Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 7:00 a.m. – I woke again this morning to this song in my mind:
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer / Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
This has been an exhausting week. A lifetime friend of mine who is also the mother-in-law to my middle son and grandmother to four of my grandchildren was involved in a serious auto accident this past Thursday. She only has one child in town, Faith, so Faith has been over to the hospital daily, and most nights, to be with her mom. John and Faith’s four kids have thus been with us most of that time. My husband and I had four children, so I do have experience taking care of four children, but that was a long time ago, so daily I have been relying on the grace of God and the strength of my Lord to be the grandmother to my grandchildren that God would have me to be – Oh, to be like Thee! I can remember times in my life when other people had to help take care of my children for me. I am very grateful!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 101:
Lizzie, who turned 8 years old today, sat beside me this morning on the sofa as I read in the Psalms for my quiet time with the Lord. Then she wanted to read Genesis 1:1, so she did, and then I read the first two chapters of Genesis to her. Anyway, I read this Psalm aloud to her and then I explained to her what it means, so I’m just going to share here basically what I said to her this morning, only not quite as simplified as what I told her.
The Psalmist said that he would be “careful to lead a blameless life.” He said that he would walk in his house “with blameless heart.” To be “blameless” means “to not be responsible for something wrong; innocent; doing nothing bad or wrong” – Encarta Dictionary. I believed the Psalmist to be saying that his goal; his intention was to do no wrong; to not sin. It did not mean that he would never fail or that he would never sin. As long as we are in these fleshly bodies we will sin occasionally, though we don’t have to sin and we don’t have to live in bondage to or the control of sin over our lives because Jesus died so that we could be free from sin. Yet, the Psalmist said that he would be careful not to sin.
To be careful means “taking reasonable care to avoid risks; watchful and protective about something; cautious; vigilant; alert; painstaking; conscientious” – Encarta. So, what I told my granddaughter is that we are supposed to be careful to not do things that are bad; things that are sinful; things that are against God like lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, and saying bad things about people, especially if our intention is to hurt them, etc. To be careful to not sin means that we have to work at it. We have to make a conscious effort not to sin. We have to be determined not to sin. We have to want to not sin. And, we need to avoid things and close association with people that or who might lead us to sin.
The Psalmist said that he “will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.” So, I explained that to my granddaughter, too. I gave her the example of television. That is one place, in particularly, where we are most vulnerable in today’s society to have our eyes look at “vile things,” that and the internet. We have to be determined before we get on the internet or before we watch TV or movies what we allow ourselves to watch. Surfing the net or channel surfing is dangerous. We need to go to the internet and go to the TV watchfully, carefully, determined, and with a conscientious approach that decides ahead of time what we will allow into our minds (Biblically guided).
Then, we talked about the people we hang out with. I told her that this is talking about who we make friends with and who we spend time with. We become like the people we are around most often because bad is stronger than good so often (See I Corinthians 15:33-34 where it says, “…bad company corrupts good character”). We need to, as much as is within our control (an 8 year old does not have too much control over this) to choose our friends and our closest companions wisely. The NT in the bible speaks much to this subject, as well. We are to live in the world, but not of it. We are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, yet we are to be a light to the world. If we become one with the world, then we can’t be much of a light to it because we are then no different than it (See James 4:4-5 where it says, “…friendship with the world is hatred toward God”). The Psalmist summed it up when he said, “I will have nothing to do with evil.” Oh, if we would all make that our goal in life and to do this carefully and with determination to the point that we examine every aspect of our lives to see where we are allowing evil into our lives; where we are allowing vile images before us; and where we are becoming one with the world.
Then, the Psalmist continues by saying that “Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence.” To slander someone means to “insult; defame; smear; disgrace; demean; malign; to be harmful; hurtful; damaging; destructive; to criticize somebody or something in a spiteful and false or misleading way.” In other words, this is with forethought, it is with spite, it is intentional and it is malicious, i.e. motivated by or resulting from a desire to cause harm or pain to another” – Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus. What I told my granddaughter is that this means speaking meanly about someone, purposefully, and with the intent to hurt and to harm. The Psalmist says he will put this person to silence. I believe that we should never entertain this kind of talk, we should not listen to it, and we should let anyone who is doing it know that we will not listen to it, thus putting them to silence. We need to do this with grace, and in humility, and in love, but we need to not entertain this, and we need to not be involved in the slander of others, as well.
Then, he says that “Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.” Haughty means “condescending – behaving in a superior or arrogant way.” Prides means “arrogant – having an exaggerated opinion of personal worth or abilities; a haughty attitude shown by somebody who believes, often unjustifiably, that he or she is better than others” – Encarta. The Psalmist also said that he did not want anyone in his house or in his presence who practiced deceit or who speaks falsely (lies). All this goes back to the beginning of this Psalm where the writer says that “men of perverse heart shall be far from me.” In other words, again, we need to choose wisely our friends and our closest companions, as much as is within our control to do so. This does not mean that we should never be around people who practice lies, deceit, pride, arrogance, slander, etc., otherwise we could never show them love and we could never witness Jesus’ love and grace to them, but it certainly means that they should not be our closest friends and it means that we should not agree with their behavior, we should not participate in it, and that we should be intentional about our contacts with people who practice (lifestyle) these things, so that we do not become one with the world (worldly desires, passions and behaviors) ourselves.
Now, the NT in the Bible speaks to this, as I mentioned earlier. It gives us instructions about non-believers yet it also gives us instructions about believers. If someone claims to be a believer in Jesus and yet willfully (with full knowledge) refuses (he/she has been warned) to change his sinful behavior and he or she chooses to continue in a sinful lifestyle that is against God and is against his word and that is a bad influence on other believers, then we should not hang out with that person. This is certainly not saying that all our friends must live perfect lives. None of us are perfect. Just ask the people closest to us. This is speaking, I believe, about willful disobedience to God without regard for God, for His Word, and for how his or her behavior might impact those around him. If other believers choose to continue to live sinful lifestyles, we should not hang out with them and they should not be our closest friends, either. The reason is that by joining them, we not only give approval to their behavior but we also risk joining with them in their sinful behavior.
You might say, “This sounds harsh, unloving and judgmental.” Well, the point of the song at the beginning of this is that we be like Jesus and that we follow his example. He certainly spent time with “sinners” which we all are, and he was criticized for it, too. He went to where they were. He talked with them. He showed them love. He met their needs. He ate with them. Yet, he also told them the way of salvation and that they could live lives free from bondage to sin. He definitely told them if the way they were living was wrong and sinful, but he did this in love. He told them to leave their lives of sin. He always gave them hope and he was always willing to restore; to give people another chance. In no way did he compromise his faith or his behavior in order to be liked or to be one of the crowd, and he didn’t participate in their sinful behavior, either. So, this should be our attitude, as well.
The point of this is not to have a “holier than thou” attitude, otherwise then we are the proud and the haughty, too. We are all sinners. There is none righteous, no not one. We all like sheep have gone astray, and we are all in need of a Savior. The point of this is that we not entertain sin in our lives, that we not become one with the world, that we be careful to not sin through intentional and deliberate thought and actions, and that we decide ahead of time what we will allow or not allow to be before us. We need to determine with the Psalmist that “we will have nothing to do with evil.” Yet, in our contacts with others, we are to follow this example that Jesus set before us. We should be like Jesus in this way – in compassion, love, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, acceptance of other people who have fears and failures, yet giving them a message of hope, healing and restoration just as Jesus did:
Mighty To Save / Hillsong
Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The Hope of nations
CHORUS:
Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender
BRIDGE:
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus (2X’s)
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer / Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
This has been an exhausting week. A lifetime friend of mine who is also the mother-in-law to my middle son and grandmother to four of my grandchildren was involved in a serious auto accident this past Thursday. She only has one child in town, Faith, so Faith has been over to the hospital daily, and most nights, to be with her mom. John and Faith’s four kids have thus been with us most of that time. My husband and I had four children, so I do have experience taking care of four children, but that was a long time ago, so daily I have been relying on the grace of God and the strength of my Lord to be the grandmother to my grandchildren that God would have me to be – Oh, to be like Thee! I can remember times in my life when other people had to help take care of my children for me. I am very grateful!
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Psalm 101:
Lizzie, who turned 8 years old today, sat beside me this morning on the sofa as I read in the Psalms for my quiet time with the Lord. Then she wanted to read Genesis 1:1, so she did, and then I read the first two chapters of Genesis to her. Anyway, I read this Psalm aloud to her and then I explained to her what it means, so I’m just going to share here basically what I said to her this morning, only not quite as simplified as what I told her.
The Psalmist said that he would be “careful to lead a blameless life.” He said that he would walk in his house “with blameless heart.” To be “blameless” means “to not be responsible for something wrong; innocent; doing nothing bad or wrong” – Encarta Dictionary. I believed the Psalmist to be saying that his goal; his intention was to do no wrong; to not sin. It did not mean that he would never fail or that he would never sin. As long as we are in these fleshly bodies we will sin occasionally, though we don’t have to sin and we don’t have to live in bondage to or the control of sin over our lives because Jesus died so that we could be free from sin. Yet, the Psalmist said that he would be careful not to sin.
To be careful means “taking reasonable care to avoid risks; watchful and protective about something; cautious; vigilant; alert; painstaking; conscientious” – Encarta. So, what I told my granddaughter is that we are supposed to be careful to not do things that are bad; things that are sinful; things that are against God like lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, and saying bad things about people, especially if our intention is to hurt them, etc. To be careful to not sin means that we have to work at it. We have to make a conscious effort not to sin. We have to be determined not to sin. We have to want to not sin. And, we need to avoid things and close association with people that or who might lead us to sin.
The Psalmist said that he “will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate; they will not cling to me. Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil.” So, I explained that to my granddaughter, too. I gave her the example of television. That is one place, in particularly, where we are most vulnerable in today’s society to have our eyes look at “vile things,” that and the internet. We have to be determined before we get on the internet or before we watch TV or movies what we allow ourselves to watch. Surfing the net or channel surfing is dangerous. We need to go to the internet and go to the TV watchfully, carefully, determined, and with a conscientious approach that decides ahead of time what we will allow into our minds (Biblically guided).
Then, we talked about the people we hang out with. I told her that this is talking about who we make friends with and who we spend time with. We become like the people we are around most often because bad is stronger than good so often (See I Corinthians 15:33-34 where it says, “…bad company corrupts good character”). We need to, as much as is within our control (an 8 year old does not have too much control over this) to choose our friends and our closest companions wisely. The NT in the bible speaks much to this subject, as well. We are to live in the world, but not of it. We are not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, yet we are to be a light to the world. If we become one with the world, then we can’t be much of a light to it because we are then no different than it (See James 4:4-5 where it says, “…friendship with the world is hatred toward God”). The Psalmist summed it up when he said, “I will have nothing to do with evil.” Oh, if we would all make that our goal in life and to do this carefully and with determination to the point that we examine every aspect of our lives to see where we are allowing evil into our lives; where we are allowing vile images before us; and where we are becoming one with the world.
Then, the Psalmist continues by saying that “Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him will I put to silence.” To slander someone means to “insult; defame; smear; disgrace; demean; malign; to be harmful; hurtful; damaging; destructive; to criticize somebody or something in a spiteful and false or misleading way.” In other words, this is with forethought, it is with spite, it is intentional and it is malicious, i.e. motivated by or resulting from a desire to cause harm or pain to another” – Encarta Dictionary and Thesaurus. What I told my granddaughter is that this means speaking meanly about someone, purposefully, and with the intent to hurt and to harm. The Psalmist says he will put this person to silence. I believe that we should never entertain this kind of talk, we should not listen to it, and we should let anyone who is doing it know that we will not listen to it, thus putting them to silence. We need to do this with grace, and in humility, and in love, but we need to not entertain this, and we need to not be involved in the slander of others, as well.
Then, he says that “Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.” Haughty means “condescending – behaving in a superior or arrogant way.” Prides means “arrogant – having an exaggerated opinion of personal worth or abilities; a haughty attitude shown by somebody who believes, often unjustifiably, that he or she is better than others” – Encarta. The Psalmist also said that he did not want anyone in his house or in his presence who practiced deceit or who speaks falsely (lies). All this goes back to the beginning of this Psalm where the writer says that “men of perverse heart shall be far from me.” In other words, again, we need to choose wisely our friends and our closest companions, as much as is within our control to do so. This does not mean that we should never be around people who practice lies, deceit, pride, arrogance, slander, etc., otherwise we could never show them love and we could never witness Jesus’ love and grace to them, but it certainly means that they should not be our closest friends and it means that we should not agree with their behavior, we should not participate in it, and that we should be intentional about our contacts with people who practice (lifestyle) these things, so that we do not become one with the world (worldly desires, passions and behaviors) ourselves.
Now, the NT in the Bible speaks to this, as I mentioned earlier. It gives us instructions about non-believers yet it also gives us instructions about believers. If someone claims to be a believer in Jesus and yet willfully (with full knowledge) refuses (he/she has been warned) to change his sinful behavior and he or she chooses to continue in a sinful lifestyle that is against God and is against his word and that is a bad influence on other believers, then we should not hang out with that person. This is certainly not saying that all our friends must live perfect lives. None of us are perfect. Just ask the people closest to us. This is speaking, I believe, about willful disobedience to God without regard for God, for His Word, and for how his or her behavior might impact those around him. If other believers choose to continue to live sinful lifestyles, we should not hang out with them and they should not be our closest friends, either. The reason is that by joining them, we not only give approval to their behavior but we also risk joining with them in their sinful behavior.
You might say, “This sounds harsh, unloving and judgmental.” Well, the point of the song at the beginning of this is that we be like Jesus and that we follow his example. He certainly spent time with “sinners” which we all are, and he was criticized for it, too. He went to where they were. He talked with them. He showed them love. He met their needs. He ate with them. Yet, he also told them the way of salvation and that they could live lives free from bondage to sin. He definitely told them if the way they were living was wrong and sinful, but he did this in love. He told them to leave their lives of sin. He always gave them hope and he was always willing to restore; to give people another chance. In no way did he compromise his faith or his behavior in order to be liked or to be one of the crowd, and he didn’t participate in their sinful behavior, either. So, this should be our attitude, as well.
The point of this is not to have a “holier than thou” attitude, otherwise then we are the proud and the haughty, too. We are all sinners. There is none righteous, no not one. We all like sheep have gone astray, and we are all in need of a Savior. The point of this is that we not entertain sin in our lives, that we not become one with the world, that we be careful to not sin through intentional and deliberate thought and actions, and that we decide ahead of time what we will allow or not allow to be before us. We need to determine with the Psalmist that “we will have nothing to do with evil.” Yet, in our contacts with others, we are to follow this example that Jesus set before us. We should be like Jesus in this way – in compassion, love, mercy, forgiveness, kindness, acceptance of other people who have fears and failures, yet giving them a message of hope, healing and restoration just as Jesus did:
Mighty To Save / Hillsong
Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The Hope of nations
CHORUS:
Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save
He is Mighty to save
Forever, Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender
BRIDGE:
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus (2X’s)
