Praise Him

Psalm 51 cont'd:

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.

Today is Halloween, the fun night for little kids to go from door to door in their costumes, asking for candy. 

Halloween can be so fun, when kids feel secure in a family that follows Christ, and they see life through the lens of purity, holiness, and selflessness.  They can enjoy family fun together, footless and fancy-free.  They can even sing songs together in the car as they go from place to place, songs of joy and praise to God as they enjoy this beautiful season of fall.

However,  in homes that are full of darkness and sin, the costumes often reflect what’s in the heart of these families.  The darkness that is present in the world even becomes more evident in their outward appearance, and in experiencing the horrifying scares of demons, witches, and ghouls, who are not just cartoon characters, but are real and scary.  These families can sing songs, but they won’t cover up the degradation and neglect that the children will feel once they’re back in their beds, their tummies are full, and their minds are overloaded with fear.

David asks God in this verse to open his lips to sing His praise.

On this day of “trick or treat,” ask God to fill your family time tonight with his praise, in whatever you choose to do.  Some choose to participate in Halloween festivities, and others choose to shun it. Either way you go, choose to open your lips as a family together and spread the joy of your salvation to each home you visit, or with each other.

And enjoy the season of pumpkins, lanterns, and LIGHT that comes to our darkness and dispels and erases all that is evil.  And give him PRAISE.

Repentance

Psalm 51 cont'd:

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

This is the beauty of repentance.  When we stumble and fall, and we experience the forgiveness of God, we want to help others and keep them from stumbling into the same pit from which we were rescued.  We know the darkness and the separation that comes from sin.

Another response to being forgiven is the desire to sing of His righteousness.  When our souls are set free from the bondage that shame brings, we cannot help but burst forth into song.

In fact, I’d say these two things are marks of a truly repentant heart:

Wanting to help others who are in sin

Wanting to sing about Him

If we sin and we only want to be forgiven because we got caught and we want to get on with our lives, and we only want to get back on solid ground so that we can move forward, we’ve missed the meaning of true repentance.

True repentance glorifies God by responding to him in word and deed for the rest of our lives.

Create & Renew

Psalm 51 contd:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

This verse is a song many of us know, and sing.  It’s a very commonly quoted passage of scripture.

After David’s confession of sin, he begins asking God for a pure heart and a steadfast spirit.  Again, these are markings of true repentance.  Just being sorry for something, we may ask God to cleanse away our guilt.  But wanting to change, we will ask God for his Spirit to make us steadfast and willing, to sustain us.

To continue sinning, when we experience sorrow, is not healthy or wise.  But we will continue sinning if we don’t submit to the Holy Spirit to sustain us.  We are not meant to forge through life alone.  We need his strength, daily,, to resist temptation to do evil.

Again, David asks for the restoration of joy.

There is great joy in knowing Jesus and in following him. And there is devastating sorrow when we fail and miserably sink into a sin of any kind.  That zaps our joy.

But the cool thing about the God we serve is that when we truly repent, he does not withhold his joy from us and hit us over the head the rest of our lives for what we’ve done.

He restores our joy.

That’s the beauty of the Lord, the holy God, who has the power to forgive, cleanse, sustain, and restore.

Let Me Hear Joy

More from Psalm 51 (David wrote after committing adultery)

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Hyssop is an herb that is used for cleansing and purification.  It was an outward medicinal application to cleanse a fleshly body.  Sins of the body, like adultery, leave our bodies feeling dirty and disgusting.  But David knew that God could even cleanse that kind of dirt away and make him “whiter than snow.” That’s clean!

David then asked God to allow him to “hear joy and gladness.”

When we’ve sinned, we hear condemnation and shame, two voices that will drag us along through life if we let them.  But when true repentance takes place, our ears will once again perk up to the joy and gladness there is knowing we are clean in His eyes, with our sins gone, to be remembered no more.

Our souls want to rejoice, we want to be glad, and we want to live holy lives.  Sin gets in the way and obscures all of this.

True repentance, acknowledging that we desire God and all of his goodness, results in clean bodies, clean hearts, clean hands, and ears that hear joy once again.

Yet He Desired Us

Psalm 51 con’td (written after David committed adultery)

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

It doesn’t take long for parents to realize that their kids have to be “taught” to obey and treat others kindly.  It’s not in the heart of a child to do this.  Children want food and drink, and they want it now, and they want what’s theirs, and they’ll take it from you.  Kids who grow up without parents to train them end up being the adults who do evil things to others.

We are born into sin, and we need a savior, and God has granted us a way to escape a life of sin.

He desired us before we were born, even as we were being formed in our mother’s womb.

The end of this verse says “you taught me wisdom in that secret place.”

God has put within each of us the knowledge and the wisdom to respond to Him, to seek him, and to realize that without him we are nothing.  This is true wisdom.  And it’s the truth that leads us to repentance when we have sinned against Him.

Children want to learn, they want to please, and they want to obey.  We have to guide them to it. 

God has infinite wisdom available for us, and when we repent from evil, turn to him, we can walk in that wisdom instead of that sin.

It's then, and only then, that we are free.

Knowing

Psalm 51 cont’d (the psalm David wrote after committing adultery):

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

There’s so much truth in this verse.

When we sin, yes we hurt others and ourselves, but ultimately we are going against God’s will and purposes and plans for our lives.  God is a holy God, he created us in his image to be like him, and when we sin against our maker he is right in his verdict and judgment, because it’s his character to be so.  We have acted against the very nature of God’s love toward us.

And he has to judge because he’s a righteous God.  What other kind of God would we want?

David knew what he had done was wrong, and he didn’t squabble about it.  He knew what he did was evil in God’s sight and that he deserved swift judgment and God’s verdict.

This verse is true repentance.  We can be sorry for what we’ve done to others, but when we realize how much that offense hurt another person that God too created in his image, and that we’ve turned against the Lord that we love, we truly feel sorrow that changes our actions after the repentance is over.

Have you ever experienced true repentance?  It’s a sorrow like none other, and it brings about change.

The Washing

Psalm 51 was written after David committed adultery.  David, the man “after God’s heart” messed up in a big way.  And this chapter describes what he goes through.  Let’s look at it together.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

David knew what he did was sin, and he knew that he served a God full of mercy, a Father with unfailing love.  He knew that even though he failed, God was faithful.

He also knew another characteristic of his Father – that he was compassionate.  So David calls on a merciful, compassionate God to forgive him for his huge sin.

Finally, David knew that God’s love would wash away all trace of the sin and make him clean.

I love this psalm. 

We’ve all sinned.

We’ve all messed up.

But do we all know what a loving God we serve, and that he is just waiting for us to ask for his mercy and compassion to forgive us?

If you’ve sinned, don’t wait another minute while you waste away in shame.  Simply pray the prayer written in this verse and receiving the washing that only He can give.

Make the Most

Colossians 4: 5, 6

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Outsiders in this verse might be referring to those outside the faith.  We have to be wise in the way we act towards those who are yet to follow Christ, and when opportunities arise, we must love as Christ loves…not point the finger and condemn.

The next verse tell us how to do this.

It’s sort of like preparing a dinner.  If we present our guests with a dinner lacking in taste, offensive in smell, and repulsive to the eye, they won’t be interested in dining at our table again.

It’s the same with our lifestyle that our neighbors see.  We must exhibit the grace of God towards all, win them over with his great love, and not shy away from questions, always being ready to answer how Jesus came to us and set us free.

In this way, our table is set, it’s beautiful, inviting, and the aroma is irresistible!

Devoted

Colossians 4:2

 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Why was the comma put in this sentence? Why didn’t it just say “Devote yourselves to prayer?”After all, we are told in another verse to pray without ceasing.

But this verse adds in being watchful and being thankful.

How are we supposed to be watchful in prayer?  I think we can be expectant for the answers to come, and then make sure we notice when they do.

How are we supposed to be thankful in prayer?  This is easy.  We can give thanks for God for he is good, and his mercy endures forever, and a myriad of other things that will keep us praising him all day.

If we are devoted to prayer, watching and expecting God to move, thanking him in all things, then what?

God will hear and answer, and we will be content and joyful.

Family Life

Colossians 3: 20, 21

 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.  Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

Once we are in a healthy relationship with our spouses, because we’ve brought our brokenness to the Lord, and he heals us so that we can love…

Then comes the children.

Children are told to obey their parents in everything because it pleases the Lord.  However, we must read the following verse that instructs fathers to not “embitter” their children.

Becoming embittered happens when we lose hope and become bitter because of that lack of hope.  For example, soldiers in constant battle can become embittered towards war.

If our children see their parents at war with one another all the time, this will embitter them and discourage them, and they may begin to disobey – not because they’re bad children – but because they lose respect for their parents.

God states it so simply how the family is to work in a healthy way, but we make it so complicated.

We must love, submit, obey, and do all of this as fitting in the Lord – because he’s our ultimate example and father who loves us – if we will just receive his love.

It’s then easy to give that love to others.

Love Her

Colossians 3:19

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

This verse comes right after the verse we wrote about yesterday.  Being harsh is not being like Christ. Christ is not harsh with us.  He’s loving and kind, in his instruction and care.

This verse is admonishing husbands to love their wives without harshness.

It’s interesting to note that husband and wives have roles to play in the relationship of husband and wife, and neither role is to be overbearing or rude.

And yet…many women and men marry with the desire to control the other, dominate, and assert their own authority, so that they can somehow maintain their own dignity and worth.

That’s not how it works.

It’s a great picture of Christ and the church, when husbands and wives love each other in the way we are instructed to do so in the Bible.

And in order to do this, we must bring before Him our brokenness to allow Christ to heal us, so that we aren’t looking to our spouse to do this for us.  And we must find our identity and worth in our value to Him, so that we can value each other.

Whatever

Colossians 3:17

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Do you have a job you don’t necessarily love, and you’re waiting for your dream job offer?  Give thanks to God.

Do you feel as though your days are spent only in cleaning, wiping, folding, and cooking…and that your life is stuck on “repeat?” Give thanks to God.

Do you give of your time, treasures, and talents to others and yet never seem to be noticed or appreciated? Give thanks to God.

In thanking Him, you are realizing that all that you do and say is an offering to him, and that he sees and rewards you for being obedient to love him in all things and in all situations.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, another day of the work week for many who are still mourning that  the fun weekend is over...

Try waking up and remembering this verse...and giving thanks...

This will please him and set your heart for a good day.

Let It Dwell

Colossians 3:16

Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

We have trouble living in peace alone, and this is why here in this passage we are encouraged to encourage others to “let” the message of Christ live in us richly!

How can we do this?

Psalms: There are 150 chapters of them, and they’re amazingly full of the angst we all feel with the pressures of life, and then the joy that comes from praising Him.

Hymns: These are celebratory songs of the goodness of God, and there are plenty of them on YouTube or Spotify or all sorts of places!  Play them, and share them!

Songs from the Spirit: These are instantaneous songs that God inspires in our hearts – songs of hope and faith – and they may only include a line or two – but they’re powerful.  Sing them!

And we can do these three things with gratitude for knowledge that Christ dwells in us, and he is our hope and shield, our peace and ruler over all that concerns us, and over all that concerns those that we love.

Let it Rule

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

The verse before this one admonished us to make choices for good…and not evil.  And now we are instructed to “let” or to “allow” the peace of Christ to rule our hearts.

I’ve often forfeited peace by allowing thoughts of doom and despair to dictate my mind, seep into my heart, and ultimately ruin my day.  And this is not wise.  Why? Because Jesus has called us to peace.

So how does one let the peace of Christ rule?

By being thankful.

I’ve found that when I open my eyes in the morning and all I see is the list of chores for the day, the disappointments of dreams unfulfilled, the despair over what might happen tomorrow, I can quickly turn my chin upwards by giving thanks.

I can start by thanking God for the sun that rises every morning, for food to eat that satisfies my rumbling tummy, and for clothes that cover my shivering skin.  I can thank him for a roof over my head, a job that pays the bills, and the ability to walk and run with ease.  The list is endless…it really is.

And when we are thankful, we are choosing to allow his peace to rule our hearts.

Clothe Yourself

Colossians 3:12

 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 

Did you know that in Christ we are a new creation for sure, our sins are wiped away and forgiven for real, and we are free to live our lives without guilt and shame forever…BUT…

It’s up to us to “clothe ourselves” with the things that look good in our lives.

When we get up in the morning, we have a closet full of clothes from which we pick to wear.  We have the sense to listen to the weather, think about the day, and choose our outfits accordingly.

It’s no different, spiritually.  We have a closet full of emotions, actions, and virtues from which to choose, but it takes turning away from those other things we wrote about yesterday, and making the decision to clothes ourselves with:

Compassion – choosing to care about those around us – and to move with action

Kindness – moving with action in deeds that bless a neighbor

Humility – blessing a neighbor without expecting anything in return

Gentleness – returning to others a gentle answer when wrath is stirred

Patience – stirring up the gift of God – waiting on his timing and his provision

Yes, it’s all about choices, just like we tell our kids. 

What’s in your closet, and what are you choosing to wear today?

Rid Yourselves

Colossians 3 cont’d:

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

We have here  more instructions on what to rid out of our lives.

It’s interesting to note that anger, rage, and malice are listed first and then the fruits (rotten, stinky ones) that result from these seeds are slander and filthy language.  Most cursing occurs when anger or rage rises up.  And we only slander those whom we hate or have malice towards.  Finally, filthy language is more than just a few bad words…it’s talking trash…and those words need to be tossed.  Lying follows in the next verse, and we are told simply not to lie.

When we profess to be a follower of Christ, it means we are dead to our old sinful ways and alive in Him.

In fact, we are “renewed” in “knowledge.”

The only way to put away these things that come from our flesh is to put on the things that come from the Spirit.

We cannot do one without the other.  In other words, if we don’t walk in the Spirit, we WILL continue in the flesh. 

It's that simple.