Rise up and call her blessed!

Psalm 128:1-4

¹ Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
who walk in obedience to him.
² You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
³ Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
⁴ Yes, this will be the blessing
for the man who fears the LORD.

In an effort to instill in my boys a sense of love and respect for their mother, as well as a sense of security that their mommy and daddy love each other, I will occasionally break out into some kind of spontaneous public display of affection.  For example, I might say “Boys, isn’t your momma beautiful!”  Or if the misses and I are exchanging a quick kiss, I might decide to point it out – “Corbin, Tripp! I’m kissin your momma!”  Since my boys are five and four, they still find this amusing and sweet, brandishing those little smiles of theirs.  I’m sure one day, this same kind of display will elicit different reactions from my boys.

Gross dad!  Yall love each other, we get it!  Cut it out!

So, this morning I was sitting at the breakfast table with the family, and was reminded of something Mark Driscoll pointed out in the parenting section of his book Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1&2 Peter. He quotes the reference in Psalm 128 to wives and children, saying that this comes to his mind every time he sits down at the table to eat.  This morning, I was struck by my wife’s beauty, and decided to engage in some pastoral parenting.  Here’s the rundown:

Me: Tripp, you know what I love?

Tripp: What?

Me: (putting my hand on Keelie’s arm) THIS GIRL!

Tripp: (pointing enthusiastically at his mommy) I love her TOO!

Corbin: (hugging his mommy) MOMMY!

Sometimes we’re loud at the table.

I’m sure all of this made Keelie feel appreciated and loved.  It also made me feel pretty good about my efforts to teach my boys to love and respect their mom.  Like the husband of Proverbs 31:28-29, I want to set the example in my home of praising my wife.  I want my children to grow up treasuring their mother, and aware of all that she does for them.

How about you, husband?  How about you, dad?  Have you told your wife lately how much you love and appreciate her?  Have you told her in front of the kids?  Why not send her an email or text right now?  Why not embarrass your teenagers when you get home tonight by kissing her in front of them?  Compliment her cooking, and ask the kids what they think.

Cherish your wife, and learn all you can about her, and honor her (1 Peter 3:7), and do so in front of the kids.

Bible in 90, Day 03: Jacob’s Devotion

Genesis 29-40

*image courtesy of haloocyn at stock.xchng

There’s one of those sentences in today’s reading that you read, pass over, and don’t think much about it unless you stop to do so.  It’s in Genesis 29:20, and it says, “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.”

Now, my wife and I met when we were young.  I was 16, she was 15.  We were dating within about six months, and didn’t marry until we were 22 and 21 years old.  I used to think that six years was a long time to have waited for my wife.  Of course, back then, I wasn’t waiting for my wife.  I was just dating my girlfriend.  (If you ask Keelie, it may have been different for her!)  Now that we’ve been married 6½ years, it doesn’t seem quite so long.

Jacob, on the other hand, knew that Rachel was the girl for him.  He saw her, and knew right away he wanted to marry her.  When he began his seven years of service to earn the right to marry her, he was waiting for his wife!  But notice what it says – “and they seemed to him but a few days.”  Indeed, even the passage itself makes it seem this way.  We have 19 verses that cover at most a few days, and then seven years pass in one verse!

Jacob had a genuine love for Rachel, one that was shown through his dedicated service to her father.  He could have backed out at anytime, deciding to go find a wife that wouldn’t require so much effort to marry!  Instead, he showed his devotion to her by sticking it out for seven years.

As we saw, he ended up getting tricked by his father-in-law, and had to serve another seven years to get Rachel.  So, in actuality, he spent fourteen years of his life working for another man just for the privilege calling Rachel his wife!

That’s devotion!

I hope and pray that I show that kind of devotion to my wife.  I know I didn’t during our dating years as an ignorant teenage guy.  My hope is that every Christian man would show that kind of devotion to his wife, and that every Christian woman would expect that kind of devotion before marrying a man.

Let’s show our love through our actions.  Whether it’s our family, our friends, our brothers and sisters in Christ, or our loved ones; let’s give them our devotion.  God showed His love to us by sending us His Son, and we ought to love each other in the same manner: with our actions (1 John 4).

Originally at Words of Reason

Bible in 90, Day 26: Who ya gonna call?

1 Kings 16 – 2 Kings 4

*image courtesy of jazza at www.sxc.hu

On everyone’s short list of baby names, I’m sure, is the name of today’s hero: Jehoshaphat.  Aside from having a snazzy name, and apparently being known for his jumping abilities, Jehoshaphat had a remarkable characteristic that reveals itself in today’s passage.

Particularly in 1 Kings 22 and 2 Kings 3, Jehoshaphat shows his dependence on God.  In both these situations, Jehoshaphat finds himself allied with the king of Israel (Ahab and Joram, respectively) in a military situation that requires some guidance.  In the first instance, the question is whether or not the two kings should go to war against Aram.  In the second, the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom find themselves in the predicament of having run out of water in the midst of the desert.  In both situations, Jehoshaphat’s natural tendency is the same:

Let’s ask the Lord!

Whether it was seeking wisdom (yes!  three days in a row!  sweet!), or seeking provision, Jehoshaphat went to God.  He asks virtually the same question both times, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord that we might inquire of?”  He also affirms this sentiment further.  In 2 Kings 3, when told that Elisha is nearby, he says “The word of the Lord is with him.”  In 1 Kings 22, he mildly rebukes Ahab for not accepting the message from God through Micaiah just because he doesn’t like it.  Jehoshaphat valued the wisdom of God even when it wasn’t convenient for him.

Let us be the same!  When faced with a decision, let us always first think of asking God.  When faced with a need or some threat, let us always first think to go to God with our need.  As believers in Jesus Christ, we don’t even have to go through a prophet!  We have a new and living way into the presence of God, and because of this Way (that is, Jesus), we can enter His presence boldly (Hebrews 10:19-23).  If we ask anything in His Name and according to His will, He will answer us (John 14:14; 1 John 5:14).  So let us enter boldly, not on our own worth but Christ’s, and seek God.  We will find Him when we seek Him with all our hearts (Jeremiah 29:13)!

Bible in 90, Day 19: Right in our own eyes

Judges 15-Ruth-1 Samuel 2

*image courtesy of jeffphoto at www.sxc.hu

So that last part of Judges is pretty rough huh?  Did you find yourself reading and thinking, “How in the world could they do these things?!”  How is it that the people who not long ago were begging Joshua to accept their vow to follow the Lord (Joshua 24:19-22) were now killing, raping, mutilating, and generally running amok?  The answer is found repeatedly throughout Judges (17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25) – “There was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Mark Driscoll talked about this in a sermon last year.  In that sermon, he said that without God, we are capable of anything.  He’s right.  The old cliché “But for the grace of God, there go I,” holds true.  If we totally abandoned ourselves to our sinful desires, held no regard for the things of God, and kept ourselves outside of the means of His grace, we might be shocked at what we would be capable of.

Oddly, it is in the midst of this period that the story of Ruth is told (Ruth 1:1).  In the original Hebrew ordering of the books of what we call the Old Testament, Ruth follows right after Proverbs.  Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous woman, and then is followed by an example of such a woman – Ruth.  It is noteworthy, and speaks to Ruth’s character that her story should shine in the midst of the dark, perverse time she lived in.  Interestingly, Ruth is a not a Jewish woman!  The most faithful and noble character in this story is a Gentile!  Ruth has the honor of being one of only two women to have a book of the Bible named for them (Esther is the other), as well as being one of a handful of women who are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (The others are Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba, and Mary – Matthew 1).

After this story, we are introduced to a new character, Samuel, and a new era in Israel’s history.  The wickedness continues into 1 Samuel, and is found now in the priesthood!  But God has a plan in place to bring Israel back to him.  We see the first peeks of this plan as God honors Hannah’s prayer and brings forth a very special son.  “Samuel” is Hebrew for “God hears/heard” and will be an ironic pun used later when God calls him as a young boy.

There are at least two things we can take from the theme we’ve examined today.  The first is that God is always working out His plan.  No matter how dark and twisted the times may get, God is still on the Throne (see Day 4)!  God kept enough people for Himself to maintain the holy line of the Messiah and bring about a beautiful story such as Ruth’s.

Second, is that we must never allow the culture or our sinful selves to determine our values.  Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes in Israel.  How similar this is to our culture today!  “If it feels good, do it!”  “I’m ok, and you’re ok, and that’s ok!”  “It’s all relative.”  We do not live a day of firm moral conviction and undeniable truth.  We live in a day of lax ethics, uncertainty, pride, and selfishness.  We are not the only society to raise our own views and thoughts above everything and everyone else.  Rome did it, France did it, even Israel did it!

Let us never assume that 50% + 1 equals truth or right.  Let us never assume that our own views, formulated in the selfishness of our own hearts are the best.  Let us look to God and His Word for what is good and just, what is evil and corrupt.  Let us not do merely what is right in our own eyes, but let us walk humbly before our God.

Bible in 90, Day 9: Yeah, he’s gonna talk about it

Leviticus 14-26

*image courtesy of personalfx at www.sxc.hu

Another interesting read today!  There are several topics that were hit on, and lots I could write about, but I’m gonna cover the controversial one:

God’s standards for sex

There are some who would say that whatever happens behind closed doors between consenting adults is perfectly acceptable.  The Bible paints a different picture.  Leviticus 18 gives some pretty clear-cut guidelines for sex in the community of believers.  They fall into several categories that we will discuss in a moment, but I want us to think about the fact that God cares about what we do with our bodies.  In our reading today, we also see some regulations about how the body is to be treated in light of various pagan practices.  Not the least of these concerns is sex.  So, let’s take a look at these categories.

Bible in 90, Day 2: They’re very good!

Day 2: Genesis 17-28

*image courtesy of duchesssa at www.sxc.hu

Women.

I noticed in our passage for today (specifically chapters 20-21) that God has a keen interest in protecting women.  If you remember yesterday, and I hope you do, we saw that after each part of creation God declared everything good.  It wasn’t until He had created Eve that He declared everything very good.

And I concur.

Men are supposed to watch over the women in their lives.  It is part of our duty as men to protect, provide for, and lead women, especially those in our own households.  And no, I’m not a chauvinist…

I’m biblical.

In part of our story today, our hero, Abraham, fails miserably at this task… twice.
In chapter 20, Abraham fears that he will be killed if people think he and Sarah are married.  He thinks that someone will want her so badly, they will kill him to get her.  Sarah must have been some woman!  Literally to die for!  So, he tells a half-truth (which equals a total lie!) that she is his sister.  Now, perhaps this was a justifiable, if cowardly, plan on Abraham’s part.  Perhaps he would be treated well, maybe even have some gifts given to him to butter him up and get in good with “big brother Abraham” from men trying to get a shot with Sarah.  Maybe Abraham thought he could avoid being killed and pull some extra money down with this plan of his.

Think again.

Instead, Abimelech takes Sarah, ostensibly to be a part of his harem or his wife.  Before anything immoral can go happen, God intervenes.  In doing so, He protects Abimelech, the blessed line of descendants (Abimelech could have later claimed the child of promise was his!), and the honor and purity of Sarah.  Notice in vv. 14-17 that Abimelech was even more honorable than Abraham in this whole mess!  He not only returns Sarah when he learns the truth, he even gives a large sum of money to Abraham and tells Sarah in front of everyone that she is completely vindicated.  Abimelech cares more in this situation about Sarah’s honor than her own husband!

Well played Abe.

So what happens in the next chapter?  Abraham blows it again, this time with Hagar.  After Sarah’s surrogate-mother plan backfires, she blames Abraham and despises Hagar.  As before, Hagar is sent away (with one noticeable difference: Abraham has God’s instruction this time).  In the wilderness, as it was 13 years ago in chapter 16, God speaks to her and comforts her.  God provides water for her, cares for her son, and eventually makes him into a great nation.

Women are precious in God’s sight.  They should be precious in the sight of men as well.  It is not chauvinist to want to protect the women God puts in our lives, to want to be kind and gentle to them, to meet their needs.

It is godly.

It takes a godly man to love his wife the way Christ loves the church, to lay down his life and not only die but live for her, to put beauty and kindness in her life, to cherish and honor her, to listen to and encourage her, to lead her gently and attentively, to nurture her and watch her bloom.  It takes a godly man to view the young women around him as sisters, the older women as mothers with absolute purity, protecting her honor and dignity.  It takes a godly man to avoid any hint of immorality, to do nothing that would put a woman into a compromising situation or press their advantage.

Women, be women of God.  Don’t fall for the boys.  Wait for a man.

Men, be men of God.  Man up, fulfill your obligations, take care of those women already in your life – mothers, sisters, cousins, friends – and live up to the expectations of those godly women, because they are very good, and they deserve our very best.