True Refuge and True Good

It seems that the psalms speak of God with great regularity as a refuge.  Today it was Psalm 142:5

I cry to you, O Yahweh

I say, "You are my refuge,

my portion in the land of the living."

That verse -- especially looking at it in both ESV and NLT -- brings a lot of things to mind.

You're my Hiding Place

Safe in Your embrace

I'm protected from the storm that rages

And when the waters rise

And I run to hide

It's in You I find my hiding place...

[Steven Curtis Chapman]

There are sooo many false things advertised as a safe hiding place.  Home.  Scholarships.  College.  Friends.  Money.  Power.  Status.  Country.  Having a boyfriend (or girlfriend).  Having a husband (or wife).  A job.  Even church.

A lot of these things are good things -- truly good, blessings from God.  But they are not EVER to be our refuge.  They all have storms of their own, they are all part of a fallen world.  Even all God's blessings to us are NOT our inheritance -- not even on this earth!!  GOD is our portion, our exceedingly great reward.

And I -- I want that to truly be all I am concerned with.  Sure, I want to enjoy the material blessings as well.  My time and chance at college.  Being healthy.  Christmas.  The little things, like joking around with Ahndrew.

But far, FAR too often...

I can't see the sun for the daylight

Can't feel Your breath for the wind... [Jars of Clay]

I get SO caught up in all the glorious greatness of what You have for me now that I get off-track of looking at You!

I am so sorry.

I have wasted a lot of time.

Please help me.  To know You better.  To live for You passionately and continually.

Amen.

[Written 12.24.08 about 12.23.08's devos.  It's been interesting (but not surprising) how often, as I write about what I read, that turns into a prayer.]

Faithfulness

Faithfulness.  The Bible talks a lot about that.  In Zechariah 3, the Lord says to Joshua, "If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here" (Zech 3:7).

Revelation 13 is about war, again, and it sounds rather grim.  In fact, it sounds downright frightening.  Not the news that I want to hear at all.  "Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them" (Rev 13:7a).  And to conquer them?  What then?  Is David*Crowder's triumphant song "We Win!" nothing more than a happy song?

But Revelation doesn't end there.  Authority is given to the beast -- over "everyone whose name has NOT been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain" (Rev 13:8).  Not authority over those whose names ARE written in His book of life.  However, the prophetic foretelling of captivity and death by sword holds me to reality.  Just because the enemy has not ultimate authority doesn't mean that I -- and other Christians -- won't suffer and die.

"Here," says John, "is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints" (Rev 13:10).  A similar call is given in Revelation 14:12.  Do not worship idols.  Keep the faith.  (Isn't all of the Bible about that?  The worship which is due to God -- ONLY?)  "You shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).)

Last night I read the first good reason for getting a tattoo that I remember ever reading.  Something which indelibly marks you as a follower of Christ.  So that, under persecution, you could not deny Him even if you wanted to -- even if your flesh was afraid, it would itself bear witness to what your spirit believes. 

I do not have a tattoo.  But I am Yours.  Because my name is written in indelible ink in Your book.  

[12.22.08]

The Big Picture

[I'm still typing older journals!]

Today the Old Testament passage was Zechariah 1.  I remember about a month ago when we came to this passage in Sunday school and how thoroughly it confused us.

The details confused us, that is.  Who is the man?  Is there more than one man?  Who are the ones "whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the earth"?  What?!?

Then the New Testament section for today is almost as crazy -- Revelation 12.  A woman standing on the moon, a dragon trying to eat her baby son -- what is going on?

Psalm 140 pulls me back to see the big picture, especially in passages such as these where I do not understand the details.

In Zechariah 1, God pronounces judgment upon those who have excessively hurt His people, and He promises His love to His people.  "Thus says Yahweh of hosts:  I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion... Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem."  (Zech 1:13, 17)

In Revelation 12, there is war as the accuser is defeated by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [the brothers'] testimony.  God again preserves His people from their foes and His enemy is conquered.

More than conquerors we are.  Let me love not my life even unto death.

 

Psalm 140 asks God for exactly these things -- that the enemies of the righteous (and thus, of God) perish (and the language is vivid and violent), and that God deliver His people, hearing their pleas for mercy so that they may dwell in His presence.

[12.21.08]

Immanuel

Immanuel.  The time approaches when we celebrate God being with us -- but it is not a new concept.  It's all over the Bible.

In Zephaniah -- after all the horrible disasters promised, God begins to promise that there will be a remnant.  But it gets better...

The King of Israel, Yahweh, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil...

Yahweh your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you buy his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing. 

[Zephaniah 3:15b, 17]

In Haggai -- 

Be strong, all you people of the land, declares Yahweh.

Work, for I am with you, declares Yahweh of hosts,

according to the covenant that I made with you 

when you came out of Egypt.

My Spirit remains in your midst.  Fear not.

[Haggai 2:4b-5]

In the psalms -- Psalm 139 is about how incredibly God is with us -- all around, all within...

And in the New Testament we see God intimately involved with His people.  In Revelation 11, God breathes new life into His prophets and reigns over the earth.  From the beginning of the Bible when He breathed life into Adam, to there in Revelation, God never far off from His people.  He is the one sustaining their very lives, and at the same time, ruling the universe.

That's far too wonderful for me to grasp.

Yet this is the God who loves me.

[12.20.08]

Habakkuk

For the earth will be filled

with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh

as the waters cover the sea.

Habakkuk 2:14

I'm looking up

Holding out
Pressing forward
Without a doubt
Longing for the things unseen
Longing for the things I believe
My true country

We hope and wait
For the glorious day
All tears will vanish
Wiped away
On the saints this day
already shines
On the saints this day
already shines
It already shines

(chorus)
We'll be singing hallelujah
We'll be singing hallelujah
At the top of our
lungs halle-le-lujah
To Your glory, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

We'll be singing hallelujah
We'll be singing hallelujah
With all of our breath
halle-le-lujah
To Your glory, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah

And I know that it's coming
But I can't see it now
And I've touched it in moments
But I can't hold it yet

And it glows in the darkness
And it calls us away
To our true destination
To that glorious day...

[Hallelujah, Newsboys]

Longing for the day when the knowledge of Your glory WILL thus fill the earth.

When there will be nothing to be homesick for.

Habakkuk 3 is a beautiful proclamation of the fierce love of God for His people.

"You marched across the land in anger and trampled the nations in your fury.  You went out to rescue your chosen people, to save your anointed ones.  You crushed the heads of the wicked and stripped their bones from head to toe." (v 12-13)

This kind of love, which pulverizes all in its way, leads to first a quiet confidence in His people -- "I will wait quietly for the coming day when disaster will strike the people who invade us."  A confidence which may look ridiculous to those who don't know the Lord, because it is present when the trees don't blossom, the vines bear nothing, the crops fail, the fields are barren, the flocks die, and the barns are empty.  (Not good news in an agricultural culture.  Think the banks all shut, the stock-market crashes, Wal*Mart folds, and DC gets taken out.)  Everything says PANIC.  But the prophet says, wait quietly.

But the prophet doesn't end there -- oh no!  In spite of all this happening -- his whole livelihood disappearing -- he says, "Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!"

God WILL provide salvation.  But no matter what we still need salvation from, we can wholeheartedly rejoice NOW, because God has already provided the salvation that we need most.

[12.18.08]

The Telos of Dangerous Crusader

I'm not exactly sure what I want this blog to be for.

Well, wait.  I know what I want it to be for (that's what the title of the blog is about).  I'm just not sure how to best accomplish that purpose.  

The telos (Greek for end, purpose)

The title of this blog -- Dangerous Crusader -- is taken from Derek Webb's song Nobody Loves Me.

i can always tell a liar
and i always know a thief
i know them like my family
because brother i’m the chief
i’m a dangerous crusader
because i need to tell the truth
so i’m turning over tables
in my own living room

then i might nail indictments up
on every door in town
because it’s not right or safe to let my conscience down
so i don’t care if...

chorus
nobody loves me, nobody loves me
nobody loves me but you

the truth is never sexy
so it’s not an easy sell
you can dress her like the culture
but she’ll shock ‘em just as well

because she don’t need an apology for being who she is
and she don’t need your help making enemies
so i don’t care if...

chorus

i’ll do whatever it takes to squeeze us into this wedding gown
i’ll say the words that rattle your nerves
words like sin and faith alone

The tag-line for this blog is taken from Sheldon Vanauken's haunting poem The Sword.  The middle stanza reads,

No omen warned me when Mark led me near

The yelling street that I should be implored

By God to wear my girlhood like a sword

So edged with mercy men would freeze in fear.

I have received an extremely good education.  I've been blessed with being brought up in the church.  And much is expected of those to whom much is given.  So this blog is a one of my many ventures to use that sword.  To be a dangerous crusader in telling the truth.  And ultimately, to bring God glory.