Psalm 145:4

Talk about getting a full dose from one Psalm. Psalm 145 is packed so full of good stuff that my mind was jumping from one line to the next and just trying to keep up this morning! I want to unpack a single verse of the Psalm that really got my attention.

Psalm 145:4

"One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts."

If you have kids, and you are a Christian, I'm willing to bet that you have read at least one Christian parenting book. There are lots of good ones out there. Some better than others. And maybe this idea that I'm about to explore has already been written about extensively and I have just managed to miss it somehow. I'll admit that my husband is the avid reader in this household. I'm an obsessive reader, which means that I am practically unable to put down a book once I have started it. This causes all sorts of problems, so I save my reading for blocks of time when I can really indulge. If you have preschoolers like I do, you know that those blocks of time are few and faaaaar between. Anyhoo...

I'll be blunt. One of God's mighty acts has been redeeming me from the pit of destruction. If you are a Christian, you should be able to say the same thing. Now, we've all been pulled out of slightly different looking pits, but the bottom line is that all of our pits involved the biggest sin of all--loving self more than loving God. (Matthew 22:37)

On top of that most egregious sin, we have each managed to heap up all sorts of muck, mire and slime that God had to pull us out of. (Psalm 40:2) For some of us, the muck is harder to see outwardly, but you can bet it has manifested itself in our hearts. For others, well, they may never get to the point where their public sins are completely forgotten by those around them.

But, whether our sins are in our heart or in our actions, we have this cultural pressure to hide them away and never speak of them again. Why is that? I know that there must be a healthy balance between declaring the mighty acts of God versus pulling out our filth for the whole world to gawk at. And specifically, I wonder if we should be more open and honest with our children.

Psalm 145:4 is specifically talking about generations. One generation praising God's work to the next generation. Naturally that includes all of the famous mighty works, the stories in the Bible. But there are mighty works that are personal to our families--the change that God has brought about in each of us because of His great power to change, restore, redeem and recreate. And that makes me wonder if our cultural tendency to present ourselves as untarnished pillars of righteousness (particularly to our children) is perhaps misplaced?

I'm not talking about glorifying our sin. And I certainly realize that every disclosure and interaction with our children MUST be age appropriate. But isn't there a way to declare the mighty acts of God in our lives to our children without stepping over that line?

I don't know the whole answer here. My kids are still little ones. Some of you have raised up children that have gone on to start their own family. What do you think?

**If you don't have kids, this concept can still apply to you in the way you interact with fellow believers and the world at large.

Boy, Have I Been There!

Deuteronomy 29:19

"and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, "I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart"--as though the drunkard could be included with the sober."

The last part of that verse is translated several different ways, depending on which translation you have, but it is the first part of that verse that strikes home with me.

This verses catches perfectly the way I lived most of my youth and young adult life. Hiding inside the community of God's covenant people, but saying in my heart, I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart.

How arrogant and foolish!

Don't miss that this foolish person blesses himself. I can relate! I blessed myself every day of my life, with every thought, every action, every motivation, and every outward obedience. It was all about me blessing myself in my own heart. I think that is a great description of a Pharisee. A person who blesses himself in his heart, all the while following the dictates of his own heart, not the commands of the LORD.

And lest we forget, Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us of what we need to know about our own hearts, apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?"

If you go and read the Deuteronomy verse in it's context, it becomes even more powerful. Moses has just finished recounting to the Israelites the blessings of obedience, and the curses of disobedience. The section that covers the curses of disobedience is not for the fainthearted. It's pretty hard core stuff. (Maybe if you have never read if for yourself, this will sufficiently peak your curiosity enough to send you to your Bible! I highly recommend it!)

I keep trying to do a quick reading of the Old Testament, because I have never read through the whole thing before. My problem is that I keep finding things that are so interesting, I have to stop and think and look up all the cross references. At this rate it is going to take me years to get through the Bible cover to cover! Oh well, at least it will be time and effort well spent. I can't begin to tell you all of the amazing things I have discovered for myself. Only a fraction of it ends up on this blog. I'm only sorry that I didn't start this process sooner!

Just One Me

I got a new purse today.

Don't worry, I promise I am going somewhere good with this, just give me a little while to explain. I found a great purse online last week, and it was marked more than half off! Unable to resist such a good deal, I ordered it and have been anxiously awaiting its arrival. It came today at lunch time. I quickly opened the box, removed all of the packaging material and admired my beautiful new purse, all the while congratulating myself on what a steal it was.

Then I saw something sitting in my cubby that got me thinking. My cubby, by the way, is that spot where all of my purses, diaper bags, folders, and kid's backpacks end up when I come into the house. I'm sure you have one too. Unless you are much better organized than I am. In which case, just pretend with me a moment.

Sitting underneath all of the things accumulated in my cubby was a beautiful black leather purse that I have only used one time. Here's the thing; that beautiful black leather purse is a Chanel knockoff that I bought while I was on vacation in NYC this summer. And I hate it. I am too ashamed to carry it. I don't even know why I got it to begin with. I have never in my life wanted a Chanel purse. Even if I could easily afford to buy one, I don't think I would enjoy spending that much money on a bag. I know myself too well. In a few months, I would be tired of it and want something new, no matter how much I had paid for it.

I was excited about it the day I purchased it. But that didn't last very long. On the plane ride home, I saw a group of high-school aged girls all carrying huge "Chanel" purses. It struck me as very vulgar. Then I got home and read an article online about how knockoffs were stealing the intellectual property of someone. Then I "remembered" that knockoffs are in fact illegal and they probably support some underground businesses that I would want nothing to do with. So, suffice it to say, I did not find that "something-for-nothing" deal from Chinatown quite so attractive anymore.

And then it got worse. Suppose someone actually thought it was real. Did I really want anyone to think that I cared about designer labels and status symbols so much that I would spend thousands of dollars on a bag? Um, no.

Don't get me wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying nice things if you can afford them. And there is nothing wrong with having a lot of money. There are plenty of people in the Bible that God blessed with great material wealth: Abraham, Job and Solomon were all very wealthy men.

But I knew that the purse was a fake. And it made me feel cheap and fake to carry it. So I had to decide which was worse; wasting the purse by not carrying it at all, or carrying it and feeling guilty about it. Great choices.

And it illustrated a point that is very relevant to me right now, and I hope is either relevant to you or will be at some point. I have spent a lot of my life pretending to be someone that I am not. I grew up in the church. For much of my life there were two of me, the churchy me and the real me. The churchy me was the persona that I presented to the world when it suited my purposes. The real me was the person that I really was in my heart. She was not a pretty picture. She was full of things like rebellion, jealousy, bitterness, anger, guilt, shame and hatred. But despite being full of these things, she looked pretty good to most of the world. Upon very close inspection, she would not have fooled a person who knew what the real thing looked like. Much like a fake name-brand purse.

But God loved me too much to let me continue my life as a fake. He knew that when He got to work on my angry rebellious heart, He could transform it. And He has. I can say with conviction that the person I now present to the world is the real me, because there is just one me. That is part of the beauty of being filled by God and His mighty grace. I now have the freedom to be who I really am. It is so much more fun to rest in His approval and love, than to try and dash after those things by pleasing the people around me.

So I am going to carry around the real purse that I bought on sale with great satisfaction and pride. And as it would happen, I found a darling college student who works in the nursery at church who said she would love to have the fake Chanel. Hopefully she doesn't have the baggage that I have to go along with it. Pun intended.

Matthew 23:27-28

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

Psalm 86: 11-13

"Teach me you way, O LORD;
I will walk in Your Truth;
Unite my heart to fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart,
And I will glorify Your name forevermore.
For great is your mercy towards me,
And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol."

Psalm 130: 3-8

"If You, Lord, should mark my iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You
That You may be feared.

I will wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning--
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the LORD;
For with the LORD there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities."

Amen.