May 1 A Charge to Keep

May 1

A Charge to Keep

Ps 86:12 …I will glorify thy name for evermore.

What kind of man would have done that?  He even wrote a book about it!  People who visit his library are reminded of what was on his mind. Who was he and what had he done?

A few weeks ago my wife and I visited the three presidential libraries in Texas; Bush 43, LBJ, and Bush 41. In the George Bush (43) library in Dallas was a sign “A charge to keep I have” which was his motto. His book “A Charge to Keep” expanded on that idea.

By now you have realized the phrase is from a marvelous hymn.

1. A charge to keep I have,
   A God to glorify,
   A never-dying soul to save
   And fit it for the sky.
2. To serve the present age,
   My calling to fulfill:
   Oh, may it all my pow’rs engage
   To do my Master’s will!

Politics aside he had an understanding of who he served.

The author of the hymn, Charles Wesley, had some doctrinal ideas I do not share, but the essence of the hymn, a God to Glorify, is the focus of our devotional thought for today.

First we need to understand what the word “glorify” means. Mr. Webster says Glorify 1a “To make glorious by bestowing honor, praise or admiration 1b To elevate to celestial glory.”

Well that wasn’t much help. Let me ask Mr. Webster what the word glory means. Glory 1b “worshipful praise, honor and thanksgiving.”

OK, I think that gives us the general idea. The word glorify sort of combines worship, praise, honor and thanksgiving.  We find that idea in a well-known verse

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works,

and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Nothing complicated here. Don’t hide your light, let it shine before men, let people see your good works but be sure God gets the credit. If you do this right when people see you doing good they will glorify God and not you.  This verse is so common we sometimes miss the key parts. Please go read it again slowly and dwell on the phrases.

The word glorify is found 22 times in our KJV Bible. Perhaps some of those verses will help us better understand how to glorify God.

Ps 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble:

I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

A workman was slowly sliding down a very high, steep roof. He couldn’t get any traction and there was nothing to grab. He prayed “Oh God help me!”  As he was praying his pants snagged onto a nail and stopped him. He prayed again ”Lord, you don’t need to help me now. I took care of the problem myself”

Does that sound familiar?  “Lord if you will just get me out of this problem I will read my Bible every day, go to church every Sunday and stop drinking and cussing.”  And when the problem is resolved all the promises are forgotten.   

The verse says when God gets us out of trouble we need to be sure he gets the honor, worship, praise and thanksgiving. That is what glorifying God is about.

Ps 86:12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with

all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

I once heard a priest say the rosary on the radio. It consisted of repeating “Hail Mary”  some number of times and then the Lord’s Prayer and some other prayer. It was too complicated for me to understand. What I did understand was he repeated the same words over and over in a monotone, with neither feeling nor enthusiasm. I won’t judge but it seemed to me to be a dull dreary kind of thing, not something that would cause people to glorify God.

The verse says we need to do it with our whole heart. Heartfelt thanksgiving. And it should be continuous.

Finally the greatest reason to glorify God.

1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

 

We have been bought with a price.

Jesus paid it all, All to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

 Let us think today of how we should glorify God. We should be thankful when He delivers us from snares and troubles, we should let men see our good works so they will Glorify God, we should use our whole heart, our body and our spirit to glorify Him. If you are like I am, I need a reminder like this from time to time. We have much to be thankful for, but we could be more thankful, give God greater honor in our lives, praise Him a little more than we do, and study to be sure our worship is pleasing in His sight. 

 

We have a charge to keep.

Finally, it is easy to be thankful and glorify God on blue sky, sunny days of zippity-do-da, zippiti aye, but much harder on days when there is suffering. So I will leave you with this last encouraging word for today.

1Pe 4:16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian,

let him not be ashamed;

but let him glorify God on this behalf.

april 30 Situtational Religion.

April 30

Situational Religion

Jg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel:

every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

What on earth is situational religion? It is religion which is adaptable to the situation. Or religion which has been changed to meet some situation. For instance “The Day of The Dead” in Mexico is a custom which predates the first Spaniards and the introduction of Catholicism. Instead of denouncing the practice, the tradition was absorbed into the Catholic beliefs of devout Mexicans and the traditional practices intermixed tradition and Christianity. The result is a very religious 2 or 3 day festival of traditional practices under the umbrella of devout worship. There is no Biblical basis for it, yet it is seen as a solemn religious time.

While Bible believing churches do not observe the day of the dead, there is a creeping tendency for them to adopt situational religion. It is not a new thing. It is centuries old. As old as man’s unwillingness to yield his will to follow God with his whole heart.

An excellent example is found starting in 1 Sam 4. Israel was losing battles with the Philistines and decided to get the ark from Shiloah where it had sat for years. Sort of like keeping a rabbits foot in your pocket for good luck. The result was they lost the next battle and also the ark.  

1 Sam 5 details all the death and misery God inflicted on the Philistines because they had taken the ark. The Philistines decided to send the ark back on a new cart pulled by two milk cows.  After people saw the cart with the ark they put it in Abinadab’s house for safe keeping until David could come and carry it to Jerusalem. And that is where the problems got even worse.

2Sa 6:3 And they set the ark of God upon a new cart,

and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that

was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of

Abinadab, drave the new cart.

But their presumption would turn deadly as they labored for the Lord.

2Sa 6:6 And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor,

Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. 7 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God.   

Here they were doing their best to move the ark to Jerusalem and some poor guy saw a problem and was just trying to help. The only thanks he got was to be killed.  Even David was upset over that!

2Sa 6:8 And David was displeased, because the LORD

had made a breach upon Uzzah

No wonder David was displeased. He had spent a lot of time and effort to make this move happen. He had sought the advice of others.

1Ch 13:1  And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.

It was a popular idea and supported by everyone.

1Ch 13:4 for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

 And now with the death of Uzzah David had no idea how to move the ark!

1Ch 13:12 How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?

But why was Uzzah killed for such a minor thing? It was not a minor thing! They were doing something in your own way and expecting God to bless them.

It started when they decided to take the ark to the battlefield. Had God directed them to do that. No, they just did it and presumed God would bless them.  Did David consult God about moving the ark? There is no record of that happening. He consulted the people.

Next, they should not have stored the ark in Abinidab’s house. He was not a Levite. Nor were his sons. The sons had no Scriptural basis for being involved with the move at all. Levites and Koathites had that job.

In Exodus 25:12-15 we learn the ark was built with golden rings at each corner. Staves (wooden poles) were slipped through the rings so the ark could be carried without anyone touching it. The Levites or Koathites were the only ones who could move the ark. They used the staves and when they picked up the ark they put the staves on their shoulders. Don’t get confused when someone says they carried the ark on their shoulders. They mean the ark was carried with staves and the staves were on their shoulders.

But even those who carried the ark could not touch it.

Nu 4:15 …the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. …

God had given very clear instructions about the ark, it’s importance, the correct way to approach, prepare it when it was moved, how it should be covered right down to the color of the top cloth, how it should be carried with long poles and a very specific warning about who was permitted to carry it and a final warning not to touch it, lest ye die. That was the way God wanted things done.

Instead they let Abinadab and his sons (tribe of Judah-not Levites) haul it in a wagon like cargo with fatal results. They just used the same method of transport as the idol worshipping Philistines had used. Moving the Ark to Jerusalem was a hugely popular thing with everyone, including the religious leaders. The only No vote came from God.  They had grown away from the Levitical teachings and had substituted popular ideas about how to be religious. On this occasion there is no record anyone ever asked God for directions or blessings. They just did what was right in their own eyes.

Are we guilty of the same thing? Churches today do a lot of very religious and popular things, which have no basis in scripture. Why else would you put a Santa Claus on a church bus around the time we celebrate the birth of Christ. Why do Christians take their children to the mall to see the Easter bunny at the time we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Why would a youth minister give teens potato chips and coke and call it communion? Why would preachers encourage us to love and accept what God called an abomination? Finally, do you think God is still blessing this country in the same way He used to? Just a question. Our meditation for today is to consider what we do in our lives that we label religious which has no basis in scripture.

Ps 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart:

try me, and know my thoughts:

24 And see if there be any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.