Journal for Christ: The Divine Logic

August 9, 2016

Worship: Sins of My Youth by Citizen Way

Verse 1
Entangled by cords
Bred to destroy
Caught in the snares
You still heard my voice
In my distress,
I cried for your hand
Lifted out of death
A new creation

Chorus 1
Please remember not the sins of my youth
So good and upright are the ways of your truth

Verse 2
You have made known
The way to follow
I need you to be my guide
And stronghold
Oh my God, in
You I’m trusting
All the paths you set are true,
Unchanging

Chorus 1

Bridge
I love you, Lord, and all your ways
No end to the shouts of praise
Enthroned, forever reigning
My God and my salvation

Chorus 2
You remember not the sins of my youth
So good and upright are the ways of your truth

Video: https://youtu.be/ZpdW0pCFWlw

Witness:

Today I could not sleep. I woke up after 3 hours and stayed awake for 3 hours until I fell asleep for another hour and a half. When I got up all the plans I had for the day seemed to vanish from my exhausted brain. I sat around for a while on the couch till I finally remembered my daughter needed to come over and take care of some personal business on the computer. I showered to wake up and then for the next few hours I helped my daughter with these issues. When I finished and she left, my other daughter called and I spent some time conversing with her. After that, my mom called and I spent some time talking to her. Finally, having my time freed up, I decided to mow the backyard and cut down the tall grass growing by the fence with the Weed Wacker. The battery lasted for half the perimeter of my backyard on the Weed Wacker and put an end to that chore till tomorrow when the battery is recharged again. I then picked up the blower and began blowing off my front sidewalk that leads to my front door as well as my driveway. I have a pine tree and an oak tree in the front yard and between the acorns and pine needles, not to mention the pinecones and the pinecone petals dropping on the ground from the squirrels that are eating the pine cones, the front yard, sidewalk and driveway can get quite messy. After doing this I raked it all up into several piles. While I was doing this, I noticed the neighbor’s driveway was full of grass from a recent mowing so I blew that to the street then swept it up as well. After bagging it all up I felt a sense of accomplishment and retired to make myself dinner. After making dinner I sat down and watched the news for a while and was going to turn off the TV (TV is an addiction I wrestled with for years – time wasted that I could have used to spend time with my wife and more importantly, with the LORD) and go to the store. However, I remembered the Olympics were on so I turned it on and watched till 10 PM. I then decided to go to the store. Traveling to Walmart I use a shortcut; however, it was closed so I had to turn around and go down another road. That’s when it happened. I came to the main road I needed to turn on to get to Walmart and began to turn right onto the road and bam! I turned too sharply and my right front tire connected with the unusually high curb. Pop! All the air in the tire blew out and I drove a quarter of a mile to the Walmart parking lot and looked at the tire and rim. They didn’t look like they were damaged beyond repair. Perhaps I could try to blow up the tire but Murphy’s gas station nearby charges $1.50 to use their air pump. Shame on them. My company doesn’t charge anything for air. Anyway, with no jack, I had to get my daughter to come and get me. I’ll have to deal with it tomorrow.

So why do I tell you this long story about my day? Like yesterday’s entry, I see a parable in it. Sometimes we struggle in our Christian walk. We may struggle with vocation – “What does God want me to do?” Or maybe an activity becomes a habit and turns into an addiction. Perhaps we start our Christian walk with fire but the fire quickly dies out and we spend the next few years as a spectator in the bleachers rather than getting into the race. With sudden clarity you discover your calling, or coming to your senses you break free of the sin that bound you, or suddenly the little light you hold onto in the bleachers suddenly becomes a torch and you run down and join the race holding high the torch ablaze with the glory of God. Things go great for a while and you rejoice but opposition arises in your service for the Lord and you wonder why and whether it’s worth continuing. You are walking in purity and freedom and the tempter places a stumbling block before you and you stumble and fall and feel like a failure. With arm held high, you bear the torch for Christ but a member of the other team trips you up and causes you to stumble and drop the torch.

What you do in these situations reveals your true character. I was directionless for a while today but got my “act together” and worked with diligence. Then I got distracted by TV for a while but refocused and started out for the store to get things I needed. On the way, I fought with a curb and lost. I still made it to the store and got what I needed and was picked up by my daughter. When we face trials and stumbling blocks we need to keep going. We need to keep moving. We need to keep running “the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1). We need to keep walking in a manner worthy of our calling. (Ephesians 4:1). The stumblings and the falterings do not define our Christian walk. The true Christian gets up and keeps going. I saw that tonight in the Olympics. The USA men’s gymnastics team faltered in the team event and fell behind in points. However, they picked themselves up and began to come back. They were on fire. Then it happened. Their best on the horizontal was performing flawlessly until he swung a little far from the bar and could not keep his grip coming back down and he fell to the ground. Did he walk away? He regained his composure and got back on and redid the routine. Yes, the team lost the chance to medal in the team competition, but they gathered together and encouraged on another and now will get ready for the individual competition. Yet they will continue to root for one another. How they recover from this will reveal their character as well.

I finish with a song. God seems to often play a song that is dealing with what I am writing about. This song encourages me to keep moving towards my Savior and God even when times get tough.

Movements by Ren Collective

I wanna soar with You
Upon wings like eagles
But I'll crawl with You too
When the dark and lonely questions come

I wanna stand true
No matter what's new or comes through
I can't stand still
Whatever hits I'll keep making movements to You

I'm running fast and free to You
'Cos You are the movement and fight in me
I'm running fast and free to You
'Cos You are my home where I wanna be
Come move in me
Where I wanna be, come move in me

I wanna float with you
The currents driving me
But I'll paddle hard too
When the waves and rapids overcome

I wanna stand firm
When my mind's weak and my emotions squirm
I must stand true
Whatever hits I'll keep making movements to You

I won't walk away, won't walk away

Video: https://youtu.be/B5qpsS5z7i8

WORD:

Ps 25:8-10

Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

9 He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them his way.

10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful

for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

Ps 25:8-10

8 The LORD is good and does what is right;

he shows the proper path to those who go astray.

9 He leads the humble in doing right,

teaching them his way.

10 The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness

all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.

Ps 25:8-10

8 Good and upright is the LORD therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

9 The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

KJV

Ps 25:8-10

8 Good and upright is the LORD;

therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

9 He leads the humble in what is right,

and teaches the humble his way.

10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,

for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

ESV

Here certainly is heavenly logic. Because He is good and upright He will instruct sinners in His way. The Good will instruct the “ungood”(not to be confused with Orwellian thinking J). The Upright will teach the “unright”. A morally “good and upright” person might not deign to involve themselves with the morally corrupt. Here certainly God’s grace shines forth though the word is not used here (though as I have said, the word “steadfast love” (hesed) used in verse10, comes close. In grace, God moves to instruct the sinner in His way. What kind of sinner? Verse 9 reveals it is the humble sinner and by implication the repentant sinner. I close this portion on the word with selections from commentators I found helpful in understanding this heavenly logic.

Verse 8. - Good and upright is the Lord. A transition. From prayer the psalmist turns to reflection, and meditates awhile (vers. 8-10) on the character and ways of God. God is, indeed, "good," as he has implied in the preceding verse - i.e., kind, tender, gentle, merciful; but he is also "upright - just, straight, strict, undeviating from the path of right. As Bishop Butler observes, "Divine goodness, with which, if I mistake not, we make very free in our speculations, may not be a bare single disposition to produce happiness, but a disposition to make the good, the faithful, the honest man happy" ('Anal.,' 1:2, p. 41) - s disposition, i.e., to be just as well as merciful to distribute happiness by the canon of right. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. He will not abandon sinners - this is his "goodness;" but will reclaim them, chasten them, make them to walk in his way - this is his uprightness.

But we must observe this consequence — that as God is good and upright, he stretches forth his hand to sinners to bring them back again into the way. To attribute to God an uprightness which he may exercise only towards the worthy and the meritorious, is a cold view of his character, and of little advantage to sinners, and yet the world commonly apprehends that God is good in no other sense. How comes it to pass that scarcely one in a hundred applies to himself the mercy of God, if it is not because men limit it to those who are worthy of it? No on the contrary, it is here said, that God gives a proof of his uprightness when he shows to transgressors the way; and this is of the same import as to call them to repentance, and to teach them to live uprightly. And, indeed, if the goodness of God did not penetrate even to hell, no man would ever become a partaker of it.

[Therefore will he teach sinners] Because he is good, he will teach sinners, though they deserve nothing but destruction: and because he is right, he will teach them the true way.

Ver. 8. Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. Here the goodness and rectitude of the divine character are beheld in friendly union; he who would see them thus united in bonds of perfect amity must stand at the foot of the cross and view them blended in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. It is no less true than wonderful that through the atonement the justice of God pleads as strongly as his grace for the salvation of the sinners whom Jesus died to save. … We may not conclude from God's goodness that he will save those sinners who continue to wander in their own ways, but we may be assured that he will renew transgressors' hearts and guide them into the way of holiness. Let those who desire to be delivered from sin take comfort from this. God himself will condescend to be the teacher of sinners. What a ragged school is this for God to teach in! God's teaching is practical; he teaches sinners not only the doctrine but the way.

Good and upright are all of God’s ways

He teaches me to follow Him all of my days

One who yields to His perfections never strays

All His paths are straight and never a maze

With love and truth, they are ever ablaze

Journal for Christ

Monday, May 8, 2017

The Divine Logic

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