A Study Through Romans Leads Me To...

...Psalm 51.
I mentioned it in my blog from yesterday.

I don't know why, but I hadn't really realized that David wrote this Psalm after being confronted about his adultery with Bathsheba. Knowing this makes this Ps, and particularly vs.' 10-12, alive to me in a way it was not before.

This Psalm begins with David repenting over his sin with Bathsheba, and vs.' 10-12 read like this:

" Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence,

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit." (Psalm 51:10-12 ESV)

I've always remembered this passage whenever I'm not experiencing joy over my salvation, and I pray these words of David whenever I'm in that place. But now, I see why David was praying it.

I think that what happened to David, one whom God Himself referred to as a man after His own heart, was that he found he ended up where he was, in his sin and the trough of its consequences, because he had allowed his flesh to slowly take over and invade his love for the Father.

Pastor Matt Chandler (in so many words) asked this question in his Philippians DVD study, 'What robs you of your affections for Christ?' What he means is, what: things, people, shows, and activities, whether they are sinful or not, get in and distract you from loving God? For me, the answer would be: idolatry of food and sleep (and there are others. There are ones that are not sinful in any way, but I'm just sharing these for now). My flesh LOVES to find its refreshment in both of these things. My gluttony for sleeping in wants me to forfeit devotional time in the morning. My idolatry of food wants to keep my focus wrapped up in it all day long, turning to it when I feel stressed.

What is scary is that I imagine David, not a super human, but indeed a godly man, did not see and recognize the things that were discreetly creeping in and robbing him of his affections for his God.

Consider this: when do you figure you have begun letting the desires of your flesh win out on the desires of the Spirit living in you? It is not when you are keeping in step with the Spirit, is it? No. It is when we are not keeping in step with the Spirit. It is when we look to the things of the world to satisfy us, instead of Jesus.

Whatever it was for David, whether it was pride, worry, love for women, fear of displeasing man, or whatever else a king and a man might struggle with, he forfeited pressing forward and neglected the necessary nurturing that keeps up our affections for God.

Can't you hear it in his words? The man is broken over what he has done!

"Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight..." (Psalm 51:4a ESV)

This man LOVES the Father. He is heart broken over what he has done, and I would venture to say, as well as where his heart has been before this encounter with Bathsheba.

• Create in me a new heart... - because for awhile, my heart has not been in the right place.
• Renew a right spirit with in me... - because the spirit I've been choosing to live by, the one I've been allowing to govern my steps, is not of you.
• Restore to me the joy of Your salvation... - because I've forgotten from how much I have been saved.
• Uphold me with a willing spirit.... - because I know I will fail again, but if You do all the previous things I've asked, then I know You will do this too. I can't make myself willing on my own, You must birth that spirit with in me.

I take for granted God's protection over my family and I when I'm allowing my affections to be drawn away from Christ, and instead, drawn to things of this world. I never consider how if I continue on that path, I am really choosing the same path David did, the one that lead him to his sin with Bathsheba. Of course that might not be where my path would lead, [ie., into the arms of another lover], but there is a dark place that I know I could get to, even though I am redeemed, even though I've been a Christian for well over 10 years, even though I'm married to another believer and am active in a solid christian fellowship...even though all of those are true, I am not immune to the enticements of this world. There is a reason Paul said, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Galatians 5:16 ESV) and, "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted." (Galatians 6:1 ESV). We LOVE sin. We hate it in our minds, our minds that have been set on the things of the Spirit, but our flesh loves it.

David loved the Lord with his heart and mind, but his flesh loved itself and what brought it pleasure.

I am the same as he.

You are the same as us.

Let us keep a watchful eye for those things that would steal away our affections from God.

To close, here is an awesome illustration that was shared with me, taken from the example of Lot.

"So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord." (Genesis 13:11-13 ESV)
Lot choose the lush Jordan valley, (nothing wrong with that), but then he settled in the cities of the area, and we see the progression of his heart moving away from God. Until Lot eventually sets up his home in the place of Sodom, a place where the people sinned greatly against God.

We can begin like Lot (did you know that Jesus refers to him as "righteous Lot"?), and end up finding ourselves in amazingly difficult situations that we never thought we could get ourselves into. The only way to safe guard ourselves, is to watch out. Our flesh will always want to please itself, and what pleases it are the things that displease God.

I mentioned it yesterday, I'll mention it again. I love to pray David's heart filled prayer. Until today I hadn't realized just how much personal sorrow was in his prayer, but even for everyday living, before really getting going into the day, his prayer is one that is good to pray.

I am so very close to forsaking my God for pursuit of my own pleasures...

...when I'm not keeping in step with the Spirit.

The Day of My Adoption, and a process

The Day Of My Adoption,

and a process                                  

~ Ephesians 1:5; the beginning was being predestined.  The actual process of being adopted took place after both the predestination and calling. 

~ Galatians 4:5-7 & Romans 8:23:

It seems most appropriate to refer to ‘that day’ [ie.; the day of our personal salvation] as the day God adopted us, and not the day we ‘received Jesus’ as our savior.

~ I have wrestled a long time with the today’s usage of the words ‘received’ and ‘accepted’, when referring to my salvation. 

~ ‘Adopted’ is actually biblical (where I don’t know that the previous two terms are).

God called me to be His daughter, but it wasn’t at that point in time that I would have been considered redeemed.  The day that God choose to call me was well before I was born, well before I was even conceived; “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4c-6, ESV). 

         This verse tells me two things right away:

1)   Jesus wasn’t plan B to saving the human race (important fact to know).

2)   He was already planning on adopting me well before I was alive.

So in light of these verses, where was there ever any room for me to ‘receive’ or ‘accept’ Jesus as my savior?  It seems evident that the only reason I am saved/redeemed/adopted, is because of God’s glorious grace.  In accordance with His pleasure and will (that is how NIV translates “according to the purpose of his will”), I have been adopted – its all about Him! 

God predestined me to be adopted; the Father sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross and make a way for my adoption (and that of others who are also predestined); Jesus is the one who said ‘It is finished’ and He gave up His last breath; He called my name; He put with in me the Spirit to guide and direct me.  To sum it all up: He predestined, He called, He justified, He is sanctifying, and He will glorify myself with Him in heaven. (scripture references: Ephesians 1:4-7, Romans 6:19, 8:23,30)

There was a day when God called my name.  I don’t know what day that was, but I do know that I was a little girl.  I know that He had been wooing me for a little while, slowly winning my heart to Him (which now that I am an adult, I can look back and see that He fulfilled Romans 2:4, “the kindness of God leads you to repentance” [NASB]), until the day that my adoption took place. 

As a pre-teen and teenager the world looked enticing, and I started to play games with it, trying to turn my back to my first love: God.  However, I always knew that I was saved. 

Then came the day that God ‘got a hold of my attention again’.  The bible says that He is a jealous God.  The time had come, and He was bringing my heart back to His. 

So why is it so important to think of my salvation as adoption and not an acceptance of Jesus?  Well for many reasons, but here is just one of them.  Because I know I’ve been adopted, I am overwhelming grateful for God choosing me.  I know He didn’t choose me because of me, but because He wanted to; He has some purpose(s) in mind for how I would bring Him glory.  This is all extremely humbling and puts my perception of myself in the right place: I’m just a sinner saved by grace.  I am free to look at my salvation as a gift, completely and utterly underserved, because I did nothing to obtain it.  I know others would strongly disagree with me on that, but is this not the truth found in scripture?  Read it for yourself.

When I think of salvation, in light of these words that describe the process of having it [ie.; predestined, called, adopted], I’m lead to leave you with this final thought- in the form of a question:

Are you called?

Is God ‘wooing’ you?

If yes, what is holding you back?

Have you already been adopted? 

Are you overjoyed by this (because you should be!)?

Whether you are full of joy in light of this fact or not, thank him, right now, genuinely.  If you find yourself struggling to have genuine gratitude, ask Him to give that to you.  David did pray, “Return to me the joy of your salvation”…I pray this all the time too.  It’s ok to be honest with God and pray this for yourself. [Look at the verse in context; Psalms 51:10-12.  Pray through it for yourself]