May 2009 Archives

"I stand amazed in the presence, of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be, How marvelous, How wonderful, is my saviors love for me."

This week we have been reading Psalm 139. This is a Psalm that requires some pondering. Is he saying he likes to be in God's presence, and always having God in his presence? Or is he wishing he could get away from God for a little while? Do we like to stand in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene? Do we like to wake up in the morning with the realization that we are still in the presence of God?

     I decided the Psalmist likes to be always in the presence of God. If he could go even to heaven or Sheol; if he could go as far east as he can imagine (the wings of the dawn) or as far west as the sea stretches out from Israel, he will find God ready to guide, and willing to hold him fast. He likes that. And I do too. Except for the little Jonah part of me, that sometimes wants to flee to the place where God might not be. But that I find does not work so well.

"You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar."

So I will stand with the Psalm writer, and the hymn writer.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

This week we have been reading Proverbs 3:1-6 together. It calls us to "trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."

This bit of wisdom is all about the heart. In the ancient world, the "heart" was seen as the seat of a person's will. The heart was where life decisions were made, where one set the course of one's life. In most of us, the will is very strong. We are strong willed chldren. We seem to know what we want in life and how to get it.

There is a homeless young man who comes by the church from time to time to see me. I have known him now for seven years and his life has not changed one bit in that time. He is a very determined young man and he will not change his will, so his situation does not improve. It is very hard to influence or change a person's will.

This passage gives us directions in how to change our strong wills, so that we can trust the Lord and follow His ways. It says the will is changed by keeping God's commands in the heart.That is, we allow the commands of God and our own wills to co-exist. Then we are to bind love and faithfulness around our necks, so that they lie close to the heart. (The picture here is that of a necklace.) This is the central promise of the marriage vow we use in our church, to be loving and faithful. So if love and faithfulness are worn around the neck, that means you make a commitment, you take a vow to work on doing God's will.

Next, these qualities are to be written on the tablet of your heart. The image that comes to mind is Bart Simpson filling the blackboard each day after school with another thousand promises of "I will not..." There is power in repetition, and our words do matter in shaping our wills.

Finally we are to trust in the Lord with all your heart, that is, to lean on the Lord. The TNIV says "in all your ways SUBMIT to him." This is where change takes place. When we are able to submit our ways to God, then He will make our paths straight.

How willing are we to use this process of trust in our lives?