FreshBread

David continues his prayer of confession in Psalm 51:

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
A few weeks ago we spoke about Biblical Confession and that it always has 3 audiences. The first is YOURSELF! You see if we do not first admit to ourselves that we have chosen sin, that our actions have been hurtful to others, that we have done or said things that do not exemplify “God’s Glory my Goal” we will never confess our sins to God. O many people “throw up a token”, forgive me for my sin, while they continue to tell themselves that their greed, hatred, anger, harsh words, controlling behavior are justified. Often we find people or even biblical texts to mask and justify our sinful behavior. Thus, we have never admitted our sin to ourselves. Stand before the mirror today and pray…..Search me O God, show me the reality of my heart! Let me see if there is any offensive way in me….so that I may live a Kingdom Life today!

Have a wonderful day and we will talk in the AM.

Good Morning Friends,
A Broken Spirit is the heart of the Kingdom Life. Jesus taught, “blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” There is a difference between living a broken life and living with a broken Spirit. People who live with a “broken Life” are usually angry, frustrated, blaming others, or they retreat to the self pity “hole”. In a much different way a broken spirit is characterized by humility, love, grace and mercy. David reminds us that it is a broken spirit that is the also the heart of Confession! In Psalm 51:17 David says: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” What does your spirit reveal?
David starts his prayer of confession with these words:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
MERCY……God holds that which we deserve from us. David knew that he deserved to be abandoned by God, or even die. He called on God to hold from him that which he deserved.
Think about this for a moment, the apostle Paul calls us to be imitators of God! We are to be people of Mercy, we are to be people of Love, people of compassion, forgiving the transgressions of people against us. This is the heart of the Kingdom Life, this is the life that is lived with a Broken Spirit. REMEMBER God is walking with you today…..Show Him Off! Have a great day!
Scott

Good Morning Friends,
We started an interesting journey on Sunday morning in Exodus 32! Moses and God had a very spirited discussion on Mt. Sinai. God told Moses he would wipe his people out and start over with Moses, but Moses challenged this action of God and the scripture tells us that GOD RELENTED. He chose not to do what he told Moses he was going to do.
Let’s stop there for a moment and wrestle with this question. Can God change his mind? Can a challenge from a man like Moses get God to change his mind? Many times Hebrews 13:8 is used to “prove” that God never changes:
7Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
As you can see, the writer (who is writing to the HEBREWS) is talking about remembering their leaders and imitating their faith. This is followed by the verse that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow. This verse is not a proof text of the fact that God does not change, it is reminding the HEBREWS that Jesus does not change, he was a Hebrew and remains a Hebrew. The faith of their leaders was following the HEBREW JESUS and they should follow him too.
There are several places in scripture where God seems to change his mind. I say “seems” because I am not sure that God’s mind is changed at all…..but what does change is the action that he will use to carry out his glory. God’s character never changes, He is righteous and holy. For him to wipe out the people would have been righteous and holy, but for him to choose to minister to them through Moses was righteous and holy.
As we mentioned Sunday morning, there are three things in scripture that “seem” to change the mind of God. The first is intersession as we have illustrated in this passage. The second is repentance. As sinners we deserve death, but with repentance God “changes his mind” and bestows on us grace and mercy. And the final way that we see change in God’s action is due to the compassion of God.
The story gets more troubling from here however. We will continue to look at this tomorrow. Let me start you thinking with a question: What method do you think that God used to communicate with Moses?
See you in the AM!
Scott