Romans 6:11

Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin,

but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our consideration of something is spoken of as an indispensable part of our bringing it to pass. To consider it is to count it so. We are to consider, or reckon ourselves dead in one sense and alive in another. Does our counting it so actually make it so? No. Paul had already spoken of both our death and life in an absolute sense:

Romans 6:4 Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so also we should walk in newness of life.

The baptism spoken of cannot be water baptism, since water baptism does not effect our union with Christ. Spirit baptism, however, is spoken of in the very terms of our union with Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). So Paul says that by the Spirit's activity we did die with Christ.

Paul's absolute language for our living with Christ is a little different:

Romans 6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him

Paul uses the future tense rather than the present. He says that we shall live, a reference primarily to our future resurrection to life. He could have said we do live (or just "we live") to show our present union with Christ's life. But he instead emphasized the future.

The reason for Paul's choice of tense seems to be his use of present reality to 'prove' future reality. If we are indeed going to join Christ in the resurrection, we will also manifest His life now.

We make of ourselves a sort of sandwich. On one side, we are sandwiched by the past reality of our death with Christ. On the other side, we are sandwiched by the future reality of our resurrection with Christ. In between, the peanut butter and jelly of our existence are our present death to sin and living unto God.

So Paul is saying that how well we can count ourselves dead and alive is how confident we can be that we are joined to Christ- to His death and life. It is also how successfully we will actually die to sin and live to righteousness. This counting it to be so is essentially alternate terminology for faith.

Paul transfers the analogy later in the chapter from Union with Christ to Slavery:

Romans 6:18 Then being made free from sin, you became the slaves of righteousness.

Does Paul mean that Christians are free from sin and so never sin? Does he mean that we are slaves to righteousness and obey only its dictates? No. As before, we will either be more or less consistent with these realities by how we consider them.

Can his freedom from sin become virtually meaningless to a Christian? It's hard for a new convert to imagine, but it can become so. God will judge us as Christians based on what it all meant to us. Did we always love Jesus because He died for us? Or did His love for us lose its savor? Whatever it means to us- that will result in exactly how we live.

Count yourself dead.

Count yourself alive.

Go back to the Cross where these realities were accomplished, and from where alone you can realize them for yourself. Having arrived, never depart.

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1 John 3:3

And everyone who has this hope on Him

purifies himself,

even as that One is pure.

The hope referred to is the hope of becoming like Jesus when we see Him:

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are Children of God, and it has not been made clear as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him even as He is.

We are purified now by looking to Christ, according to our verse in the lead box.

If we are not being purified of certain sins- sins that we purposely commit- there can only be one of four reasons for this:

1) We are not looking to Christ; we have taken our eyes off Him, either in laziness or in attraction to something else;

2) We are looking to Him but do not believe He has the power to deliver us. In this case, we actually are looking to an imaginary Jesus, for the real Jesus does have the power to deliver us;

3) We don't really want purity. We are satisfied to keep our defilement;

4) We haven't given the purification process sufficient time. If we truly long for purity and look longingly to an omnipotent Christ to confer it to us, we are exercising our souls- an exercise Christ may wish to extend for our benefit.

How many Christians will simply have to acknowledge the third reason to their shame at Christ's coming?

1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

How many will have to own up to having been Christian in name only?

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2 Samuel 16:10

"... If he is cursing because Jehovah has said to him,

'Curse David,' who then shall say,

'Why have you done so?'"

David here allowed the cursings of Shimei to continue. David was riding by with his troops and Shimei cursed and threw stones at David for the deaths of Saul's household. David's commander Abner was actually responsible for those deaths, but David saw a reason to allow Shimei's curses. He saw the hand of God in it.

David was not saying that what Shimei was doing was right. The fact of Shimei's wrongdoing was proved by his later execution under Solomon. The hand of God was truly evident in the death that Shimei brought on himself (1 Kings 2).

So how could David allow the continuance of Shimei's curses upon a man in authority- even Jehovah's anointed- himself, that is?

David knew that he was not altogether blameless. Any good commander-in-chief says, "The buck stops here," and takes responsibility for the actions of his underlings. More so, though, David knew that it was ultimately through his own negligence that the whole messy dilemma with Absalom had started.

But more than even this, David understood that he personally needed accusation of his soul for his own benefit. Human conscience is unbalanced without the Spirit's governance- most often, our consciences tipping the scale in our own favor:

Proverbs 16:2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but Jehovah weighs the spirits.

David knew the value of an enemy in counterbalancing his own 'self-purifying' vision. At the time, David was properly humbled in spirit before the Lord, so he did not concentrate primarily on the wrong being done- even the falsehood in the report. He heard Jehovah speaking to the pride of his heart, and he received it in humility: "Let Jehovah repay Shimei for any wrongdoing. I am being helpfully shamed right now."

Only those who truly know God can see His hand working through an enemy- especially an enemy performing unrighteousness. David was truly a "man after God's own heart."

We should say: "If only my haters and despisers could assail me as much as my neglect of God deserved!"

What extra tools of humiliation might you encounter today?

How valuable is meekness to you? If you see every negative aspect of life as part of your necessary counterbalancing correction, how can you go wrong?

Parents cannot forego discipline of their children, for instance, but even when we must judge righteous judgment, we can do so with smitten hearts.

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Isaiah 7:8

For the head of Syria is Damascus,

and the head of Damascus is Rezin;

and within sixty five years

Ephraim shall be broken from being a people.

Ephraim was allied with Syria. They wished to expand their borders into Judah, but God was assuring his people that for now they were safe. God gave a timetable for Ephraim and Syria's undoing.

New enemies always arise, it seems. How are we to know they will be defeated? After all, they always seem to be in the majority. Furthermore, even when Christians gain an upper hand, we do not seem to be able to maintain it.

We must remember, though, that the enemy's hold is also fleeting. God has a purpose for the seeming instability of our circumstances, but He also does justice against His enemies. Again, His timetable in this will rarely accord with what seems right to us. Sixty-five years was a long way off for the dwellers of Jerusalem.

What's more, the gospel does take hold permanently within those God chooses. The gospel and those it claims are never defeated:

2 Cor 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession

As long as there is one gospel messenger, God wins, as the passage in second Corinthians continues:

2 Cor 2:14 - 16 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

Paul makes no distinction between the two effects of the gospel as to their victory. Whether men believe or reject, the gospel triumphs. And gospel messengers triumph along with it. God is always leading us in triumphal procession.

Is this the hope in which you live and speak? The victory of the gospel in or over all men (victory in the elect; victory over the wicked, we might say)?

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Psalm 20:7

These trust in chariots,

and these in horses,

but we will make mention

in the name of Jehovah our God.

One factor that is to differentiate a Christian from a non-Christian is our recognition of a different boast.

Many in the world do not make outright boast in the forces or possessions they trust, but they are certainly confident in things other than the true God.

We must give evidence of our conversion- both to ourselves for our own assurance, and to those around us as a witness- by glorifying God in all our tasks.

We may practically approach the glorifying of God on a task-by-task basis using a 'before, during, and after' methodology:

1) Before the task, we should

a) inquire of God (for any hidden trapsI you may be unaware of), and

b) consecrate the task to God; ask for His blessing and guidance;

2) Go into the task simply with the intent to glorify God. Acknowledge that He is good and that you are relying on His strength and oversight;

3) Give credit to Him afterwards. Thank Him. Thank Him in the presence of others, even if only in a general way. Thank Him for His wise oversight of any 'failed' ventures.

The hardest part of all this is actually segmenting life into significant enough tasks that you will always be seeking God's glory in all things. The most menial tasks are elevated to great spiritual significance when we consecrate them to God.

God is actually doing us a favor, then, when He lets flop our undertakings which did not involve seeking His face.

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Psalm 87:4

I will mention Rahab and Babylon

to those who know me;

behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia:

this man was born there.

The "there" the psalmist references is Zion:

Psalm 87:5 And it shall be said to Zion, This man and that man was born in her; and the Highest Himself shall establish her.

The psalmist makes his citizenship in Zion a boast. It is a boast he compares favorably to any other citizenship of any other nation. He mentions by name nations which were prone to boast and had definite features they could tout.

Zion's dealings with Rahab (Egypt, see Ps. 89:10) and Babylon were a reason for the psalmist to specifically mention them. God had proved more powerful than the gods of either one.

The psalmist calls on Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia to hear his boast concerning Zion. And his boast is only in his birth certificate! The mere fact that he was born there is enough to provoke their envy as far as he was concerned.

Now consider this. The psalmist does not simply group these realms under the title "nations". He actually wants us to think of the particular fame of each of them, one by one! He wants to be known as a citizen of Zion in the light of the glories of the most glorious nations on earth!

Here, then, is the question for us. Do we have such confidence in Zion?

Or is our ignorance of the glories of the nations an implicit admission that we think Zion doesn't really measure up? We have shut ourselves off from the rest of the world so that scrawny, pitiful Zion can have some appearance of grandeur... if we squint our eyes and look kind of sideways at her?

The psalmist obviously knows what the nations have to boast in. He talks to particular citizens from several of them. He knows 'where they are at'. He knows their philosophical 'centers'- why they think their countries follow the most enviable creed.

Ultimately, of course, it is a contest of gods; or of gods versus God. But the psalmist, with his 'takes all comers' attitude, no doubt knows exactly how the religion of each nations plays out in its day-to-day lifestyle. He can say, "I know- this is how you think and operate. But let me tell you about my God and His ways!"

The psalmist may well have rehearsed these matters during a low time for Zion historically. We notice that he boasts in his birth- not in the city's present glories. Zion has reached some pretty low points in her history; but her main boast has never diminished: God is the one who births her true sons. This will always be her basic glory:

James 1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Is this enough reason for us to boast?

Will we calmly concede the glories of our neighbors- "Yes, what about them Braves!" -but then show them the greater glory of the heavenly competition?

1 Corinthians 9:25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Of course, the letter to the Corinthians was written to Christians who already acknowledged the superiority of Zion. With our neighbor, we would probably not 'put down' the Braves per se or baseball per se. Paul was not doing so. He actually recognized the legitimacy of athletic competition as a credible analogy to the Christian quest. In this, he was just like the psalmist in Psalm 87. "Tell me the best your country has to offer... Ah yes, this renown is well known and well deserved. But let me tell you of a glory that is better in that it is heavenly!"

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Psalm 119:97

Oh how I love your law!

It is my meditation all the day.

Well, of course the psalmist meditated on God's law all day! He loved it.

So much for any pretense I might have that I love God's law greatly! I don't carry God's instructions around in my head for very long at a time at all.

Let us be certain that we also understand what other category this love is in. Jesus said:

John 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep my commandments."

Now which commandments in the law would the psalmist have loved which we, in keeping Jesus' commandments, wouldn't love? Is Jesus forcing nasty medicine down our throats in demanding observance to His commands? Is He smiling sardonically, saying, "So, you really love Me, eh? Let's see if you can stand this ! "

So Christendom has come to equate commands with impersonal tests. We view our relation to God personally as one thing, our relation to His commands as another. His commands have become a sort of add-on to our relationship, but one which is fairly irrelevant. We definitely don't see God Himself in His commands.

But the psalmist did. So did Paul:

Romans 7:12 So indeed the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

Hmmm... all those descriptions of the Law are also descriptions of God, aren't they! Holy, just, good... But what would we expect? Would God give us instructions that are disconnected from Himself? Certainly, then, God's commands are simply an expression of His own character, of Himself. They are personal, too, simply being an extension of God.

So then- for our love of God's commands to increase, perhaps we need to see His love for us IN those commandments more.

The psalmist didn't sound like he was forcing himself to think of God's commands all day long. As a human, of course he would encounter dry spells and have to prime the pump; but he obviously recognized living water as soon as the well began to deliver. He had a basis on which to remind Himself of God's goodness and love whenever He thought about His commands. He could recover that basis whenever he needed to.

Did this do away with his struggles with the flesh and the devil? Not at all.

But imagine what a disadvantage we are at in combating sin without a love for God's law!

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Psalm 87:7

Singers also as players on instruments-

All my fountains are in you!

This is the last verse of Psalm 87. The psalm is a grandiose boast in Zion as the place of God's dwelling. All who dwell there with Him are therefore blessed.

This last verse seems to be an almost confused exclamation- a sentence fragment:

Psalm 87:7 And the singers are as the pipers*- All my springs are in you!

It is as though the psalmist were watching a procession of joyful worshipers in Zion. The singers and the pipers seemed to be as one. What they were expressing was one joyful declaration; it was like a river flowing out of them joining a universal cataract affirming the same thing. The psalmist joined them: "All my springs are also in you, O Zion!"

That is to say- All my springs of joy; all my rivers of hope; all the streams of my lifeforce; all the fountains pinning my stability- everything that defines me as truly alive: you are its source, O Zion!

Is that saying too much? Some translators actually capitalize "You" in this verse, thus referring it to God. Their theism is too strict to allow any such exuberance for a created thing.

But what is God's own testimony concerning Zion?

Ephesians 1:22 And He has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Christ's body is His fullness. But how can infinity be filled? Of course, it is only His fullness in the sense of being His emotional fullness- His delight, His bride.

On the basis, then, of Christ's own esteem for His Church, Paul can also say:

2 Timothy 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Paul merely sought to have the esteem for the Church which God Himself had.

The psalmist, in saying that ALL his springs or water fountains were in Zion, was saying that NOT ONE source of life in him was from anywhere else.

Now he was not necessarily insisting that he had no illegitimate desires within himself. He was only saying that all that was truly connected to spiritual life- real life- was from Zion; and that as a citizen of Zion, that's where all his own true life came from.

At the moment, this was also an emotional confession. At the moment, he had no desire for anything except Zion. He could also say that this had become generally true of himself.

He had already talked about Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia. He knew what they had to offer. He knew in what ways their citizens boasted of them. But he chose Zion.

In light of this, we may well ask: Are all my joys in the Church? Are all the springs feeding my life in God's city, God's people, God's ways?

Or do I reserve the emotional 'safety valve' of at least one worldly joy or activity? Or I am simply a loner, doing all things for my own sake, not the elect's sake?

It is a bit claustrophobic to think of Zion as the one and only source of my emotional joys. Such claustrophobia should be connected to our "putting to death" the members of our flesh. Truth be told- God cannot be found outside of the Church. We already saw that it is His fulness. It is also His source of the Truth:

1 Timothy 3:15 ... the house of God, which is the Church [Gk. 'ekklesia', "the called out"] of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

We all know where we have ungodly delights. We perhaps do not realize where we lack joy in Zion. We all tend to think of our worship of God as sufficient worship. We probably do not see where we despise the Church as the dwelling place of God- where we scorn members of His body in particular or the functioning of that body in general.

The confession of Psalm 87 is a high confession. It is especially hard to confess it when the Church is at a low ebb. But the Church was apparently at a low ebb in the psalmist's time, too. All the other nations had boasts. He may have only had the ragtag group of vagabonds returning from captivity to boast in. Yet he did. He boasted because He accepted by faith what God had done and was doing for them and in them.

* This would be the only time this Hebrew word has any reference to music. It is used 143 times, and the vast majority of them have to do with profaning, polluting, and defiling. Perhaps the psalmist is saying- and this would be literal- "And the singers are as those who profane," meaning that they were singing with all gusto, the way 'party animals' go overboard in their revelry.

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Luke 11:46

And He said, Woe to you also, Law experts!

For you load men with burdens

grievous to be carried,

and you yourselves do not lightly touch

the burdens with one of your fingers.

Law experts (commonly translated "lawyers") were often named by Jesus alongside the Pharisees and were guilty of many of the same offenses. They were experts in Moses' Law, or the Old Testament in general. They had special duties in giving 'expert' advice in legal decisions. They also held school and taught promising students the Hebrew Scriptures and the common law that had developed around it .

Now who are the 'Bible experts' in our society? That's right- Christians. Christians usually figure out that they have greater understanding of the Scriptures than the 'man on the street'. They also tend to develop an attitude exactly like the one Jesus describes above.

Here is the great danger of sitting under Bible teaching. We read the Bible or hear it expounded and we agree with its teachings. We therefore assume that we ourselves are IN CONFORMITY with what is written because of our agreement. We do not think of how these principles ought to work themselves into our lives at the deepest levels, nor of which of our present habits they ought to oust. We only think that as we have come to comprehend the Scriptures (to our own standards, at least) we therefore comply with Scriptures. This fallacy in our thinking is furthered by the ardency of our agreement. We are greatly in agreement with God's perspective; how can our loyalty, then, be doubted?

One tell-tale sign of a false 'Bible expert' approach to life is when we use Bible knowledge to create personalized holiness categories. We categorize the Bible per our perceived expectations of ourselves, then we categorize people per our thus derived standards of holiness- standards others either meet or don't meet.

We might be more or less 'evangelistic' with our approach, but we have subtly shifted the focus of the Scriptures from God to ourselves. We think, "This is what's expected of me; therefore, THIS IS WHAT'S EXPECTED OF EVERYONE." We never manage to get a real grip on men's accountability to God independent of us. There's a subtle combination of envy and discontent in us.

We don't see the blessing of holiness as much as we do its expectation laid on us. This burden on our conscience makes us discontent. Then we envy other men their freedom from this burden. Rather than see the problem in ourselves, we see the solution in drawing all men under the burden with us. We assume that we are thereby doing God's work, enforcing His standard.

Thus becoming God's official standard-bearers, we find our place in life, at least in the realm of religion. Thus, we supposedly fulfill the standard by holding everyone else to the standard.

The moment we molded a precept of holiness in our own image, we almost necessarily perverted the true precept. We did certainly pervert our own consciences. The terrible paradox about the Bible expert is that he actually OBEYS the standard he teaches less than those who accept it from him! He "loads men with burdens grievous to be carried", while he himself does "not lightly touch the burdens with one of [his] fingers."

Hint, hint. This is a very natural human approach to Scriptures. The easiest path is always to lay a burden on others to help ease the burden on ourselves*. The grander our scheme is, the more likely we are to eventually find ourselves 'following' it only as a supervisor of others.

* This may be the easiest tell-tale sign of a 'legalist'. God's commandments "are not burdensome" (1 Jn. 5:3). Therefore, when Scriptures are treated as a heavy load, they are automatically being mishandled.

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Psalm 93:1

Jehovah reigns!

He is clothed with majesty;

Jehovah is clothed with strength;

He girded Himself;

and the world is established;

it shall not be shaken.

Jehovah is clothed with majesty.

Jehovah is clothed with strength.

He puts on a belt (the meaning of "girded Himself") to hold them on Himself.

Clothing is external to oneself. It is something we put on.

God is clothed with MAJESTY and STRENGTH.

Certainly majesty and strength are innate to God. He is not putting them on as qualities foreign to Himself. Therefore, He is wrapping majesty and strength about Himself as qualities by which His creation may know Him.

Well, let's ask an immediate question. Can anyone get to know God without being acquainted with this outward garb He has donned?

This question is intended to expose a false approach to God that pretends to be very personal and intimate with Him. Some claim to go right to 'the heart of God' in their relationship with Him. Yet these same people are prone to be offended when God, for instance, destroys a city or orders genocide upon certain peoples.

Let's put it this way. Are God's inward majesty and strength different than His outward majesty and strength? The qualities must be the same, for God is one.

Since God is strong and glorious, all Christians have to do with His strength and majesty. We cannot afford to be offended by any manifestation of His strength or majesty. These are what He wants men to see! If we are less than comfortable with His outward shows of strength, especially when He judges, we are automatically disqualifying ourselves from being His ambassadors. Here He is, in His splendid regalia for all men to see; and here we are, in embarrassment saying, "Look the other way! I'll tell you about God's mercy and love instead!"

Of course, God's mercy and love are majestic and strong as well, but one must wonder if we have made this connection if we balk at His justice and judgment.

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Ecclesiastes 10:16

Woe to you, O land,

when your king is a boy,

and your leaders eat in the morning.

Solomon's point in this verse is that leaders should not first be pleasure-seekers. They are servants of the land and the people, and if they use their privilege as leaders to indulge in self-seeking, the land will mourn for it.

There is an interesting modern application of this warning.

What generation of men before the 1950's, say, had access to so much personal gratification? Think about it. Who but a king prior to the 1900's could summon a band to play for him personally at any time he pleased? But with the advent of phonographs, radios, and TV's, almost every common man can now call up his favorite bands with the mere movement of his fingers on a radio dial. We are truly like kings.

Now the question is: will we use our privilege for pleasure-seeking?

We can have music going all day. We need never bear a quiet moment in private.

Will we continue to glut our attention with all the sounds and images we can call forth? Or will we exercise self-control and demand silence for our minds to come before God and listen to Him? We are a generation of kings because of technology; but so far, we do not rule the land of self. We just give in to our pleasures.

Unless we become responsible kings, our 'lands' will mourn for it. How hard it is for the rich to enter Heaven's kingdom!

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Psalm 93:1

Jehovah reigns!

He is clothed with majesty;

Jehovah is clothed with strength;

He girded Himself;

and the world is established;

it shall not be shaken.

Just as an unbeliever's unbelief does not lessen God's being or activity, so a believer's unbelief or 'short-sightedness' does not.

This statement shows the necessity of faith in the believer.

When a believer rises for morning prayer, he may or may not exercise faith in an awesome Lord- one "clothed with majesty and strength." He may approach the whole encounter rather routinely.

How easily we fall back into conceiving of our perception of God as His true status! This is nothing less than saying- how easily we fall back into rank idolatry!

Is God as I know Him?

How dare I approach Him other than He truly is?

Ah, how crucial to believe what we read about Him!

Ah, how important to retain what we have believed. Mere memory lapse betrays us as idolaters again and again.

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Isaiah 41:14

Do not fear,

worm of Jacob and men of Israel;

I will help you, says Jehovah,

and your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel.

Tell me not to fear, but don't call me a worm!

Why did God say that?

He's reminding us that we don't even have enough power to worry about cosmic issues! What business would a worm in our front yard have in whether or not we turn on the fan in our house?

He's in the same relative position we are in before heavenly powers. The moment we begin to worry, we are already complimenting ourselves with an insane egotism! To fear is to pretend that we actually have some control over our circumstances. Balderdash, God says!

It is so unbecoming for you to fear, little wormy, says He. Once I gave you the information that I'm going to help you, you knew the only thing beyond yourself that your needed to know or even could know in any comprehensive way. Can you understand Me when I say I'm bigger than anything else out there? Can you understand Me when I promise to protect you? Then why do you delve deeper in your mind's eye and picture enemies that can somehow get through my barricade around you? You have actually pressed out of your little worm hole and into My domain. What do you understand out here? Nothing. How can it help but frighten you? Get back in your burrow, scrawny crawler. Stay within your powers. Your eyes cannot see stars. Take one scoop of earth at a time. That is your portion; so I made you. You will lack nothing as long as you trust in Me.

That's how God wants us to picture our place: very confined. That's how He wants us to picture ourselves: very insignificant. Our fear is simply a declaration that we are greater than this insignificance. It is an arrogance that offends God.

So what arrogance do you have planned for today?

Any worry is simply that- arrogance. If we are not marvelously content at this moment and throughout the day, we have greatly diminished the stature of God who commands us not to fear. We have made ourselves His peers rather than His servants.

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Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and of good courage.

Do not be afraid,

neither be dismayed.

For Jehovah your God is with you

in all places where you go.

Part Two: Do not be Afraid

The phrase "Do not be afraid" is an often repeated command in the Bible. We are prone to fear. We need the command not to fear in order to confirm our confidence in God.

There are three particular opposites of fear referenced in Scriptures:

1) Courage is an opposite of fear. This is the most obvious opposite of fear. The verse in the box above lists strength and courage as positives of which fear is the destructive negative. God commands us to be courageous. We have every reason to be courageous. We have every reason to "en-courage" (literally, "put courage in") one another. He is with us everywhere we go, He tells us.

2) Love is an opposite of fear:

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

The only kind of fear that can exist alongside love is the fear of God. That fear is essential to love. Proper fear of God-ordained authority and trepidation at our inclination to err are two varieties of fear which are part of our fearing God. Any other type of fear might be called just 'raw' fear. This type of fear paralyzes us, while love activates us. Love is an opposite of fear.

3) Faith is an opposite of fear:

Luke 8:50 But when Jesus heard, He answered Him, saying, Do not fear, only believe and she shall be healed.

Jesus lists fear as an impediment to faith. If we fear, we will not believe. When we believe, on the other hand, we neutralize our fears. One or the other must win out. We cannot both fear and believe.

Courage, love, and faith- these are three opposites of fear. It takes all three to counteract the damaging affects of fear.

Am I entering this day courageously, knowing God is with me?

Am I entering this day with love, secure in God's acceptance of me?

Am I entering this day believing in God, recognizing both His sufficient power and direct care for me?

Only thus will I depart the realms of fear.

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Revelation 21:8

But the fearful,

and the unbelieving,

and the abominable,

and murderers,

and whoremongers,

and sorcerers, and idolaters,

and all liars,

will have their part in the Lake

burning with fire and brimstone,

which is the second death.

Part Three: Do not be Afraid

The fearful are first in this list of inhabitants of the Lake of Fire. There is something about fear that is appropriate to put at the head of the traits which qualify men for eternity apart from God.

No fair, you say? Fear is just man's timid response to all the terrifying negatives in the world?

A Biblical view of fear suggests much more. Fear is the refusal to courageously face ourselves and life God's way. Fear is the rejection of love as our motivating principle in life. Fear is the insolent repudiation of faith in God. None of us are mere victims of fear. We all embrace fear because of our love of darkness rather than light.

The exact phrase "do not be afraid" is used fifty times in the NKJV. Only five of those are men simply comforting other men. "Do not fear" is used fifty-one more times, with all but twelve of them having direct reference to our relationship with God.

The repudiation of fear is obviously a crucial part of our service to God.

Why does fear continually get the upper hand over me? (Or, I could ask why I lack courage, love, and faith.)

1) I do not believe I am in God's hands;

2) I do not really want to be in God's hands;

3) I do not believe God's hands are strong enough; by comparison, I feel that other hands are more powerful.

Of course, all three of these factors may be working in us simultaneously in different ways and in differing degrees.

We should repeat in our prayers, "Lord, You have commanded me not to be afraid. Strengthen my heart. I will not be afraid."

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2 Timothy 3:13

and evil men and impostors

shall proceed to the worse,

leading astray and being led astray.

Paul is describing for pastor Timothy the situation in the Church. The Church is bound to be tested by infiltrations of dishonest men (see also Acts 20:30).

What happens to those who lead others astray, though? They themselves are also led astray, according to the verse in the box above.

This is only one example of the law of reaping what we sow.

Now let us ask a further question. What about those in the churches who fail to detect these deceivers? What about those who are alerted to their presence but do not take proper action?

One of the mantras of the Church in our day is "Judge not." The real meaning of those making this statement is, "Who are you to judge what is evil? Only God can do that on the last day." In other words, they are not repeating the words in their true Scriptural light. They are putting a new meaning on the words.

Jesus, explaining His words, "Judge not," tells us to take a splinter out of our brother's eye. He then tells us not to give holy things to the dogs (spiritually unclean). We can do neither thing without judging what is evil. "Judge not, lest you also be judged" simply means that whatever standard we hold up to measure others God will hold up to measure us.

What does God tell us to do with deceivers?

Romans 16:17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

If we do not watch out for deceivers and eventually steer clear of them, we are taking a position of basic agreement with them.

Matthew 10:41 "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.

What of men, then, who- even through inaction- give encouragement to those who deceitfully "transform themselves into ministers of righteousness"? (2 Cor. 11:15)

We would expect that the 'trickle down' effect is well at work. If deceivers are themselves deceived, then those who tolerate their deceptions in church will find that their lives in general will be more and more pervaded by deception. They will be unable to perceive reality. They will be less and less able to tolerate the glaring light of Scriptures (glaring to those who have grown accustomed to the dark).

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Psalm 35:25

Let them not say in their hearts,

Aha! Our Soul!

Let them not say,

We have swallowed him up.

The ungodly can easily 'get our goats', as the expression goes. Considering Christ's division of mankind into sheep and goat types (the godly and the ungodly, Matthew 25), 'getting our goat' is a particularly apt description of what happens when the ungodly rankle us. There is always the little voice within telling us to fight fire with fire (a loud little voice!). So the ungodly (even mean or insensitive Christians) tend to bring out our ungodliness.

We cannot afford to make our responses to the ungodly according to the ungodly.

The ungodly will single us out.

We already know that it is improper to reciprocate and single out the ungodly for evil words or acts.

The basic impropriety, though, is singling myself out. The ungodly has 'won' (thought this wasn't his intention in the battle) when he made me change my perspective from God to myself. It must always be God singling me out. When the wicked single me out, I must consider how God is dealing with me- not implying that the wicked are in the righ- but realizing that God has a deeper message to teach me, despite the injustice of the wicked.

Goats can easily get our goat. We must only allow the Shepherd to get our goat, for He 'gets it' in order to get it out of us.

As long as we focus on the other person's impure motives in his dealings with us, we will be unable to receive the situation as a test from God. We will be unable to leave it in His hands.

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Exodus 20:7

You shall not take up the name

of Jehovah your God

for a vain thing,

for Jehovah will not acquit him

who takes up His name for a vain thing.

"Lifting up" Jehovah's name "falsely", of course, goes far beyond merely saying "God" or "Jesus" with some expletive or inappropriate word ("God damn" is usually the first example that comes to mind). Taking up His name lightly is treating anything about God in a trivial or deceptive way- any way other than with complete honesty, sincerity, and accuracy, according to His Word.

However, among the grosser forms of outright taking His name in vain is the expression "Good Lord!" This expression should pain us when used as an exclamation.

The ejaculation "Good Lord!" desensitizes us to a balanced view of God- a view which we need in order to serve Him meticulously and with a good will.

God is good. All His intentions toward us are benevolent to the utmost. His basic disposition towards His creation couldn't be improved upon. If He does evil to anyone, He does so at great provocation. (We generally fail to sense sin in general as a great provocation of God.)

God is lord. He is master. He is boss. He is in charge. We owe Him 100% obedience, honor, and attention.

As to balance: Our service to Him is only complete if we render it to a lord we acknowledge as good.

We tend to obscure God's goodness in our thoughts when we are responding to His lordship. Likewise, a true servant's homage to his liege tends to be eclipsed by the familiarity His goodness seems to engender.

Hearing "Good Lord!" tossed about irreverently, even from time to time, also helps to shroud a proper view of God from us ... unless, every time we hear it, we reverently remind ourselves that He is indeed a good lord.

Matthew 24:12 And because lawlessness shall have been multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold.

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Psalm 93:1, 2

... the world is established;

it shall not be shaken.

Your throne is established from then;

You are from everlasting.

The psalmist begins with the earth's immovable position. He moves from there to Heaven's permanence- God's established throne.

Even though mentioning it second, the psalmist obviously cites Heaven's establishment as the basis for earth's. God's throne is established "from then", from the founding of the earth. "You are from everlasting." The everlasting King's throne over earth awaited Him as soon as earth was made.

By referring to earth's fixedness first, the psalmist hones in straight on us where we are. God has made our home, earth, a stable place. He is the one who keeps it in place and in its orderly condition.

It might seem a trite prayer, "Lord, thank You that the earth is here again today." In fact, the psalmist's implied 'prayer suggestion' would be something more like, "Lord, You are sovereign. You keep the earth in place. You keep me in place. You can do this because You and Your will are all-powerful from Your throne in Heaven."

There is both great contentedness and much humility we can take from such an acknowledgment and such a prayer.

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Psalm 93:3, 4

The floods have lifted up, Yahweh,

the floods have lifted up their voice.

The floods lift up their waves.

Above the voices of many waters,

the mighty breakers of the sea,

Yahweh on high is mighty.

The psalmist here compares the power of the sea to God's own power.

The sea can be viewed as a force which in its wildness can threaten man. It certainly can easily overpower us. The psalmist is saying that storms cannot overpower God. We owe God greater respect than we would accord a raging sea.

Seas sometimes represent peoples in Scriptures. Other times they represent troubles overwhelming us.

We can be swallowed up by unrighteous nations. We can also be deluged with difficulties.

God is mightier than the "voice" or "sound" of many waters. The sound with which waters threaten us should be compared in our minds to God's might. The crashings of difficulties around me tend to set off a series of crashings in my soul. My soul becomes noisy with its own chaos of fear or hurry. I must quiet this chaos with thoughts of God.

When Paul tells us to "meditate on these things", he is telling us that one sound is going to drown out the other.

Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, meditate on these things.

Which sound will dominate in our minds today?

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Job 31:1

I made a covenant with my eyes;

and how should I fix my regard

upon a maid?

As we outline the rather lengthy book of Job, we see that it falls rather neatly and simply into two main sections. In the first section we have Job's tests and his reactions. In the second section, beginning in chapter 32, we have God's answer- His correction of Job.

Chapters 26 - 31 are Job's final, lengthy self-justification, answering his friends' accusations. God will be correcting his spirit of self-righteousness in the ensuing chapters, but Job's account of his blameless life up to this point is something that God Himself corroborated in the first chapter.

Therefore, Job's description of his character is one that can serve as a model for us.

It is good for us to follow Job in making a covenant with our eyes. Our eyes, uninterrupted by our volition, will gaze at certain sights automatically. Both men and women tend to look longingly at members of the opposite gender. Men are perhaps more attracted by women's outward form; women are perhaps attracted as well by mannerisms which connote kindness or intelligence. In either case:

Ecclesiastes 1:8 ... The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

Jesus, of course, spoke the most well-known words on this topic:

Matthew 5:28 but I--I say to you, that every one who is looking on a woman to desire her, did already commit adultery with her in his heart.

So Job was merely counteracting his natural tendency when he made a treaty with his eyes not to 'check out' any 'babes'. Specifically, he was teaming up his eyes and his imagination to resist dwelling upon a desirable female. He made a covenant with his eyes, so he focused on looking. But he resolved not to "meditate" on her (so the Hebrew), so he also focused on his thoughts.

Might Job have previously broken this covenant with his eyes? Some men would assume that he had to. In the verse, though, he implies that he had not. Once he realized that it was basically harmful to yearn for some gal not his wife, he apparently was able to live basically consistent with that realization. He surely saw desirable women, but he apparently was able to keep his gaze and his thoughts essentially pure. He could feel the pull towards a wrong regard for them, but he had several tracks his mind could take to keep from thinking in the wrong direction.

Other men surely have made and broken such covenants with their eyes. Women have too.

Here's the question. If we have made and broken a covenant with our eyes, is it worth renewing a covenant with our eyes?

On one level, our immediate answer would be Yes. We believe in second chances.

But what about some guys who think they have passed the 30,000 mark in the number of times they have broken a covenant with their eyes? Realistically, they probably have not really renewed the covenant that many times. If we're talking about the number of times we break the covenant only after specifically re-ratifying it, most guys would have a fairly low number. Their number of violations of the seventh commandment would be very high, but not their number of violations of a specific, newly remade eye-covenant.

But if the number did reach 30,000, would that be a good 'official' time to give up?

No. As many times as we break a covenant with our eyes, we must remake it again with good intention to keep it this time. The day we give up may well be the day we invite the ruin of the rest of our lives, as David did when he looked wrongly upon Bathsheba.

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Isaiah 6:3

And one cried to the other and said,

Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of Hosts;

all the earth is full of His glory!

This is one of two times where beings in God's presence ascribe thrice-holiness to Him. The other instance is in Revelation 4:8.

Is the three-time repetition significant of the Trinity- one reference of holiness for each person of the Triune God? Certainly the seraphim (a class of angels) who antiphonally chanted this to one another were aware of the Trinity.

Jesus said this passage spoke of Himself as the 'front-man' of the Trinity in this instance (Jn. 12:41).

The trio of "holies" may also simply be an expression of emphasis. So groups of three are used in other places (Jer. 7:4; 22:9; Ezek. 21:27).

In either case (or both cases together, more likely), let us note that the ascription to God is not "Love, love, love", in contrast to what our modern generation of Christendom might expect. Could the seraphim have so chanted concerning God? No doubt, as they could have with any of His attributes: righteousness, mercy, omniscience, etc. But were they misleading by focusing on God's holiness? No. They were focusing on His chief characteristic.

One way to verify this is to think of God's love in relation to His holiness. On the one hand, we can say that God's love is a holy love; but on the other hand, we cannot say that God's holiness is an all-loving holiness. This is because God's holiness also includes His hatred of sin. Hence, God's holiness is a broader category by which to define Him. Love is a more limited description.

This is not to say that God's love itself is limited. God's love, of course, is as limitless as He is. But His love is not directed everywhere. "Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated." God is not embarrassed to say that His love was lacking, or at least less, towards one man compared to another. God's love is not a mechanical response towards His creatures. It is a choice He makes. His love is automatic within Himself and towards Himself, but not towards His creatures or their actions.

As far as our personal responses to God and our meditations on Him, we cannot know Him rightly, cannot conceive of ourselves as redeemed sons rightly, and cannot live in joy rightly without a healthy appreciation of God's love.

Unfortunately, our generation has given God's love a bad name by improper emphasis, even as previous generations gave His severity a bad name.

Part of being properly Biblically balanced is correcting existing imbalances. Let us return to a proper emphasis of God's holiness, awed as the angels are by the One who is thoroughly "set apart" (root meaning of holiness) from His creation.

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Psalm 93:5

Your testimonies are very sure ...

Psalm 93 can be viewed as a study in sturdiness.

The psalm began with a comparison of earth's and Heaven's durability:

Psalm 93:1, 2 Jehovah reigns! He is clothed with majesty; Jehovah is clothed with strength; He girded Himself; and the world is established; it shall not be shaken. Your throne is established from then; You are from everlasting.

Heaven's stability is seen as the basis for the earth's. God's antiquity is compared to the earth's. He has been in charge all the time the earth has stood.

The psalmist uses one particular example of earth's strength. He uses the power of the oceans to show how robust earth is as a permanent dwelling:

Psalm 93:3, 4 The floods have lifted up, Jehovah, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Jehovah on high is mighty.

And God is yet mightier than the overwhelming seas.

Surprisingly, after these tit for tat comparisons of raw power, the psalmist ends with the affirmation of God's permanence listed in the box at the head of our devotion:

Psalm 93:5 Your testimonies are very sure. Holiness adorns your house, Jehovah, forevermore.

The floods were the example of the earth's power. God's testimonies are offered as His answering stability. God's words are more foundational to the universe than any law of physics or binding force such as gravity! Whatever holds all the galaxies together and organizes them in relation to one another, God's testimonies are yet more essential to the fabric of the cosmos.

Jesus demonstrated this order of strength when He spoke down the raging wind and waves.

The stability of God's throne first, then the stability of His testimonies.

These set us up for the psalmist's ending. Now we can see how holiness is the proper adornment of God's house. When His saints meet, God's undergirding solidity should be the foundation of their souls. He rules; He has spoken as ruler. His words will come to pass. When saints leave their meeting with its special presence of God, they should take with them an awareness of God's firmness as the bedrock of their lives.

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Psalm 93:5

Your testimonies have been very steadfast.

Holiness is lovely for your house,

O Jehovah, for length of days!

God's testimonies are more stabilizing than any force in the universe. It is God's decree, in fact, which holds all things together.

That is why it is good for God's house to be adorned with holiness. It is where we 'set ourselves apart' to worship the One who serves as the foundation and glue for us and our world.

In the psalmist's day, one immediately thought of the Temple when God's house was mentioned. In our day, we are told to turn our thoughts elsewhere in reference to God's house:

1 Timothy 3:15 But if I delay, that you may know how to behave in the house of God, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

The house of God is equated to a gathering. Therefore, if a gathering of believers meets in the woods (which is not uncommon in countries where the body of Christ is persecuted), that is where the house of God is- or we might sayone manifestation of the house of God. Any local church (Gk. 'ekklesia'- called out ones) is part of the universal Church. Any smaller assembly of saints is part of the larger of assembly of all the saints on earth and in Heaven.

In the psalmist's day, he could picture priests in Divinely specified clothing working with Divinely ordained utensils going through Divinely decreed activities in the Temple day after day, year after year. This was according to the pattern of the Temple in Heaven (Heb. 8:5), from which Temple we see various ministries in the book of Revelation.

The earthly Temple service, as a picture of the Heavenly Temple and the everlasting sacrifice and priesthood of Christ, was 'dripping' with holiness, so to speak.

When Christians enter corporate worship, it is not a less holy atmosphere, but a more holy one:

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ did not enter into the Holy of Holies made by hands, types of the true things, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf

The Temple was only the foreshadowing. We are dealing with the reality. The priests had the benefit of sight. We have the 'advantage' of faith. That is, we do not have the temptation of confusing symbols with realities. That is the dreadful error of Roman Catholic and similar worship. It returns to symbol, borrowing from Old Covenant priestly rig. Does not a return to symbol deny reality? That's what Hebrews is warning about.

But, whereas Christian worship form does not confuse symbols with reality, we certainly may mistake invisible for 'free-form'. It is a mistake we can barely avoid making if we do not conceive of God, Heaven, holiness, and the Church properly.

If God deals with us according to our present conceptions of these, then there is not much interaction between Heaven and earth in our day. God looks down and sees something more akin to a circus (on the one hand) or a business meeting (on the other) than a 'dripping-with-holiness' assemblage. It seems that we cannot put ourselves into the right frame of mind without having symbols pushed right against our faces. The most recent simulation of holiness is obtaining the 'feeling' of worship by heartfelt singing, etc. This, however, easily sidesteps holiness by emphasizing "Listen to us!" over "We're listening to You."

True holiness is fitting and pleasant for God's house.

Do we bring a proper reverence to the assembly of the saints? Only thus can we walk away into our daily service and 'living sacrifice' with a proper reverence.

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Hebrews 5:4

And no one takes the honor to himself,

but he being called by God,

even as Aaron was also.

There are two types of leaders in the Church.

One type of leader is the one God calls to leadership.

The other type is the one who leads because others follow.

Of course, one whom God has called should also be one whom people follow; BUT that is the point. There are both those who are not called by God, yet who are being followed; and there are those called by God who are not being followed.

Now there are those who have not been given a leadership gift by God in the church- a teaching gift- who should nevertheless exercise a certain amount of leadership; leadership in support of the teaching leadership. Their natural leadership gifts invite people to follow them. These type of people can make things much easier on the leaders who have the teaching gifts.

The difficulty comes when the 'natural born' leaders lead men away from the ordained leaders. As often as not, even the God-ordained (gifted) leaders advance this dilemma by assuming that natural born leaders are also gifted by God.

The Church has to draw a careful line between a test for new leaders that is too rigorous and no test at all- just assuming that someone with a silver tongue and a quick wit can therefore mine the precious ores from Scriptures which the body of Christ needs.

In our day, there are bound to be those with teaching gifts who have been overlooked, because the ideal model of a leader in churches is now a natural-born 'people manager' who can give a nice Bible talk. As far as sermons go- deep is bad, simple is good, and engaging is a requirement. The real teachers assume that they are not leadership material.

Even when we find real teachers, we handcuff them with homiletic (preaching) rules that discourage their delving into holy writ.

What will reverse this trend? On a large scale, perhaps nothing, at least until the current trend shows its bankruptcy.

Paul told pastors to continue to preach the right way even when the Church became basically gratification-oriented (2 Tim. 4:2 - 4).

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Colossians 3:2

Carefully consider things that are above,

not things that are on earth.

The kingdom of Heaven on earth prospers by looking to its roots.

Its roots are in Heaven.

This makes for a bit of a topsy-turvy perspective, but it is the only perspective we can profitably have. A Christian, a member of the kingdom of Heaven, must look to his roots in Heaven.

Those who have this perspective should never be accused of "being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good," for their heavenly-mindedness is one which presses duty to mankind upon them. It is just that, invisible to their neighbors' eyes, they are carrying out love to neighbor with their minds on Christ, their Lord and Savior in Heaven. Jesus, from His Father's throne, is the one urging them moment by moment to go and do as He did.

How do we develop this perspective?

It begins by seeking God in prayer first thing daily. Prayer is not successful which does not bring us into His presence (unless the success is in revealing an obstacle in our relationship- an undealt-with sin, perhaps. Also, God does sometimes test us by withdrawing the felt sense of His presence, but that in itself does not change whether we have actually come into His presence).

Direct prayer is hard to maintain throughout the day. When we are talking to someone, we cannot be truly concentrating on a prayer to God. Nevertheless, we need never depart from the awareness of His presence. We may not be directly talking to Him every moment, but we can stay in His presence- "walk with Him"- every moment.

What if we don't come into and stay within His presence? Then we are "carefully considering" (Col. 3:2; from a Greek word sometimes translated "mind" and sometimes "care") earth, not Heaven. Read the verse in the box at top again. It's one or the other. Our minds are either preoccupied with earthly things or heavenly. The implication is that if we don't choose to think on heavenly things, our minds will naturally regress to unprofitable earthly things (unprofitable in themselves minus the guidance of heavenly thinking).

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Luke 10:2

Then He was saying to them,

"The harvest truly is plentiful,

but the laborers are few.

Therefore, implore the Lord of the harvest

in order that He shall put forth

laborers into His harvest.

Jesus teaches us to "beg" (so the Greek) God to send workers into His spiritual harvest.

Notice that we are not to ask God to send 'experts'.

This is not to say that laborers in the harvest- missionaries, preachers, Bible translators, church planters, witnessers, etc.- should not be experts. The point is that whomever God sends, they need to be laborers first and foremost. There may be others who have the brains and talent to accomplish much more but who do not have the work ethic for it. Those whom we are to beseech God to "thrust out" (literally) into the mission field are those who SEE the work and STICK to it. And of the two, if they lose SIGHT of the work (missing the forest for the trees, perhaps), they still must be those who will PERSEVERE.

The workers we are to pray for are merely those who see God as their boss and the unsaved or undiscipled as the work He gives them.

All Christians, of course, should have worker mentalities both for the work common to us all and for whatever particular work we are called to.

Every Christian, as well, is entrusted with the work of at least occasional witnessing:

1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you

Even the youngest baby Christian can make some kind of defense of the gospel. He can merely say, "Jesus has been so kind and merciful in loving and forgiving me, a sinner."

Those who actually go out into God's harvest fields, either to educate the ignorant or call the unconverted to Christ, should be able to teach a Biblical system of doctrine. This was a minimum requirement Paul held forth:

Acts 20:26, 27 Because of this I testify to you on this day that I am pure from the blood of all. For I did not keep back from declaring to you all the counsel of God.

So the laborers are laborers at both ends. They labor to discover God's mind on the one end, then they labor to explain this to men and disciple them in it on the other.

Jesus said that such laborers are scarce, especially compared to those in need of their labors.

One last observation: It is the work of God to send these men forth. We are to implore God so that He will do the sending forth. It is a simple work on the one hand, requiring mainly a single-minded laborer; but it is too great a work, on the other hand, to thrust men into the work whom God has not sent.

Of course, many (most?) whom God sends see the work as so great that they will have initial objections about going.

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Psalm 95:3

For Jehovah is a great God,

and a great King above all gods.

God is 'in competition' with the gods of the world. He is specifically described as superior to them.

Furthermore, we are to proclaim this God to our neighbors in preference to their own gods !

Psalm 96:3, 4 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all people. For Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

Further still, this is to be part of our daily routine:

Psalm 96:2 Sing to Jehovah; bless His name, bear news of His salvation day by day.

Hey, everybody on earth is talking about something! Why shouldn't we be talking about our God? Only, again, we're not just saying, "Our God is pretty cool. You ought to give Him a try." We're actually saying, "Our God is over your god(s). He's better than your god(s)."

Notice that what we are 'bearing news' of in Ps. 96:2 is "His salvation." We are giving people a message that God is there to deliver them from service to their gods, from slavery to self-gratification.

And why should we do our neighbor the disservice of allowing him to blindly continue following his fake gods. After all:

Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols; but Jehovah made the heavens.

Two things are fairly obvious in light of all this.

1) We're not going to talk about our God if He's really nothing to boast about in our estimation;

2) If we do talk about Him, it's not going to be very convincing if we're not especially enthusiastic about our God.

One last note: we should not be discouraged at non-conversions, for it is still only God that can open blind eyes, however ardent our testimony is.

One note beyond the last note: without an ardent testimony, we are really not bearing witness to reality, for real salvation by the real God is really good news!

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Psalm 96:7

Give to Jehovah,

O families of the people;

give to Jehovah

glory and might.

Consider what we are supposed to give God:

Psalm 96:7, 8 Give to Jehovah, O families of the people;

give to Jehovah glory and might.

Give to Jehovah the glory due His name;

lift up an offering and come into His courts.

Many translations have "ascribe" instead of "give" in these verses, which is fine; but the Hebrew word is just the plain word for give.

Here is what we are supposed to give God:

Give- glory

Give- might

Give- glory due

Lift up- offering

Come- (Bring self)

So with all this list, we are to say, "God, this is Yours, this is Yours, this belongs to You, this I bring to You."

For an efficient, practical American, this might be difficult to do. We find ourselves thinking, "If these things belong to God already, I am accomplishing nothing by saying they belong to Him."

Ah, but by ascribing things to God, we are accomplishing something very important. We are saying that these things do not belong to us or anyone else. As a born idolater, this is just as important for us to declare as it is that glory, for instance, does belong to God.

Are you in the habit of ascribing things to God that are already His? You should be, if you are following the pattern of the psalms, which are given to us as prayer and praise patterns.

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Psalm 96:10

Say among the nations,

"Jehovah reigns!"

and, "The world is established;

it shall not be moved;

He will judge the peoples

with uprightness."

There are three elements in this verse by which we can see that everything is on course for God closing His case against the wicked:

1) Jehovah reigns. Whatever events He schedules, such as an eventual meeting with all men to judge their works and themselves, He is able to bring to pass;

2) The earth is established. Things cannot change around us radically enough to alter God's itinerary. Changes that do occur around us are taken into account in God's already-established course for things;

3) God will judge the peoples. This is a less-used Hebrew word for "judge", its root meaning actually being "to rule", though it is translated by some form of "judge" each of the twenty-four times it is used. Of course, to judge someone is actually to rule them. God is definitely the ultimate judge. He allows some degree of self-rule to His creatures now, though it comes with automatic and quite natural negative consequences. Those who insist on self-rule in favor of submitting to God's rule will nevertheless be over ruled by God.

God will judge the peoples. He steers all events to this judgment. He will close His case against the wicked.

It makes all the difference if we know this. Our contentedness rests largely thereon.

But God, in judging all the peoples, will judge us, too. Our greatest concern should be with how we will fare in God's impartial application of the standard of love (love to God; love to neighbor) to our own lives.

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Psalm 51:3

For I know my transgressions,

And my sin is before me continually.

Modern theology suggests that if we have asked God to forgive us, we have a problem if we do not feel forgiven afterwards. If we still feel guilt, we are told that our faith is insufficient.

Notice that the psalmist confesses an ever-present sin without any apparent sense of distress. It is his sin that is distressing him, not the remembrance of it. That's how it should be. There would be nothing wrong with a shameful remembrance of his sin every day for the rest of his life.

But what if we question our forgiveness?

The modern prescription also covers this scenario. One factor that may be lacking is our forgiveness of ourselves. Ah! That makes sense! God said He forgave me, but I may still feel guilt because I haven't forgiven myself!

Wait a minute. If I am the perpetrator, how can I also be the arbitrator? If I am forgiving me, doesn't that mean that I'm the one who received offense? I thought I was originally the who gave offense with my sin.

Indeed, we have gotten these quite twisted around if we advise men to forgive themselves.

The prescription ought to be completely different. If we don't feel forgiven, we simply haven't put a high enough value on God's forgiveness. If I need to add my forgiveness to His, I have certainly undervalued His.

Furthermore, there are no Scriptural examples of self-forgiveness.

Now it is true that when we sin, we hurt ourselves. You might say that we offend ourselves. But since we are the perpetrator of the crime, we cannot rightly be the forgiver also.

Most of the time, when people feel unforgiven, the problem is that they have not repented. They know in their minds that they are still in the grip of the sin. In this case, they are quite right to feel guilty. A guilty conscience is doing its proper job when we have no real intention of departing our sin.

But if someone gets stuck in 'replay' mode and feels trapped by the remembrance of a misdeed from which they have truly turned away, there is no reason to feel abnormal about that. In fact, a shameful remembrance of my sin is an excellent tool for keeping me fearful of the little monster in me.

Just remember, Psalm 51, in which David is continually replaying the scenes of the crime in his mind, is a psalm which continues and has many other important elements of forgiveness. Shame will not immobilize us if we simply use it as an occasion to confess our sinfulness and cry out to God for His strength and renewal.

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