Tag Archives: Spiritual Growth

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Reminded Of God’s Love

When God Uses a Big Dog And A Bigger Man

Every now and then I need to be reminded that God loves me. And sometimes, that reminder needs to be a pretty severe kick in the head. Fortunately, God loves us enough to do just that.

Reminded Of God's Love

A few weeks ago, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with some things going on in my life. I decided to go for a drive to clear my head. I ended up down by a river somewhere south of where I live. I couldn’t tell you what river it was, I have no idea even where I ended up. In fact, I tried to find it again a few days ago and couldn’t. But it was beautiful. And it was just what I needed.

I didn’t plan on stopping but the scenery was beautiful, and the river bank was wide and clear, and looked like it would be a good place for a walk. So I stopped driving and started walking. I hadn’t made it too far when a big, mean looking dog came barreling out of the woods and joined me. He looked like a cross between a German Shepherd, a T-rex, and a grizzly bear. That’s how big he was.

His appearance kind of startled me, but he was a friendly pup, and he joined me as I walked along. It wasn’t long before I found the people he was with. I’m just walking along, and this guy, who owned a big, super-friendly but mean looking dog, who looked to be part grizzly bear himself, was sitting there with his feet in the water with a couple of other people.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:73-76

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

The last couple of stanzas of Psalm 119 have dealt with affliction. But where does this come from? That’s the topic of the tenth stanza, the one that begins with the Hebrew letter yodh. You can see the first half of this stanza in Psalm 119:73-76:

Psalm 119:73-76

The tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is yodh is the smallest of letters, and it takes just a simple stroke of the pen to form. This is probably the letter Jesus had in mind when he stated in Matthew 5:18, that “not the smallest letter, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law.” It is a small letter, and it is the letter that begins this tenth stanza of Psalm 119, but the import of this section of the psalm is by no means small. It may be one of the most significant, especially in this section that deals with affliction.

We will break this stanza into two sections in order to memorize it, but it flows together very tightly as a whole. The past few stanzas have dwelt on the topic of affliction, and have hinted at the source. But right here, the psalmist reveals the source of his affliction, and it is God himself. Look again at verse 75:

I know, O Lord, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

God is the source of the affliction. But before we dig to deeply into that, we need to back up a bit. In the first verse of this stanza, the psalmist speaks of being made and formed. This brings to mind the passage from Jeremiah 1:5, where God states, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Even more so, it brings to mind images from the creation narrative in Genesis 1 and 2, where God created the earth and everything in it.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:69-72

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

The first half of this stanza, in verses 65-88, the psalmist began to examine the goodness of God in the midst of suffering. In this second half, we will see two more examples of God’s goodness. Take at look at this passage in Psalm 119:69-72:

Psalm 119:69-72

While this theme of suffering and affliction will carry on through the next two stanzas, this ninth stanza centers the subject properly in the goodness of God. It is impossible to understand affliction properly without understanding, at least as much as possible, the goodness of God. Otherwise, we will fall into hopelessness and despair. Only with a proper perspective of the goodness of God can we see clearly to navigate the badness of a fallen world.

This knowledge of God’s goodness brings us to obey and understand the Word of God. The psalmist stressed obedience to God’s Word in verse 67, and here, in verse 71, he stresses an understanding of Scripture. Those might seem to be be reversed, but in actuality, they are not. What the psalmist is saying here is that his affliction caused him to turn to God’s Word, and to obey it. As he read and studied it, it led to a deeper and more full understanding of it, which in turn led to a more complete obedience. It’s an ever deepening cycle.

In the first half of this passage, the psalmist used the word “good” in three separate statements, revealing that God uses our sufferings to our own benefit because of his goodness. In this passage, we find two more of these statements in verses 71 and 72.

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The Birth Of Jesus

Matthew 1:18-25

Perhaps what Matthew chapter one is most known for is the account of the birth of Jesus that it contains. Matthew gives us a perspective that is a bit different than that of Luke, and he provides some details that are worth taking a look at, even though we may be very familiar with this Christmas story.

The Birth Of Jesus

The birth narrative is one of those biblical events that we have become overly familiar with, since we hear it every year around Christmas. As a result, we often gloss over it when we read the Bible, thinking we’ve heard it all. And when we do that, we miss some things that are worth looking at a little more deeply.

In verse 18, Matthew writes, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ…” The word rendered here “birth” is the same in Greek that is translated “genealogy” in verse 1. This is the finishing statement of the genealogy given in the preceding verses, and is the point of the whole chapter. This event is worth taking the time to consider fully and deeply, with reverence and awe. The birth of any child is a wonderful occurrence, but the birth of Jesus is nothing short of a miracle.

Matthew shares the details of the engagement between Mary and Joseph. In Jewish culture, couples were engaged ten to twelve months prior to marriage. So sacred was the engagement that it could only be broken by divorce. Mary and Joseph were engaged, not married. Such a relationship was, from patriarchal times, a formal ceremony (see Genesis 24-25, the servant’s search for Rebekah, Isaac’s wife). It was regarded a binding obligation. Unfaithfulness in engagement was punishable by death (Deuteronomy 22:23-28; Leviticus 20:10).

However, Matthew adds a complicated wrinkle to the narrative. Mary is pregnant, and the two are not yet married. Both Matthew and Luke were careful to mention his miraculous conception (Luke 1:26, 34). This is a critical piece of information, because Christ’s physical nature was “begotten” by the Holy Spirit. Christ is the only example of such a birth in all of history. His birth, like his life and his resurrection, was a miracle. Mary, for the first three months following her visit by the angel to give her this news, was away at Elizabeth’s home (Luke 1:36). It was when she returned to Nazareth that Joseph learned of these circumstances. It must have been devastating to him.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:65-68

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

The next three stanzas of Psalm 119, found in verses 65-88, deal with suffering and affliction and persecution. And yet, this first section is perhaps one of the most comforting passages in all of Scripture. Take a look at these verses in Psalm 119:65-68:

Psalm 119:65-68

In this world there is a lot of pain and suffering. It’s a consequence of the Fall, and we cannot escape it. That has led many to question why, and even further, to question why God would allow such suffering, and even questioning whether or not God exists. While those are legitimate questions, they fail to account for the totality of what Scripture teaches. There is a purpose to suffering, as difficult as it may be.

There are several reasons why suffering exists. This is a deep and probing questions, and not one that can be answered adequately in a few brief words here. First, as mentioned, it is a result of sin and the Fall. It simply happens. We live in a broken world, and it will not be fixed until that day when Jesus returns and it is created anew.

Second, suffering can be instructive. We can learn more about ourselves and how we are to grow in our character and Christlikeness. In Romans 5:3-4, Paul tells us that “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” We can rest assured that we can grow through such times.

Third, there is suffering where the only purpose may be to bring God glory through it. In John 9, the man born blind suffered in this way for the purpose of revealing the glory of God when he was healed. We long to attribute such suffering to sin, or something we have done wrong, but Jesus clearly denied that idea in this case.

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Memorize Scripture: Psalm 119:61-64

Hiding God’s Word In Our Hearts

In the previous verses, the psalmist has been seeking God’s presence in his life, so that he may understand and know God as fully as he can. He listed three ways to do this. In the remainder of this stanza, he lists three more ways. Take a look at these verses in Psalm 119:61-64:

Psalm 119:61-64

In the four verses that began this stanza, the psalmist showed three ways that he had discovered to help him understand God better, and he found these, and God himself, by searching the Word of God. He committed to seek God face (verse 58), follow God’s statutes (verse 59), and obey God’s commands (verse 60).

These three things, and the additional three we will see in this passage, show us how we can get to know the author of Scripture in a very close and personal way. After all, this is what the psalmist is pursuing, and it is what we should be pursuing as well. I stated this before, and it is worth repeating: The main purpose for a careful study of God’s Word is to get to know God himself. One can know everything there is to know about God and about his Word, but if he does not know God himself, he has missed the point. Scripture was given to us so that we can know its author, the author of life itself, as intimately as we can.

As the psalmist is seeking his portion, his “share” of God, he has realized that nothing short of God himself will suffice. What he wants from God… is God. And the place to which he turns to find God is Scripture. In the remainder of this stanza, he shares three more ways that he seeks and pursues the Father. This is what we ought to do as well.

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The Family Tree Of Jesus

Matthew 1:2-17

One of the very first things that Matthew does in his account of the life of Jesus is to trace his heritage back to Abraham, through a listing of the line, or genealogy, of Jesus. And while many simply skim these verses, or skip them all together, there are some critical elements here that can help us understand the gospel of Matthew much more clearly.

The Family Tree Of Jesus - Matthew 1:2-17

Two of the four Gospels contain genealogies, Luke and Matthew. Luke 3:23-38 was written for Gentiles, and goes all the way back to Adam. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, and Jewish history begins with Abraham. Some see this as contradictory, but it is not; the two lists were written for completely different purposes and completely different audiences. And typically, genealogies are focused on the first name of the list. Matthew reverses that trend and makes the focus the last name, the name of Jesus Christ.

He begins with Abraham. God had promised Abraham that through his seed all the world would be blessed in Genesis 22:18: “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

So Matthew begins with Abraham and traces the lineage of Jesus down through the ages, naming some of the greatest of the ancestors of Jesus, Abraham and David. Both of these important people had received promises from God that the Messiah would be their descendant. This may or may not be a complete listing of the lineage of Jesus. Some generations may have been skipped or condensed in order to fit a pattern, or to summarize a series of generations. Either way, Matthew gives forty-two generations in three groups of fourteen each. They cover 2000 years: the first group covers 1000 years; the second covers 400 years; and the third group covers 600 years of time.

Matthew seems to count David twice, first as a patriarch, and second as one of the kings. It could be argued that David could fit into either category, and Matthew inserts him into both, as sort of a bridge between the two, and as recognition of David’s critical importance as part of Israel’s history.