Today’s song echoes many of the truths I’ve talked about this week. Nichole Nordeman has been one of my favorite singer/songwriters since high school and her new EP did not disappoint. She is, in my mind, a truthteller.
Happy Sunday! Here is “Name”
I’m giving myself some grace today and making this one short.
Truth for today: We are deeply loved by the Father.
Meditate on these words from Spurgeon today.
“Did you ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped His Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, make this your day’s meditation. The Father sent Him!“
Well Day 16 is a day late. I spent most of yesterday traveling and crawled into bed the minute I got home. This 31 days in a row thing is every bit as difficult as I thought.
I owe much of what I am going to write today to the work of Kelly Minter. I went through her “What Love Is” study this summer on 1, 2, 3 John and learned so much.
I John 2:1-2 “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sings, and no only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ! Jesus is our advocate.
As a school counselor, I know a little bit about what it means to be an advocate. My primary role is to serve as an advocate for my students — to fight for them in places where they cannot fight for themselves. I have access to resources they could never find on their own and my job title has legitimacy that makes people listen to me even if they wouldn’t listen to a child. Though it doesn’t always mean everything works out perfectly, I have a great deal of power. I can make things happen in situations where no one else could.
Jesus is our advocate to the Father. The one who pleads our case in the heavens — who argues for our defense — when we have no way to speak up for ourselves in a meaningful way.
Kelly Minter lists four primary qualities of an advocate:
1) Holds a position that I do not
2) Has power that I do not
3) Is granted access to people that I do not have
4) Has great influence
The all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful Savior of the world is our Advocate before the Father. Rest in that truth today, friends.
This is not about money. When I say I am rich, I am talking about so much more than wealth. And not at all about wealth. To echo what Jen Hatmaker wrote so wisely in For the Love, if the Christian “Truth” you’re presented with isn’t true for the homeless single mother in Haiti, IT ISN’T TRUE.
And if the Christian homeless single mother in Haiti is rich in Christ, it has nothing to do with money.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Jesus came to give us abundant life — a rich life!
“The Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.” Romans 10:12
So what is this rich blessing? Paul tells us in his letter to the church in Ephesus.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption though his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”
I am a child of the King. The God of all riches. And he blesses me richly – with life, peace, hope, joy, family….
We are richly blessed.
I’m going to end today with the lyrics to a song I’ve had on repeat for a while.
Everything is mine in You
Even when my heart is breaking
Everything is mine in You
Even when my hands are empty
Everything is mine in You
Oh, in You
Everything is mine in You
I can trust You with my longing
Everything is mine in You
Even though the road is lonely
Everything is mine in You
Oh, in You
‘Cause You are, master over all
And You say, You are my inheritance
And in You, I have everything I need
And You are, seated in the heavenlies
And You say, forever You’re my hiding place
And in You, I have everything I need
Everything is mine in You
And I know my future’s bright
Everything is mine in You
Past or present, death and life
Everything is mine in You
Oh, in You
Against all hope
Help me hope
Against all fear
Draw me near
Against all hope
I will hope
Against all fear
I will draw near
I am drawing near to You, Lord.
Blameless. Let’s talk about this word for a moment. If you google the definition you will see this: “innocent of wrongdoing.”
Synonyms include – faultless, guiltless, above reproach, unimpeachable, exemplary, flawless.
When I think of someone who is blameless, I think of a classroom of students. Someone has taken something from the teacher’s desk but the teacher isn’t sure who. She narrows the list of possible suspects to five. Four of those five are not guilty, but they’ve done enough other questionable things to be considered in line with their character. The other students in the room are blameless. She dismisses them as ones who would never have done it…above reproach, not at all sketch. She wouldn’t even consider blaming them.
1 Corinthians 1:8 – He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:25-27 – …Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Because of Jesus, God declares us blameless. He calls us innocent.
The word choice is powerful. Many times in a court of law, defendants are declared “not guilty” because there is not enough evidence to convict, or reasonable doubt. Many people are found not guilty as a technicality though the public may be generally convinced of their guilt. “Not guilty” and “innocent” are not the same thing.
Innocence goes a step beyond. Not only does God say we aren’t being found guilty and saddled with the consequences, He says we are blameless. We did not do it. We are flawless. There is no doubt.
Truth to Love Today: He’s made me blameless. He will keep me blameless.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.”
One Sunday about four years I ago I visited a church here in Lexington for the first time. The service wasn’t all that memorable — not terrible, not awesome. We sang songs I liked and I guess it was a good sermon. All in all, it was a typical church service for me. I came, I sat alone, no one talked to me, and I was all set to leave as quickly as possible.
Out of nowhere the church’s pastor appeared at my side. He introduced himself and shook my hand, and then looked directly at me. “I noticed you during my sermon today, and I just need to tell you that God sees you. He sees you.”
I awkwardly said thank you and quickly bolted for the door so he wouldn’t see the tears that had begun to trickle down my face.
I am seen. He sees me.
The Hebrew word raah is found thousands of times in the Old Testament and carries several different meanings. Translated simply as “too see”, it also means to watch, to observe, to perceive, to inspect, to examine, to understand, or to know. To see requires a great deal of attention, passion, intensity. To truly see something requires effort.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good” becomes “Experience and fully know the goodness of the Lord.” Simple vision doesn’t begin to cover the depth of this word.
Similarly, to raah see can seem both positive and negative. The very idea that God sees me can cause me to want to run both toward and away from him at the same time.
One of the first verses I ever memorized was this: “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)
He sees everything. It is both a comfort and a threat. Often when the Lord speaks in the prophets, He tells His people that He sees them — and it’s in an accusatory way. He has seen their sins. He knows their wickedness. They can run but they can’t hide. Judgment is coming.
And then, He changes His tone. He sees them. He sees their shame. He sees the devastation their sins have caused. He sees their suffering and He rises to show them compassion.
He sees. He knows. In fact, one of His names even comes from raah. His name is El Roi: The God Who Sees Me (in a good way).
Paul echoes this idea in I Corinthians 13: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
One day we will see and understand Him the way fully sees and understands us.
Truth to love today:
I am seen and I am known by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
I just can’t get that song out of my head:
I’m no longer a slave to fear
I am a child of God
We are no longer slaves – to sin, to death, to fear – to anything or anyone. We are sons and daughters of the God who set us free.
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
John 8:34-36 “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.'”
Romans 8:14-17 “those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.”
Galatians 4:7 “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
You are no longer a slave. You are a child of God. God’s heir. Everything that’s His is yours. Forever.
And that’s a Truth to love today.
I have had this song on repeat since I first heard it months ago. It speaks for itself.
Yesterday I shared some of the truth about our new condition once we’ve believed in Christ for our salvation. Today I’ll be talking about what our salvation says about the truth of our future.
It is bright, y’all.
We got a hint of it a few days ago in Romans: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Life. Eternal Life.
Many have written far more eloquently than I possibly could about what this never-ending life after death. I don’t know what this home will look like or what exactly we will do, but I am certain of a few things.
1) Jesus is there and we will see Him.
John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
2) It will be the fulfillment of everything we’ve ever hoped for.
Revelation 7:16-17 “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
3) Jesus will be there and that is enough.
2 Corinthian 5:6-8 “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, no by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Now that we’ve chosen to believe the Truth, we must learn the effects of this Truth. I guess you might say the gospel is the ultimate Truth and once we believe it, a whole new set of truths are opened to us. The Bible is full of promises and assurances that are just for believers — those who love the truth.
I couldn’t possibly share them all with you today, but I will share a few right now and more throughout the rest of the month.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Romans 8:14 “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Galatians 3:14 “He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
I am new. I no longer face the condemnation and punishment I deserve. I am free because of Jesus. I am a child of God. I’ve been washed, sanctified, justified — declaring righteous and daily becoming more like Him. I have his Spirit living, leading, guiding me in His Truth.
This Cloudy Glass 