EPIPHANY

Epiphany is day on the Christian calendar when the Church celebrates the manifestation of the birth of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12).  This day officially ends the Advent/Christmas season, and sets the church onto the road which leads to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  

This is a huge day in the Church, so important that the apostle Paul saw himself as a preacher to the Gentiles.  Christianity would not remain in the Israel.  It would burst out of Jerusalem, into Judea, Samaria, and even to the very ends of the earth.  Jesus’ invitation was to “all who are weary and heaven-laden” (Matthew 11:28).  His promise was, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

The invitation is for you and me to come within the embrace of God who is reaching out to us and inviting us into relationship with Him.  We are not alone.  God is with us.  Jesus is Lord.  The very life of God has come within history and invited us to live in His life.  

Our song is, 

Just as I am, without one plea 

but that Thy blood was shed for me, 

And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,  

O Lamb of God, I come! I come! 

-- Charlotte Elliott, 1834 

Jesus invites us into the very life of God.  In Him, our lives are covered by amazing grace, amazing love, and amazing mercy. 

I think about what all this means to me and I remember the words of the wonderful chorus by Gloria and Bill Gaither,

Something beautiful, something good;

All my confusion He understood. 

All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife,

But He made something beautiful of my life.

I am a Gentile to whom God has reached out, with redemption in His heart, and redeemed.  Who would have thought it?  Who would have dreamed it?  Who could have imagined it?  

Join with me, take what God is offering, and live in the abundant life of Christ.

THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD'S TEN COMMANDMENTS

In Exodus 20, God gives Moses Ten Commandments by which His people were to live.  Here are some brief thoughts about these commandments, and how they operate in our lives.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

1.         HONOR GOD BECAUSE OF WHO HE IS … You shall have no other gods before Me.  

2.         HONOR GOD BY SERVING HIM ONLY … You shall not make for yourself an idol. 

3.         HONOR GOD BY HALLOWING HIS HOLY NAME … You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.  

4.         HONOR GOD BY TAKING TIME FOR HIM … Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  

5.         HONOR GOD BY RESPECTING YOUR PARENTS … Honor your father and your mother.  

6.         HONOR GOD BY HONORING LIFE … You shall not murder.  

7.         HONOR GOD BY HONORING HUMAN SEXUALITY … You shall not commit adultery.

8.         HONOR GOD BY HONORING THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS … You shall not steal.  

9.         HONOR GOD BY BEING TRUTHFUL IN ALL YOUR RELATIONSHIPS … You shall not bear false witness.  

10.      HONOR GOD BY HONORING YOUR OWN INNER LIFE AND LIVE FREE … You shall not covet.

THE TESTIMONY

I have felt for a long time now that Joseph is an overlooked champion of the birth and early life of Jesus.  The truth is that in order for the virgin birth to be believable in any way, shape or form, Joseph had to believe it and embrace it. That an angel came to him, prior to the birth of Jesus, is as important as is the fact that an angel came to Mary explaining the upcoming events.  

The truth is that it was Joseph who stepped up and became the protector of both Mary and Jesus.  He assumed responsibility to see to it that provisions were made to proceed through the pregnancy and through the birth experience, and through the early life of the Messiah on earth.

It was Joseph to whom angels appeared in dreams, after the birth of Jesus, so as to keep the baby safe.  In Matthew 2:13 we read, “…behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him."  Verse 14 says, ”So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.”

In Matthew 2:19 we read,  “…When Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, ^‘Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child's life are dead." Verse 20 says, “So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.”  

In Matthew 2:22 and 23 we read, “When he [Joseph] heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

Three times God spoke to Joseph and three times Joseph heard and obeyed.  Three times he did whatever it took to be true to the Word of God for he and his family, and because of his obedience the Christ-event positions itself to unfold in the exact and precise way ordained by God.

            The text points us to a wonderful insight about God and the Gospel.  God chooses the normalcy of a lower, middle-class family of a carpenter into with to place His Messiah.  He uses a working-class guy to provide for the Child and His mother. And, when all is said and done about the childhood years of Jesus, Joseph emerges as a huge part of the story.

            The way God used Joseph in the early years of Jesus life, and the way Joseph responded in faithfulness each time God spoke to his heart, takes us beyond ourselves into the meaning of faith and faithfulness.  The truth is that Joseph is really special in the scheme of things in Judah.  He's just one of the guys.  He works hard.  He's trained himself to be a carpenter and is good enough at it that he can make a living. He's met this girl who has caught his eye, with whom he wants to spend the rest of his life.  She has agreed to marry him, and plans are being made.  It is an engagement that is not too well known except for those close to he and Mary.  And, then God shows up and messes up the whole story, and out the window go the plans; and in the window come the plans of God.  And, this rather ordinary guy about whom we know so little is called upon to fulfill a task that will have ramifications for centuries to come, simply because he was obedient and faithful.

            

            I have been meditating on the story of Joseph, and I have come to believe that in Joseph we see the story of most Believers.   Most of us are just "the folks."  We live within our sphere of influence giving life our best shot, and doing pretty well with what we have been given.  Some among us are more gifted than others, but we all show up and do what we are called upon to do.  In fact, each of us brings something special and unique to God's Church, and, at times, like Joseph, we are called upon to do something we had not planned on; something that catches us off guard; sometimes, something that shocks our senses and stretches our imagination.  

            My dad, who died at the age of 85 on September 19, 2003, was a Joseph.  His name was Samuel James but he was a Joseph. He was a mechanic, not a carpenter, and because of injuries done to his father in World War 1, he had to drop out of school because he was the oldest of the children, and had to become the primary provider for his family.  He worked odd jobs, doing whatever he could do to bring in money for his mother and to care for the family.  He taught himself how to work on cars and became so good at it that in time it became his work, and the way he provided for my mom, my older brother and my younger sister.  He became a Christian in 1946, and whatever happened at that little altar in that little town of Wardell, Missouri, took.  My dad never looked back and became one of the most dedicated, loyal and faithful churchmen I have met in my life.

            Interestingly enough, if it weren't for me you would never have heard of my dad. He was never written about in Christian journals, never did anything noteworthy enough to catch the imagination of anybody outside his circle, and died in obscurity, except for the few people who knew the true story of his life.  He was unpretentious, unassuming, and self-denying.  He worked too many hours each week but he never missed Sunday morning worship, Sunday evening worship our Wednesday evening Bible study. He found time to serve on the board and, if there was a workday at our little church, my dad was the first to arrive and the last to leave.  

            I tell you about my dad, not to be selfish, but because there are people you know, hundreds of them if we were to tally them, who are just like him.  Some of you are just like him.  If I ever equate you to being like my dad, please receive it as one of the highest honors I can bestow.  

You are a Joseph.  You are faithful.  You are committed to Christ and His Church.  You are the backbone of the church, and without you, we would be less than who we are.  When God needs someone do the hard work that requires going the second mile, he calls upon you.  You are a Joseph (or a Josephena, as the case may be).  When God stretches your faith to do something, you get up, like Joseph, and do it.  That is huge. 

            Never underestimate the power and fruitfulness of your testimony and witness. There is a place for each one of us at the table of the Lord, and in the timing and planning and visions and dreams of God, what we bring to that table is huge.          

          

A PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH

I ran across a prayer years ago that greatly impacted my prayer life for the church I pastored at the time.  I adapted it to fit our situation, and I pass it along just because it is on my heart today.

O God, use this house of worship as a gathering place for people of every race, creed, and color, who need love, acceptance and forgiveness.  Take away from our fellowship anything that would interfere with God’s love here.  Help us to stand together as a community of Faith where children and adults, the wounded and healthy, the rich and the poor, the marginalized and those in power, will know the everlasting love of God. Amen.

                                                                        

THE FATHER IS VERY FOND OF ME

In his book The Wisdom of Tenderness, Brennan Manning tells the following story:

Several years ago, Edward Farrell of Detroit took his two-week vacation to Ireland to celebrate his favorite uncle’s 80th birthday. On the morning of the great day, Ed and his uncle got up before dawn, dressed in silence, and went for a walk along the shores of Lake Killarney. Just as the sun rose, his uncle turned and stared straight at the rising sun.  Ed stood beside him for 20 minutes with not a single word exchanged. Then his elderly uncle began to skip along the shoreline, a radiant smile on his face. After catching up with him, Ed commented, “Uncle Seamus, you look very happy. Do you want to tell my why?” “Yes, lad,” the old man said. “You see, the Father is fond of me. Ah, my Father is so very fond of me.”

Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness (Harper San Francisco, 2002), pp. 25-26

Do you believe this about God.  Jesus says you should.  

God bless you and keep you.

-- A fellow Pilgrim

WITS' END AS A MEANS OF GRACE

Thought Based on Psalm 107:23-32

            
Life can sometimes take you to your limits.  It takes you to places where you know you can't stand any more, only to discover there that somehow, some way, a spark of strength remains you never knew you had. You discover that your limits are not your demise but that God in you enables you to keep on pressing on.  

Some days you want to retreat and throw-in-the-towel because you know you can't go on, that you have reached the end of your resources.  Some days you are tempted to call into question that awesome Biblical promise on which you have relied so often, "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able..." (I Cor. 10:13). Some days you fall, exhausted, into the dust, and know you have reached your wits' end.  

In that desert place, however, God is at work.   You can't always see Him and you don't always have a visible handle on how He is at work.  He is at work, though, because somehow, some way, you find yourself getting out of the dust, brushing yourself off and continuing on the journey.  

There is a grace in being at wits' end.   Oswald Chambers has a wonderful word about this.  He says, "When a man is at his wits' end it is not a cowardly thing to pray, it is the only way he can get into touch with Reality"(Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest(Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Company, Inc., 1935, 1963) 241). Wits' end leads to reality.  What an interesting thought.   

The desert leads to truth.  The desert leads to reality.   The desert leads to God.  That which at certain times leads you to believe you are going to die is actually leading you to your only true source of life.   Wits' end is not the moment of despair; rather, it is the place where one is invited to meet the One True God.  

At wits' end you recognize you are not self-sufficient and that the world does not revolve around you.   You recognize your limits and come to know that ultimately and finally, in so many areas, you are powerless.  At the moment of recognition one of two things can happen.  You can get bitter and withdraw deeper and deeper into your pain, or you can see, by faith, possibilities you never saw before.   At that moment Oswald Chambers helps up again. He says,

Be yourself before God and present your problems, the things you know you have come to your wits' end over.  As long as you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything… It is not so true that "Prayer changes things" as that prayer changes me and I change things.  God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things.  Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition^.

Maybe that is what the desert place is about after all -- exposing our false sense of self-sufficiency; facing our inner selves and praying not so much that things may change but that we may be changed in the things.  I have been to the desert and there I learned that "Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition" (Chambers). 

It occurs to me that in this thing called life, I am the one who needs to be worked on.  God is not the problem here.  I am.  The desert, wits' end, is my divine opportunity to "Give Jesus Christ a chance, give Him elbow room." I want to call being at wits' end of the devil.  Maybe, however, it is the place of grace where I meet, not the devil, but God, the place where  I am invited to invite God in, and in His presence, "to get into touch with reality" (Chambers)

Suddenly, wits' end is the sacramental table where grace is extended into my life and where, being confronted by my lack of sufficiency, I discover the all-sufficiency of the God who meets me right where I am.

A CONVERSATION

Hello,
I wrote this brief post almost four years ago but today it came back to me, and the words of Tolkien spoke forcefully again.  
Thanks for reading.
Rick

A CONVERSATION

In J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, a young hobbit named, Frodo, is given the burden of bearing the one ring of power. It's a ring that has the potential to put Middle Earth under the suffering and pain of a deep darkness that is already exerting its influence. With a cadre of friends, Frodo determines to make the journey to Mount Doom, to destroy the ring by throwing it into the volcano from which it was constructed. 

It would be a fearful journey through enemy territory, and imagining the road ahead of him, Frodo shares with Gandalf the Wise that the burden of the ring should not have been placed with him. In the conversation between Frodo and Gandalf we read,

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. 

“So do I,” said Gandalf “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
                   J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 

(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1994), 51.

WHAT SHALL WE DO AND HOW SHALL WE LIVE?

I am deeply concerned about the state of America these days.  I’m seventy-years old, and I’ve never seen in my seven decades such vitriol. At  www.vocabulary.comthere is a statement that rings clear, 

Back in the day, vitriol was the name for sulfuric acid, which burns through just about anything. So think of vitriol as language so mean-spirited and bitter that it could eat through metal. 

There you have it: America in a nut shell, couched in the mind and spirit of life in the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Sadly, as a culture, it seems we’ve fallen and can’t get up.  So, stuck in the rut of anger and hostility we breathe in what we constantly breathe out. We now live in a war zone the weapons of which are character assassination, pungent humor designed to make fun of and destroy persons as persons, and acerbic news telling, designed to defend world views rather than tell the story with journalistic integrity.

How did we get here? How in the world did we get here? 242 years into the American experiment and this is the best we can come up with?  Generations in, and we can’t seem to live together.  We hold our worldviews so tightly that anyone who thinks differently than us is worthy of character assassination?  Vitriol might just be our downfall in the age of Twitter, Google, Instagram, and Facebook.

In the film, “The American President”(Castle Rock Entertainment, 1995), president Andrew Shepherd, played by Michael Douglas, gives a speech in which he states,

America isn't easy. America isadvanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight.  It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. 

We live in a republic and the people of the republic are responsible for its ongoing development. If you only want people who think the way you think to make their home here, you’re living in the wrong place at the wrong time.  This is America, American that has a constitution the Preamble of which states,

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In our Declaration of Independence, we find a driving principle that should be embraced by every man and woman who seeks to have a leadership spot in our republic:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

All this being said, I suggest that our leaders are not living up to the leadership requirements of the  242 year old dream.  Leaders on both sides of the isle and those who claim to live in the middle or as independents are not a part of the solution but a part of the problem.  And, it trickles down into the everyday lives of all of us.  The anger and hostility expressed every day on social media, particularly, leaves one wondering if the days of democracy are coming to an end.  

We simply don’t know how to live together in the land we call “United.”  Yet, we’ve got to learn to live together or we all will be in deep trouble.  However, where in the world do we begin?  How in the world do we begin?

In brief and insightful article at oprah.com entitled, “Why You Should Take Your Demons to Lunch,” Elizabeth Lesser has a powerful paragraph that might just help us.  At least, it is helping me.

"Otherising" is the dangerous act of turning someone into the enemy just because he or she looks different, prays different, speaks different, or thinks different. Some of history's most tragic events—wars, genocides, terrorist acts—began with ordinary people demonizing other ordinary people. 

What if we chose not to participate in “Otherising?”  What if we chose not to demonize others?  Too radical? I don’t think so.  Granted, It will take intentional reaching out that is rooted in some degree of humility and a great degree of seeking to resolve conflict that, if we’re not careful, will rip us all apart.

As a follower of Jesus I am wondering if Jesus wasn’t actually on to something when He said, “In everything…treat people the same way you want them to treat you… (Matthew 7:12). 

Let me leave it here for now.  Treat people the same way you want them to treat you.

INHALE AND EXHALE

The car stopped in front of me at a stop light had two decals in the back window.  On the Drivers side I read "Inhale Courage."  On the Passenger side I read, "Exhale Fear."  That was two days ago and I'm still thinking about those two statements.  

Over and over in Scripture we are called to trust God and "fear not."  Long before Nike made popular the phrase, "No Fear," God had already driven into the hearts and minds of His people the incredible insight of trusting God so much that fear would be tossed out of their lives.  After all, God is love and “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18, NASB).  God is not about fear and the bondages fear creates.  God is about life and freedom and renewal and transformation and renewal.  God doesn’t tie people up in the dungeons of despair.  Jesus said He came that people might have life and have it to the full.

God is getting bad press coverage these days and that’s sad; sad on so many levels.  We human being need hope and dreams and belief; the very realities God builds into people who trust in Him.  People who have tasted God’s amazing grace are blessed beyond their capacity to fully experience or explain.  God’s love and grace are so vast that they are simply to be received.  We try to explain them but our words far short.  

Ten centuries ago Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai wrote words that resonate even today when we don’t think much about parchments and scrolls and quills. He wrote,

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

God’s love rocks the world of everyone who dares receive it.  God’s love has been known to change the trajectory of a human life, turn people of anger into people of peace, and to enter into spheres of desperation and to create hope where there seemed to be no hope.  In the places and people of fear God’s love has shouted, “Inhale courage and exhale fear.” The life-transforming words of Jesus call out to all of us, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:29), “In Me you…have peace…take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), “My peace I give to you…Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).  

Inhale courage … Exhale fear. Take the grace and be filled with the love of God. After all, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7).  God is with us and our times are in His hands (Psalm 31:14-15). Take the grace and live.  Take the grace and do not fear.  Take the grace and let it become courage in you.     

DREAMING DREAMS

I suppose if you live long enough you turn seventy. It happened to me just a few weeks ago.It was a wonderful day of celebrating with my family.  It was extra special, too, because I share my birth date with one of my grandchildren, Carson,-- April 29, just 57 years apart.

Being 70 I now feel a part of  a group called, “the old men” in the book of Acts, who “dream dreams” (Acts 2:17, Joel 2:28). I feel good about it, too.  While the sons and daughters of the church prophesy, and the young men have visions, I am one who now gets to dream.  By a grace I don’t understand or deserve, I am one of the multi-millions of people on whom the Holy Spirit has been poured.

“Pour.”  I like that word.  It has about it the image of being soaking wet.  The Holy Spirit has been poured forth, on both men and women.  Together they speak forth the holy Word of our holy God to a generation of people in desperate need of the holy.

Why the holy?  I think it is because people are tired of the ramifications of the unholy -- greed, violence, anger, poverty, the daily bombardment of man’s inhumanity to man, lust for power, sex, and money, regardless of the innocent who are deeply damaged along the way.

Our world thrives on the unholy.  The Bible informs us, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).  Of course, the world would disagree because the world is so busy being the world it can’t see beyond its own passions.  It simply presses on in its narcissism, getting what it wants when it wants it regardless of the collateral damage left along the way.

The unholy is the normal state of being in a world patterned after self-centeredness, power and greed.  N. T. Wright has a compelling paragraph that speaks into this issue. He write,

In the Western world, and many other parts as well, homes and families are tearing themselves apart.  The gentle art of being gentle -- of kindness and forgiveness, sensitivity and thoughtfulness and generosity and humility and good old-fashioned love -- have gone out of fashion.  Ironically, everyone is demanding their “rights,” and this demand is so shrill that it destroys one of the most basic “rights,” if we can put it like that: the “right,” or at least the longing and hope, to have a peaceful, stable, secure, and caring place to live, to be, to learn, and to flourish.

--Simply Christian, Why Christianity Makes  

Sense,(HarperOne: New York, 2006), 8

Our old world needs some Godly prophesy, and Godly visions, and Godly dreams.  God help us to catch His visions and dreams for His world.  God help us to hear His truth.

Back in 1955 Flannery O’Connor wrote, “Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul” (From a letter written on September 6, 1955 to Betty Hester in “The American Reader”).  I believe O’Connor was on to something.  Also, I believe if it were true in 1955 how much more so in 2018. “Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul.”

Jesus has a great word for people who lived in His day and for people who live today.  He said to hurting people, 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NIV)

Because of the realities of life going on all around us and because of Jesus’ gracious invitation, I feel a strange and marvelous hope for all of us.  Am I too optimistic?  That’s a fair question.  Let me just respond by saying , “I’m an old man now, and I get to dream dreams.”  

I’ve seen a lot in our world over the past seventy years, a lot of which I wish were not true.  However, as O'Connor writes again somewhere, “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”  One truth that does not change has set me free to live and move and have my being in the very life of God:  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, NASB).

So, move over John Lennon.  

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

(John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1971)

Oh, by the way, unlike John Lennon, I do believe in heaven.  I believe in the God who came to us to bring us peace.  I believe Jesus died on the cross to put His broken world together again.  I believe in love.  I believe in hope.  I believe in truth.  I believe in forgiveness.  I believe in peace.  “You may say I’m a dreamer.”  Well, I am an old man after all.

God bless you. 

May God's Grace and Peace embrace you to His heart today.

STICKING TO GOD LIKE GLUE

There is a woman in our church in Montrose, California who has gone through some difficult times.  One Sunday after worship I asked her how she was doing.  She replied, "I'm sticking to God like glue."  Her answer connected with me and I've been thinking about it.

Sometimes life hits so hard that a person is left reeling in anguish and frustration and deep emotional pain.  The hits keep coming and the wounds get deeper and the solutions seem light years away.

What kind of faith does it take to stick to God like glue when it seems that everything in the world is working to get a wedge in so that the bond breaks? 

Everyday the sun rises, the alarm clock rings, and life goes, pain or no pain, frustration or no frustration, solutions or no solutions.  In the midst of the stories choices need to be made.  Will we crash and burn?  Will we face down the realities?  Will we run from God or to God?  Will we fret and fume or commit and trust? 

There is a story about King David in the Old Testament that speaks of how the love of God can embrace a person when they are in the throws of pain, suffering, and even death.  He found himself in a very difficult situation, complicated by the failure of a broken relationship with his Son, prince Absalom, who had instigated a revolt against him. King David fled Jerusalem and headed east through the Judean Desert (2 Sam. 16:1). He escaped to the Levitical city of Mahanaim, in the region of Gilead to the east of the Jordan River (2 Sam. 17:24). 

Needless to say, David was in a world of hurt, and there in the world of hurt, he gives us Psalm 63.  This Psalm is a prayer for all of us broken and human types who do desperately need to stay near God in the ebb and flow of our lives. David prays, "My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me" (Ps. 63:8). Perhaps this is David's way of saying that his soul was sticking to God like glue.  "My soul clings to You."

What is this amazing glue of which my friend spoke and of which David hints?  In Psalm 63:3 David revealed his heart for God.  He prayed, "Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise you."  And there we have it.  God's love is the glue. 

My friend spoke of sticking to God like glue.  Maybe it is actually God sticking to us like glue.  Maybe it's both.  I think my friend is on to something.  She got me to thinking about how it might be good to think about God's love as Velcro, even more secure than Velcro; maybe something like a bond created by Sovereign and amazing grace, Sovereign and astonishing love, Sovereign and uncompromising acceptance. 

The love of God is an amazing reality, a reality that wraps the arms of God around us and refuses to let us go.  When you don't have the strength to stick to God like glue remember God is holding on to you with the love that led Jesus to the cross.  As you cling to God take a close look and you will see that He is hanging on to you, too.  And, remember, like David you, too, can pray, "My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me…You are my God; I shall seek you earnestly" (Psalm 63:8, 1).