Works

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. -Psalm 62:1

I believe in works.  James said it quite well when, out of frustration I suspect, he penned, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Visit James 2:17

It is. But.

This snippet of a Psalm by David is an early reminder.  Works are good, but they will not save us. Never have. Never will.

Although it is written in a completely different context than those of us that are Christ trusters and believers might think and see through our lenses, still what he says rings true. David seems to be writing in the context of Absalom’s (David’s son) rebellion against him, the beauty of the Psalms, including this one, is that they can and have been applied to people’s circumstances throughout history.

David had done all he could to get out of this trouble. Finally he admits that ‘from him alone comes my salvation.’ 

At a lot of us, OK, mainly me, plus a mess of other people, have spent too much time trying to secure our salvation, thinking that if only we could work/pray/worship/believe/harder, we’ll get there.  Nothing wrong with any of those things, as I said, I believe in works.

But they won’t get you there.  If you can claim the name of Christian in any way shape or form, please know that he work has already been done.  As Paul wrote in Ephesians “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Visit Ephesians 2:8,9)

Let me repeat these words, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Or as David wrote some 1000 years earlier, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation…”

Yes, I believe in works, we need to do them. But I believe in and trust in Jesus.  Nothing is more important.

And let the works spring from that.

Mercy

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…. 1 Peter 1:3

                            

I needed this passage this morning, so I was very grateful to read this when it popped up in my email.  Like many of you, my heart has been aching over the events in Oregon this week; an area of the country I’m quite familiar with.

There is always, after an atrocity like this, the want to push for political action – from all directions.  I even caught myself thinking, “We’ve got to do something.” Maybe something needs to be done, but I don’t fit in well with my denomination’s usual pushes for gun control on the issue.  And I’m not convinced that arming every living thing, including my dog, is the answer either. 

Just kidding. I don’t own a dog.

People on both sides of the issue want a reaction to a problem. And I really don’t blame them.  And both are in some way acknowledging that there is a deeper problem that we are feeling helpless about, hence the need for such reactions.

The passage above addresses the helplessness, and ultimately provides the answer.  I am simply convinced that those perpetrating the violence have not experienced any sort of lasting hope in their lives.  We are all good for temporary hopes (sometimes seen in political actions), but there has to be a longer solutions to this.  Lasting hope.

Peter writes, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  As someone who has experienced and continues to experience “his great mercy,” my life is filled with “a living hope” that no temporary answers will ever evoke, political or otherwise.  The email this morning just drove it home, again, for me.

As we, as a nation, continue to dismiss our need for God, hope is fading.  I’m persuaded too many people are now living lives void of optimism; and without hope, life, including their own, becomes cheap.   So, here is my reaction to the shootings in Oregon.  I will continue to live a life of hope, as found in Jesus. And will intensify my efforts to share his “great mercy” to those around me, for one never knows when you might reach someone who is feeling hopeless in a world that is moving away from hope.  And Lord, we all are in need of His mercy. All.

And to that, it is available in quantities that are unimaginable ‘through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’ 

Mercy, for you, for me, for any that will accept it.  There is the hope. And that is what I intend to be about.  

How about you?

Bravado

“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Psalm 16:8

These words, written by David are admirable, as is the rest of Psalm 16.  But…in some way they are not relatable. I admire David’s words, but I’m not sure I can completely share in their meaning. Why?

David says, “I have set the LORD always before me….”  And I have to stop right there. David’s words here are full of Donald Trump-like bravado. Good for him. But that is not me, in that I know that I have not set the LORD always before me.  Those words point directly and boldly at my failings, and they are legion. As Donald trump might yell at me, “You’re fired!”

There is a worship song I really like. Made popular a decade or more ago by the Newsboys, it has lyrics like, “I'm forgiven because You were forsaken; I'm accepted, You were condemned….”

Great, true stuff.  But the song ends with a line sung as sort of a long coda which proclaims, “In all I do I honor You.”

I…can…never…sing…that…line.   Because I know myself.  I all I do?  No way.  To my shame.

But then I’m reminded.  That is why Jesus went to the cross.  Peter puts it like this (paraphrasing Isaiah), “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” (visit 1 Peter 2:24) A tremendous grace note.  A grace that assures me that, “he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken….”

Maybe the day will come that I can write something with as much bravado as David and be able to say, I have set the LORD always before me…  Maybe someday I will get there, or maybe at least close.

But this I know, as a truster and believer in what Christ has done for me on the cross, I know he is at my right hand, and in spite of my sporadic failings, ultimately I shall not be shaken.

He has done the work, that is where the real bravado lies. Thank God!

Handbasket

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16

It is. Power. God.

And everyone needs it.

It’s rather easy these days for me to pull back in my busyness and think, “Well, if that is how the world is going to think of Christianity, I’ll just pull back into my own little world, and watch the world go to hell in a handbasket.  I’ll be OK.  And as far as the world goes, may the Lord have mercy on it.”

Shame on me.

Maybe this passage, which was the first thing I saw in my email this morning, was sent to me as a wakeup call. I claim to be an evangelical; honestly I feel like I have been sleeping.  

Wake up!

A couple of things come to mind about this passage.  First there is, in God, “the power…for salvation.” The world does not have to go to hell in a handbasket. In God, through Jesus, is an offering of hope; a glimpse as it were, that hell and the hand basket can and should be avoided. My sitting back and willingness to watch it happen is ungodly.  God did not sit back; in the fullness of time he gave us Jesus so we could climb out of the handbaskets that we craft as dwelling places.  God has the power to save, to rescue. 

By sitting back and watching the world go to hell in a handbasket…I’m just resting in my own little handbasket myself. That is not God’s call for any believer’s life, certainly not mine.

The second thing that jumps out at me is this. Paul says power of God for salvation is for “everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”  Paul uses an example of two widely divergent cultures, ones that he personally had feet in, cultures that I’m sure thought the other was going to hell in a hand basket, and says God’s salvation is offered to both.  The offer is universal. It knows no barriers, there are no walls that constrain it, there are no handbaskets that are too deep that the offer can’t rest in and thrive out of.

No are no barriers, no matter what may be going on in society, that keeps the offer from being valid.  But…one has to believe. The offer may be universal, but salvation is not.  There is that catch that Scripture is consistent about. Sorry Rob Bell.

My job remains, then, to proclaim that offer. No matter what is going on in society.  My job is not to pull back, but to facilitate what God can and is willing to do.  No need for anyone to stay in the handbasket, save by their own choice.    

And, uh, I need to climb out of mine….