Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6)
This morning in worship, Pastor Norm asked us to write on a little index card what "crutch" we are leaning on in life. We all have one (if not more than one), myself included. I don't know about anyone else in the pews around me, but I had no trouble thinking of my crutch: fear. For most of my life, I have allowed fear to keep me from living an abundant, joyful life in Christ. Thankfully, God is persistent and He continually finds a way to penetrate my fear. But still, your humble blogger admits to reaching for her crutch far too often.
Fear, like all our crutches, is a lie that if we allow it to set up shop in our hearts and minds, it will flourish and crowd out the hope and peace that God has promised each of us. The final verse of the Twenty-Third Psalm emphasizes the importance of replacing fear with hope in the promise of God. David's choice of words in this verse is telling. He said "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Notice he did not say, "I hope goodness and mercy can manage to follow me at least most of the time, and maybe I'll end up spending time with God in heaven." With God, there is no maybe. There is confidence, there is trust, and there is truth. The only obstacle is in giving up our crutches in order to walk in that truth.
In his book, "God's Psychiatry," Charles Allen concludes his narrative about the Twenty-Third Psalm by reminding us that we have an advantage over David: "David did not have the insights that we have. He never heard the words, 'I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet will he live; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.'"
The Twenty-Third Psalm is one of the most recognizable, easily-recited passages in all of the Bible. It's one thing to know the Psalm. It's another thing to know the Shepherd, but we can only know Him if we choose to free ourselves from that which keeps us from Him. We must immerse ourselves in His Word, we must share our lives with Him, and then trust Him to direct our paths.
I am guilty of the sin of leaning on my crutch instead of my Shepherd. "Letting go and letting God" doesn't have to be as hard as we make it. When I find myself falling into fear, I must resist the temptation to sin and reach instead for the strong hand of Jesus. He will catch me when I fall, and He will hold firmly to me as I walk in faith. He'll do the same for you, friends, no matter what crutch you're hanging onto.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's a promise. Now...let's live like we believe it.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Setting the Table
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (Pslam 23:5)
In his book, "God's Psychiatry," Charles Allen states: "In the pastures of the Holy Land grew poisonous plants which were fatal to the sheep if eaten. Also, there were plants whose sharp thorns would penetrate the soft noses of the sheep and cause ugly sores. Each spring the shepherd would take his mattock and dig out these enemies of the sheep, pile them up, and burn them. Thus the pastures were safe for the sheep to graze. The pasture became, as it were, a table prepared. The enemies were destroyed."
It's difficult for us to recognize the table God has prepared for us in the presence of numerous enemies in this world, but we can begin to understand it by thinking of the role of parenting. From "baby-proofing" our cabinets, to forbidding the viewing of certain TV programs, to insisting on knowing who our teenagers are with at all times, we who are parents are keenly aware of the enemies that threaten our children. Nothing terrifies or motivates us more than protecting our kids from all manner of evil-doing and evil-doers in their midst.
As the shepherd demonstrates, "preparing the table" for the flock takes effort and vigilence. Just as the sheep are clueless as to all the shepherd does to protect them, so too are our children clueless about how and why we parents behave the way we do on their behalf. But perhaps most striking of all, we as God's children are abudantly clueless as to the protection God affords us daily.
While God prepares a table for us, He also promised that we would experience pain and difficulty in life. But what He also promised is that He would never abandon us in our pain. Charles Allen continues: "Sometimes, as the sheep grazed, its head would be cut by the sharp edge of a stone buried in the grass. So the shepherd would stand at the door of the fold and examine each sheep as it came in. If there were hurt places the shepherd would apply soothing and healing oil. Instead of becoming infected, the hurt would soon heal. Also, the shepherd had a large, earthen jug of water, the kind of jar which kept the water refreshingly cool through evaporation. As the sheep came in, the shepherd would dip down into the water with his big cup and bring it up brimful. The sheep drank deeply."
Among the many emotionally moving scenes in the movie "The Passion of the Christ," perhaps the most emotional for me was the scene in which Jesus' mother, walking alongside her son on the march to His death, flashes back to Jesus as a child. In the flashback, Jesus the boy falls along a rocky hill, scraping His knee. Mary rushes to His side to comfort Him, as only a mother can. Back to the present, Mary realizes in anguish that she cannot soothe her Son through what He is about to face.
Life is hard - exceedingly hard at times. The Psalmist David reminds us that like the shepherd, God knows each of us by name, He knows all our hurts, and He has the perfect remedy to heal and refresh our weary souls: the blood of His perfect Son. With Jesus as our Shepherd, we can rest assured that we will never be abandoned in our hurt.
The table has been set and the cup of Christ never runs dry. Praise God.
In his book, "God's Psychiatry," Charles Allen states: "In the pastures of the Holy Land grew poisonous plants which were fatal to the sheep if eaten. Also, there were plants whose sharp thorns would penetrate the soft noses of the sheep and cause ugly sores. Each spring the shepherd would take his mattock and dig out these enemies of the sheep, pile them up, and burn them. Thus the pastures were safe for the sheep to graze. The pasture became, as it were, a table prepared. The enemies were destroyed."
It's difficult for us to recognize the table God has prepared for us in the presence of numerous enemies in this world, but we can begin to understand it by thinking of the role of parenting. From "baby-proofing" our cabinets, to forbidding the viewing of certain TV programs, to insisting on knowing who our teenagers are with at all times, we who are parents are keenly aware of the enemies that threaten our children. Nothing terrifies or motivates us more than protecting our kids from all manner of evil-doing and evil-doers in their midst.
As the shepherd demonstrates, "preparing the table" for the flock takes effort and vigilence. Just as the sheep are clueless as to all the shepherd does to protect them, so too are our children clueless about how and why we parents behave the way we do on their behalf. But perhaps most striking of all, we as God's children are abudantly clueless as to the protection God affords us daily.
While God prepares a table for us, He also promised that we would experience pain and difficulty in life. But what He also promised is that He would never abandon us in our pain. Charles Allen continues: "Sometimes, as the sheep grazed, its head would be cut by the sharp edge of a stone buried in the grass. So the shepherd would stand at the door of the fold and examine each sheep as it came in. If there were hurt places the shepherd would apply soothing and healing oil. Instead of becoming infected, the hurt would soon heal. Also, the shepherd had a large, earthen jug of water, the kind of jar which kept the water refreshingly cool through evaporation. As the sheep came in, the shepherd would dip down into the water with his big cup and bring it up brimful. The sheep drank deeply."
Among the many emotionally moving scenes in the movie "The Passion of the Christ," perhaps the most emotional for me was the scene in which Jesus' mother, walking alongside her son on the march to His death, flashes back to Jesus as a child. In the flashback, Jesus the boy falls along a rocky hill, scraping His knee. Mary rushes to His side to comfort Him, as only a mother can. Back to the present, Mary realizes in anguish that she cannot soothe her Son through what He is about to face.
Life is hard - exceedingly hard at times. The Psalmist David reminds us that like the shepherd, God knows each of us by name, He knows all our hurts, and He has the perfect remedy to heal and refresh our weary souls: the blood of His perfect Son. With Jesus as our Shepherd, we can rest assured that we will never be abandoned in our hurt.
The table has been set and the cup of Christ never runs dry. Praise God.
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