The Phil Files

I don’t know about you, but my world is a little wild, crazy, and filled with ragged edges. It’s a Ketchup Friday — not the condiment, I’m just trying to catch up on everything — and we are trying to make sure Mothers’ Day comes off in a way that honors our mothers, plus I want Donna (my wife) properly honored, too!

I have often wondered if I was going to be able to hold it together during times of stress. For me, I began to unravel about Tuesday. By Thursday, my body was sending pretty strong signals I had ignored the basics of rest and exercise and had violated the max caffeine limit. I had spent too much time being busy and not enough time being still, yielded, and in touch with Jesus.

As so often happens when I have a “come to Jesus” meeting with Jesus, He shows me my mis-deeds and mis-judgments, affirms His love for me, and sends me a clear a message. That’s when a special email from a friend reminded me of a truth I have known for years and an illustration of this truth that heard months previous: Jesus is what holds it all together. While Colossians a great letter to read to get a biblical sense of what this means, the YouTube video you find here helps illustrate it magnificently! (The video really is worth the time!)

So … move beyond the physical laminin to the spiritual one … and remind me to do it, too. Otherwise, we’re all going to come unglued!

I have a message from God in my heart
      concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:
   There is no fear of God
      before their eyes.

   In their own eyes they flatter themselves
      too much to detect or hate their sin.
   The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful;
      they have ceased to be wise and to do good.
   Even on their beds they plot evil;
      they commit themselves to a sinful course
      and do not reject what is wrong.

   Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens,
      your faithfulness to the skies.
   Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
      your justice like the great deep.
      You, LORD, preserve both people and animals.
   How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
   People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
   They feast on the abundance of your house;
      you give them drink from your river of delights.
   For with you is the fountain of life;
      in your light we see light.

   Continue your love to those who know you,
      your righteousness to the upright in heart.
   May the foot of the proud not come against me,
      nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
   See how the evildoers lie fallen —
      thrown down, not able to rise!

\o/ — Comments Psalm 35: Continue your love to those who know you! — \o/

We could call this psalm the collision of two ways.

One way, the first way emphasized, is the way of the wicked. They continually do evil and plot to do more. Their way is wicked, vile, and arrogant. It is everything that God is not and love everything that God detests. The psalmist recognizes the truth about those who are wicked!

The other way, the way emphasized second, is the way of the LORD. Notice how God’s way is described: love, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice. Those who are the LORD’s people are blessed by these qualities of God and find delight in His presence — the light of God.

So what am I to make of this? How does this psalm intersect my life? I join the psalmist plea for God to be God. I also pledge to align my heart and my life with His character. Rather than being deceived by the temporary “success” of those who are evil, I remember the long faithfulness of God. Rather than being “co-opted” by the evil and deceptive shortcut ways of those who are false, I choose to trust that God will act in behalf of His people. I trust to see the defeat of the wicked even before the first steps of their defeat are visible, for I know that the LORD, and those who honor Him, will ultimately triumph.

Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Hmm. I’ve spent a lot of time learning facts — facts about history, facts about sports, facts about the weather, … facts about the Bible. Facts are important. Committing facts to memory can be crucial in all sorts of situations. However, when it comes to God’s stuff, the matters of love and faithfulness, facts play second fiddle to something else — my heart!

Knowing God, following Jesus, and being led by the Holy Spirit have often been reduced to religious practices, rules, and traditions. Like you, I am guilty of trying to reduce my life with God to manageable “go do” lists, and “go and do not do” lists. This makes things feel simple … formulaic … and quantifiable. I can make my own lists and decide who is in and who is out on the God stuff.

But God … this great and often repeated line in Scripture has a way of scrambling all sorts of human perversions of God’s grace and it wreaks havoc on our formulaic attempts of taming our lives with God. It most certainly re-arranges and re-orders my soul’s priorities in this matter.

But God … emphatically, repeatedly and consistently reminded His people that walking with Him centers on two holy habits of the heart: love and faithfulness. In all the discussion of the bits of wisdom in the Proverbs, maybe one of the very most important ones — second only to fear God — is this:

//Inspiration: Proverbs 3:3
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

//Incarnation:
God won’t let me settle for externals: not external religious observances, not external actions, and not external holiness. No, the Father wants love and faithfulness etched permanently on the tablet of my heart. He wants His words and His will alive in my interior world informing and transforming me from the inside out. Yes, the Almighty wants my obedience. Yes, the Holy One wants me to strive to be holy in everything I do and say and think. But without love and faithfulness etched into the fabric of my heart, sooner or later, the duplicity will out me and I will be revealed — my fake holiness, my skin-deep commitment, and my shifting loyalty exposed.

//Invitation:
O God, so full of both glory and grace, I recognize that love and faithfulness are two primary attributes of your character. I confess that they are not so easy for me to reproduce. I confess further, that a part of me of would like to reduce these attributes to a list of “how to” steps. Deep in my soul, however, I know that only your Spirit can help etch these attributes of your character into my heart. So I ask, and I commit to earnestly seek, the deep water of your grace and open my heart to have You make Your character real in me, heart and soul deep. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.