Leviticus 23:24 - “…you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blasts of trumpets, a holy convocation.”

Its wonderful to realize how well our designer knows us.  We live in a world that celebrates breathless activity and a ruthless pursuit of goals.  This is an excellent ethic…but it can have its downside.

We are built to run out of gas - and that’s a good thing.  God understands our need for true gospel rest.  Rest, is the opposite of leisure activity.  The things we use to “unplug” generally leave us filling overwhelmed and spent like never before.  In fact, I’m beginning to think the term “leisure activity” is the greatest myth believe by many well intention Christians.  

True Rest comes from pressing hard into Jesus.  It means allowing the Living Water He’s placed in our lives to flow freely and uninhibited.  There is honestly nothing like it.  We have to be so conscious of it.   Some of our most vulnerable times for spiritual attack are following a great spiritual victory?  Why - because we’re spent.  We need intentional periods of refreshing and rest.

Recently Andrea and I joined the Y.  I’ve gotten the opportunity to go and workout about 4-5 times a week.  When I go, I have been listening to some amazing podcasts.  The combination of endorphins and good Gospel preaching have become an amazing combination.  This is great, but its not Gospel rest.

The true rejuvenation I get in the Lord comes on my face before Him - in a quiet place.  It’s when I open His scripture in an environment where I can focus.  I begin reading, not just to be intellectually engaged, but to be filled.  I am dry and empty vessel…but He gives a spring of life that will never run dry.  And you can’t beat that.

2 Thessalonians 1:11 - “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.”

This is the Christian life.  Though we never deserved it, and Almighty God desired us.  He created us.  No corruption or rebellion could stop his relentless pursuit.  By His own blood, He paid the price to redeem us.  Through His call, He initiated restoration.  Through His Spirit, He generates restoration.

Nothing in all of the cosmos can compete with the famous true story of God’s love story (The Gospel).  

Today, may I live like one who is forever inspired by His call.  By His spirit and mighty power, may I live worthy.

I read a great passage today in Proverbs 24:16 - “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.”

I studied a little deeper and found that the word fall in the Hebrew literally means “to fall, lie, be cast down, fail.”  In our culture of newer, bigger, better, the threshold for failure isn’t very high.  If we’re not careful, we might find ourselves subscribing to religious perfectionism.  We believe there is a standard that we are not living up to, therefore, we are tempted to quit.

We can be so dumb.  The whole point of the standard (namely, the law) is to point out our inability to succeed apart from the glorious redemption found in Christ.  Our sin nature is a beast.  In Jesus, it has be defeated and HE HOLDS the victory - but sometimes we have short memories…and we easily forget our freedom.  In these instances, we might fall.  In the verse I quoted above, the text says a righteous man falls (or fails) seven times.  However, a more complete understanding of the historical context would be that a righteous man fails repeatedly.  This is not an excuse to continue sinning.  It’s a reminder that Jesus doesn’t want your man-made, man-approved perfection.  He wants your whole-hearted sincere devotion.  It’s a taller order for sure.  But its the real thing.

So when you fail, don’t throw it all away.  Rise again.  This is not an Osteen-ism.  It’s not based up your own fictional self power or actualization.  It’s the POWER OF THE RISEN CHRIST - ready and able to lift you once again.  Why does He love you so much?  Why is His grace so big?  Well, you’re gonna have to take that up with Him.  

“Present the case for your idols,”
    says the Lord.
“Let them show what they can do,”
    says the King of Israel.    ISAIAH 41:21

From the beginning, we’ve had a common problem.  According to the first chapter in the book of Romans, the problem isn’t that we don’t know the identity of God…the problem is that we are constantly giving our heart, soul, mind, and strength (our worship) to the wrong things.

Have you ever tried to get a little kid to stop doing something?  Usually, that can be quite a challenge.  Kids are stubborn and they think they know best.  A kid doesn’t really have the foresight to understand that while playing in the street can be fun, it can also be deadly.  You can try to warn the kid, OR…you can let his foot get run over by a huge truck.  As he’s bleeding, you can walk over and say, “so…how’s you’re way working.”

God’s people are constantly turning away from Him.  He is the one who loves and redeems us.  He created us and prepared us for a breathtaking destiny:  eternity with Him.  Time and time again, we just want a little of him and a little bit of our Buddha (or other idol of choice).  When it comes down to it, most of us worship ourselves.

This passage in Isaiah is such a great reminder for us to take stock of reality.  It challenges us to look at the lives we carve out for ourselves, apart from God.  It challenges us to say, “so…how’s that working out?”  Our God is an amazing King, Refuge, Strength, Counselor and Friend.  When we worship Him, we connect to our identity as created beings.  Idols offer nothing…especially compared to that.

“You love never fails - it never gives up.  It never runs out on me.”  These lyrics come from a Kristian Stanfill song on the new Passion CD, White Flag.  The song is a charging rhythmic anthem, and it reminds us of an eternal truth.  

In chapter 40 of the book of Isaiah, God tells His prophet to speak words of comfort to Hid people.  The context of this request is interesting:  God’s people are headed into a period of bondage and captivity.  Here is the meaning of the message:  ”I love my people.  They are going to be punished because of their constant disobedience, but I love them.  Wherever they go, I go.”

God is faithful.  He is kind, but He is not soft.  Sometimes we want to appeal to the mercy of God to remove us from the consequences of our actions.  However, sometimes the loving thing for God to do is to allow us to feel the full weight of what we’ve done.  Here is the amazing grace of God - He is always there to pick us back up.  I will never understand this mercy…this love that never fails.  But I sure do like it.

There’s a particular story in the book of Isaiah that challenges everything my Western, comfort-seeking mindset would want me to believe about God’s intention for my life.  In Isaiah chapter 20, God commands Isaiah to take off his shoes…and his CLOTHES, and walk around for three years.  God made his prophet walk around naked and barefoot.

God didn’t do this because He was mad at Isaiah.  He didn’t do it so that Isaiah would be blessed or honored by the process - He did it to make a point.  The only reason behind Isaiah’s discomfort and humuliation was the Glory of God.  Hmmm.  That can be an uncomfortable point - unless we really begin to understand God.

We often think God’s blessing and the abundant life He offers are restricted by the parameters of the world.  God will bless me with a bigger house, better job, and better opportunities.  Very rarely do I feel willing to get “barefoot and naked” for the Glory of God.  

Although, when we strip away all the trappings of the world, we will always be confronted with the reality that God’s blessings are so much bigger and better than the world.

From My Devotion - March 21, 2012

I often hear people make statements like this:  I just wish we could all go back and be more like the early church.

My response is, “REALLY?  Have you read the Bible?  The early church was nuts!”  Don’t get me wrong, the book of Acts is an awesome account of God moving in a powerful way.  To me, the book of Acts is more like the story of REVIVAL: everyone is excited, everyone is on board, the money situation is good, and people are getting saved.  If you’re reading Acts, you’re thinking the church is in good shape.  You read Romans, and you’re enlivened by the doctrines we hold dear.  Then you get to 1 Corinthians…and you start to see the effects of real life.

God continues His majestic work throughout the rest of the New Testament, but a little bit of management is in order.  In the book of Galatians, we see Paul’s only epistle that doesn’t begin with a word of encouragement.  The Word of God gets right to the point.  

Galatians begins by reminding believers that Jesus Christ paid the price for sins, and follows with a quick rebuke.  Basically:  YOU HAVE BEEN SO QUICK TO TURN AWAY FROM THIS TRUTH.  It was true then, it is true today.  What makes us so easily swayed?  The Galatians in particular, were turning from the amazing beauty of God’s grace to legalism.  Why do we make it harder on ourselves?

It’s such a testimony to the Holy Spirit of God that He has kept the church on track through the centuries.  We must always fall back on Him as our refuge, our strength, and our source of Truth. 

Song of Solomon is a really fun book of the Bible to talk about, because of its frank depiction of sex.  For modern times, the content is pretty safe.  There’s nothing too racy about the discussion of apple trees and gazelles.  Throughout history, certain believers would refrain from reading this book to their children because of the lust that it could incite.  However, the Jews loved the Song of Solomon, or as it can also be translated, The Song of Songs.  They read this book out loud every year at Passover, calling it “The Holy of Holies.”  I imagine that would spice up Christmas dinner - “kids, now we’re gonna read from the sex book.”

There are people who read this text as an allegory representing the love of God for His people.  (slightly weird with all the breast talk.)  From my study, it seems the best interpretation for this book is one that is very straightforward.  I think the most convincing evidence for this interpretation comes from the repetition of a key phrase:  Promise me O women of Jerusalem…do not awaken love until the time is right.  (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4)

This passage is great advice to young couples:  do not allow the feelings of passion to be stirred up until you can fulfill them by having sex as a married couple.  However, is their evidence that the woman didn’t follow her own advice?  Let’s take a look.

A Beautiful, Heartbreaking Story
Before I get into tricky interpretive waters, let’s set the stage:  This book is a wonderful love story with a tragic, heart-breaking subtext.  verse 2:16 says, “My lover is mine, and I am his.”  This was always the purpose of this marriage, but it didn’t stay true for very long.  Solomon would eventually add 699 women to the marriage.  This adds a new dimension to the charge:  do not awaken love until the time is right.

There is a scene in that occurs in chapter 3 in which the young man experiences a longing passion for her future husband.  If you read this chronologically, it occurs before the marriage.  Biblical commentators like John Macarthur point out that this passage is best interpreted as a dream.  The passage says that the woman goes in search of her man in the middle of the night.  After searching, she find him, and bring her back to her bed.  We see this is not the marriage bed, because it occurs in her mother’s house.  Is this a dream?  Quite possibly.  If its not a dream, it gives a new intensity to her advice to young women.

Could it be possible, that the young woman made the mistake of so many others.  Could it be that she allowed a pre-marital sexual relationship to occur?  Many professing Christians in long-term relationships will this to happen.  Here is there reason:  we’re on our way to marriage.  They know it is all-the-way right, but they can’t see that it matters much.  Here’s the only problem:  rebellion always builds a pattern.  What men and women don’t realize is that the amount that they allow themselves to compromise in sin before marriage will mirror the temptation to sin after marriage.  If couples allow get sexual before marriage, the husband will continue to struggle with sexual compromise – he will just find a new object.

It’s quite possible that the woman was an innocent victim in this tragic non-fairy tale.  She gave herself wholly to her husband, expecting the same in return.  Whatever the reason, Solomon’s heart grew restless.  And the Nation he lead ultimately paid the price.  

From My Devotion - March 6, 2012

Be restless for the right things.  Then you can get the right rest.

Last night my pastor spoke on a familiar and much needed topic:  the need for rest.  This is a resonant message in a society that brags about how busy we are.  However, for many of us, we are busy with the wrong things.  Therefore, the need for rest resonates.  We feel tired, spent, and drained.  However, we haven’t really gotten anything done in the first place.

There is a difference between rest and leisure.  We are a society that is so filled with leisure opportunities.  This reality is playfully spoofed by HULU:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnP1gkdFUqc&feature=related.  The reason that we feel more drained than ever has less to do with increased productivity, and more to do with stupid forms of rest.  Crashing on the couch in front of the TV isn’t going to recharge anyone’s batteries.  In fact, when you get up, you are likely to be even more drained than before.  Spending time with and meditating on Jesus, then getting up and being a do-er of the Word - that’s real life.

The book of Ecclesiastes makes a great statement on this issue.  When the Bible sets a standard and command for rest, it is talking to people who are used to working from sun up to sun down, 6 days a week.  It’s not talking to people who sneak around on facebook/youtube/googlenews throughout a 4 1/2 hour work day.  The Bible says in Ecc 10:18 that, “Laziness leads to a sagging roof; idleness leads to a leaky house.”  Nothing is more draining that trying to watch TV in a “leaky house.”

Ecclesiastes has another great word of wisdom in 11:4 - “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.”  This is a great word.

From my devotion - March 5, 2012