Thursday, July 30

I loved the first two psalms today titled "O Lord do not delay" and "Forsake me not when my strength is spent." The more I seek after righteousness and justice in my life, the more I realize that I am far away from obtaining it. I cannot do anything good on my own. It will only come through the working of the Holy Spirit in me. There are many enemies against me according to Romans 8. The enemies are: trouble that inflicts distress, a set of stressful circumstances, a program or process designed to harass and oppress you, famine, bitter need, danger, or violent death (from Romans 8:31-39). But Paul concludes that " in the midst of experiencing all these opponents we have total and complete victory by means of Jesus, the one who loves us. V. 38 For I have examined and weighed all the evidence and have an all-embracing, unshakeable certainty that neither death nor life (things that transpire in the physical world), nor angels nor demons (things that transpire in the spiritual world), nor present things nor future things (not a single event or circumstance that will ever occur), nor powers (anything that you can imagine), V. 39 nor height nor depth (things in the entire universe), nor any created thing (including the believer himself) will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This is why I love these psalms, they were answered when Jesus invaded our world in flesh. God did not delay and has not forsaken us when our strength is spent. In the midst of our enemies, there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God which transforms us.

Lord, thank you that you love me.

Wednesday, July 29

I loved the first psalm. Do I pray enough for God's justice and righteousness to be given to the leaders God placed over me? Do I pray enough for God's justice and righteousness to be displayed in me? I pray for things that will make my life easier and make me happier, but ignore praying for God to put me through things that will force the development of justice and righteousness in my life. That prayer is not self-serving. God's very righteousness, as modeled by Christ, is not self-serving but self-sacrificing.

Lord, grant my leaders your justice and righteousness. Grant me your justice and righteousness.

Tuesday, July 28th

The conversion of Lydia is a cool story. First of all, Paul gets the Macedonian call and begins to travel there. He stays in Philippi for some time. He then goes outside the city on the Sabbath because he wanted to preach the gospel to the Jews. Every Sabbath day, the Jews who did not have a temple to go to would meet by a river. Paul arrives at the river and sees several women worshipping and honoring God. Paul clues them in on how Jesus has changed what it means to be a part of God's covenant family. Lydia responds and is baptized in the very river she had been worshipping by every Sabbath. She then implores Paul and his entourage to stay at her house. At this point many people want to find a strategy that Paul did to change the city by finding the person of influence, like the wealthy Lydia. I think Paul was doing what he did every time he stopped in the city: preached to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, who brought him to Philippi in the first place. I read many books on how to create and lead a missional community that understands the gospel is a mission as much as it is a message. These books often give strategies on how to create an influencial community. I have too much ignored the leading of the Spirit in this endeavor. I don't fast and pray enough for the Spirit's guiding. Instead I strategize.

Lord, help me to follow the Spirit's guiding as opposed to turning your movement into a business model to be carried out step by step.

Monday, July 27th

I noticed a dichotomy today in the readings. Psalms spoke of God's absolute victory and reign over sin and evil. However, all the other scripture readings spoke unfulfilled promises and the defeat of the righteous. John the Baptist was beheaded, Paul and Barnabas split up because of Mark's return to the mission, and David, who was promised the kingdom of Israel, was cheated out of total reign by Saul's general and son. Psalms remind us that in the midst of unfulfilled promises and defeat, our God waters the earth. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, both good and evil. There will be a day when all will be put to rights. However, our focus in the here and now should be displaying this: "By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas." God is the hope of all the ends of the earth, of all powers and personalities. More than vindication, God desires reconciliation with his creation. There is a day coming where God will "break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions." But all of this takes place for this goal: "Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth.”" God's purpose in all things is for mankind to recognize God as God and submit to him. Although we may now be experiencing unfilled promises and defeat, let us display God as the hope of all the ends of the earth so mankind will recognize him as God. Whether or not our lives work out as we have hoped it would is irrelevant and the minor theme in the major story of God. Remember, our hope is in the end of the story. Let us live now for the end.

Lord, help me to live for the end of the story and accrue value in your coming kingdom, instead of worrying about the value of this place.

Saturday, July 25th the death of a friend

It is interesting to see David's psalms cry out for vengeance against those who persecute him, his friends at that. Then I saw David's reaction when Saul and Jonathan were killed. He was miserable. I know David and Jonathan were close, like brothers. So I understood the emotions there. Yet, David wrote psalm after psalm crying out for vengeance against his oppressor Saul. The day the vengeance came, David wept. It seems like David is modeling a love for your enemies that Jesus spoke about in the Sermon on the Mount. He doesn't delight in anyone's undoing, but wishes all would repent and believe the Lord.

Watching politics lately, I've noticed that each party wishes and strives for the other's undoing. In our culture where alienation reigns, people seek to isolate their opposition. They want them cut off from society, feeling hate and not love, until their opposition is ground to dust and comes around to their point of view. Basically, they use love and unity as a condition that exists only when you see things their way...it is very conditional. David modeled a different way, the way Jesus spoke of. We are to love those who oppose us and pray for them. We are to genuinely desire that they return to the Lord. Billy Graham once said that it is God's job to judge, the Spirit's job to convict, and our job to love. Let us know our role and live it out as Christ commissioned us to.

Lord, help me to love

Friday, July 24

The Lord is our deliverer. That is the theme for today's reading. There is no sin too destructive, no habit too strong, no enemy too cunning to outdo the Lord. He will deliver, that we can trust in. We saw this in the psalms, in Samuel, in Acts, and in Jesus' story. I loved that in the same reading we read psalm 51 where David repented of sleeping with Bathsheeba and killing her husband and the reading where God killed Saul to give David the promised kingdom. God did this for David knowing what was coming. Yet he was patient with him and delivered him from Saul. The Lord is our deliverer. The Lord is my deliverer. Lord, you are my trust.

Thursday, July 23

Looking at the reading in Acts today reminds me of some things I have read lately. Some Christians who belonged to the party of the Pharisees still were demanding that the recently saved Gentiles needed to be circumcised and keep the external elements of the law of Moses (like dietary laws, Sabbath keeping, etc). Peter argued that they received the Holy Spirit while these elements were not observed by the Gentiles. Why now add these elements as they have already been cleansed by faith? What the Pharisees were wanting here was to put a badge on the Gentile Christians so everyone knew who they were as they ate differently, observed Saturdays differently, and looked differently externally. But this is the very thing Christ spoke against in the Sermon on the Mount. Our righteousness now, in order to enter the kingdom of God, must exceed this righteousness of the Pharisees. Our badge now is justified by faith and the righteousness we now must seek is a heart renovation, where our heart is right and not just our external actions. One cannot strike his enemy in the face yet still hate him in his heart. External badges don't facilitate internal purity. Peter emphasized the Spirit as the one outworking the salvation of the Gentiles.

It is tempting for us to want to add to the duties of the new Christian. We say they must speak a certain way, incorporating our lingo in their daily talk, and act a certain way. We say, "here are a list of some cultural taboos that you must not do so people will know you are 'Christian.'" Yet, none of this points to a renovated heart. We must seek for change in our hearts, through meeting with the Spirit everyday and allowing him to disturb us and change us daily.

Lord, let my righteousness be more than external habits. Don't let me add to the message of the gospel of salvation by faith.