Welcome: A Heart Like His

One day in the dim and distant past the agenda before me was to welcome someone into my life—into my home and into my heart. This person was someone I didn’t even want to have around, little less actually WELCOME.  In years gone by this man had caused much pain to me and to mine. Nothing had been acknowledged on his part. Yet I had worked on the hard task of forgiving­—but from a distance.

But here’s the thing—I know God has a welcoming heart. I know He has welcomed me! Oft times His welcome has been graciously given after I have been indifferent to Him, grieved Him, ignored Him or squandered His gifts of time, opportunity, money or abilities. I’ve told my stories but not been so quick to tell His stories. Or really listen to another’s story.

At times I have walked around with a two-by-four in my eye while trying to focus on that tiny speck in another’s eye. Sometimes I have entertained complaints in my heart and grumbled about the manna de-jour. I’ve taken the higher seat on my high horse rather than follow His example and directive to take the lower seat. He is One who stooped to serve, and to serve even those who hurt Him.

Still, God’s welcoming heart has been generous in giving forgiveness to me as I’ve turned in humility to Him. And before the turning times, His heart has yearned for His wandering child to come Home. Like Jesus with Judas in the Upper Room, God has continued to offer me the bread and the wine, not exposing me to shame by pointing out my betrayal to others.

As I thought about that person who was coming, I knew I could have the coffee ready, have the welcome mat out and open the door. But I knew I could not change my heart to offer a sincere welcome.

So as I was bringing my desire to have a heart like His, a welcoming heart, I heard these words in my thoughts: The very one who is coming to your door today is My precious child. Please welcome him for My sake. Just as I welcome you. Just as you delight to have another give a royal welcome to your child.

And Carolyn, I will correct him. He belongs to me and that’s My responsibility. Your assignment and opportunity is to welcome with a sincere heart, one I am changing by my Spirit of truth and power and grace. My desire for you is to be My agent of grace today. 

God’s welcome comes because Jesus paid the cost of my sins, my small indifferences or insensitivities as well as huge things like betrayal and abandonment. That day God was not asking me to be in a place that was unsafe or to be this person’s best buddy. (If that is ever the case, I will have to get back to you on my response!) God was asking me to recognize how much I have been forgiven and to continue to do so even in what could have been an uncomfortable situation. He was also taking responsibility to be the agent of change, first for me and then for the other.

How did the time go that day? I felt at peace and welcoming, by God’s grace. I did not see much change in the other person but I saw God changing me. And I could only give Him thanks with a grateful heart.

Carolyn 
 

What's Wrong With These People?

Psalm 10

"All his thoughts are, 'There is no God'" (10:4).

"He says in his heart…, 'He will never see what I do'" (10:11).

I watch the news at night and ponder the actions of certain men and women and ask myself: "What's wrong with these people?

Motives are mostly unknown, of course, but here in this psalm, David, Israel’s philosopher-king, reveals the thoughts of unjust men and women and why they act as they do: (1) They don't believe there is a God, or, (2) if there is a God, he doesn't care what they do.

In logic, these are a priori arguments, conclusions "from before," beliefs formed apart from rational or empirical evidence to support them. They're premises that folks adopt without thinking about them.

The idea that God doesn't exist or doesn't care what we do does seem well–founded, for bad guys seem to get away with bad behavior. "His ways prosper at all times... He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I will never meet adversity” (10:5,6).

But God does see. He takes note of the trouble that evildoers bring to others and the grief of those so afflicted (10:14), though troublemakers don't know it for God's "judgments (his standards and actions to enforce them) are high and out of sight." He judges from an unseen realm that "men of the earth" cannot see (10:18). 

But there is a comeuppance: God will "call wickedness to account till you find none." Or as Jesus put it, they will pay till the last farthing is paid (Matthew 5:26).

"There is no God and even if there is a God He doesn't care what I do." I would never cop to that premise, but I wonder how often I act as if I do?

David Roper

Two Gates

Psalm 9

"O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises in the gates of the City of Zion" (Psalm 9:3,4)·

Carolyn and I purchased two plots at Dry Creek Cemetery a few years ago, side by side. "The graveyard is ready for me,” as Job said (17:1).

Having my own grave site is a vivid reminder that I'm standing at the “gates of death.” Samuel Johnson, I think it was, said that the prospect of one’s dying “wonderfully concentrates the mind." Or, as a friend of mine says, “It makes you think about things.” 

I'm assured, however, that God will "lift me up" when my time comes. Jesus said that those who follow him, "will never, ever, under any circumstances whatever die" (John 11:26). He was thinking of my soul, of course. My body I will most gladly leave behind.

Death is not the end of me; it's the gateway to Zion, the City of God. Life doesn't end in death; It's perfected by it. 

I think now of some lines from The Golden Key, my favorite George MacDonald book: 

"You have tasted of death,” said the Old Man. “Is it good?”

“It is good,” said Mossy. “It is better than life.”

“No,” said the Old Man; “it is only more life.”

David Roper

9.23.19 

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Psalm 8

“Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established a defense against your foes, to silence the enemy and the rebel" (Psalm 8:2). 

Here’s an intriguing apologetic: The proof of God's greatness lies in the fact that a little child can know Him. Their love and trust is the answer to those who doubt Him, an argument Jesus used on one occasion.

When the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw children running and singing praise songs in the sacred temple precincts, they were scandalized. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, quoting this psalm. “Have you never read, 'From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, call forth praise’?” (Matthew 21:16).

These little ones were scampering through the temple, shouting “Hosanna (Aramaic for ‘Save, I pray!’) as they danced and sang around Jesus. (Perhaps these were the little street urchins that often  gathered around his knees.) These children knew, as Israel’s wise and learned men did not know—for they did not have the wisdom of a child—that Jesus was the long-awaited Savior. Their playful and exuberant faith was God's argument against the unbelief and skepticism of his day. 

That's why it’s a serious sin to hinder the faith of one of these little ones “who believe on him” as Jesus said. “It would be better for that one that a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke17:1,2).

I think of college professors and public school teachers that undermine the faith of those in their care, and parents that hinder their little ones through indifference. 

And then I think of myself: Have I, by my behavior, belied the fact that I’m a follower of Jesus and caused them to stumble? (Where does one find a millstone these days?)

David Roper

 10.22.19

The Law of Inevitable Consequence

Psalm 7

He digs a pit, digging it deeper,

and falls into the hole he has dug. —Psalm 7:15

Does God care that tyranny and injustice exist? Indeed, ”God is outraged every day" (7:11). And he will judge, not with immediate acts of judgment, like Thor with his hammer, but by allowing evil-doers to receive the natural consequences of their misdeeds. 

Ancient wisdom enshrined that principle: “Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and return upon him who began” (First Century B.C. Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius). Israel’s poet/prophet David knew the principle long before Lucretius: “(The evildoer) digs a pit and keeps digging, and falls into the hole he has dug.” This is the hard logic of sin: We get what’s coming to us; we reap what we sow.

But God’s judgment is not only punitive; it is also redemptive. It falls on us to bring us to repentance. Thus there is hope for all of us, even me and my own petty tyranny. There is Someone to whom I can say, “I’m sorry; please forgive me” (7:12). And find forgiveness for all my sins (Psalm 130:4). 

David Roper

10.20.19

Terrified

Psalm 6

"I'm terrified. LORD (6:3).

"I am greatly terrified" (6:4).

"All my enemies shall be...terrified" (6:10).

David enemies were spreading malicious lies about him, blackening his name. Terrified, emotionally drained, David, a hard man, a man's man, was reduced to tears: "Every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping" (6:6).

But David tears turned to prayer, his recourse when under duress—a far better and safer thing than defending himself.

Assurance grew out of David's prayers: His adversaries would themselves be "terrified" (6:10). God would deal with them in due time. 

How did David know this? Because God loved him (6:4). And love longs to shelter. 

So, let people chatter. Our Father in Heaven hears their prattle and he will have the last word.

But we need to be patient for he almost always takes His time (6:3).

David Roper

10.14.19

A Primer on Prayer

Psalm 5

Give ear to my words, O Lord;

consider my groaning.

Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God, for to you do I pray.

O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;

in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

—Psalms 5:1-3

As children, when taunted, we shouted in reply: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Nothing could be further from the truth. Words wound us deeply and irreparably. 

A case in point is David's reprisal. It wasn’t sticks, or stones, swords, or spears that pierced his heart. It was words. (Odd, isn’t it, that in David's world, in which there was so much physical violence, words could have so much potency.)

By answering his critics David, gives us an answer to ours, and also, unwittingly, a primer on prayer. 

At first, David admits, his anxious cries were nothing more than groans and barely audible sighs. but there was a growing clarity as his groaning developed into disciplined and expectant prayer. (The verb "I prepare [a sacrifice]" is the word David uses in Psalm 23—"You prepare a table before me"—and suggests that David laid out his words in an orderly fashion.)

My prayers, at first, can be nothing more that a bare wish, an anxious reaction, a ragged cry of despair, an anguished groan. "Groans are quick, and full of wings; and all their motions upward be,” George Herbert said. 

God takes it from there: His Spirit reads my aching cries and turns them into proper prayer. He “considers” (makes sense of) my groaning.

My prayer-bird was cold—would not away, 

Although I set it on the edge of the nest. 

Then I bethought me of the story old—

Love-fact or loving fable, thou know'st best—

How, when the children had made sparrows of clay, 

Thou mad'st them birds, with wings to flutter and fold: 

Take, Lord, my prayer in thy hand, and make it pray. 

—George MacDonald

David Roper

Better Than Wine

Psalm 4

"Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself” (4:3).

David adversaries were talking smack: innuendo, invectives and lies. David’s sense of self–worth and well-being plummeted (4:1,2).

Then David reminded himself, "The Lord has set apart the godly for himself”(4:3).

"Godly" sounds austere and unattainable, but the translation is misleading. It's the Hebrew word hasidim, based on the word for God's covenant love, hasid. I render it, "those who love God and whom God will love forever." 

It’s almost impossible for me to get through the day without being snubbed, ignored, or put down in some way. Sometimes I do it to myself. 

But here's what I must remember: I'm loved forever and ever, set apart in a very special way; as dear to God as his own beloved Son. Why else would He have called me into existence to be His child for all eternity? 

So, instead of beating myself up, or pumping myself up, I need to remind myself moment by moment that I am His dearly beloved child. He will never, never, never, never give up on me.

The outcome is elation and celebration. His love, thus, ”is better than wine!" (4:7).

David Roper

10.9.19

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Psalm 3

I cried out loud to the Lord,

And He heard me from His holy hill.

I lay down and slept;

I awoke, for the Lord gave rest (Psalm 3:4).

Conscience shakes me awake in the middle of the night. I think of things done and undone. I toss and turn.  

David understood. He had a lot on his conscience and his enemies made the most of it. 

Unlike David, my enemies are not Hittites, Amorites, or the members of my own family, but the enemies of my soul, Satan and his band of busy accusers: ”Your sins are many; not even God can help you" (3:1,2).

David, on his part, though conscience-plagued, cried out to the LORD, “and the Lord heard (him).”

We’re not told what God said. It’s only important to know that David could turn to his Father in his guilt and shame, and that his Father heard him.

Amazing grace!

David Roper

10.5.19

The Last Laugh 

Psalm 2

The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed (Christ) …

He who sits in the heavens laughs! —Psalm 2:2-4

“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain quipped upon hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal. I would say the same to those who report the death of the Church. G. K. Chesterton said, that “at least five times…the Church has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died” (The Everlasting Man).

I read somewhere, though the details elude me, that the Roman emperor Diocletian raised a monument to himself on which he placed an inscription stating that he had “abolished the superstition of Christ." Some years later Diocletian abdicated, discouraged by the sad state of affairs in the empire and committed suicide. Rome fell to the Goths shortly thereafter. The Church exists and thrives today in every corner of the world. “The gates of hell (Hell’s best-laid counsels, schemes and strategies) shall not prevail against it,” Jesus said.  

Peter Waldo, an early reformer, represented the history of Christianity with a picture of an anvil with a number of worn-out hammers lying around it. At the bottom of the picture there was a quote from 16^th century French theologian Theadore Beza: “The Church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed (Christ)…” 

And peals of laughter rend the skies!

David Roper

10.3.19