This is a very intriguing Psalm and while I don't have time to explicate it fully, I do have a few thoughts that came to me while reading it. First of all, I've been thinking lately about how we need to be more aware of the working of the Lord in our lives. I'm struck by passages in the Psalms where the author will express his desire to proclaim the works of the Lord in front of the assembly. I think, "I want to do that too!" But too often we don't think about all that God is doing in our daily lives. We don't stop to thank and praise Him for his many blessings. For example, I recently got my first job offer and while my first reaction may be to jump up and down in excitement, I need to be praising God for his goodness to me!! Because it is HIS works that led to me getting this offer and I want everyone around me to see how great God is!
But those are my background thoughts for this Psalm. I haven't gotten very far into the Psalm yet(it is quite long!), but in the beginning the Psalmist talks about how fathers should teach their children the laws of Israel, that they would not forget the works of God, so that they would put their confidence in Him. Now, I read that and chuckled, because I always have this idea that God was always obviously working in ancient Israel, so why would they need to be taught by their parents? But the next part of this Psalm is even more shocking. The generation of Israelites that were led through the desert saw more miracles and more of the goodness of God than almost any generation before or since(save for during Christ's lifetime). Yet they REBELLED against God. They DOUBTED God. They continued to SIN against God. Shocking! They, of all people, should be aware of God's greatness and of his mighty works...and yet still they did not worship God wholeheartedly. They may have seen God's goodness in a clear and evident way, but they did not thank Him or react in an appropriate way. Rather they sinned against His holy Face.
Now I don't have time to comment more, but before I go, let me exhort you to think of the goodness of God in our lives. Think on what God has done for us! And praise Him in the land of the living!! Don't just think to yourselves how nice God is...but tell others what He has done for you!! If we have this attitude of thankfulness and praise, it will be much more difficult for us to slip into blatant sin against our God! And by glorifying God, we bring encouragement to those around us. Let us praise God all day long, from the rising of the sun to its setting!!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Purity - Part I
Well, I have been pestered lately to write some more so I think maybe I shall. You can all thank Dream for this post, because without her, I probably would have forgotten I had this blog! But now to the real meat of this post...
Purity. That word is a wonderful and terrible word at the same time. Wonderful because true purity can lead to such joy and happiness!! Terrible...because most of us feel that true purity is never ever going to possible in this life. And before I go much further in this post, I'm going to clarify this topic by saying that I'm talking about sexual purity here. Obviously there's many kinds of purity and we want to be holy before God in every way. But at this stage in my life(as a single twenty-year-old guy!) sexual purity is something that's at the forefront of my(and indeed many of my peers) mind. So as I refer to purity or being pure throughout this post, take that to mean sexual purity.
But first, why is purity important? I think there are several reasons we can give, but I'll start with the most important. Being pure is being obedient to God. There are numerous verses in both the Old and New Testament that condemn the sexually immoral. Let me quote one briefly that cuts to the heart of the matter:
"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."
That's such a wonderful passage but at the same time frightening. As children of God, the Spirit is within us! How dare we act immoral and impure with this body that God has bought? Being impure does nothing at all to glorify God - rather, it mocks the covenant of marriage that God has established. We may think that there are no consequences for being impure. You know what? Even if not a single consequence befalls us, we are still disobeying the Most Holy God, the One who saved us from an eternity of separation from Him! And that is reason enough to desire to be holy and pure in the sight of our Father!
Now let me give a second reason, one that does directly deal with sin's consequences. If we submit to our fleshly lusts and sin against God, this act deprives us both of a present joy and a future joy. The present joy being the fact that we could be intimate with God but instead we are choosing to rebel against Him. As we sin, our conscience cries out against us and both we and the Father are grieved at our sin. Should not that motivate us to be holy? And let me exhort you - if your conscience does not cry out or if you are not grieved, please please pray that God would soften your heart! And now you may wonder what future joy I'm referring to. That's simple, by sinning now and being impure before God, we are harming our future relationship with our husband or wife. How horrible!! Just imagine that every time you sin, you are siphoning away some of the joy that could be had with your future husband or wife. We should want to be completely pure and clean when we enter into our marriage covenant, and if you don't desire this, again, I urge to pray that God impresses this onto your heart!
Now, I've mentioned a few reasons that purity is important and I'm aware there is so much more that could be said. And actually, I'd like to talk about this more in the future, but my time to write is drawing to a close and I'd like to write a little more before I close. So more Scriptures and more of my thoughts will be posted in the future.
But, I'd like to say a little more on practical matters. You may think I've been remarkably clean in my post thus far("He hasn't said ANYTHING about sexual stuff yet?? And this is supposed to be about purity??") but that's for a reason. I don't think I need to write in a very detailed fashion to get my point across. But you may be wondering - what actually composes impurity? Is it only the actual act of sexual intercourse? I think we can all agree that obviously that act outside of marriage is a sin. But I urge you to ponder the fact that there is so much more...and I'd like to ask you to listen to your conscience. If your conscience pricks you, you know what? You should probably listen to it. Anything that causes you to fantasize or think about impure things...that's a sin. And I'm saying that unreservedly. Anything that could cause someone else to sin in that area? You better watch out, lest you cause someone else to stumble.
I must close this post, but I may return later for revisions and maybe another post in the future. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks all for reading and let me know of any additions you think may be helpful!!
Purity. That word is a wonderful and terrible word at the same time. Wonderful because true purity can lead to such joy and happiness!! Terrible...because most of us feel that true purity is never ever going to possible in this life. And before I go much further in this post, I'm going to clarify this topic by saying that I'm talking about sexual purity here. Obviously there's many kinds of purity and we want to be holy before God in every way. But at this stage in my life(as a single twenty-year-old guy!) sexual purity is something that's at the forefront of my(and indeed many of my peers) mind. So as I refer to purity or being pure throughout this post, take that to mean sexual purity.
But first, why is purity important? I think there are several reasons we can give, but I'll start with the most important. Being pure is being obedient to God. There are numerous verses in both the Old and New Testament that condemn the sexually immoral. Let me quote one briefly that cuts to the heart of the matter:
"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."
That's such a wonderful passage but at the same time frightening. As children of God, the Spirit is within us! How dare we act immoral and impure with this body that God has bought? Being impure does nothing at all to glorify God - rather, it mocks the covenant of marriage that God has established. We may think that there are no consequences for being impure. You know what? Even if not a single consequence befalls us, we are still disobeying the Most Holy God, the One who saved us from an eternity of separation from Him! And that is reason enough to desire to be holy and pure in the sight of our Father!
Now let me give a second reason, one that does directly deal with sin's consequences. If we submit to our fleshly lusts and sin against God, this act deprives us both of a present joy and a future joy. The present joy being the fact that we could be intimate with God but instead we are choosing to rebel against Him. As we sin, our conscience cries out against us and both we and the Father are grieved at our sin. Should not that motivate us to be holy? And let me exhort you - if your conscience does not cry out or if you are not grieved, please please pray that God would soften your heart! And now you may wonder what future joy I'm referring to. That's simple, by sinning now and being impure before God, we are harming our future relationship with our husband or wife. How horrible!! Just imagine that every time you sin, you are siphoning away some of the joy that could be had with your future husband or wife. We should want to be completely pure and clean when we enter into our marriage covenant, and if you don't desire this, again, I urge to pray that God impresses this onto your heart!
Now, I've mentioned a few reasons that purity is important and I'm aware there is so much more that could be said. And actually, I'd like to talk about this more in the future, but my time to write is drawing to a close and I'd like to write a little more before I close. So more Scriptures and more of my thoughts will be posted in the future.
But, I'd like to say a little more on practical matters. You may think I've been remarkably clean in my post thus far("He hasn't said ANYTHING about sexual stuff yet?? And this is supposed to be about purity??") but that's for a reason. I don't think I need to write in a very detailed fashion to get my point across. But you may be wondering - what actually composes impurity? Is it only the actual act of sexual intercourse? I think we can all agree that obviously that act outside of marriage is a sin. But I urge you to ponder the fact that there is so much more...and I'd like to ask you to listen to your conscience. If your conscience pricks you, you know what? You should probably listen to it. Anything that causes you to fantasize or think about impure things...that's a sin. And I'm saying that unreservedly. Anything that could cause someone else to sin in that area? You better watch out, lest you cause someone else to stumble.
I must close this post, but I may return later for revisions and maybe another post in the future. I'd like to know what you think. Thanks all for reading and let me know of any additions you think may be helpful!!
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