Cruel to be Kind

[...this is really a continuation from prior blog post, Correcting Rebuke...]

On the same day that I was awakened with the insect bite, I was making a phone call and was put on hold.  An “oldie but goodie” song came on briefly and quickly went off as I was switched to another extension – I don’t remember what it was but I was surprised to hear it instead of classical or other instrumental music. My foot began to itch where I had been bitten, and to hurt where it was swelling inside of my shoe.  I was asking the Lord if that had really been necessary to get me up, though I conceded with a smile that it was certainly effective.

Psalm 141:1-5, New King James Version (NKJV)

            Prayer for Safekeeping from Wickedness
            A Psalm of David.

Lord, I cry out to You;
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
² Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

³ Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
⁴ Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

⁵ Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.

Proverbs 27:5-6, 9 New King James Version (NKJV)

            ⁵ Open rebuke is better
             Than love carefully concealed.

⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

⁹ Ointment and perfume delight the heart,
And the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

Immediately I was put back on hold and the song “Cruel to be kind” came on.  I cracked up laughing.  As soon as I got off of the phone, I got on the internet and looked up the song on youtube.

I found the original, but then a more current version that I liked more:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30Uo5sJWSQ – this was done as part of a show (Live from Daryl’s House) that was new to me.  I looked at some other episodes of these, choosing some for the guest artist and some for the song being performed.  In all of them that I watched, I was so thankful to God for His gift of music, of sound, of hearing, and for the joy of making and sharing in the music that seemed so evident on these shows.  I heard some “old” (i.e. familiar) songs performed by “new” people (people I didn’t know or hadn’t heard perform these particular songs) and some “new” (previously unknown to me) songs performed by artists with which I was familiar.

Matthew 13:52, New King James Version (NKJV)
52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

 So I’m just sharing in this joy, in this music, in this gracious gift of God, and hear the song, “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha” performed by Daryl Hall and band with Monte Montgomery, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7izBLEoZHs.  Monte’s vocals (from 3:51 to 4:17), had a harmony that struck me differently at that moment, and it was just like the Lord was affirming ... to me ... yet again His love ... for me.

Romans 5:6-8, New King James Version (NKJV)
 Christ in Our Place
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

John 14:6, New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Romans 8:31-32, New King James Version (NKJV)
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

Romans 8:33-37, New King James Version (NKJV)
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
 “For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

Romans 8:38-39, New King James Version (NKJV)
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Jeremiah 31:3, New King James Version (NKJV)
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

1 John 4:10, King James Version (KJV)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about you” …

SONG: How He Loves, by David Crowder Band - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ&ob=av2e

… and my journey with Him continues …

Correcting Rebuke

So, I was still having trouble maintaining consistency with my morning devotional time.  Then I read this in The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, in the chapter on “Habits of Holiness”:

“…don’t be discouraged by failure.  There is a vast difference between failing and becoming a failure.  We become a failure when we give up – when we stop trying.  But as long as we are working on those sinful habits, regardless of how often we fail, we have not become a failure, and we can expect to see progress.”

Encouraging words.  Thinking about Proverbs 24:16:

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.

I used to think the seven times was the limit to fail, to fall.  But then I heard some preaching and read some things about when Peter asked Jesus if seven times was the limit of forgiveness to be given, and Jesus replied (in Matthew 18:22) not seven, but seventy times seven – meaning a greater amount than what we would think.  So I needn’t give up, even  if it’s been seven times that I’ve missed my devotional appointment – I can just persevere. 

The other day, despondent at bedtime, fearful that I wouldn’t wake up enough to “make an intelligent decision” the next morning to actually get up for my special time with God, I asked Him to help me get up (something that I often ask).  The next morning, more than 2 hours before my appointment time, I awoke scratching my toes where something had bitten me.  God had answered my prayer as there was no going back to sleep after that.  So, with some things that were going on regarding my schedule and relationships, I was thanking God during my devotional time for answering my prayer, albeit not in the way I would have thought  (per Isaiah 55:6-9).  It was then that He revealed that there was unforgiveness, sadness and disappointment in my heart that could have contributed to my lack of follow-through in my plans to stay committed in my part of keeping our appointed time.

Psalm 50:21, King James Version (KJV)

           ²¹ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;
            thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:
            but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

 Psalm 39:11, New King James Version (NKJV)

            ¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,
               You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
               Surely every man is vapor. Selah

  I was able to repent (humbly, “in dust and ashes” like in Job 42:6b) and accept God’s forgiveness, and extend it in my heart to those I felt had slighted me.

Isaiah 61:1, New King James Version (NKJV)

            The Good News of Salvation
            “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
            Because the Lord has anointed Me
            To preach good tidings to the poor;
            He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
            To proclaim liberty to the captives,
            And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

 Thanking God for delivering me from this instance of bondage in the pride, hard-heartedness and self-centeredness which was manifest in my harboring of unforgiveness, I thought of the song “I am Free” by Newsboys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MbcYyOsF50 ).

(looking for that song on youtube today, I found this one with 3 songs that have me going, thanking God anew – right now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhPJ7V4m0o)

                                  ... and my journey with Him continues ...

Abhor sin - Pursue holiness

At a Good Friday service a few years ago, when a huge wooden cross was being carried from the back of the venue through the crowd to the stage area, I heard in my spirit, “I abhor sin.”  I had been (softly) crying, thinking of Jesus’ sacrifice for me, what He went through (as close as I can wrap my mind around it) – but this thought caught me off guard.  “Abhor? Where did that come from?” of course, this was a rhetorical question.  Although I don’t use the term” abhor” in normal conversation, I do know of the word from the Bible.  My crying was quieted as I realized that something deeper than I knew was going on within me.

I later looked to see if I could find a verse in the Bible where the phrase “abhor sin” was used.  The closest I got was in Romans 12:9: “…Abhor what is evil…” – I figured sin was evil, so there you go, right?  In my head, what I had heard seemed reasonable and to be in agreement with Scripture.  Like Mary after Jesus’ birth, who, upon hearing the shepherds make “… widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child…pondered … in her heart” – so I “pondered” what I had heard. (I looked up “abhor” today in dictionary.com, and got this definition:  to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.)

In March, I attended a class (via teleconference call) on The Power of a Sanctified Time, Place, and Person of Prayer.  Through this class and several other confirming messages from sermons, songs,  books, etc., I was made aware of how lax I had become lately with my devotional prayer times and was convicted to “do better.”  It has been much harder than I had imagined it would be to be as committed to this discipline as I should.  But the Lord has been gracious, and continually speaks to me from His Word about the need for discipline in my life:

Job 5:17 (NKJV)
“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NKJV)
My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

1 Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV)
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Hebrews 12:5-11 (NKJV)
[ The Discipline of God ]

⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

During the March class mentioned above, a recommendation was given for the book The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.  I was just reading along when I came to this paragraph at the beginning of a chapter on The Battle for Holiness:

Through our union with Christ in His death we are delivered from the dominion of sin.  But we still find sin struggling to gain mastery over us, as Paul depicted so vividly: “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21).  We may not like the fact that we have this lifelong struggle with sin, but the more we realize and accept it, the better equipped we will be to deal with it.  The more we discover about the strength of indwelling sin, the less we feel its effects.  To the extent that we discover this law of sin within ourselves, we will abhor and fight against it.

Wow … there it is, to “abhor sin.”  I see God's providence in my reading this book such that I will have additional instruction and be more motivated to apply the principles laid forth therein – to pursue holiness.

                                    ... and my journey with Him continues ...