May 16 Blessed #3 Take a Bite

May 16

You Have to Take a Bite

Ps 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good:

blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

The wooden spoon slammed against the table and then lay there. It represented the most fearful of all things to the three year old who was rebelling against the food before him. “I don’t like it” he sobbed. He wanted something else.

Our nephew was staying with us during his mother’s major surgery. He only took a couple days to figure out he was not getting his demand for something else.  I never demanded that he take a bite. I just gave him the option of eating what was on his plate or going without. After refusing to eat a couple times, he learned he was not getting something else and decided to eat what was on his plate. Meal time became a happy time and the wooden spoon disappeared.  

     You probably know of someone who said they didn’t like something, but when they tried it, they liked it. So it is in the spiritual realm.

     Now I am not suggesting that you “try out” a bunch of religions or denominations. What I am suggesting is there are Biblical principles that will bring greater happiness to your life, if you understand them and apply them to your everyday manner of life. But too often, we ignore clear, simple, instructions and wonder why we are not happy.      

 During my occasional visit to Facebook I am impressed with the negativity, bitterness, anger and frustration I see there. Then I see someone posting a prayer that God remove their bitterness, anger, frustration and the bad people who mistreat them. That is like walking across the sands of the Sahara desert and asking God “Oh God, please remove all this sand, and send me a cold mountain stream for my thirst, a big oak tree to give me shade, an air conditioned restaurant for my food, oh, and one more thing - a place to recharge my cell phone”

All those things are available, but not to people who want to live in the desert. The same for spiritual things. You cannot have the joy the Bible describes if your life is dry as a desert spiritually.

The word blessed means happiness on top of happiness. I think of it as double happy. Math minded people may see it as happiness times happiness. Our verse for today tells us how to get it.

“…blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Note that blessing is the result of trusting. If you trust Him you will be double blessed. That is our thought for the day. How do we trust God?  Or, how do we trust God more? What parts of our lives are not totally trusting in God?

Verse 4 of this psalm is helpful in that process.

Ps 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me,…

The first step is to seek the LORD. He will hear you as he heard David. David came with a humble heart, he sought the LORD as the only means of deliverance.

    Our verse for today starts with instruction.

Ps 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good…

Obviously you don’t do that with a spoon! It requires a different kind of consumption.

Jer 15:16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:

Just reading your Bible is not enough. I know some people who are not happy and they read their Bible daily. Jeremiah “ate” the word. He took bite sized portions, chewed on them, swallowed them, digested them and they became part of who he was. The person who “eats” the Bible that way becomes the Blessed (double happy) man.

Even the Apostles had trouble understanding exactly who Christ was until their last meeting with the risen Savior, where he said

“…that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. 45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

The Old Testament may need explanation and careful study but there is much in the New Testament that is self-evident.

What don’t we understand about these verses?

 Here are things you need in your daily life.

Ga 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Here the Bible tells you what to think about.

Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things

Here we are told how we should live.

1Th 5:15 See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. 16 ¶ Rejoice evermore. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 19 Quench not the Spirit. 20 Despise not prophesyings. 21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.

If you lack any of these then the devotional thought for today is to “take a bite”, trust God and become blessed. 

Ps 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

May 15 #3 The Muddy Road

May 15

The Muddy Road Detour

Ps 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD… 

The words “Road Impassible” seemed like a challenge to my 22 year old brain as I drove around the barricade.  The monster that had devoured the gravel road was a mud hole about 100 feet long and from one flooded ditch to the other. Having little knowledge and no wisdom I floored the gas pedal. I downshifted to second about half way across and somehow made it to the other side and firm gravel.  It would be at a later time I would pay the consequences for being stupid about mud holes.  

The verse for today made me think about the founding of the United States and our slide away from Biblical values. That led me to recall an old song about the trouble you will have if you ignore warning signs. You may not remember “There’s a Muddy Road Ahead”, a song from October 1945 so here are the lyrics.

Detour there's a muddy road ahead

detour paid no mind to what it said
Detour oh the bitter things I find

should have read that detour sign 

The verses in this song bemoan choices that were made and wishing they had heeded the warning signs. The message is bad consequences follow bad decisions. There are multiple examples of bad decision making, and bad consequences, in the Bible.

Ge 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

We know the results of this encounter between Eve and the serpent in the garden of Eden. Eve had a choice to make. Believe the serpent and what he said or believe God and what He said. She made a bad decision and received bad consequences.

The old testament is filled with stories of nations that forgot God or openly rebelled against Him. They ignored what God had commanded. That applied to His chosen people, Israel as well.

The book of Deuteronomy can be best understood as a coach reviewing the past and giving last instructions to the team before they go to the finals. He will not be able to go with them and is urging them to remember what they have learned and how to be successful. So Moses reviews their past successes and failures. He reminds them of what they must do to be victorious. The foundational idea can be found in the 28^th chapter where we find 9 blessings for Israel in the first 8 verses. The blessings will result from their obedience.

De 28:9 …if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.

In Deuteronomy 28:15 Moses warns Israel what will happen if they do not follow what God has required.

De 28:58 If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book…

Centuries before it happened Moses predicts they will be taken into captivity. This is not some heathen nation full of creeps, disgusting sinners and blasphemous God haters, he is talking about God’s chosen people, Israel.

De 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth;

a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

That is exactly what happened.  

2Ki 17:18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only. 

God used the ungodly Assyrians to take Israel captive and disperse them so completely they would never recover and be restored. Jews today do not know which tribe they came from. They had been warned countless times. “Do not turn off this road”. When they did stray there were more warning signs “Get back on the main road”  “Dead end road, turn around”  Generation after generation they ignored God’s warnings. They grew weary of the Main road and thought they knew a shortcut to happiness with fatal results.

Today in the United States there are a multitude of people who want to rewrite our colonial history and omit God. They say the Pilgrims came as a business venture and the first thanksgiving was due to their being thankful to the Indians for their help. The first words of the Mayflower Compact are “In the name of God, Amen.” Which exposes the ungodly agenda of the people who write grade school history books.  

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…

There is insufficient room in this devotional (or a dozen books) to list all the ways our nation is trying to rewrite God out of our history, prohibit the display of Christian symbols, and legislate God out of the future. Valedictorians may not use the name of Christ in their graduation speeches. The ten commandments (the fundamental law of God) cannot be displayed in our courts of law. Easter and Christmas have been commercialized past recognition. Now they commemorate a rabbit and eggs or a fat guy in a red suit who is omniscient (knows when you are sleeping, etc)

Enough doom and gloom. While our nation (as a people) stray from God and His word, we as individuals can still be blessed.  Remember Psalm 1? “Blessed is the man…” Our devotional thought for today is that people and nations can be blessed. They just need to heed the warning signs and stay on the right road.

     Today people are seeking happiness and keep coming up with shortcuts to get there. There are many ungodly shortcuts to happiness, but they are all dead end roads. That is partly because many people seek a happy destination and do not realize happiness is a method of travel. One sure way to travel happily is found in many Bible verses, such as; 

   Ps 144:15 …happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.

Blessed is the man (double happy) who follows this path.

Ps 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD;

and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season;

his leaf also shall not wither;

and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

May 14 -#3 The iniquity Plan

May 14

      The Planning of Iniquity

Ps 32:1  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man

unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity

       He only yelled once when I stabbed him. He was a soldier in Germany during the cold war with Russia. I was serving with the US Army and had access to top secret documents. He had slipped in behind me and when I realized he was there I only had a couple seconds to decide how I could prevent him from taking what he was after. So I stabbed him. It happened almost 50 years ago so I am free to discuss the details now.

It had started like any other morning as I sat down in the mess hall for breakfast.  As I started to eat I felt a tap on my shoulder. I had no idea who wanted my attention but I knew instinctively it was a bad omen. As I turned my head I stabbed my fork into the delicious looking cinnamon roll on my tray. That is when I heard him howl in pain as he jerked back his hand from my cinnamon roll. The whole table of guys roared in laughter as the would be thief rubbed the fork marks in the back of his hand.

He had planned to steal my cinnamon roll when I turned to see who had tapped me. Pranks like that are usually done just for fun. But another kind of planning is not humorous at all. There is nothing funny about the Iniquity plan!

Yesterday we looked at the same verses that we are considering today. These two verses contain a valuable lesson we should not skip over. The opening two verses of Psalm 32 contain three aspects of Christian failure; transgression, sin and iniquity. David was guilty of all three.

We find the word “transgression” in the opening phrase of psalm 32:1 - Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven…

Transgression is to step over a boundary. The Bible says don’t and we do it anyway. God says thou shalt not…and we ignore what is prohibited and do it anyway. Sometimes the devil gets the blame, as in “the devil made me do it!”  But unless you are demon possessed you can’t blame the devil. Even Eve in the garden was drawn to eat of the forbidden tree by her own lusts after she believed the serpents lies.

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman

being deceived was in the transgression.

Next we find the phrase “...whose sin is covered…”. Sin is best thought of as missing the mark. We wanted to do well but fell short. The Bible says do and we try but fall short or miss the mark. We know we should do some good thing but for whatever reason we don’t. For some things it isn’t important, but when we miss the target or fall short in some spiritual way, it is sin.   

Ro 3:23 For all have sinned,

and come short of the glory of God; 

Verse two contains the third kind of evil David was guilty of committing. “ .. the LORD imputeth not iniquity…” David did not go up on the rooftop to look at a bathing woman. He also had not planned to send for her. Those were sins and transgressions. But Iniquity is different. Iniquity is premeditated. We plan on sinning. When David did not confess his adultery but made plans to hide it he started practicing iniquity. It is no mistake or sudden flaw in our character. David planned the murder of Uriah. It was iniquity.

Even when we confess our sins and transgressions our subconscious may be planning how we will do it again. We may ask forgiveness for getting drunk even while we know we will be going to another drinking party on Friday night. That kind of thinking is iniquity and iniquity is the foundation of hypocrisy. When we have iniquity in our lives, and plan to sin secretly, we have become a hypocrite. 

 

2Ti 2:19 …The Lord knoweth them that are his.

And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ

depart from iniquity.

Sin may be a tongue out of control, and transgression may be a moment of rebellion, but iniquity is in the bones. All three come under the general heading of sin. Iniquity appears more deadly to our souls than the rebellion of transgression or the sin of failing to meet Godly expectations but all fall short of the glory of God. As such all are equally bad. We can define different kinds of sin, but they all are just different ways at looking at the same human defect. Sin. They all wind up in the same place.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;…

And all have the same cure.

Rom 6:23 …but the gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord

No wonder David felt like the blessed man. He had recognized his great sins, transgressions and iniquity’s. He had confessed and repented and God had forgiven him. David would still suffer the consequences of his actions, but his soul was now free from the burden of guilt. 

Ps 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good:

blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

May 13 - #2 Blessed - The Stolen lunch

May 13

#2-Blessed is the Man…

The Stolen Lunch  

Ps 32:2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth

not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

The little thief was caught red handed, while in the act of stealing someone’s lunch. The school principal was anxious to catch the culprit.  There would be no stealing in his building and now he could demonstrate what happened to thieves, even if it was a third grade girl. She would be punished!

The principal had imputed evil motives for the girls crime; greed, gluttony, dishonesty, selfishness, poor morals, etc. That all changed when she was diagnosed with having diabetes. Proper treatment ended her “crime spree” and the principal stopped imputing evil motives for her actions.  

Out text for today describes the blessed man (double happy) that has sinned and been forgiven. In the 4^th chapter of Romans Paul tells us this is a psalm of David and repeats some of the verses. Paul is making the argument that God can impute righteousness to a man without good works. David is happy that God does not impute punishment to those who have done bad works.

David had committed a long list of sins. It started because he was not in the field with his army. He decided to stay at home and was walking on his rooftop. He saw a woman bathing on another roof top and instead of turning his eyes away he gazed upon her and his heart was filled with lust for another man’s wife. He used his God given office as king to send for her. What God had given him for good he used for evil. As a result of his adultery with her she became pregnant with child. David sent word to have the husband, Uriah, sent home from the battle. But Uriah would not enjoy the comforts of home while his buddies were out in the field fighting.

When a person starts down the path of sin they cannot know where it might lead. David’s gazing at a bathing woman led to lust, adultery and now murder. David arranged for Uriah to be assigned to a very dangerous place in the battle where he was killed. But it didn’t end there. Bad choices cannot be separated from their bad consequences. When the child was born it became sick and died. Then problems with his own children plagued David for years. God forgave him of his sin, but the consequences remained. If you make a bad decision and murder someone, God can forgive you. But the consequences are still there. The murdered person is still dead.

David eventually was brought low for his horrible sins, appealed to God for forgiveness and was forgiven. Psalm 51 details that event and is known as David’s penitential psalm. Psalm 32 was written after David had been forgiven. No wonder he can say in verse 1 “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

The word blessed means more than just being happy or even joyous. Blessed is translated from a word that is in the plural form and could be translated as blessednesses, or double, or triple happy. I usually read it as “double happy” or happiness upon happiness. Just as when a person with a limited vocabulary wants to emphasize something they repeat the same word, as in “I was really, really, really mad”, so we could say for blessednesses “I was really, really, really, happy happy happy”.

 David’s joyfilled comments continue into our verse for today.

Ps 32:2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth

not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

David already understood the grace of God. That God would not impute, or charge against him, his great sins of adultery, murder and all the transgressions connected to them. David knew what we as Christians take for granted. It made him feel blessed.

Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The new testament says it this way.

1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Theologians speak of imputation, which is based on the word impute and is best described as a bookkeeping function. Because of Christ our sins are not recorded under our name but under His. He has borne our sins on the tree. That should make us all feel blessed. But that is only half of the story. Imputation does more than just place our sins under Christs account, it also places Christ’s sinless perfection under our account, so God sees us with the righteousness of Christ.

A wonderful hymn, Accepted in the Beloved,  says it well; 

“God sees my savior, and then he sees me,

In the beloved, accepted and free” 

David had experienced unspeakable joy (double blessednesses) of a man forgiven of horrendous trespasses against God. His forgiveness was so complete he would be known as a man after God’s own heart.

Our meditation for today is to think of how blessed we are that know Christ as our personal savior. We have been forgiven, even as David, of our transgressions, sins and iniquity. Let us pause during the trials and problems we may have today and smile the kind of smile that only a double, triple blessed, forgiven sinner can understand.  

Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:

the chastisement of our peace was upon him;

and with his stripes we are healed