I Hope You Dance

This is an add on to today's blog.  I think it's a good transition for us in our journey from meekness to hungering and thirsting after righteousness.  I have posted another gadget - last one on the right - I Hope You Dance (I've added the important part - For Jesus, as we really can't enjoy dancing without Him).  It's a secular song, but it very closely says what has been on my heart for us - that we discover the joy in obeying the nudges; that we discover that dancing for Jesus is a whole lot better than "sitting it out".

Who Has Your Reigns?

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

Who has your reigns?  Who has the control of your life?  If one of the definitions of meekness is “power under control”, then who has the control of your life? Or – Who has your reigns? We might be tempted to say “how you answer that question will determine whether you are meek or not”.  But, really, how we live out the answer to that question will determine whether we are meek or not.

We have been misled to believe that the shy ones are meek; that the non-assertive ones are meek.  But, again, such is not necessarily the case.  Often shyness is a result of refusing to yield to God’s pull on our reigns. 

Consider Galatians 5:16-17   I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. [17] For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

 If we are yielding to God’s pull on our reigns, we will be walking in the Spirit.  If we are walking in the Spirit, we will not be yielding to the pull of our flesh.  Now, the challenge for today is this:  When God prompts you to do something, or say something, that might be embarrassing, that might cause people to look at you, that might be rejected or ill-received, who’s got your reigns?

I find that the Holy Spirit rarely pulls up tightly on my reigns, for then I would not have freedom of choice.  Rather, He gently nudges and it’s up to me whether I respond to those nudges or not.  You and I are all too familiar with the feeling we get when we deny those nudges. .    Look at the last phrase of Galatians 5:17, the result of yielding to the flesh: you do not do the things that you wish. Are you tired of choosing safety above the work of the Holy Spirit? 

Blessed are the meek.  When, in meekness, we give the reigns of our life to God, He becomes our guide. We can either obey the nudges, or deny them and do nothing – and get that awful feeling inside that we chose the way of the coward.  Blessed and led OR sorry and “safe”.  Which will it be?

Yielding to God's nudges is a glorious,liberating way to live!


By the way - I am absolutely loving the comments you are posting.  Keep up the blessings!

Delighting in the Abundance of Peace

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek

for they shall inherit the earth

Let’s consider what Psalm 37 teaches us about meekness. Look at Psalm 37:11.  But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

First of all, we can see that, unlike a lot of what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, this is not new news.  The meek shall inherit the earth.  Hearing Him make that statement, should have triggered their minds back to this psalm – to the additional promise of abundance of peace and a further explanation of what this meekness is.  Notice also, that verse 9 tells us something else about those who inherit the earth – those who wait on the Lord.  It appears that this Psalm is linking the two – the meek are those who wait on the Lord.

Let’s just look at verses 5 and 7 of this psalm and see what these people are like:

1.  (5, verse 3 says it too) Psalm 37:5 Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. They trust in God. The meek begin by trusting God.  They believe that He will work for them and vindicate them when others oppose them.  Biblical meekness is rooted in a confidence that God is for you and not against you and He will take care of you and be your defender.

2.  Again, from verse 5 – They commit their way to God.  The Hebrew word for commit means literally “to roll”.  The meek have discovered that God is trustworthy, and so they roll their way (the things of their lives) onto the Lord.  I love just picturing that.  We tend to picture God as being up – rightfully so – He’s in heaven.  So, when I first thought of rolling something onto God, I thought of rolling it uphill.  Isn’t that so like us?  We think that committing something or someone to the Lord is like pushing this burden up a hill and all too often we lose strength and it rolls right back on us.  How much better, to picture, pushing our burdens over a cliff to the Lord.

3.  Psalm 37:7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;   Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,  Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

They rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him.  Resting here is stand still.  They don’t give the Lord advice, they don’t move out ahead of Him; they don’t react.  Moses stood still and let God deal with his challenging siblings.  Not that they are lazy, but the meek have a steady quietness about their lives in the midst of upheaval.

4.  Still in verse 7 They don’t fret over the wicked.  And notice this about the wicked – who prospers in his way.  The meek don’t fret – even when it looks like the wicked are prospering, doing well, and not paying for what they have done or even are continuing to do.

From Psalm 37, we can see that the meek begin by trusting God, which leads to committing their way to God.  Or – we can see that it begins with committing our way and that leads to trusting Him – trusting Him more, as we discover His faithfulness.  The meek commit their way to the Lord believing, trusting He will use his power and mercy to do good for us.  Then they wait patiently and quietly for the outcome, not giving way to anger or fretfulness when the outcome they desire is not happening.

As you scan Psalm 37, share about a verse that speaks to you or ministers to you.  There are many!

Two Examples of Meekness

Matthew 5:5  Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

   

We have two men in the Bible that were specifically referred to as meek – Moses and Jesus.  We can look at the lives they led and the examples they set. But for the purposes of our study,  I want to look at the circumstances that seemed to have provoked the description of meekness.  In Deuteronomy 12:3 we are told this about Moses:  Now the man Moses was very humble (Hebrew word translated also as meek), more than all men who were on the face of the earth.

When did God call Moses humble?  What would be your guess?  I know what mine would have been.  It would have been when God called him from the burning bush and Moses made all those excuses about why he wasn’t good enough for God to use him.  But, that wasn’t when Moses was described as meek.  It was when his sister, Miriam, and his brother, Aaron, challenged his leadership.  Verse 2 tells us they said “Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?  Has He not spoken through us also? What did Moses do?  Did He strike them with His rod?  Did He verbally put them in their place?  How did Moses defend himself?  You know what Moses did?  Nothing.  Moses did nothing.  We are told that God heard what they said and God responded to what He heard.  He brought leprosy upon Miriam.  When Aaron pleaded to Moses to do something for his sister, Aaron changed his attitude and called Moses ‘my lord’.  Moses sought the Lord on Miriam’s behalf to heal her.  So, this is Moses’ example of meekness. He had the authority to put Miriam and Aaron in their place – but, instead, Moses submitted to God’s power and authority .  Then, rather than seeking retribution, he sought healing for his sister.

Now, let’s look at Jesus.  Matthew 21:5 "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you,   Lowly (same New Testament word translated as meek in the beatitudes), and sitting on a donkey,  a colt, the foal of a donkey.' "

This is probably the best example of meekness.  Here we have Jesus, knowing He is king, knowing all of His power and even popularity, but not asserting it.  Jesus submitted to the Father’s will for Him and even rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey - the king exhibiting not honor, but lowliness.  A meek person knows who they are and are therefore not threatened by what others say of them, think of them, or do to them.  They choose not to retaliate, and not to stuff it (just take it), but take it to the one who will take care of it all – and take care of it all perfectly.  Meekness trusts God.

What have you learned about meekness from the examples set by Moses and Jesus? Two men, not afraid to take charge, two men, not afraid to take authority.  Yet, one was referred to as the meekest man on earth; the other as meek and lowly.Take a moment and ask the Lord to work in you this same meekness that Moses and Jesus exemplified.

Welcome to Babel!

I have decided not to post a blog on Sundays.

HOWEVER - if you feel led to use the comment section to reflect on this morning's message, that would be great.  I love the way the Lord is using the comments.  They have been awesome! 


This morning's sermon title - Welcome to Babel!

Genesis 1:28

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 11:4

And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

Genesis 11:7-8

Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." [8] So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.

Enjoy the day.
Love in Jesus,
cathy

Who Controls You?

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek,

 for they shall inherit the earth.

As we continue our study of the beatitudes – keep in mind what the Westminster confession states is our purpose for living – to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Since our behavior is to glorify God, we must factor that in as we seek to define these beatitudes.  If meekness is what some people are like just because they were beaten down as children or because their parents didn’t raise their voices or because they have some particular metabolism or personality, or they are afraid of people, God doesn’t get the glory for any of that, does He?  So, that can’t be meekness. 

I love to look at secular definitions of Biblical terms.  Here’s how a secular dictionary defines meek:  humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others; overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame.  This is what was written about the antonym for the word meek.  Meek means shy or that you don’t stand out.  So, the opposite would probably be out-going, boisterous.  One of the meanings of boisterous is unrestrained – now that would probably be a good definition of the opposite of Biblical meekness.

There’s one more thing I like to do with a secular dictionary.  Many of them show obsolete definitions – definitions that no longer apply.  The “obsolete” definitions tend to be closest to the Biblical definitions.  My dictionary gave these obsolete definitions for the word meek.:. gentle; kind. That definition of meek is considered to be obsolete.

 Since my dictionary used the word docile to describe meekness, I looked that up.  It means:  easily managed or handled, readily trained or taught, teachable.  We are getting closer.

Here’s what my Bible dictionary says about meekness:  putting yourself after others in importance.  A person who is not proud or haughty or self-assertive.  Meekness is power under control. Yielding to the power of someone else.  Right there we can see the difference between worldly meekness and Biblical meekness.  It’s all in who you give the control to.

Consider your life.  We either yield control to someone else, or do what we feel is necessary to keep it for ourselves.  What is your tendency?  Do you give up for the sake of fear, or dread of confrontation or simply to keep someone else happy?  Do you dig your heals in the ground and fight to maintain control yourself?  


Do your reactions reflect your desire to please others or please yourself?  Neither is what God calls us to.  God calls us to please Him; to yield the control to Him.  He has it anyway.  Wisdom is walking in that truth.

What have you learned about Biblical meekness?

Turning Mourning Into Dancing

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, 

for they shall be comforted.

What’s the result of mourning?  Comfort.  The Greek word is parakaleo – the same word used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit -  His ability to come alongside us and touch us where we need it most. We get that when we mourn over our sin.

Paul knew that comfort. Self-righteous Paul finally figured out he was poor in spirit.  But, just like us, he continued to be frustrated over his condition – the condition he described in Romans 7 :  I do what I shouldn’t do and I don’t do what I should (my paraphrase).  He wrote: in my flesh dwells no good thing. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?  Paul not only realized his spiritual poverty, he mourned over it. But, Paul discovered comfort and he wrote about it as he closed the chapter:  I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Through Jesus Christ we can experience the deliverance we so long for and part of that deliverance is deliverance from that awful, awful nagging feeling of guilt that we can’t deny and we can’t stuff and we can’t get rid of on our own.

How do we get it ? I’m not talking about getting comfort here.  We get comfort when we mourn, when we sorrow over our sin.  So, how do we get to the place where we mourn in such a way that we are comforted and not ridden with more guilt and more sorrow?

1.  We ask God to show us how He sees what we have done.

2.  We ask God to reveal and remove the hindrances – hardness of heart, fear, resisting the Holy Spirit, doubt, protective walls – you know what they are if you would slow down enough to let God deal with them.

3.  We confess.  Confession is agreeing with God.  That’s why #1 is so important.

4.  We believe God about what He says He does when we confess.  He forgives us.  He treats us like it didn’t happen.  He restores us.  He gets us going again.

5.  We believe that, as believers, we have the power to move on and stand up against that sin/resist it.We believe that we have been set free.

    Doing these things, believing these things, results in tremendous comfort.

How do you know you don’t have it?  How do you know your mourning is not the kind of sorrow Jesus speaks of here?

1.  Your regret is placed in how the sin has affected you or someone else, rather than how it has affected God.

2.  Your regret is due to the consequences.

3.  You don’t experience God’s comfort. 

You see, mourning the way Jesus speaks of will result in experiencing God’s comfort.  If it doesn’t, it is not conviction of sin that you are experiencing, it is condemnation or guilt.  If we are not experiencing comfort after we have confessed, then what we did was not wrong to God – it’s something we are beating ourselves up for, or we do not believe the price paid on the cross is enough and we still need to feel guilty or punish ourselves.  When we do that, we are saying, we have higher standards than God does.  We are saying we still need to pay – and, listen carefully - we decide (not God) when we have paid enough. If mourning over our sin does not lead to comfort, it is not mourning, but rather paying for our sin.  God never asked us to do that.

Have you learned to mourn over you sin like Paul did?  Then you will rejoice as Paul did and you will thank God for the work of Jesus in your life.  Use the comment section to thank Him for taking all of your guilt and shame (or any thoughts you may have related to today's blog)

Psalm 30:11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness. Praise His glorious name.

Love in Jesus,

Cathy