Out In the Deep

Archive for February, 2012|Monthly archive page

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An Empty Choice

In Devotional on February 10, 2012 at 9:20 am

“. . . choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin” (Hebrews 11:25)

In the second book of Confessions, Augustine spends much time thinking of an adolescent act of joining his friends to steal a neighbor’s pears.  The truth was the pears weren’t any good.  They were fit only for pigs.  Augustine already owned pears that were much better for eating.  He realized that the love for the sin itself was what drove him. The draw was to commit an act of omnipotence.  This sin was attractive because he could imitate God by choosing an act of power.  The reality, of course, is that this act of sin left him with nothing – worthless pears.  Sin always gives this same illusion.  We are attracted to it because we think that in making our choice, we can do a better job of meeting our own needs and getting what we really want.  In reality, sin leads us to a room that we discover, to our dismay, is empty.

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The Fast of Gracious Help

In Devotional on February 9, 2012 at 10:41 am

“Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth.”  (Isaiah 58:8)

Israel was all about fasting as a demonstration of self-denial and austerity.  The fast that the Lord chose, however, was one of extending a gracious heart to those weaker than you.  It is easy to argue that these weaker ones will spurn our gift using it to fuel their own sense of self-entitlement.  This may be true, but it misses the point.  Are we saying there is no one to whom we can extend a gracious heart?  Don’t worry about the problem cases.  As we seek to deny our interests in a way that those who are weaker are lifted up, helped and healed, God will give us light and will lead us further on His path.

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The Vast Goodness of God

In Devotional on February 8, 2012 at 12:03 pm

“For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.” (Psalm 36)

God’s attributes is a vast flow of goodness.  He is as the endless sky, the majestic mountains, and the bottomless sea over against a narrow, dark room.  It is the only true pursuit over against the shallow constraint of self-centered preoccupation.  The lie is that sin is an equal, opposite option to the pursuit of God.  This is simply not true.  There is no comparison.  God is the fountain of life.  Outside of Him, there is nothing worth having.

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Grace To Hold Me Up

In Devotional on February 3, 2012 at 9:47 am

“If I should say, ‘My foot has slipped,’ Your lovingkindness, O LORD, will hold me up.”  (Psalm 94:18)

Only the most insane would scale the face of Half Dome without ropes and spikes under the assumption that they will never slip.  It is easy to fall into the trap to think that I have “graduated” from grace and now I can climb the rocks without assistance.  But we never graduate.  I am one slip away from a disastrous fall.  That doesn’t mean that I spend my life in worry and fear.  It means that I take the next step in life relying in and depending upon the grace of God.

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The Cross

In Devotional on February 2, 2012 at 1:51 pm

“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

For those who struggle with self-righteousness and find their thoughts continually sliding into judgmentalism and criticalism, the cross is the place to turn.  It equals all humanity at its foot.  It reminds us that the sin and the rebellious streak of our heart have made us all unworthy before God.  We depend upon His grace.  For those who struggle with self-depreciation and muddle through the swamp of self-loathing, shame and scrupulosity, the cross is the place to turn.  It lifts us up from the shameful place it found us.  It restores us to nobility and servant-authority greater than from which Adam fell.  It tells us we are more than head-bowed pardoned criminals but restored as children in the family of the Father.  Whatever way we want to misperceive our place, the cross can order our thinking again.

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Cursing Enemies

In Devotional on February 1, 2012 at 11:45 am

“Let those be ashamed and dishonored who seek my life; Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me.” (Psalm 35:4)

Cursing Psalms present an interesting dilemma for the church that is taught to love their enemies.  One reading is to view these curses as the honest expression of an ancient Hebrew crying with angst and passion to God – true feelings apart from what a Christian ought to do.  Another reading is to put it into the spiritual realm where it is always acceptable to wish for Satan’s destruction.  Regardless of how one approaches this, one can always rest assured that God knows who the true enemies are (those rushing headlong to destroy God’s people) and that ultimately God will make things right.

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