After the End (1)
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12 NASB
Restore – The king gives a command to the King. Restore. It’s an imperative. hashivah from the verb shuv. Clearly this command goes two ways. David needs God to restore him, but David also needs to return to God. The same verb describe both movements. In this regard, David’s word is not the order of a monarch so much as it is an expression of intensive desire addressed to a recognized superior. King David is in no position to order anything. He is on the verge of losing all that God has given him. So with one last hopeful breath, he utters a final instruction. “Bring me back into Your presence, O God.”
The Gregorian year is 2015. Traditionally, those who follow this calendar view this day as a day of renewal. Vows are taken. Resolutions made. David didn’t follow a calendar that was named for a Pope in 1582, but he did know something very important about renewal dates. Personal renewal begins with the day we humbly beseech the Lord YHVH to reinstate our relationship with Him. That day is today, no matter what calendar you follow. So at the beginning of the Pope’s new year, let’s do what the king of Israel did more than 3000 years ago. Let’s beseech God for His glance in our direction, for His invitation to enter the throne room, for His renewal of our friendship. I can think of nothing more important on this day than following David’s lead.
You might object, “But I haven’t committed adultery. I haven’t conspired to murder. My relationship with God is good. I am enjoying His presence.” Mazel tov. I am thankful for you. You give me hope. I just know myself. I know that Yeshua’s amplification of adultery leaves me guilty. His explanation of the anger-murder connection leaves me in need of forgiveness. In fact, if my goal is to be like Him, I am found wanting in “Oh, so many ways.” I need renewal—today. If you really don’t, then I am so happy for you. I want what you have—unfettered access to the throne of the King, favor in His face, welcome in His words. Keep going in that wonderful relationship that you have because I need to know it is still possible.
Last year I struggled with God. I found myself wrestling next to Jacob, pleading with Moses, abandoned with Job and disconsolate with David. The words of this psalm could have been my words if I had been inspired to write them. My life was wrung out through my own disobedience. David is my spokesman when no other will ask for me. If you knew intimacy with any of those men (or women) of faith, then maybe you can identify with me. And we can plead together to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Welcome to a new year, even if it is the wrong calendar.
Topical Index: restore, shuv, renew, Psalm 51:12
Did bad things happen to you because you were bad.Or were you simply never promised a rose garden?
The speed at which I am able to turn my back to God is, unfortunately, further proof that the stories in the bible are true.
It doesn’t make sense that children of Israel were miraculously delivered from the Egyptian one minute, and then accusing God of trying to kill them in the desert the next minute. However, our own experiences tell us the reality of their doubt.
What a blessing from the LORD who shows us these mirrors in His word.
Come Home
Return to Me
~ Nathan then said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul ~ (2 Samuel 12:7)
Thank you ABBA, for the gift of all the “Nathans” You provide. Amen. We (all) need more Nathans. But LORD, You have given (provided) in Your wisdom and in Your Sovereignty, One who is far superior in every way to any Nathan who ever lived! You have given unto us the Ruach HaKodesh, Your Holy Breath, the Holy Wind, the very Breath of YHWH. One who You have promised will ~ convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment ~. This One has come. This One lives today within the breast of every born from above believer. This One calls to each and every sinner, each wandering sheep, each errant son, – “come home.” Thank You, El Shaddai, our Protector and Provider, our compassionate Father, for One such as this.
Thank You Father for the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, One whom You have sent, One who will teach us all things and will remind us of everything You have said to us. LORD, we confess, we do need constant reminding of all You have said to us, ~ for the law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes..~
And LORD, we confess, we agree in totality and in full surrender, without You, – we can do nothing! But Father, we also have been promised, “We can do all things through the Anointed One,” and “far superior is the One who is in us, than the One who is in the world.” Thank you, holy Father, for the victory that is available unto each of us and all of us through our LORD, the Lamb who was crucified, the One who was buried in a borrowed tomb, and the One who has conquered forever, Death, Sin and the Grave, – our resurrected and now reigning Redeemer, the One who now intercedes for each of us, and the One who is worthy to receive receive all the glory and all the honor and authority, both in Heaven and in the Earth.
And because ~ this is the day which our LORD has made, (therefore) we will remember, and rejoice and be glad in it! ~
~ (Please) Turn, – return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies ~ (Zechariah 1.3)
Help us this day to remember Your everlasting words: ~ if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land ~ (2 Chronicles 7.14)
~ While he (the returning son) was still far away, his Father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to His son, threw His arms around him, and kissed him affectionately ~ (Luke 15.20)
And thank You LORD, for these wonderful words of refreshment and renewal, ~ if any man be *in the Messiah, he (or she) is a newly created being ~
Great are You LORD, and greatly to be praised, – and Your greatness is unsearchable!! Hallelujah! Amen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0MpRVlmq1o
I know all about wrestling with God. I have run from him, raged at him, cursed him to his face, mocked him, denied his existence and flagrantly lived in triumphant celebration of his lack of existence, reluctantly returned to believing that “something or someone” existed but stripping him of his personage, acquiesced that he was indeed the God of the Bible but demanded that he provide an explanation of his erratic behavior to me if he wanted my confidence and trust, “trusted” him in an effort to control and manipulate him, got angry when he didn’t give me what I wanted, told him to stay out of my business if he was just going to mess with my head, and all but given up on him and stopped speaking to him when I couldn’t figure him out like a formula, and employ him in my life like an algorithm.
And I have surrendered to him. I have cried tears at his feet. I have pleaded with him for mercy and felt his comfort. I have stood, open-mouthed in shock and awe as he set a table before me of far more than I ever imagined possible, far more than my own resources would have ever been able to secure. I have asked why he has given me so much, when I deserve nothing. I have been full to bursting with love for him, and aching to feel total communion with him and see his face, even if it consumes me.
I hope never to stray so far from him that I could ever again deny he exists. But the rest of it… I may do over and over in my life as different trials and tests present themselves. As the scum boils up and rises to the top in his fire-refining of me… I may see things in myself I can hardly stomach imagining. He brings all the ugliness in us to the surface so that he can scrape it away for good. He breaks our bones to reset and heal them.
Through it all, he is still here. He has pursued me relentlessly. He has cut me down to a stump to humble me. He has stood back and allowed me to do it myself, without his help, and fail. He has waited patiently through my tantrums and bouts of silence. He has put me in my place in ways that felt harsh but in retrospect, could have been much harsher if he was really the bully I accused him of being. But he is still here. And that’s enough. He hasn’t left me. I need to know for sure that he won’t. And I don’t know how many more ways he could prove that he is still with me. I can’t fathom why, but I am thankful and lean heavy on it.
May God remind you and show you in the coming year that he is with you, Skip. I think we all have seasons of wrestling and struggle, and seasons of peace and rest. May he give you what he knows you need, and may he prepare your heart and hands to receive it.
FROM LUZETTE (who is having trouble posting):
“Last year I struggled with God. I found myself wrestling next to Jacob, pleading with Moses, abandoned with Job and disconsolate with David”.
God, Jacob, Moses, Job, David – not too shabby company you keep! (lol)
Seriously, know that you are not alone. One of my struggles with God is the fact that He wants you,me(the disciples, apostles) to deliver a message, but why on earth do we have to struggle so much to get an audience? Why make it so hard for everyone just to deliver a message – its tough enough to start making choices after hearing the message.
But then let us also be grateful for mercy, repentance, forgiveness, and “paqad”: that things were not as bad as it could have been or even what we really deserve.
And we will plead together!!
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Father, for this community, I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of our understanding being enlightened; that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints