Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalms 51:6-7

We KNOW that our hearts are deceitful & incurable (Jer 17:9) but what is this “secret heart”? Could it be the hidden grace that God had prepared from the beginning of time, knowing that our own sacrifice would never be whole and we would need another?

God today grant me the ability to show your grace and mercy to those around me, let me extend the Gospel in word and deed to those I come in contact with. Let my life be the reflection of your hidden heart and NOT my own. To God be the Glory.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes; he does not keep silence; before him is a devouring fire, around him a mighty tempest.
Psalms 50:2-3

I love how the Psalm speaks to the reader, clear and reliable judgment of God comes from the very nature around us, even the rising or setting sun declares the Gospel message!

When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.
Proverbs 19:3

It amazes me every day people that blame God for their trouble.  Couple things in this verse stand out to me.

Man’s folly: This is man’s doing, his sin, his efforts, his action, not God’s.

Man’s way: This is not the way of the righteous and it is NOT God’s way, this is man causing trouble for man’s plans.

Man’s ruin:  ”Give um enough rope they will hang themselves” was the advice I got as a young man from a wise pastor.  The sad part is that this takes time, when we see the problem we want to address it (and often should).  When the other person is bent on their own self will rather than God’s… sometimes they have to come to ruin before they can see the problem. (Often we find ourselves trying to protect the people affected as the train wreck of a person’s ways lead them to ruin.  )

Man’s heart rages:   the Hebrew root behind this rage is foaming or burning.  When we set our will against God’s it is like we are a rabid dog foaming at the mouth lashing out no our pain and fever biting everything around us … even the hands that fed us, clothed us, took care of us.  (Hosea 11:3-4) Lashing out at God.  What despair must we sink to in our own sin.

There is danger when we set our ways above God’s ways and when the “world” we create comes crashing down around us we tend to lash out at the Salvation that was offered to us.  To deny God the proper place of authority in our lives…

This is what Jesus said when he rebuked peter:

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 16:23-24

Man’s folly came because he set his heart against God in the first place.  Another lesson in this is that this happens to Christians as well as UnChristians.

We are often very quick as Christians to see error in the lives. doctrines and worship of those around us.  Much easier to see sin in others, not so easy to see in our own lives.  We must be on guard to “deny” our selves and take up the cross of Christ, following HIS ways rather than our own.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

Romans 5:2-5
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We spend a lot of our lives looking for HOPE.  We have a president that ran a rather simplistic campaign promising HOPE to the battered nation.  We look for better jobs, better homes, even better churches all looking for a different HOPE.  The American Dream (although changing more and more) is based on HOPE.  Hope for a better tomorrow.

I would argue that much of the “Green” movement is based on fiscal policy but the spin that we hear from media and politicians is that we need to build more HOPE for future generations.  Although some would abuse the idea of HOPE… we need HOPE.

A good HOPE leaves us healthy and vibrant, ready to take on the world.  If we have no HOPE then we face a dismal reality.

We tend to take comfort in these verses thinking we can identify with the key signposts on the road to HOPE.

Suffering – We are suffering after all (excuse the McDonald’s wrappers and empty Starbuck cups) and the mounds of entertainment that we burn through in a day, a week, a month, a year.

Endurance – We can make it to the next paycheck!  We have suffered and now we must endure.  Little Johnny doesn’t have the latest game for his Gameboy.  We are building up endurance for when we can choose to afford it.

Character – Our reputation is as flippant as the next tweet or facebook post that comes down the line.  Our Character used to be terms on a hand shake.  Now we change our contracts and change our minds so often pages have to be written to protect the “character” …

Hope – We hope we are doing the right thing.  Close our eyes and HOPE we are doing what GOD wants us to do, ministering to who GOD wants us to minister to, giving like God wants us to give.

I am afraid, afraid we have lost sight of what God wants us to have in these verses.  We need to look deeper at the first part of these verses

Through Him – Christ alone gives us Hope

Access – We can approach God knowing that Christ has made a way for us to be able to speak to him.

By faith – Hope that is healthy is hope that is built on faith that God will do what he says he will do and he is faithful to do it.

Grace -Ephesians 2:8 says it best “For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God”  it is this grace that is not something we have contrived, this is not something last minute that God was taken by surprise. Grace a gift from God.

Stand – When we stand where God wants us to stand we will find Hope.

Rejoice – Hard to rejoice when we have trials and tribulations but it is still a command we are given and an attitude that we must CHOOSE to embrace.  The glory MUST belong to the Lord.  We must not sit and wallow in self pity and shame, we must rise up and rejoice that our King is the HOPE for all.

Hope.

So … where does your hope come from?

Robert E Griffin
Studying on “Worship” and how we “Praise” God, I was more than a little shaken in my strong dispensational thinking to see a continuing worship from the days of Moses to David to Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah to the end of Revelation’s scene in heaven.  It was the SAME!

I always wanted to compartmentalize praise and worship, and divide the Church from anyone else. But from beginning to end, IT IS THE SAME SONG for all of God’s people. And God’s people are the same – from beginning to end!

While God may have given differing commands and requirements for people in different ages, ALL of God’s people are one, and ALL are singing the same song!  We are the Church of the Firstborn, God’s people!

 Exodus 15:1-2 “I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously.

The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”

 Psalm 118:14 “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.”

 Isaiah 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:
for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.”

 Revelation 15:3, “Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints”

 From beginning to end, we see the “Church” (ALL of God’s people of ALL ages) singing the same song that is nothing more or less than the Gospel elucidations that we experience now!

 Published w/o permission

Ps. 37:28
For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not His saints; they are preserved forever. . .”

The Lyrics of Skillet’s song “Forgiven” pulled me in to a frame of worship, the chorus … wow.  “Alone in Your embrace”:

FORGIVEN
[V1]
Forgive me now cause I Have been unfaithful
Don’t ask me why cause I don’t know
So many times I’ve tried But was unable
But this heart belongs to you alone

Chorus
Now I’m in our secret place
Alone in your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven

All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times you were denied
You have forgiven

[V2]
Forgive me I’m ashamed
I’ve loved another
I can’t explain cause I don’t know
No one can take your place
And there is no other
Forever yours and yours alone

Bridge
Take me to our secret place
(We’ll leave the world away)
I get down on my knees
Feel your love wash over me
There will never be another
You’re the only one forever
And you know I’m yours alone

I stand in awe of the Glory of God.

As a child I memorized the book of James and although my memory is not clear enough to spit it back out word for word, I find myself paraphrasing it all the time.  This is one of those verses that screams God’s will, God’s Grace, God’s Choice for each believer.  I love it!

I remember as a college student I struggled and came to grips with the Grace of my salvation.   Knowing that God had saved me was a “no brainer” but coming to the reality of the  process left me in a state of mental duress.   One night while visiting home, my father and I ran  to pick up a pizza (or two or five) from Dominoes.  It must have been a burden that was showing through my face because my earthly father took the time to as me what was bothering me.

I don’t remember the pizza being cold so the conversation couldn’t have taken that long.  I was fighting with two sides of an argument while never being told either out right.  Did I choose God or did God choose me? This verse came back to my mind today as I was working and I shot it off to Facebook and Twitter but that doesn’t do  it justice.

Titus 3:4,5 But when the goodness and love for man appeared from God our Savior,  He saved us — not by works of righteousness that we had done,  but according to His mercy,through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

“He saved us, His Mercy, His Son, His Regeneration, His Holy Spirit”  Man how long I struggled with my inner desire to say I am worthy to be saved.  The reality (ask my wife) is that I am far from it.  The gap between God and I was so great there was no way I could even ask for salvation… but “He chose is, He saved us.”

The struggle was over.  I realized that this was part of the continued process of God’s working in my life.  This process of regeneration gave me a comfort, a peace and a hope.  I didn’t get the magic answers to all my questions, but I did come to realize God chose me, in spite of my sin.

Isaiah 64:6 — All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment;
all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

I am humbled with the knowledge as a Christian, God gave me His Word for my Salvation.  For with out Christ, I could do nothing on my own.