The 3rd Lament: New Every Morning

When I think of Lamentations it's not usually a go-to source for encouraging scripture. But Lamentations 3:19-24 paints an incredible word picture of the beauty of God's love for us. I want to visit this wonderful passage over the next few days in hopes that it will encourage you as much as it has encouraged me.

... there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: GOD ’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with GOD (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left. (‭Lamentations‬ ‭3‬:‭19-24‬ MSG Emphasis Added)

Every morning. That's how often the prophet Jeremiah realized that God's mercy rolls back around. God's willingness to extend his love and kindness is in step with the dawn; and its always dawn somewhere.

Every morning the mercy of God is hand crafted. The creator of the periodic table preempts every element of grace you find yourself needing with the passing of each day. It's custom. For you. For everyone. For every situation.

In the face of such terribly compassionate love and mercy, how can anyone think themselves unworthy of God's affection. Forgiven much. Love much. (See Luke 7:36-50) That is the opportunity. That is the reality.

Custom grace. A love tailored for all humanity. That fits every individual. It's not a bandaid for your burdens. His is a lifeline for your soul. A legendary leg up.

Maybe that's exactly what you are needing right now? Failure has gotten old. The same tired patterns of behavior may have left you feeling a little more than broken. Well, the sun is always sweetest at dawn. Move out from the darkness of our own designs and embrace the caring nature of the Father.

Every day is a new day. A new dawn. A new chance to walk the path God has for you.

The 3rd Lament: Loyal Love

When I think of Lamentations it's not usually a go-to source for encouraging scripture. But Lamentations 3:19-24 paints an incredible word picture of the beauty of God's love for us. I want to visit this wonderful passage over the next few days in hopes that it will encourage you as much as it has encouraged me.

... there’s one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: GOD ’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up. They’re created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I’m sticking with GOD (I say it over and over). He’s all I’ve got left. (‭Lamentations‬ ‭3‬:‭19-24‬ MSG Emphasis Added)

Jeremiah went through a pretty horrible time. He is often called The Weeping Prophet. And his writings portray much of the anguish he must have experienced.

Like Jeremiah we ourselves face difficult things from time to time. The thing that gives me incredible hope in the love of God is the great opportunity we have in those hard moments. In difficulty we find a fight or flight scenario. We can run. Forget. Abandon. Or we can step up (or be lifted up) to be seized by the kind of certainty that can only come through a faith that has been tested and tried. Faith isn't easy. I would submit to you that anyone saying total faith in God is easy has probably never had to live where the rubber meets the road.

This kind of fighting faith was Jeremiah's every waking moment. Instead of throwing in the towel he went round for round. He stood toe to toe with all of the craziness happening around him. Stuff like death threats, starvation, imprisonment, and assassins. He never quit. He didn't give up on God. Why? Why did he keep his grip on hope?

Because Jeremiah remembered the inexhaustible love of God.

Jeremiah knew that God's love is loyal. Even when we quit God will never leave us or forsake us. (Read Dueteronomy 31:6)

Jeremiah knew that God's love has an endless source, namely God himself. This Loyal Love is rooted in the very nature of the one who wields it. There is always more for those who go looking to find it.

Jeremiah knew that God's love is merciful. The love of God is full of undeserved grace. That unending, unmerited, supply of affection comes to those who certainly do not deserve it. Yet it comes. God's love is the merciful product of the God of mercy.

Jeremiah knew that God's love couldn't have dried up. It may have felt that way, looked that way, or seemed that way—but the prophet knew. Deep down in the Well of Living Water is an unquenchable source. The love that does not run dry is the love that defies all apparent circumstances.

Jeremiah knew this. I believe it kept him going through the most difficult times. You can be sure that God's loyal and merciful love is in full supply for you. Today. Wherever you are. Whatever you've done. No matter your circumstance. Ask him for some and watch the floodgates open.

October 27 - Divine Ignorance

Luke 23:32-38

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34a ESV)

"Ignorance is bliss" may be one of the more reckless idioms of this age. But the effects of uninformed action stretch across the destiny of man. Jesus had compassion on his murderers not because of their ignorance, but because of their actions.

Being ignorant, or devoid of knowledge pertaining to something, is not a sin. If such were the case we would all be in a lot of trouble, especially me. But when the lack of knowledge or wisdom carries over to sinful disobedience we are without excuse for our actions.

Jesus prayed a prayer for his tormentors from the cross. He clenched nail-pierced hands and raised his bloodied brow, adorned by broken thorns, to heaven—praying a declarative prayer of intercession. There upon the cross he began the work of interceding on our behalf with the Father.

The sin of man killed Christ. Committing a murder he was born for. And in his death he forgave those who killed him. Because only Jesus could excuse the inexcusable.

October 26 - Not A Kindness

John 19:28-30

A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. (John 19:29 ESV)

I remember reading the crucifixion story early in my teens and thinking that the executioners had decided to show a measure of mercy to Jesus by offering him wine. Later in life I learned better. That action was not one borne out of kindness, compassion, or mercy.

The Romans had developed a crude system of public toilets, basically just holes to sit on. The poor would capitalize on the opportunity for income by carrying sponges on sticks. They would dip them in sour wine and offer to clean the fecal waste from those using the public restroom for an extremely small fee. This is the same type of sponge which was offered to Jesus.

He came and lived blameless, sinless, and clean. The final hours of his life were marked with horrors, shame, and violence—and one final showing of apparent mercy turned out to really just be a sickening act of disrespect and contempt. No, Jesus was shown no measure of mercy or kindness by his captors.

Not only did Christ take on sin. Not only did he receive a beating, be he was horribly mutilated. He was deeply shamed. He was even force fed the equivalent of ancient toilet water. It was the culmination of all that Hell could muster. An attempt to mire the Son of God in the lowest muck of man. The kindness of Christ crucified by the cruelty of man.

April 26 - Judges

Read: Matthew 7:1-6

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3 ESV)

It's so easy to see other people's problems. And yet, it can be really hard to have an honest sense of our own shortcomings. Often our own personal hang ups are a blind spot.

This is not a new problem. Jesus' disciples had the same problem. He thought it was a big enough issue that he addressed it in his famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus point was that dealing with our own sin should take priority over confronting other people about theirs.

"Don't judge me" is an all-too-common phrase today. And while it is certainly grounded in a biblical truth it is usually pulled woefully out of context by someone trying to grant themselves free license to sanction whatever sinful deed they desire to commit. This was not the point Jesus was trying to make.

Jesus' point was that each of us should carefully measure our actions. We should take stock of our sin. We should pray that our transgressions would be revealed to us so that there would be no blind spots in our lives. We aren't to seek a life free from judgement, after all God is going to judge us all. Instead, we should realistically submit ourselves to the graceful judgement of Christ now so that we might be spared the justice of Christ later.

Tree of Life

The forbidden fruit was tasted, and a curse fell upon mankind. A curse of sin and separation. The inaugural human couple was thrust from the Secret Garden, angelic sentries poised at the indiscernible entrance, and immortality was mercifully kept without the grasp of man. Thank God. Genesis 3 recounts to us the story of the fall of man. Some terrible things are at work, but in the midst of the great tragedy of the fall, there is also an incredible mercy. God separated mankind from the possibility of an attainable physical immortality. What if He hadn't? What if God had never allowed physical death?

You see, many people I know, or have read, who discount either the goodness of God or His sovereignty often do so by building a case upon the existence of death. Why would a good God allow death? How could an all powerful God allow death? To these I say, how could He not?

Had mankind been allowed to eat of the Tree of Life we would have been hopelessly lost in our immortality. We would have been forever stuck in this less-than-real existence, the super-reality of the spiritual realm lost to us. Furthermore, to fix this, God's Son Himself took on the form of man and allowed Himself to be murdered, to die, in order to restore the gap between human transgressors and the divine Godhead. Without death, there is no cross, no sacrifice, no atonement, and no resurrection.