Lord Jesus, God incarnate True God, and truest man The two in one united To be Atonement's Lamb What praises can we offer To sing Thy worthiness? E’en Heaven’s songs will falter To match Thy blessedness
Dear Saving Son, Redeemer Forgive my faithless heart That fails in times of trial To trust in Whom thou art Thou sum of Love's perfections God's Word and Wisdom full Enlarge my soul's affection And end deception's pull
High Priest and Intercessor In all my weakness, plead Thy Spirit's keeping power According to my need Christ's light amid the darkness Christ's strength when I am weak Christ's succor in temptation Christ's words when e're I speak
Let praise and adoration O'er flow my heart and mind Till naught but all Thy beauty Remains for Thee to find Transform and full conform me Purge all that's base and mean And bring me to Thy glory Till Christ alone is seen
Let Christ be all in all
My Prophet, Priest and King
The Lamb of God in sacrifice
Yet Lord o’er everything
Let Christ be all in all
God's Word made flesh as man
Eclipsing all who came before
"Hear him!" Is God's command
Let Christ be all in all My interceding Priest Before the throne he ever pleads God's wrath in him now ceased
Let Christ be all in all My savior and my Lord Who reigns in flawless righteousness My heart bound by love's cord
Let Christ be all in all The sum of Heav’ns store God's richest jew'l and only Son Angelic hosts adore
Let Christ be all in all In him are all complete All prophecies and promises The lips of God did speak
Let Christ be all in all Blest Spirit make it so That he my richest treasure be In Heaven and below
Let Christ be all in all God's glory in his face Consume my heart and soul and mind Let nothing take his place
When one is devoid of the righteousness of Christ – even what they try to give God in their worship – even sacrifice, is detestable. When for those in Christ – not only is their worship acceptable, but as opposed to giving a sacrifice to God, their desiring things FROM God is His very delight. One seeks to give and is disregarded. The other seeks to receive and is delighted in.
And may our hearts grasp this truly. When we ask “what does God want from me?” We can answer with this bold assurance.
I had a position once where I reported directly to the President of a small company; and the man was impossible to read in regard to whether or not he was happy with my performance. It seemed no matter what I did, I never got an affirming hint.
One day, I went into his office and just asked – “are you happy with my performance? because I don’t know where I stand.” Puzzled, he looked up at me and said: “Until I tell you different, everything is fine.” And that was the way it was my entire tenure there. But it wasn’t comfortable.
Then I married Sky. Me, being me, and somewhat insecure, I was telling her constantly how much I loved her. Multiple times a day.
One day, she told me to stop doing that. That it felt like manipulation. Then she said: “look, I love you. That stands until further notice.” That blew a hole in my head – but when I finally simply settled into trusting her love, I found it a far more sweet and simple relationship.
Now unless I miss my guess, there is something of this dynamic which informs the relationship many Christians have with God. Some are looking for some sort of ongoing affirmation or assurance. Especially if we have actually or imagined that we’ve have sinned against Him. How do we measure our acceptance with Him?
And rather than fixing our gaze continually on the Cross – we fix it upon ourselves and our performance.
Did I read the Scriptures enough today? Pray enough? Was I kind enough, spiritual enough, did I “feel” His love? Did I tithe enough? etc. As though the word “enough” is even useful here.
This impacts above all – prayer.
In prayer, this insecurity often shows itself in how we feel we need to butter God up before we make any petitions. Like He needs us to somehow make Him feel good about Himself before we can get to OUR stuff.
We start off addressing Him with all kinds of titles and accolades to get Him in the right frame of mind to hear us.
The problems with that approach are too many for us to address here, but essentially, it is approaching Him as pagans do their idols.
If you find that factor has crept into your prayer life – it is a mark that there is a trust issue afoot. That we do not trust His love and the nature of our relationship together is not truly grace based and sealed in the Cross.
It springs from the unspoken insecurity that we just don’t know what God really expects from us. How can we be sure He’s on our side? And doesn’t this hit especially hard when go through some unexpected and severe trial or temptation?
Additionally, it is why both legalism and rituals are so attractive. If I have this specific list of do’s and don’ts, I can take my comfort based on how well I’ve ticked the boxes.
The result is, that when things seem to go awry in life, we start probing: Where have I missed the boat? Where did I fall down? Why is He letting this happen to me if everything between us is OK? I am missing the key metric. The key to knowing the nature of His love and attitude toward me.
As our text here says: “The prayer of the upright is his delight.”
What pleases God most? It is that God is believed in all that He has said, done and revealed, and trusted accordingly.
Let me repeat that – God wants above all else – to be believed, in all that He has said, done and revealed – and then trusted accordingly.
This is the faith He desires, and that pleases Him.
And this is basis of all prayer. That as we look to him in everything, he is delighted.
Would you delight your God today Christian? Look to him with your every need. And you will dwell in the warmth of his glorious smile.
Believe him. Trust him. Pray. This is ours, because of Christ Jesus.
Those of you old enough to remember Harry Belafonte, may remember his hit song of 1959 (yeah, I’m THAT old). Not only do I remember the lyrics, I remember laying down on the floor in our house on Milburn St., in front of the TV, and hearing another singer crooning that song. And I remember weeping at it. I was probably around 11 years old.
The opening lyrics were simple; they were a father singing to his daughter:
Where are you going my little one? Little one Where are you going, my baby, my own? Turn around and you’re two, turn around and you’re four Turn around and you’re a young girl going out of the door
I’m not sure why they hit me so profoundly at the time. The closest I come to knowing my own heart at that time, was the realization, even then, that life would not continue always as it was right then. That I would change. My parents would grow older. That the closest of all relationships would stage after stage, morph. And I didn’t want that. I wanted the security of things remaining as they were. A reasonable desire, but an unreasonable expectation.
Many years later that song would haunt me as I experienced my own “little one”, my daughter. The truth of – before you know it – your own dearest one would turn 2 so quickly, then 4, and then…out of the door. It makes me misty even to contemplate these words again, even as my “Bug”, my daughter is a grown woman with a wonderful family of her own, and her own little ones who every time she turns around, are getting older, almost magically and imperceptibly. All too fast. And yet, this is the way of life. It always was and will be until Christ returns. And the question the lyricist first asked, is the same one Scripture itself puts before each one of us even now.
Let me ask you reader – where are you going? And if you can hear the words of the Heavenly Father asking that question, it takes on eternal significance.
So it is we read in Proverbs 4:25 “Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead.”
When contemplating any course of action, it only makes sense to ask: “Where will this take me? What is the end of what I am contemplating?” In either word or deed.
But of course, this also begs the question of whether or not I am on my way to anywhere at all?
If one were to pursue a career as a lawyer – they would plot out a course that would take them there. The right undergraduate courses in college, and then Law School. Then setting their sights on passing the Bar, and then – then the practice of Law itself. It is the same with anything in life. To be a teacher, a race car driver, an electrician – name it. But as the old saying goes, if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it – too.
Setting a course in the natural is one thing – but how many actually contemplate setting a course toward Heaven? Do we imagine we will just stumble in there someday? That “being” a Christian is the end game, the goal itself? Do we forget Jesus words: Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV) — 13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Why do so few find it? Why do so few enter in? Because so few are actually looking for it and seeking to enter in.
If you are aiming at entering heaven, keep your eyes on that destination, and make the decisions which coincide with going there. Keep looking for the door of that Great City. Keep your eyes fixed on what you intend to do and be there – and who you are longing to spend eternity with.
No one will get there by accident. Only those who inquire as to The Way – Jesus – and who order their lives to go there to be with Him and the Father.
A play on words here if you will. The confession I’m talking about is confessing the great doctrines of The Faith, once and for all given to the saints. Keeping major themes in our hearts and minds by memorable means was a concern of Peter’s in chapter 1 of his 2 letter. And it remains a concern for all of us who shepherd God’s people.
One of the gifts I am ever grateful for is how I was raised learning the great hymns of the faith that stated and restated the grand Biblical themes in ways which make them so easily re-countable.
While what I have below may serve this purpose in the best way, I pray it can be useable if sung on a somewhat regular basis so as to cement them more easily in the mind.
This, can be sung to the tune of “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness.”
All hail to him who mercy shows To we who fall and sin Who owes to none his saving grace Yet holds such grace within
When Adam fell the law said just Partake and you will die No promise had been sworn before That God would still draw nigh
Nor when upon the Sinai mount The tables, God inscribed The ten commands held no relief That God would still abide
When Jonah preached to Nineveh
Their nearing sure demise
He gave no word that mercy might
Yet still in grace arise
But how the Gospel shouts to all
Who have such ears to hear
Redeeming grace in Jesus’ cross
Allays all judgment’s fears
Come see the place where God has died
A ransom for the lost
The Son of God in human flesh
Has paid the utmost cost
No sin, no shame, no guilt so black
The stain cannot be purged
His blood avails for all who come
All sinners now are urged
Hold nothing back confessing sin
Bring all your foulness here
And lay it at the Savior’s feet
Let nothing make you fear
His blood can make the foulest clean
Sufficient is his cross
And none who fly in faith to him
Can ever suffer loss
Our Christ has full atonement made
The Spirit then applies
And makes the sinner come to own
What all our Christ supplies
No rest so sweet can any have
But those in Christ alone
Made one again with God by faith
In Christ, and Christ alone
“Swinging for the fences” is a baseball term. It embodies the idea of the batter swinging the bat with all his might every time he steps up to the plate – always aiming at hitting a home run if possible. In baseball, I suppose it is a useful and universally true maxim. But it might not be the best metaphor in other places – such as preaching.
In both my own experience and in conversation with others – those of us who preach and teach come to realize pretty quickly in our endeavors that this preaching thing is a very strange beast to ride.
Most men I know want to do it well. We study. We critique ourselves (I hope). We seek outside critique (I hope even more). We prepare as best we can. We listen to others who we think do it well. We strive after maximum impact every time we step into the pulpit. We try hard. So far so good.
But this idea of swinging for the fences when we preach might need some examination.
For instance – what is our actual aim when we preach? And how are we measuring our success, or lack of it, in preaching? Compliments? Tears? “Whoosh” moments? Personal vigor? Congregational response while in the act? Email follow ups? Conversions? If we’ve swung for the fences, how do we know when we’ve hit the home run? How do we even define the home run?
All of us can probably remember a sermon or two, that looking back over time, have stuck with us. They’ve had a singular and lasting effect on us. They stand out. And we can want to preach that kind of sermon too. That’s not bad in and of itself in that we always hope to be effective. But I want to argue that if we locate our effectiveness in hitting sermonic home runs – we might need to rethink some things. Not the least of which is – especially as pastors – preaching and teaching the same congregation year in and year out. Unless there is an unusual move of God, extraordinary actually, our people are not going to leave each week saying “Wow! That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard – my life is changed forever.”
Not gonna happen. Not gonna happen.
May I suggest to you that the fences we need to be swinging for are located more in faithfulness to the text, than in anything else. That we hit the home run when we best preach what the text is getting at. When the Biblical point of the passage is brought home with as much clarity as possible. And that, irrespective of the subjective responses – our own OR other’s. Feelings aside.
In fact, what I am driving at most in this short missive is the idea that Jesus pressed on Peter in John 21:15-17 – “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”
In other words, our ministrations in the Word are first and foremost wrapped up in the daily, weekly, year after year – common feeding God’s people his provided means for their spiritual health and welfare.
Neither Anthony Bourdain (when he was alive), Wolfgang Puck, Rachael Ray, Giada De Laurentis, Bobby Flay, Jamie Oliver nor Gordon Ramsay ever imagines they will cook up and serve up a meal so transcendent that the ones eating it will never need another meal again as long as they live. It will instead be eaten, hopefully enjoyed, digested, and not to be indelicate – cast out into the draught.
So it is with our sermons. The home runs are not in singular sermonic events, but in the faithful preparing of that which nourishes the soul on a consistent and regular basis – a sound, spiritual diet. That alone sustains the soul. It is in the regular care and feeding of souls in the exposition of God’s Word that the game (if you will) is won.
My dear brother – feed his lambs, tend his sheep, feed his sheep. Take the superstar pressure off of yourself. Get up to bat in the pulpit each week swinging for these fences.
Be more concerned about regular scriptural and spiritual meals at home, than making a fast break for home plate.
In Jermiah 8:22, the prophet is groaning over the suffering of God’s people as a result of their sin. To make matters worse, he knows the cure to their ills, but they won’t take the physic.
Sometimes it is a hard pill to swallow, this medicine called repentance.
Jeremiah isn’t wondering out loud to God as to whether or not there is help to be found. No, he is crying out to his people to remember that there IS help to be found. That God delights to forgive and restore. There is indeed a balm, a soothing medicine for their woes. “Wake up! Is it because God hasn’t provided a balm for us that we smart so? Isn’t there help in what he has already given us in faith and repentance – in Gilead?” In the proverbial place that represents God’s lush and full promises.
We however, use this phrase differently most times. We tend to cry it out in times of suffering and distress. After long seasons of suffering, pain, confusion, doubt and trial, we might question – “do you see and feel my pain God? And is there no healing medicine to be found?” I’ve been there. Maybe you have been too. Maybe you are there right now. And it is why I recommend this little but powerful book to you – Christ and Calamity: Grace & Gratitude in the Darkest Valley by HAROLD L. SENKBEIL
Harold Senkbeil, former pastor and Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary has written one of the sweetest, Christ centered and useful books for Christians in calamity I’ve ever read. I will read it again. And I will send copies of it to a number of people.
Senkbeil does not write from an ivory tower. Chapter 1 begins this way: “Calamity is everywhere around us. But recently it came home to roost at my house. My wife, Jane, whose health had been declining for decades, was hospitalized twice in the middle of the covid pandemic, and then she was released on home hospice care. For the next fourteen months our lives became a slow slog toward the inevitable end. It wasn’t all horrible. We had the help of a caring hospice team, and we had each other. Best of all, we had the promises of a very gracious God.”
The book is brief, and can be easily be consumed in one or two sittings. But I would counsel you not to do that.
The very short 11 chapters are meant to be read more like a series of meditations. One a night seems best. For although his writing style is extremely accessible, the depth of each portion is hidden deceptively under his easy prose. But he is keenly aware that the soul in crisis cannot easily take in huge chunks of deep counsel. Sometimes medicine needs to be easy to sip rather than to gulp.
The contents run as follows:
Invitation to the Reader
Prayer in Time of Affliction
i Your Calamity
ii When You Are Faithless, Christ Is Your Faithfulness
iii When You Cry Out, Christ Is Your Advocate
iv When You Are Afflicted, Christ Is Your Comfort
v When You Bear Your Cross, Christ Is Your King
vi When You Are Weak, Christ Is Your Strength
vii When You Are Sad, Christ Is Your Joy
viii When You Are in Darkness, Christ Is Your Light
ix When You Are Alone, Christ Is with You
x When You Are Dying, Christ Is Your Life
xi Christ Is Your Victory
Invitation to Prayer
Prayer for Any Time
Prayer for Morning
Prayer for Evening
“Jesus, Priceless Treasure”
If I were to highlight the key features, the words which come most readily to mind are:
Readable.
Realistic.
Christ-centered.
Gentle.
Biblical.
Healing.
If you are one who is in crisis, or know someone who is, please minister to yourself or them by securing this exceptional work.
There is indeed a balm in Gilead. His name is Jesus. And Christian, he is with you in the midst of your storm.
Christ and Calamity: Grace & Gratitude in the Darkest Valley
Let’s revisit something we’ve considered somewhat before.
Sometimes when reading the Bible, we can be dismissive of things like genealogies and other things which seem to be of no importance. It is true, not every part of Scripture holds equal importance. Israel’s dietary laws don’t have quite the accessible impact of Genesis 1:1 or Rom. 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
But just because we do not catch the use of something right away doesn’t mean God was careless in including it. It just means we don’t get it yet. He does not speak superfluously.
So it is with this opening chapter of Matthew. In it, Matthew is establishing some foundational truths about the identity of Jesus that inform everything else in his Gospel. We don’t want to miss them.
Let me suggest just a few things here.
In the first place, Matthew is establishing Jesus’ authentic Jewishness.
In the 2nd place, Jesus’ lineage makes Him fit to sit on the throne of David, to be King of The Jews should they recognize Him as such.
So Matthew’s aim in this entire 1st chapter is to answer the question – Who is Jesus?
1 – vs. 1 / a. He is the King of Israel. God’s perfect ruler.
b. The Fullness of the promise given to Abraham in person.
2 – vss. 2-16 / In every way a partaker of our humanity. And yet without sin.
3 – vs. 17 / a. The Promise of the Father.
b. God’s Presence with us in our exile.
c. The Accomplish-er of our Salvation – our Messiah.
4 – vs. 18 A participant in our shame, without sin or shame of His own.
5 – vs. 19 / Undesired.
6 – vs. 20 / Unaccepted apart from divine revelation.
7 – vs. 21 / Savior.
In the third place, we see Jesus as descended from kings, scoundrels, nobodies, men, women, Jews, Gentiles, faithful, faithless, a prostitute, nomads, warriors, prophets, farmers, those who lived in ease, those who lived in poverty, those who accomplished much, those who left nothing behind but their names. The shunned and the accepted, the steadfast and the mercurial, the creative and the dull, intellectuals and uneducated commoners.
Christ Jesus came in the likeness and lineage of fallen, broken, sin-cursed humankind. There are none who cannot be touched by Him, nor reconciled to the Father through Him. The miracle of the incarnation. What a Savior!
ResponsiveReiding 