By Faith, By Effort

Posted on August 30, 2021 by Pete

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

(Hebrews 4:9 ESV)

You read those words and it has a way of settling the soul.

There’s rest and then there’s Sabbath rest. Rest where you pause from work, and then rest where the work is done. Rest when you cease from labor and then rest when there’s no labor remaining. Just as God created for six days and then rested on the seventh, because the work was finished and because the work was good.

That’s the rest available to the people of God. The Sabbath rest found in the finished work of the risen Christ, the Son of God.

But as I hover over these first 11 verses in Hebrews 4, I’m struck by the fact that, while it’s a rest we enter into by faith, it’s also a rest we enter into by effort.

For we who have believed enter that rest . . .

(Hebrews 4:3a ESV)

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest . . .

(Hebrews 4:11a ESV)

Enter by faith or enter by effort? Which is it? It’s both. It’s not an either/or thing, it’s a both/and thing.

Faith is the key that unlocks the door to Sabbath rest, but due diligence is required to inhabit all that is behind the door.

Far from faith being some effortless state of mind that carries us into depths of rest, it’s more an intentional discipline of mind that pursues that rest. A discipline, even of itself, which we are unable to muster up apart from trusting in His provision for it.

“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24 ESV)

So, it’s gonna take work. Having entered the rest we make every effort to enter the rest. Having believed we seek to behave. Have trusted we’re prepared for toil.

It’s a rest that comes with a yoke (Mt. 11:28-29).

Having been saved we then are to work out our salvation (Php. 2:12).

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

(2Peter 1:10-11 ESV)

By faith we have entered. By effort we will enter.

By His grace. For His glory.

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He Holds On to You

Posted on August 27, 2021 by Pete

“Hold on to Jesus.” Ever heard that said before? Ever given that counsel before? “Hang in their man, keep holding on to Jesus!” I think I’ve offered up such advice on more than one occasion.

But something I read in Hebrews 2 this morning, followed by a bit of digging into the original language, makes me wonder if — though holding on to Jesus might be good counsel — telling others that Jesus is holding on to them might be better counsel.

For surely it is not angels that [Jesus] helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

(Hebrews 2:16-18 ESV)

God’s Son, the appointed Heir of all things, the One through whom all things were created, the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of God’s being, the One who upholds the universe by His power (1:1-3), partook of flesh and blood (2:14), identifying Himself as part of the family of man, experiencing suffering as we experience suffering, in order to become a merciful and faithful high priest, to not only rescue us from death but also to help us through life.

That’s a mouthful. That’s a brainful. Pause, and noodle on it just a bit, and it becomes a heartful. For it is jaw-dropping wonderful. Amen?

In the midst of it all, I ended up chewing on the word help as it ignited my taste buds (as in “taste and see that the Lord is good” – Ps. 34:8).

Help in verse 18 has, in the original, the idea we’d expect it would. To relieve, to rescue, to support, to bring aid. Jesus is able to help. Not only able, but ready and willing. That’s why we encourage others to hold on to Jesus.

But the word translated “help” in verse 16 is a different word. The literal translation is “lay hold of” as in, “He takes hold of the offspring of Abraham.” He seizes them in order to rescue them from peril. So, beyond holding on to Jesus, might we not also encourage one another with the reminder that He’s holding on to us? I’m thinkin’ . . .

In my mind, it shifts seeing Jesus as some passive aid-giver waiting in the wings until we ask for His help to One who is actively engaged, proactively taking hold of us even as He lives in us and through us. That He is ever moving towards us to bring aid, even before we realize we need to be moving towards Him in search of assistance. Advocating for us even before we’re aware we need to cry out for ourselves. Not surprised or disappointed when again our weak flesh compromises our willing spirit, but anticipating it, having experienced it “yet without sin” (4:15), and compassionately, willingly, actively taking hold of us through His all-powerful, ever-present, never-changing, unfailing Spirit.

It’s not angels He lays hold of, but it’s us — Spirit-born children of Abraham by faith and for faith.

Hold on to Jesus? For sure! But know, weary saint, He holds on to you.

O, what a Savior!

All by grace. All for His glory.

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Confide and Abide

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Pete

In Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, the prophet saw the Lord sitting upon His throne high and lifted up (Isa. 6:1). But in Isaiah 7, in the days of King Ahaz, he saw the unholy alliance of Syria and Ephraim coming for Judah’s throne. And “the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” (Isa. 7:1-2).

But while judgment through exile would eventually befall unfaithful Judah, this was not the time, nor were these the agents of judgment that God had determined. And so the LORD directs Isaiah to go to Ahaz and tell him, “Don’t sweat it.”

“Say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands'” . . . thus says the Lord GOD: “‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.'”

(Isaiah 7:4a, 7-9 ESV)

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Okay, tell me that isn’t a verse for a t-shirt. Tell me that’s not timeless counsel regardless of whether you’re looking down the siege-works of enemy armies or confronting another cycle of surge-works from a pandemic. If we don’t stand firm in our faith, we’re not gonna stand at all (CSB). If we don’t believe, we’re not gonna last (NASB). Or as one commentator of long ago put it, “if ye will not confide, ye shall not abide.”

More and more, as uncertainty becomes less uncommon, as things “piling on” just seems to be the order of the day, isn’t what Isaiah declared, and Paul affirmed, increasingly true? We really need to walk by faith and not by sight (2Cor. 5:7).

I gotta believe because so often everything around me is unbelievable. I need to hold fast to faith’s anchor because so much “truth” around me is based on false assumptions. I need to know His word, and believe His word, if I am gong to stand firm in this world.

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

So worth chewing on. So worth recommitting to. So worth believing in.

Only by His grace. Always for His glory.

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What More To Do?

Posted on August 25, 2021 by Pete

He does all things well (Mk. 7:37). If that’s not one of the “official” attributes of God, I’m thinking it should be. Something I read in Isaiah this morning has me thinking it.

In chapter five, Isaiah the prophet becomes Isaiah the singer. The Spirit of God moves the herald of God to sing a song of God. A love song to a divine Vinedresser concerning His vineyard, the house of Israel. The Vinedresser established the vineyard. He cleared it of stones, and He planted it with the best of the best vines. He set a watchtower over it to care for it and, in anticipation of the fruit it was to bear, He built a winepress in the midst of it. But instead of producing a yield worthy of His labors, “for all His pains He got junk grapes” (MSG). Twang!!! The song hits a sour chord.

And then, through the prophet, the Vinedresser takes over the song.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard. What more was there to do for My vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

(Isaiah 5:3-4 ESV)

The Vinedresser did everything He could to set up His vineyard for fruitfulness. He provided everything for the bride He had called to faithfulness. But at the core of rotten fruit, at the center of an unfaithful bride, was a bad heart. A heart infected by sin. A heart prone to loving created things more than the Creator. A heart wanting to serve self more than serve the Sovereign. And so, the vineyard, beyond being a warning against rebellion and disobedience, sets us up for the Vinedresser’s 2.0 planting. A vineyard sown in hearts made ready to receive the implanted seed.

Hearts cleansed of sin through the sacrifice of the Vinedresser’s own Son. Hearts justified and freed from the penalty of sin through the shedding of the Son’s own blood. Hearts regenerated and credited with the Son’s own righteousness, a righteousness it was now able to live out through the Son’s enabling Spirit. Hearts made new so that the Vinedresser’s redeemed vineyard would produce fruit. Good fruit. Fruit befitting the kingdom of heaven.

What more was there to do for My vineyard, that I have not done in it?

He does all things well. Having loved His own He loves them to the uttermost — with the full extent of His love, to end of time, for all eternity (Jn. 13:1). He loves them perfectly, enabling them by grace, disciplining them in His goodness, forming them into the very likeness of His Son. What more to do?

No more.

Our God does all things well. O let us worship our God!

Let us rest in His goodness. Let us revel in His thoroughness. Let us abide in the true vine bearing His fruitfulness (Jn. 15:5).

Only by His grace. Only for His glory.

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God Has Spoken

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Pete

God has spoken. That’s a key bet for our faith, isn’t it? If our God were not a communicating God, He would be but a God of our own imagination. If God has not addressed those created in His image, then all that is left is for us to create a God in our own image. While our God has imprinted His existence into creation (Rom. 1:19-20), if He has not imparted to us His nature, His thinking, and His purpose, so that we might know this God, our Maker, then we are left with nothing to discover and everything to manufacture. Thank God it has not been left to us to guess about God. Thank God our God has spoken.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and eH upholds the universe by the word of His power.

(Hebrews 1:1-3b ESV)

Our journey of faith really begins with believing that God has spoken.

No need to pay attention to the writings of ancient, so-called prophets concerning a coming Messiah if the Creator is mute, or cares so little of earth’s manufacture that He ignores it. But if our God has spoken through the prophets of what we call the Old Testament, then heads-up, who’s He speaking about? What we call the New Testament provides the answer. God, through the prophets, spoke of a coming Messiah, His Son. His Son having come, God now speaks to us through Him.

To know Jesus, is to know God. To know something of the heart, mind, and motivations of the Christ is to know something of the Creator. For He is the shining forth, the reflection, of God’s glory. The very nature of God etched within His human form, to read the record of Jesus in action is to see Jehovah in action. For God has spoken to us by His Son.

John, one who walked with Jesus, also declared that Jesus is the Word. The Word who was with God, the Word who was God. The Word who was in the beginning with God and through whom, God made all things (Jn. 1:1-3). Oh, Word of God speak!

These opening verses of Hebrews are pretty familiar, but they’re still pretty jaw-dropping. Especially as you consider that this Word from God is not some distance word, but the Word that loved us, died to redeem us, rose from the dead and now lives in and through us.

God has spoken and God continues to speak. Not that He speaks a new word, or a new truth, or a changing truth, but that He speaks His revealed truth personally, profoundly, and supernaturally through the Spirit of God in us who gives us ears to hear what our communicating God has communicated.

God has spoken.

By His grace. For His glory.

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127 Provinces

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Pete

127 Provinces. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

The king’s scribes were summoned at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day. And an edict was written, according to all that Mordecai commanded concerning the Jews, to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, 127 provinces, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language, and also to the Jews in their script and their language. . . . saying that the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather and defend their lives . . .

(Esther 8:9-11a ESV)

The king? King Ahasuerus, king of the Persians and Medes. The edict? A counter-measure of the edict that had gone out before, devised by Haman, an enemy of the Jews, declaring that all Jews were to be destroyed? The outcome of this second edict? “The reverse occurred: the Jews gained mastery over those who hated them” (Es. 9:1b). The scope of the victory? 127 provinces.

While the events recorded in Esther were concerned with those Jews who decided to remain in Babylon rather than go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, the impact of those events was felt in all 127 provinces within the Persian/Mede empire — including Israel, “the province Beyond the River” (a term used frequently in Ezra). Had it not been for the book of Esther, there would have been no book of Nehemiah.

While the world was moving and shaking in Susa, God was protecting in Jerusalem. While men were scheming and edict-ing, the Sovereign God was in control. While the storm was brewing in the Empire’s capital, the anchor held fast in the land of promise. While not even the name of God is mentioned in Esther, that God was in the thick of it all is evident by the fact that the latter portion of Ezra and Nehemiah exist. God worked in and round the palace through a nobody who became queen in order to preserve and protect a people He had chosen for Himself to reign over as King.

127 provinces. A reminder that God works behind the scenes and in far away places. While the gates of hell may seem to be bursting forth all around us, the God who will prevail is at work, even if out of sight, protecting us — faithful to His eternal promises and His unchanging person.

I can only imagine what is was for those exiles who returned to Jerusalem to have heard that first edict read authorizing their destruction. What a kick in the gut. Made no sense given they were certain they were in God’s will having returned to the land to rebuild the temple. But then, to have received the second edict allowing them to defend themselves? What hope! And then to see their enemies defeated? To have experienced the reality of “the reverse occurred”? What joy! What elation! What reason for celebration! Worthy of a perpetual feast of remembrance (Es. 9:20-28).

. . . as the days on which the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month that had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and gifts to the poor. . . . Letters were sent to all the Jews, to the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, in words of peace and truth, that these days of Purim should be observed at their appointed seasons . . .

(Esther 9:22, 30-31a ESV)

Our God reigns. Our God prevails. His promises are sure. The outcome is guaranteed. The victory is ours. Our sorrow will turn to gladness. Our mourning will fade as we feast in remembrance.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Faithful to the End

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Pete

I didn’t catch a lot of the Olympics when it aired a few weeks ago, but I managed to watch a bit. Maybe that’s why a familiar image from the track came to mind this morning as I was reading.

The image in my mind’s eye? That of a runner leaning into the finish line. When margins of victory are measured in hundredths of seconds, letting up as you approach the finish line can mean the difference between winning and losing, the difference of holding your position or dropping in the rankings. In our Christian context, I’m thinking the equivalent of leaning into the finish line is being faithful to the end.

Luke writes that because those who were following Jesus “supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately” (Lk. 19:11) Jesus told them a parable. Having seen His power — having witnessed His authority over disease, demons, and death — they were thinking that He might just be who He claimed to be, the Messiah, the Son of David, the Deliverer foretold by the prophets. Thus, as He approached Jerusalem, the place where the King would occupy the throne, they thought it must be time. Or, as we often say, they were sure they were in the last days of the last days — that the time had come for the King to return and deal with their Roman oppression.

So, the story Jesus tells is of a nobleman who goes away to receive his kingdom, telling his servants to take the resources he has left with them and

“Engage in business until I come” (Luke 19:13b ESV)

The charge wasn’t to engage until they thought they had earned enough of a return on their master’s investment. Not to engage until they were ready to retire from their jobs. Not even to engage until they thought they were in the last days of the last days, certain the kingdom would soon appear. But they were to engage until he came.

Even though they might be certain they were seeing the finish line, they were to continue to press on. To lean in. To run what had been a long race with all the determination (though perhaps with a little less vigor than when they were young) they could muster up. And for those who engaged to the end there would be the masters commendation and kingdom reward.

“Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.”

(Luke 19:17 ESV)

Faithful. Faithful in very little when compared with the vast riches of the kingdom. Faithful to the end in anticipation of the vast blessings of the kingdom.

They had engaged until the master returned. Maximized the return on his investment. Even as they may have seen the finish line approaching, they engaged to the end as good and faithful servants. Isn’t that what our Master desires of us? I’m thinkin’ . . .

My reading in Titus accentuated what I had been chewing on in Luke.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

(Titus 2:11-13 ESV)

Trained by grace. Trained not in order to coast to the finish line, but to run with all our might until the end. Trained to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Trained to live lives worthy of our calling in this present age. Even as the end of the age may be in sight. Pressing on because of perpetual anticipation of His return. Leaning in even while we look to the sky. Faithful to the end.

By His grace. For His glory.

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The Joy Was Heard

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Pete

Back from a week of visiting family. Back, Lord willing, into my morning routine.

Finished off Nehemiah this morning. Always mixed emotions as I read these last chapters.

Not really sure how I should read Nehemiah’s nationally enforced obedience in chapter 13. Does Nehemiah get an attaboy for his zeal? Or, are we seeing the seeds sown of what would develop into Pharisaical legalism? Right action but with wrong reason. Legislated righteousness but devoid of a heart responding in thankful faithfulness.

But while I’m never quite sure what to make of chapter 13, I know that I never fail to be jazzed by chapter 12. Let the good times roll!

I’m always stirred by Nehemiah’s account of dedicating the rebuilt walls of Jerusalem. Love reading about the choirs of singers that marched up on to the wall along with Judah’s leaders (12:31, 38) — the wall that the enemies of God once mocked, “If a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall” (4:3). They were there to “to celebrate the dedication with gladness, with thanksgiving and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres” (12:27). And the singers sang!

And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

(Nehemiah 12:42b – 43 ESV)

The joy was heard far away. That’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Beyond being an emotion, joy can also be an expression. While we can feel joy, we can also see joy and hear joy. While joy may bubble within as a hidden spring of the heart, it can also pour forth like a flowing river for others to hear. While joy can be savored in silence, often it manifests itself in sounds of celebration. You can feel joy within yourself, but to join with others and hear a corporate expression of joy, well, that’s a whole next-level experience. An experience we should regularly encounter as God’s people when we gather for our weekly celebration of the gospel and of the God — Father, Son, and Spirit — who has brought the gospel to light to our once blinded eyes and darkened hearts.

God’s people should be a singing people. God’s people have reason to be a celebrating people. Where God’s people gather the joy should be heard.

The precedent was set long ago. If for nothing else, our deliverance from sin and death is a reason to sing.

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

(Exodus 15:1-2 ESV)

The joy on the banks of the Red Sea was heard. Joy experienced not because a wall was built but because freedom from bondage was realized. Joy centered deep within but catalyzed from high above. The LORD Himself the source of the song. The God worthy of exaltation priming the pump of praise.

The joy was heard by the sea. Centuries later the joy was heard from atop a wall. Today may the joy be heard in our gatherings.

Joy heard because of God’s abounding grace. Joy heard for God’s everlasting glory.

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Nevertheless

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Pete

To mess with Dickens’ well-known line . . . It can be the best of words, it can be the worst of words. The word? Nevertheless.

It’s been over three weeks since they gathered to hear Ezra read from the Book of the Law of Moses (Neh. 8:2, 9:1). But it wasn’t a one and done thing. Twenty-four days ago they had come together to be taught the Law (8:8). The next day, the heads of their households gathered to study the Law (8:13). Then they obeyed the Law and observed the feast of booths for the first time since the days of Joshua (8:14, 17). And during those days, “day by day, from the first day to the last day” they continued to listen as Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God (8:18). And, because they dove into the Book, the Book did a work in them.

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

(Nehemiah 9:1-3 ESV)

Okay, put that on your website or on the sign outside your church: “Special Meeting in the Word and Prayer — 6AM to 6PM (No meals provided or permitted).” Whose gonna show? But when the word of God captures the souls of the people of God don’t be surprised if it ignites a hunger for God (pun intended).

And so, they pray. And, they pray together. Led by the Levites, they feed back to heaven what the Book of the Law has revealed to them. From the choosing of Abraham to their deliverance from Egypt, from their rebellion in the desert to the conquest of the land, from their presumptuous, idolatrous sin in the land to their exile to Babylon, they recount it all — the good, the bad, the ugly. And in the midst of their prayer, the best of words, the worst of words.

“Nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against You and cast Your law behind their back and killed Your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to You, and they committed great blasphemies.”

“Nevertheless, in Your great mercies You did not make an end of them or forsake them, for You are a gracious and merciful God.”

(Nehemiah 9:26, 31 ESV)

All sin against God is nevertheless sin. Despite God’s common grace, despite God’s plain revelation of Himself through creation (Rom. 1:19-20), despite sending His Son to atone for sin, despite the availability of the communicated word by which He makes Himself known, nevertheless we refuse, we rebel, we resolve to walk in the way that seems right to us. True of those outside of Christ. Far too often true of those of us in Christ who get tripped up by the old nature, the way of the world, and a persistent enemy. Nevertheless. It can be the worst of words.

Yet, praise God, it is the most beautiful of words when it is the nevertheless of a patient, loving, gracious God. When it draws our eyes to a God who is great in mercy and has promised not to forsake His people. When it turns our distracted hearts away from ourselves and towards the cross. When it provides fresh clarity into the gentle and lowly heart of Christ ready to receive, again and again, those He came to redeem, renew, and re-life for His glorious purposes (Matt. 11:28-30).

Nevertheless. Chewing on that one word this morning. Humbling yet exhilarating. Cause for repentance and confession. Cause for rejoicing and worship.

The worst of words the best of words . . .

Because of His abundant grace. Always for His everlasting glory.

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Ready to Receive the Word

Posted on August 9, 2021 by Pete

Facedown or face to the ground? That is the question. Well, not really. It is a question. But in the overall scheme of things, not that important a question. Nevertheless, one I am chewing on this morning. And not because what they did needs to be determined exactly, but why they did it should be internalized deeply.

And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

(Nehemiah 8:5-6 ESV)

I never cease to be stirred by the scene pictured in Nehemiah 8 as the word is brought by Ezra and sought by the people. In my mind’s eye I see Ezra, the teacher priest, ready, willing, and able to bring God to men and women through His revelation. They’ve built a platform, not to elevate Ezra but to elevate the word and maximize the opportunity for as many to hear as wanted to hear. And many wanted to hear, “both men and women and all who could understand” gathered with “attentive ears” in order to hear what their communicating God had communicated (8:2, 3).

And, according to the ESV and the NKJV, all the people stood, they lifted their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Hands reaching to the heavens to receive, faces pointing to the earth to receive humbly. Their bodies visibly expressing their desire for things from above even as they defer in reverential acknowledgment that they are but creatures below.

But read other translations and you realize that the ESV translation is based on only one word in the original, the word “to bow.” Others translate “bow” as they kneeled, or bowed down, and thus literally put their faces on the ground in worship (CSB, NIV). They stood up, they lifted up, and then they bowed down. So, my question. Were they facedown or face to the ground? Doesn’t really matter, does it? Less about their bodies posture than the posture of their heart, isn’t it? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Sure, we’re not coming off of 70 years of exile as they were. Nor have we just completed a fifty-two day, wall-rebuilding marathon in the face of opposition as they did. But when the word of God is declared — either as we read it or hear it preached — isn’t it still the same God who is communicating? The great God of heaven and earth? The blessed LORD who graciously calls His people to Himself that He might make Himself known? The Almighty Creator who has condescended to communicate with those He has created in His image? Yes it is. Would it be unreasonable, then, to think our heart posture should be the same? I want to suggest, no it wouldn’t.

Why would we not stand to receive, lift our hands to take hold, and put our faces to the ground (either figuratively or literally) in wonder and awe, whenever we encounter the word of God? Not physically necessarily (though that might not be a bad exercise from time to time), but at least internally. Hearts wide open in wonder and worship, with desire and deference. Ready to receive the word.

Always available, by His grace. Promised to be effectual, for His glory.

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