Psalm 42-The soul longing for God

As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God.


The christian life should be one that we truly seek the face of God in every aspect of our lives. It is interesting to me how there are so often times when the idea of thirsting is mentioned in scripture. The word thirsting means "to crave vehemently and urgently." Jesus talked of the water of life in the book of John when a Samaritan woman came to draw water and Jesus asked for a drink. Jesus offered her the living water which would cause her to never thirst again.


What is this water though. Water is a substance that is necessary to sustain life. Without water nothing can live, but the one thing that often we forget is that without God nothing can live as well. When you believe in Christ, he will see to it that your needs are fulfilled. Mind you that is your NEEDS not your WANTS. The thing that I have found in my walk, the more I seek the face of God the more peace I have with everything, I also feel less fear and less worry. I know that scripture also says not to worry but in all thing s be in prayer. (Philippians 4:6)


But what does the psalmist mean when he talks about thirsting for God? When you look at the first commandment, In Exodus 20 you see that you are to "have no gods besides me." If you look at Deuteronomy 6 you will find that you are to love God with all your heart, all your strength and all your soul. This is really asking a lot of a person. God wants us to long for him. We are to have a desire for nothing as strong as for him.


The next thing that we find in this text is that the Psalmist's heart is breaking. This has been a topic of discussion for me lately in many conversations. God's favorite sacrifice is a broken heart. How does a heart truly get broken though. First it must be soft to hear the calling of the Lord. Second it takes a situation that makes us fall completely to the will of God. This is the point my life has been. I'm seeking the face of God because I've been heart broken over my sin toward God and my wife. We need to escape that trap. The psalmist even mentioned "remembering how it used to be..." In order to keep our faith in the right place we have to remember where we cam from. We are all sinners, no one is better than the other and that is why we cannot boast.


I will put my hope in God!

God is the only true hope in this world. This is why we should praise him. A song by Casting Crowns that came out several years ago called Praise you in this Storm. This song talked about how it seems as God could have done a lot of things, taken our hurts away, or made us more complete. But the one thing that we have to remember is that God does so much for us it is unfair for us to expect everything to be perfect. In fact it is our own sin nature that is truly destructive not God. Even when we are attacked by the Enemy it is still our free will that causes us to sin. God is who he is no matter where we are. We can either choose to ignore his calling or we can live by his word and become stronger because of it. We have that choice.

Consider Job, God allowed Job to lose nearly everything and at that in the most tragic of ways. He lost his children, his riches, and essentially his wife with her words "curse God and Die". But Job never would stop worshipping his God. For this devotion God blessed him, just like he will bless us in our faithfulness.

I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.

Sometimes it feels as if God is punishing us, but a loving God doesn't do that. We have to seek him first in order to truly see the blessings that God is offering to us. Often times he blesses us before we deserve it and we need to be attentive to recognize that. God will pour his unfailing love on us and we have the option to either accept it or not. That is what free will is all about. God will not forsake us, that is the pain that Jesus went through on the cross. God is always right there by your side the real question is, will you acknowledge him?

Psalm 51 - Repenting and asking for forgiveness

In the last three weeks I've been studying the bible a lot more than I have been in the past. One of those passages has been Psalm 51. This passage was written by David after being confronted by Nathan the prophet over his sin with Bathsheba. How often do we have sin that has completely consumed us? I remember mine, in fact my sin put me in a place that I didn't want to be. I was failing at my task to God in that I wasn't loving him with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength as it speaks of in both Deuteronomy 6 and in Luke 10:25-29. This has created major complications in my marriage and in my walk wih christ.
So you ask what does this have to do with Psalm 51 well alot. David wasn't loving God when ever he commited the sin with Bathsheba. David the man after God's own heart wasn't always able to keep God's commandments. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When David was confronted by his sin he looked to God for forgiveness.

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stains of my sins.
Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

This should be our prayer whenever we turn to God to confess our sins. When I'm seeking after God's heart I know how much more difficult it is to see God's will and blessing when I'm twisted up in my sin. The sad thing is that we all have a way out of sin before we actually do sin against God. in seeking God we need to ask to be cleansed. The freedom in christ comes from that purity that is offered through the blood of the lamb. David begged for God's mercy and you can see that being the case. If we trust that God will show us the path then he will.

For I recognize my shameful deeds--they haunt me day and night

While trying to discover my sin I spent many night laying awake. I know that at times even when sleep came over me I would dream about it and they would often turn into nightmare's. Sin is the thing that actually traps you, even though many people think that their freedom is being without Christ how often do you see people absolutely trapped by their sin. Trying to walk a path without Christ is a path of self destruction. It breaks my heart to see others on this path, especially when I know that there is a better way. Christ offers that path and I am thankful for that. David realized that thru joy only comes from God.

Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me--now let me rejoice

The broken heart is one of the most precious things to God. I know that in the last three weeks since my heart was broken I have spent more time seeking God than I ever had. This has been critical to my growth as a christian. I know that I will continue to fail because I was a sinner at birth like everyone else, with the exception of Christ.

The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God you will not despise.

I have given myself to christ because of my broken heart and I know that he is going to bless me because of it. By being in his word and having the oppertunity to witness to people in this time of turmoil I will see wonderful things happen. I am given every oppertunity to be faithful, the question is will this happen again. I'm sure that at some pooint I will fall away from Christ because of my sin nature, but as long as I'm seeking God I should be able to get right back on the path of righteousness again. I'm sure that my heart will be broken again like it is now for my wife, but I now know that God will always be there like he always has been. The most interesting thing about God is that your either growing or your not, there is no in between. My prayer is that God will wash me of my sins so I can feel the joy that only he can provide. That he will grant me peace that passes all understanding so I can be the best servant for him that I can be. I also pray that God will take the me and leave only him. Because I was crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Galations 2:20.

Let the dead bury their dead

¹⁹ Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”
²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
²¹ Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
²² But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

As I read this passage today, it occurred to me that this is a place where I often fail. When I consider Christ and the relationship I have with them I should "Worry about Nothing" and "Let go and Let God". These things are harder than they sound. For us as human beings we want to be in control but as I read this I consider where does my relationship need to be.

The selected passage starts with a guy who has seen what Jesus has done. How many times have we seen the results of Christ's miracles in the lives of those around us. This guy wants to follow Christ every where, this guy wants to be a part of this, almost, fan club that Jesus has. We don't want to sit and just wonder at the side show that is created by the hand of God, we shouldn't just happily watch as others start a new relationship with Christ. I feel in a way that this is what this man is considering, he just wants to watch the side show. I feel this way because of what he says later on but I will get to that.

Jesus warns him that the road that he is on is relentless, by saying he has no home he is saying that there isn't much opportunity to rest. Jesus in his short ministry was always on the move. He picked up followers at every stop and at times he just needed the peace. What did he do in his moments alone? He communed with his Father. This is not something that is typical for man but in his example we should remember that it is important to always be in prayer, the more we communicate with God the more that we will know his will. It is through God that Jesus drew his strength and we are promised that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

Now I come to the guy's response. I've heard before that the guy's dad wasn't necessarily even dead but he was wanting to go home and do what his dad wanted and then he would join the "Sideshow". The reason that this seems to be an evident situation is because there is no evidence of mourning in the guy. If your dad had recently passed, don't you think you would be a little more upset than this. Here is the application though, this guy was worried about worldly things. How often do worldly things get in the way of our relationship with Christ. I look back and I realize that there have been times when ever these other things get in the way and it has nearly destroyed me as a person not just my witness.

Jesus responds with the line of ages basically saying, if you want to have a relationship with me, you have to put me before everything else. As a husband and a father I realize how hard this can be. I want to, at times, put my wife or my children ahead of my relationship with Christ. One thing I've had to learn and at times be reminded of is that when my priorities are taken care of then everything else will fall into place. If you haven't let the things of this world fall behind Christ then take the opportunity to pray that Christ forgive you for not keeping him in priority. And if you don't know how your priorities should fall then ask God to help you figure them out.

Keep your eyes focused on Jesus and you will be able to see clearly.

Planks and specks

The last few days I've been looking at the sermon on the mount. I got to Matt 7 and I started to consider how much people judge others. This is a situation that we don't seem to realize gets deeper and deeper. We also don't realize how this can not only damage our relationship with others but our relationship with Christ.
A little less than a week ago my wife quit her job. I can't blame her, the people that she was having to work around had decided to judge her early in her time working there when she was first learning the job. When she left, there was at least one of her colleagues that said that she was the one person who really got the job done right. Everyone else there had spent their time making rumors up about her because of the judgement they had pasted on her.
This is a sad state of affairs. I felt badly that I couldn't protect her from this sort of abuse. The one thing that I'm trying to be careful of is that I don't allow myself to be a hypocrite.

1	Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2	For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Mk. 4.24
3	And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4	Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5	Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
6	Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

I don't wish to be the one that passes judgment on any person. What this text says to me is that if you are spending your time being worried about someone else then you can't be worried about yourself. This affects your relationship with Christ because if you are spending your time looking at someone elses flaws then you are not focusing your eyes and your efforts on what Christ's plan is for you. We all are truly guilty of this every now and again. It is important for us to ask forgiveness and move on.
Christ didn't die on the cross because he was passing judgment on us but because we passed judgment on him. Judgment is God's place and as he sits in the mercy seat he still loves us. In fact even while we are buried in our own sin God loves us. That is the reason Christ died that horrible death on the cross. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that, sometimes we sin and move away from Christ but he will draw us back in if we let him.
Keep your eyes fixed on him and you won't have to worry about passing judgment on others. Strive to be like him and be a witness to others. People should know that you are a Christian by your love, and passing judgment isn't loving someone. Until next time keep your focus on what is really important.