can get trapped in other debates about things that don’t really matter.  If we are new creations in Christ, we should live like it, in the freedom his sacrifice has given us, giving honor to him and our Father.

Thanks for reading this week – I hope you gained something from these devotions!

 

~Stephanie Fletcher