⁵  Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

This verse struck me as being important before coming to the Word. The humble heart that declares its need for help in finding and knowing truth is liable to find what it is desiring. There is a measured patience to this act, as the psalmist declares that they will wait all day long. These are two things that are, in combination, a deep challenge to society.

Firstly, humility to request and receive outside help defies the self-appointed interpreter in all of us, and rejects the “knowledge as information” of the Google centric world. We can’t just do a web-search and find truth in the way the psalmist is describing. We need that most abhorent-to-the-enlightenment idea of God-revealed truth.

Secondly, the matter of waiting, which is an agony for some people; it is simply necessary sometimes for us to spend a prolonged period of time seeking, asking and meditating. We cannot rush our way into understanding – we must use our brains and use them with determination. We must courageously set our hearts to focus on this matter at hand and await the word from God. We must quiet our busy physicality and resist the on-rush of thoughts that would deaden or drown out that still, small voice that speaks.

It is only when we truly take ahold of the truth of the central line that we will find the conviction for both of those traits. We must be grounded in the reality that we are seeking the God of our salvation, and none-other! When that is the foundation, we are much more prone to humble ourselves and await his leading, because we know that He is God and He is at work to save us, giving us both the fear and comfort needed for growth.

Rehoboam was a pragmatist and an opportunist. When he was in a position where he knew that he needed God – when there was a threat from enemies – he acted religiously. The priests who deserted the north to worship in Jerusalem were welcomed as a windfall of religious security. But his heart was not set upon seeking the Lord. And his actions followed his heart.

This is a common theme throughout the OT and is repeated today. I have been guilty. I have known others too who have forgotten their need of God when things seem to be prospering and all feels safe. It is so common that it is hard to invest even this time right now writing about it.

But I need God. I need Him now, whenever and wherever “now” is. For my life is moving in one direction or another. My heart is, even when so gradually as to be imperceptible to me, moving either toward God or away from Him. There is no “Neutral” or “Park” position on the lever that “shifts” my heart. I have a choice again today. Will I seek first the kingdom and His righteousness (through faith)? Or will I seek something else? Help me, Lord Jesus, to choose the One Thing – over and over in countless small ways – that will never be taken away from me.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the One I love
Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Our second session, during our regular Sunday School time, was a refresher on worship. I’ve heard Pastor Jim speak several times on the duty, delight and blessing of being a worshiper. It has always been encouraging and challenging; today was no exception! I think my biggest take away was from his first main point:

You are responsible for the quality of your worship experience.

What he meant was that it your duty and responsibility to enter into worship. It is not about having a cool band, the rights songs, a perfect atmosphere or a particular feeling. God commands that we worship. Our assignment is to be worshipers, to be a priesthood (1 Pet. 2:9) and as Jim taught about the need to reject emotionalism (the act of being led by emotion) in favor of worshiping God as a forceful choice sometimes in spite of our emotions, it dawned on me that the work of worship leads to the wonder of worship.

We often want worship to be easy. In fact, we are in danger often of considering true and authentic worship to be as such, and anything else is false or hypocritical. As Jim said, it is never hypocritical to obey God.

As we will engage ourselves, heart, mind, soul and strength, to the delightful duty of worship, whether our feelings are on board yet, we more often than not find ourselves transported to a place of wonder as we gaze upon the awesome glory of God.

Work to wonder; what a great life to pursue!

Many times, we think of preparation for meeting God in terms of getting rid of sin, cleaning our act up, being pure and other such things. Penance and cleansing rituals come into play for some traditions. But Pastor Jim spoke a word of hope, truth and peace to us today, reminding us of how ridiculous it is for us to try to be ready for Christ. When we were first given new life, it was not by our ability to get our ducks in a row. When we walk with his real presence, as the Holy Spirit dwells in us, it’s not by some sudden ability to be Mr. Perfect. The scandal of the Gospel is that we sinners are saved by grace – free, extravagant, abundant life traded to us for our rags, muck, and wretchedness.

The question, then, is what we do with Luke 3:3-9 where John the baptizer is declaring the need to prepare the way of the Lord, and to repent, and bear fruit in keeping with repentance. The “easy” road to take is that we need to get rid of our own sin in preparation for the arrival of Jesus. But that’s kind of like saying there’s an airplane coming so we’d better stop all this silly gravity stuff and learn to fly. In our current state, sin is a woeful reality. With that line of thinking, none of us would ever be prepared for the coming of the Lord, whether at the first advent, or the one to come. What, then, is the answer?

Pastor Jim put it clearly this morning when he said “repentance for the remission of sins” equates with “getting a ticket for speeding.” We don’t get the ticket so that we can speed, it’s because of speeding. Therefore repentance is not to earn remission, but instead because of the forgiveness we have received. Since you have been forgiven, repent! Change your thinking and your attitude. Welcome the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, not as one who cowers away, awaiting the strike across the cheek, but welcoming the loving correction of a holy Father.

In this way we are prepared: we must open our hearts wide before the holy God who made us and has the right to judge us, and receive the words of correction that expose our sin, and then, because we have been saved by grace through faith, repent! This is a lifestyle of repentance and it is a precious thing indeed.

Destroyed by all that they … understand instinctively (NKJV: know naturally).

There is a way that seems right (instinctively) to man, but it’s end is death. All of us need to be submitted to God, not living by what “comes naturally” to us. But how do we know that it is truly God and not just our own understanding?

Romans 15:14–15 (ESV)

We must examine all our “ideas” in light of the Word of God – the Word that Jesus Himself quoted and relied upon. This is the faith once for all delivered to the saints (the believers, i.e. the body of Christ, i.e., the church). We must be Psalm 1 people – meditating in God’s Word day and night. And…

We must be submitted to one another for we are all able to admonish one another. We must also be submitted to godly authority in the church. Any other “way” may seem right… (And that is precisely the point!)

Lord, cleanse my heart and my mind of any thoughts, ideas, values, assumptions or habits that are not grounded in your revealed Word!

Pastor Jim preached today on hope, and told us that, “Advent is all about hope, because hope is all about advent.” In the Big A sense of Advent, the liturgical procession towards Christmas, hope is found in the already-arrival of Messiah. Jesus has been born, the Word has already taken on flesh, and the ridiculous expectancy of the prophets has been vindicated. But advent looks forward, too, because it is a reminder that as Christ has already come, he will also return a second time. Our waiting is marked by a confident expectation. Hope and advent are so intertwined as to be inseparable.

The season of watching and waiting continues for us today, and our progression through this season of Advent serves to remind us that from the sometimes-seeming-silence will come the Answer, the Word, the One who has made all things and will make all things new.

Our hope is not based on feeling.

Our hope is not based on disposition.

Our hope is based on, and in, God.

We hope in God’s Word, as he is our hope.

I was talking with a young man on Sunday about vocation. He had a bad experience once where a man asked what his dad did for a living, and in saying, “He mows yards,” the man sneered and said, “Well, I’m a minister.” What a harsh lesson that even men who are meant to be servants, encouragers and humble can be proud, sinful and destructive!

The Bible speaks very differently about people. For those who belong to Christ, they find themselves anointed. In looking up the word, one famous Greek lexicon says this:

“A strictly literal rendering of χρίω or χρῖσμα as ‘to pour oil upon’ is likely to be interpreted either as an insult or as an event preparatory to setting a person on fire and thus to destroy or to torture. Accordingly, in place of a literal rendering of χρίω or χρῖσμα, it is often necessary to employ some such expression as ‘to be appointed by God’ or ‘to be given a special task by God.’” (Louw-Nida 37.107)

Now, I can see the concerns about the oil imagery, yet I am really rather glad for this somewhat humorous entry. Because one who has been anointed by Jesus Christ for the special work of proclaiming the Gospel should be as a man set on fire – ablaze with holy passion, alive to the power of God, ready to catch the whole harvest afire with the same anointing. And not a single person is excepted by John in this epistle. Yes, we all have our work and our way; we are not all the same in vocation (thank God!), but we are all anointed if we belong to the King.

Jesus crosses the brook Kidron to get to the garden of Gethsemene. The brook, mentioned several times in the OT (2 Sam. 15:23; 1Kings 2:37, 15:13; 2 Kings 23:4, 6, 12), seems symbolic of much – the King passing over as the people weep, the ashes of idols poured into its waters, the words of David to Shimei that if he crosses the brook he shall die and it be on his own head. Death, darkness and sorrow are caught up in the waters of Kidron. And Jesus crosses those waters on the way to his arrest and crucifixion.

I don’t know if this is just a geographical point for John, as it may just have been a way of readily identifying the particular garden Jesus was heading towards. But the history of that brook seems somewhat important at this point of the narrative. The truth is that Jesus has taken it on his own head, crossing the brook on the way to death, and it is a death that will pay for all our idolatry. As the King steps over the dark brook, how his disciples would have wept if they had known the exile and wilderness Jesus was walking into on their behalf. Across the dark brook lay the suffering that would be the road to the joy set before him.

Thank God that it was Jesus called to cross that brook for me.