IN HIS HOUSE FOREVER

 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me….
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
(Excerpts from Psalm 23 NKJV)

We [live] and will continue to [live] because it pleases God. He sees that it is good. This is how the Twenty-third Psalm is to be understood. “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death,” death looming over me, “I fear no evil!” How, really, can this be? It is not a frightened person whistling in the dark. It is experience-based knowledge of the reality of God’s rod (protection) and staff (correction) that comfort me. “His goodness and mercy dog my steps through the days of my life, and I shall reside in His house forever.” How does the psalmist know this? Because He knows God. He knows Him in regular interactions in the real world. Those interactions show who God is and what God, therefore, will certainly do! That is what the Twenty-third Psalm says. 

-- Dallas Willard in “The Divine Conspiracy”

#5270

NOT MERELY A SACRED BOOK

“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”  (2 Timothy 3:16 NRSV)

In most parts of the Bible, everything is implicitly or explicitly introduced with "Thus says the Lord".  It is... not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite -- it excludes or repels -- the merely aesthetic approach.  You can read it as literature only by a tour de force...  It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long, except to those who go to it for something quite different. 

-- C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “They Asked for a Paper” 

#5170

SPIRITUAL JUNK FOOD

“These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm -- shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted -- twice dead.”  (Jude 12 NIV)

Godless men had slipped into the church, misleading the [congregation], seducing them to believe they could continue to sin and never receive God’s correction. Jude called these false teachers “shepherds who feed only themselves.”

Can you imagine a shepherd sitting on a barren hill, hungry animals all around him, enjoying his lunch? The baas and bleating would be almost deafening. He’d have to care for them.

Unlike sheep, people who fall in with wrong teaching rarely recognize the emptiness of what they’re taking in. Instead, they keep following, filling their hearts with useless calories of spiritual junk food, never understanding that they’re barely being fed after all.

Don’t follow these teachers. They’re here today, gone tomorrow. Nothing they do can last, because they aren’t founded on the bedrock of God’s Word.

-- Toni Sortor and Pamela McQuade in “God’s Word for Surviving the Real World”


#4585

NEEDING CORRECTION FROM GOD

"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.  It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do."  (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT)

God's Word does not always fall in line with our own desires. Paul speaks of people who go astray "to suit their own desires" (2 Timothy 4:3). We are immature if we think we, as Christians, will always be happy and joyous with every message from God. Rather, we must admit that sometimes our ego and feelings get hurt. We must acknowledge that we too need correction from God and that as we study His Word our desires may have to change.

-- Pastor Gary Stone


#4231

THE DESIRE TO DO THE CORRECT THING

"And Jesus said to her, 'Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.'" (John 8:11 NKJV)

We should not condone sinful behavior any more than Jesus approved of the activities of the woman at the well or the woman caught in adultery.  But Jesus focused more on connection than correction.  He knew that when the connection grew strong, so would the desire to do the correct thing. 

-- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton in More Jesus, Less Religion

#2977