Finding The Cross In The Psalms Psalms 9:1-2 Day 3

For this lent season, I am doing a forty day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around easter. My hope is to generate a new found awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalm 9:1-2

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

When David says “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart” I realize how often I say that or others say that.  Like, “I love Jesus with all my heart” or, “I give my whole heart to Jesus” and what I realize is that I don't love Jesus with my whole heart or really give Jesus my whole heart. 

Maybe at times I do but do I really live a life of a whole heart to God? Sadly the answer is no. The reason the answer is no is because looking back on my life I have really known what it means to give my whole heart to something. There has been sin in my life that I have been sold out for; I would live for it and maybe would die for it. I know how to be sold out for something!

Can I actually say, “I am sold out for the living Triune God”? Again the answer is sadly no because if I see how I've been sold out for sin in my life I would see that I have been more in love with my sin than my God. I see how my body reacts to the sin; how my mind reacts to the sin and the great lengths I would go to keep my sin secret. The funny thing is that sin doesn't love you back! God forgive me!

So this morning I see Jesus loving God with his whole heart as He’s being killed on the cross. I believe with my whole heart that God gave me His heart which makes it worse because I don't blindly betray him, I betray him with open eyes. Forgive me Jesus. The cross does allow me to live a life wholehearted for God.

So today I repent; today I have a whole heart for God. Father, in the name of Jesus I come in humble repentance for loving my sin more than You. I've constantly betrayed you and you have constantly loved me. You don't make me pay for my sin.

Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for my sin, so I can live a whole heart for God.

Finding The Cross In The Psalms Day 1

I will be doing a forty day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around easter. My hope is to generate a new found awe of what Christ did on the cross.

Psalms 4:4-5

Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

When I read this Psalm it pains me because I don't know how to be silent in my anger. I want everyone to know how angry I am or how someone has sinned against me. I always have a tendency to get a type of entitlement that gets me to believe a lie that people who sin against me owe me something. I love how God is calling me to ponder my anger in my own heart and on my bed. This tells me God is calling me to work out my anger with Him.

So as I imagine myself being angry at the same time being silent and pondering in my own heart I can only resolve that the only way this could happen is what Christ did on the cross. As Jesus looked at his scoffers; his enemies he prayed for their salvation. Jesus wasn't angry on the cross; He mourned for them at the same time they were killing him. Jesus did not mourn for Himself but when someone sins against me I tend to mourn myself. God forgive me.

God has given us the same heart Jesus had on the cross. We have the ability to mourn for our enemies at the same time they're sinning against us. A sinful heart would say “you will pay for the sins you committed against me” a godly heart says, “Jesus paid for the sin; therefore I can hold nothing against you”. Do you see the beauty in this? This truth sets us free from the bondage of entitlement. Now we can ponder in our own heart and be silent when we are angry. When the psalmist says be silent, I don't think it means don't talk. I really think it means be at peace and because of the work that Jesus did on the cross; we can be at peace and at the same time be angry because we can mourn for our enemy rather than ourselves. This frees us up to pray for their salvation, joy, and peace in Him.

You Have To Feast To Fast

We are entering into Lent season, which is the 40 days of fasting before Easter. Usually people are trying to figure out what they will give up during the Lent season. Although I have never studied the history behind Lent I do know that the primary intention is to sacrifice something for the 40 days leading up to Easter.  For me and my family we call it the Atonement season where we spend 40 nights together as a family and study all the different aspects to the atonement at the same time fasting from something. It's not about what I can give up for God but rather what God gave up for me. So it's not a time of fasting or doing without, as much as it is a time of feasting on what God has done for us.

Mark 2:18-22 some people came to Jesus and asked “why are John's disciples and the Pharisees fasting, and your disciples do not fast”? And Jesus answered “because the bridegroom is here and the wedding guests do not fast while bridegroom is here” so it's like Jesus saying it's not about what the disciples need to give up but more of what Jesus was giving the disciples; and what Jesus was giving his disciples was… Himself.

Additionally, Jesus goes into explaining what fasting is by saying, “no one sews a new patch an old clothing and no one puts new wine into old wine skins” this was the way that Jesus chose to talk about a new way of fasting. If you sew a new patch on old clothing, when you wash it the patch will shrink thus making a bigger hole. In the same way if you put new wine in old wine skins the wine will expand and will burst the wine skin. So, what is Jesus saying? How does this explain fasting? I believe Jesus was saying do not mix the new with the old and He was talking about fasting when he was explaining this.

So what is the new way of fasting? And what is the old way of fasting? I believe the old way of fasting is doing without, abstinence, giving something up. So what is the new way of fasting? I believe it's feasting in His presence, doing with, indulging in God's love. In John 16 Jesus tells His disciples, “it's to your advantage that I go so the Holy Spirit can come to you” it was like Jesus was telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit will be a better help to you to dwell in the presence of the living God.

The bottom line for me is I am going to spend the next 40 days feasting on the glory of the atonement as I fast from food. So it's like I have to feast to fast. One of my primary sins in my life is gluttony. I can’t look at my sin of gluttony and believe, “I need to stop sinning”, or “I need to give up this sin”. Or figure out ways to say no to my sin. I need to believe that a yes to God is a no to my sin. A yes to God is an automatic fast from my sin. I need to believe that feasting in the presence of the living God is enough for me. It is not about what I give up for God, but what God gave me. It's not about what I sacrifice but what Jesus sacrificed.

I invite you to this atonement feast journey as I will be posting what I am hearing from God through out the 40 days 

Come, See A Man Who Told Me All That I Ever Did

Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of the freedom we have from our sin (a lot of reminding). So this week, I want to talk to you about the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-45) and give a picture of this woman’s healing and what her testimony of healing did for others. The story starts with the woman coming to the well where Jesus was. Jesus strikes up the conversation with her about drinking water but quickly moves from the water in the well to the living water where she would never thirst again. She responds by saying, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water” (John 4:15). At this point, Jesus starts to reveal himself as the Messiah. The way he chooses to do this to the woman is to reveal her sin.

By showing her sin and still revealing himself as the Christ (John 4:26), Jesus says, “Because I am the Savior of the world I don’t see you as they see you” (John 4:16-18). Immediately, she goes back to her town and tells the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (John 4:29). The Samaritans believe her, based on her testimony (John 4:42) of “a man who told me everything I ever did”. The Samaritan woman was no longer held captive to her own sin.

The townspeople then came to Jesus and asked Him to stay with them, and he did. After two days, the towns’ response was, “we had believed because of the woman’s testimony of ‘He told me all that I ever did,’ but now, we no longer believe because of what the woman said. We have heard what Jesus has said and believe for ourselves” (John 4:41-42).

There are three points I want to unpack here. First, hidden or un-confessed sin keeps you in bondage. The moment Jesus revealed her sin the Samaritan woman was free. Living the gospel, you have to reveal sin because un-confessed sin keeps you in darkness. Jesus shows us, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, this cleanses you from all sin (1 John 1: 7). So, walk revealed as He is revealed. Second, being freed from the bondage of hidden or un-confessed sin allows us to worship in Spirit and Truth. Once you worship in Spirit and in Truth, which is through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are no longer in bondage to your sin. Third, the Samaritan woman didn’t just receive her healing and keep it to herself. She instantly told others, which is the true image of healing; giving away what you have been given. The only way to give away what she had was that she saw she was no longer a victim to others’ thoughts about her, or condemnation from others. The bottom line is you can give to others, because you are no longer a victim.

So, my question to you is: What keeps you from confessing and revealing sin? Shame? Guilt? Condemnation? You know that the Cross of Jesus Christ has rescued you from these things. When someone reveals sin to you, is it a reminder of how bad you are? With the right lenses of the Cross, revealing sin to you is a reminder of how good God is because He crushed His Son to reconcile you. Because of this, you are no longer a victim to your sin.

How To Ask God For Healing

The story of the “lame beggar” in Acts 3:1-10 show us a guy who hung out in front of the temple gate called “beautiful gate”.  People carried him every day to be laid by the front entrance of the temple, because he couldn’t walk.  He had been crippled since birth.  And he would ask for alms, which means he was asking for any “charitable donation”.  Peter and John were walking into the temple and had seen the man laying down asking for alms.  Peter got his attention by calling to him, so the man thought Peter and John was going to give him a donation.  But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.  Then he leaped up and entered the temple, leaping and walking and praising God.

This is a very interesting story for us to learn from.  The man lies by the gate of the temple of God every day and never asks for healing.  He obviously believed what he needed is alms (gold, or silver).  God showed him what he really needed.   I think sometimes we do the same thing.  We ask for alms, when we really need healing.  I, also believe we (at times) figured out how to deal with the pain, with out really going to God and ask for healing.

Today, would you to consider asking God where you may have been asking God for alms instead of healing?

Ask God, in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit the following questions.

• How often do I lower the bar of expectation of God for our healing? 
• How often do I tell God what I think I need, instead of healing?
• How often do I miss out on the healing power of God, because we don’t believe?
• How often do I believe God is not interested in healing me?

 Then pause for a moment and listen for the answer.

Luke 11:11-13 say’s “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So, how do you ask nGod for healing? You have to raise your expectations on God to heal you.  God loves when we raise our expectations on Him, because that means we believe in Him.  And when you ask God, in the name of our Savior Jesus through the Power of the Holy Spirit for healing and He heals you, please don’t be surprised.

The Heart Versus The Will

Have you ever said to yourself, “man, I wish I could stop sinning”? And are you like me, at the very moment we say this, we start to think of ways on how to stop? Do you have that internal battle that plays over and over in your mind of your sin being so big and that it happens so often, you think, man, do I even know God?  So we start that vicious cycle of trying to figure out how not to sin. So often we go to our will to help produce better behavior. But we have to understand that our will in no way can produce behavior. We have to understand that our will is a servant to our heart. The will can only make decisions on what our heart desires. Meaning, the heart supplies the desire to the will; our will follows our heart. The dog wags the tail; the tail does not wag the dog.

I think we would be amazed on how often we depend on our will to change our behavior. My question is, if we were successful in using our will to change a certain sinful behavior and our heart stays in the same sinful desire, is that true transformation?  The answer is no. If we just employ our will for change, then we are doing nothing more than applying the law to our sin. The law cannot produce the holiness that it commands. So you ask, “what is God asking from me”? God is after our faith and our faith resides in our heart. Faith does not reside in our will, but only in our heart. Faith is a living un-shakable confidence in the grace of God. God is looking for good works, but it’s His good works. So you see, God is not calling us to “do” the law; God is calling us to fulfill the law. There is a big difference between doing the law and fulfilling the law. Doing the law is an outward work, whereas fulfilling the law is an inward work that is more about who we are. The only one who can fulfill the law was Jesus. Now, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God has fulfilled the law in us through Christ’s death on the cross. So when we see in the letter from Peter him calling us to be holy, we can see that God isn't calling us to moral perfection where we labor at our sin. God is calling us to see what He has done, rather than what we have done and are doing.

I think it's the same thing when we buy the lie that once we sin we have to find our way back to God. Religion is man seeking God; Christianity is God seeking man. We can't read the scriptures in hopes to find God, we read the Scriptures to see how God found us. We have to see that God flipped the script. It's not about us; it's about God. So when we find ourselves in that seemingly huge sin, don't try to figure out how to stop. Don't look to your will to get yourself out of it, but look to the cross and rejoice that God got you out of it by crushing His son for your sin.