I don’t rest very much. Even on Sabbath, I struggle to slow down and relax. Of course, with little children, slowing down and relaxing take on a whole different meaning. Add to that, the Greek obsession with living by the clock and stuffing our calendars, and life becomes about rushing around, hurrying, stress, and “the next thing on the list.” I wonder if this isn’t a way to keep us from reflecting on life, what God’s done in it and the awesomeness of who He is and some of the insanity of what we do…. Anyway, Skip wrote an interesting article this morning about that familiar verse in Psalm 23 about still waters. I thought I’d post it here as a reminder (to me) to stop going so fast. Read it here. >>>> Here’s what I wrote in the comments afterwards: For me, rest is one of the hardest things for me to do. My mind goes a million miles a minute through all the things I need to accomplish – for my family, my work, and so on. My family is starting to keep the Sabbath, although I must say it’s not necessarily restful (yet)… but it’s a sweet time to be together and a great excuse to say “no” to some of the other things that beg for attention. Even then, I find myself struggle to just relax. It’s an interesting thought that God’s not in a hurry. Because we don’t get the in-between times, it’s easy to forget that it was years and even decades between the events we read about in the Bible, even those that tell us about Yeshua’s life often clump together many days and week’s worth of teachings (like in Matthew). God isn’t Dora (if you have little kids, you know what I mean). He isn’t constantly saying, “Let’s go go go!” and rushing off to the next obstacle on the map. I think part of the problem (at least with me) is that Greek mentality of time… We live by the clock (especially as a teacher). God doesn’t. I love the fact that there is no Hebrew word for time. That alone should tell me something about the lack of priority that He places on it. Thanks, Skip, for reminding us to stop and breathe and be (in an active, restful way, of course).
Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. This is about living, clean living. Or rather, it’s about cleaning up my life. Most people I know have something in their life that’s a mess. Heaven knows, I’ve made lots and lots of messes in my life! So, how do I clean it up? By to keep or to guard my life according to His word. In Hebrew, the word for word is dabar, and it means speech, spoken words. This isn’t just about reading the Bible (although that’s God’s written word), it’s about hearing His voice and doing what He asks. There are two important things we must do to clean our ways up, so we’re not walking through garbage every day: know His word (by reading and listening to Him) and acting on His words (to measure my life by what He says). We tend to think of knowing something as a purely cognitive practice, but if I don’t act on what I know, do I really know it? It’s easy to say I know how to obey, but if I don’t obey, do I really know what it is to be obedient? Similarly, I have the ability to go online, on my phone, or in a physical Bible to find God’s written words. This is a blessing, but it’s also a bit of a curse, in that I don’t know His words anymore. I can just look them up. They’re not written on my soul to be recalled at any time. Memorizing is not something I’m a huge fan of, especially when I can “google it”, but when it comes to God’s words I need to start trying to improve my memorization skills. However, the same question applies: if I read God’s words and “know” them but don’t obey, them how much do I really know?
Psalm 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. The first part of this verse is the same word repeated: make know make known to me the path of live alive… There is emphasis on knowing this path. It is critical to life. It is the way to live alive. Sounds kind of repetitive, right? But it’s not; there are a lot of people who are living dead. The things they pursue don’t bring life. To know the path of living alive is part of knowing and pursuing a relationship with The Life – Yeshua (remember, “I am the way, the truth, the LIFE”?). There are a lot of times when I feel like the living dead stumbling through life, even though I have been redeemed and seek to be obedient. But all the same, just because it’s not easy, doesn’t mean I am not alive. The last part is cool, too. Before God’s face there is fullness, abundance of joy. It’s not just about being in the same room as God. It’s about being before His face. It’s possible to be in the same room but not be acknowledged by the king. When I am in His presence, He acknowledges that I am there. I am before His face – He sees me. To be known, acknowledged by the King of Everything, should bring overwhelming joy! I am not nobody. I am KNOWN because He allows me in His presence, before His face. What joy that is!
Conversion Monday, May 17th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen The young lions have lacked and been hungry, but those who seek YHWH shall not lack any good thing. Psalm 34:11 Those Who Seek – The Hebrew word vedorshei might be translated “but those who seek” but such a translation converts the Hebrew grammar into English grammar. You see, vedorshei is the combination of a conjunctive (ve) “but” with a verb, not a noun. This verb, darash, is a plural participle in the active tense. That means it is an on-going action of many. We might think of it like this: “but seeking (ones).” In other words, the Hebrew construction doesn’t describe people who happen to be seeking God. In Hebrew, the action of seeking is the essence of who these people are. Without seeking, they just don’t exist. The our language base we see the world as component parts strung together by actions. John hit the ball. John is one component; the ball is another. These two components are connected by the action of hitting. One component hits the other. But Hebrew is a world comprised of actions. John hitting is the action, not the subject and the action. Without the hitting, there is no purpose for John to be connected to the ball. Since all action have a purpose, John exists in the active purpose of hitting. Similarly, seeking is the action purpose of followers of YHWH. Without the active purpose of seeking, there is no follower. Stop for a moment and consider what this means for our Greek-based understanding of Christian terms. What is the purposeful action of faith, justification, trust, salvation, the community, confession, forgiveness, etc.? How does our understanding of these terms change when we do not apply them as descriptions of “believers” but rather see them as constituting what a believer is. Without actions, there is no faith. Without works, faith is dead. Followers are seeking ones, trusting ones, praising ones, praying ones, studying ones, hoping ones, waiting ones, walking ones, obeying ones. Without the actions, there are no followers. They do not exist except in the actions themselves. Darash is their verb of being. They seek, inquire, examine and require. Oh, yes, by the way, God is the speaking One, creating One, sustaining One, delivering One, forgiving One, redeeming One. Are you beginning to see that being human is not a biological state but rather an active purpose to model the Creative One? What actions bring about your purpose for being today? This was a post today by Dr. Skip Moen. It’s a radically different way of thinking – that your life is your action. It makes sense though if I think about the fact that if I don’t actively breathe, I’m dead. The Hebrews believe that for something to be alive it has to change – an action. (That includes God, by the way. But that’s in a different post by Skip.) So the premise of it all is, if seeking God isn’t something I do in an ongoing and consistant way, am I really a follower of Him? You can’t follow something you don’t seek. To the Hebrews seeking has to be part of what makes me alive, if I claim to be a follower. That puts a pretty different spin on having quiet time with God in the morning. So am I saying that if a person doesn’t seek God, then he or she isn’t in relationship with God. I don’t think that’s the proper interpetation. After all, Jesus died to restore that relationship – He did the work and continues to intercede for me before the throne of God (restoration and intersession is part of the essense of who He is, perhaps?). I can be part of that relationship, even if I don’t seek and follow. It’s like having a friend. I can be friends with someone, or rather I can have a relationship with someone, but if I’m not actively seeking time with him or her it won’t be a very deep friendship. It’s not an easy statement. And trying to step out of my very Greek way of thinking to image how the Hebrew mind worked/works, it quite difficult. It’s worth it though, if it helps me to grow in my understanding of who God is.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. This seems to me to go against what Jesus said about loving others, and doesn’t make sense in light of the fact that Jesus walked in the world and touched the dirtiest people society had to offer. So, what does it mean? Here’s Chuck Smith’s (a pastor) take on it: So, God’s call for His people to separation. You are to be different from the world. You cannot have real communion with the world. You have no common ground of meeting. You’re trying to bring two diverse situations together. You’re trying to join together the life of the flesh with the life of the Spirit. They cannot co-mingle. It’s an unequal yoke. So, God’s call for you is to come apart. “Be separate, saith the Lord. Don’t touch the unclean thing. And God said, I will be a Father, and ye will be my sons and daughters.” As a child of God, you do live different than a person who is not a child of God. You’re expected to live differently. This makes a lot of sense. As children of God, it’s not that we’re physically going to separate ourselves and live in little communes. Jesus didn’t do that. He lived among us and walked among us and talked to people, ate with sinners, played with children, and healed the sick and dying. He didn’t get away from people and live all by himself in the wilderness. Instead, he lived differently than the people. He didn’t sin the way people sin (even the righteous sin). He didn’t lie or cheat or steal. He wasn’t violent (remember how he healed the man’s ear after Peter cut it off with a sword?). He lived differently and that set Him apart from the world. So we are to follow Jesus’ example and live differently. We should try to live like Jesus did – loving others and doing what is right. My husband has to struggle with that a lot. Yesterday he felt like he was being asked by a client to do something that he didn’t feel was right or moral, and while he was discussing the situation with the people he is working for he offered to give up the contract even though we really do need the money. When they saw how serious he was about doing things right, they decided to back him up against the client that was asking him to be dishonest. I was so proud of him!!! That’s not an easy choice to make! Anyhow, God doesn’t want us to never associate with lost people. If we never talked to them or walked among them then how will they ever know who Jesus is? How will they hear if we don’t go (it says that somewhere in the Bible)? So, it’s not about staying away from people who don’t know Jesus, it’s about doing life differently and being set apart in our morals and actions. Chuck Smith does make a good point, though, about not making an unbeliever our best friend. Our best friends tend to have a lot of influence in our lives because we tell them our deepest thoughts and listen to their counsel. So, that’s a good point. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t ever associate or hang out with non-believers. You just have to be wise and thoughtful in your actions.
Well, I’m in Micah. I really don’t have much to say… Of course, it’s hard to think or read or do anything when I have little ones who don’t understand the concept of Daylight Savings Time and keep trying to get up and out of bed at 4am and 5am. So, every 15 minutes or so a little body opens the bedroom door and peeks out hoping it’s time to get up… which it isn’t. Then there are tears when I put both littles back into bed and remind them that I’ll get them up in a little while. Sigh. Whoever invented Daylight Savings Time should have to take care of the children in the morning! Any chance of stopping this practice (yes, I realize that when we did more farming there was a purpose for it… but I haven’t farmed, well, ever…)? Oh and one more thought… never tell a parent, “aren’t you glad you get an extra hour of sleep?” We might lash out because we are sleep deprived, and just because a clock says it’s an hour earlier doesn’t mean that our children will believe it! Well, that wasn’t much commentary on Micah, but there it is… my morning in a nutshell! Have a beautiful day (if you’re in Florida, enjoy the 89 degree weather in November – sheesh!)!
Amos 4:24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living. What a great image this is! A might flood and an endless river! The endless river especially captured my imagination. A river is strong, enduring, wide, and generally pretty deep. It’s not a stream that is shallow, small, and can dry up in a drought. To have an endless river of righteous living is to live righteously enduringly and ongoingly, with strength and depth. Right living isn’t something that should dry up when it’s inconvenient or difficult. Right living should touch every part of our lives, not just the surface. It’s a choice. And it makes God happy. Ultimately it will make us happy, too.