The Gift of Truth

Psalm 12:1 “Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.”

[In spite of how it appears, I praise you, Lord, that you have always reserved for yourself some who are righteous in Christ. You are quietly at work to keep your children strong, to make them truth-bearers, shining the light in love to all around them, to be yeast, salt, and light in society. Help us to be carriers of hope, truth and light to all around us; convict us quickly when we are not.

Psalm 12:2 “Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.”

[This is true of so much of what goes on today: lies about what is right and wrong; lies in political correctness; lies of those who claim to be tolerant but are not; lies we tell ourselves.

But You, Lord God, are the only One we can truly, totally trust to speak Truth. Help us to be truth lovers (loving your Word), truth speakers (especially to ourselves) and truth discerners (in society). We so easily fall into our natural way of complaining. We say to ourselves, “That was terrible, disgusting,” when the truth is, it was disappointing and difficult.” To lie to ourselves about  situations and happenings pulls us down into unhappiness. True thinking lifts  us up, “That was a challenge and taught me a lot!”

Psalm 12:3 “May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue that says, ‘We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips—who is our master?’”

[Yes, Lord, show yourself mighty, expose the liars, bring them to justice; show yourself the true Master. May the deceived be brought into the light and grasp truth. May we not be fooled by anything that is put forth by liars, including lies we tell ourselves.

Shine truth in our lives, Lord, so that we may shine it on others. Convict us quickly of untruth we so readily tell ourselves. Help us to be your truth lights in the world today.]

Psalm 146:9 “The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow,”

[You, O Lord, not only see, but act on behalf those who are weak, those whom men are so willing to plunder. You protect, provide and guide the vulnerable, the hurting, the defenseless. I praise you for your graciousness in doing so, for it shows your mercy and love, your justice, your compassion at work in wonderful ways.]

“but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”

[Praise be to you, Lord, that you actively intervene to block the desires of the evil one as he seeks to work through evil people. You seem to let them prosper for a while–as Hitler did for twelve years–but then you bring them low.

I think of the many times in my life that you intervened and prevented people, police, politicians and public prosecutors from ruining my life. You intervened and brought good out of evil “The Lord is my rock and my fortress; whom should I fear?”

Lord, act quickly against such evil desires and evil men; foil the plans of the nations and thwart the purposes of the people; bring instead your desires to pass.]

It was 2001 and now that we were unified as a team we could begin to use the bookstore to hold seminars in an attempt to find spiritually interested people.

Looking for subjects that interested people in general, we had sessions on handling stress, on what it means to be wise, on women’s issues, on parenting and on the seven secrets of happiness, among others.

Since our meeting room at the bookstore was small, we held these “first level” public seminars in a nearby hotel and made the content general in nature. That way no one could accuse us of trapping them into a spiritual presentation.

At the end of the seminar we would then invite those interested to attend an additional, nonpublic discussion of the same subject from a biblical perspective. This worked well to identify those with any spiritual interest.

By the time we discontinued the seminars, there had been hundreds who had attended our events. The largest one took place when the author of the book “Five Languages of Love” came and spoke at two large gatherings. Along with the good exposure to truth and the sale of books, we were pleased to hear that a marriage was saved, although the couple did not come to Christ.

Drawing from the experience of others who were also holding spiritaul events in the city, we notified the appropriate desk at the authorities headquarters each time we had plans to hold a seminar.

They would send plain-clothes men to attend each of our public events. “For protection,” they said. “For observation,” we thought.

We later learned that as a business we did not need to notify them, but now that we had, we were on their radar screen. We would later reap the negative consequences of that, all of which the Lord would allow for His good reasons.

On my birthday, 2001

Satan uses all of his powers to oppress, control, and in the end to crush us like the car in the picture below, killing all he can.

But You, Lord Jesus, have made a way out of this prison of oppression, opening the door to the cell of hopelessness. You have called us to step out of the darkness of fear into the light of your Love, into the rich and warm relationship with you where our fears can be washed away in the river of your forgiveness and goodness, your grace and glory. You don’t want to crush us, but to transform us and make us like new, like the second car below.

Through your great work and sacrifice, Lord Jesus, you provided all we thirst for: in you we belong, in you we have competence, in you we have significance, security, acceptance and approval.

In you there is the certainty of your shepherding us through every dark valley of life into the wonder of your everlasting dwelling in Heaven. You have provided all that is needed for us to follow you into and in freedom: Your “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…” (2 Pet. 1:3).

You, Lord Jesus, are the great Deliverer, the mighty Shepherd, the everlasting King. Because of your goodness you are worthy of endless honor, praise and exaltation; you are worthy of all obedience, glory and thanksgiving.

I praise you for your constant, deep, compassionate and lovely presence in my life, guiding me every step of the way; convicting me of the next sin so I can be set free from it; drawing me on to greater surrender; protecting me from my own foolishness; guiding and empowering me to live more and more worthy of you.

So, I lift you up, praise your Name and exalt your Word above all things. Use me today to bring honor to your gracious and glorious Name by giving thanks in all things.

The Gift of Beauty leads us to Worship

You are yourself beautiful, O Lord.
You are lovely in goodness, graciousness and gloriousness.
You are righteous and just, positive and pure. .
You are kind, compassionate, forgiving and long suffering.
You are present, protecting, all seeing and caring.
You uphold all who are bowed down.
You deliver from the oppressor.
You heal the broken-hearted.
You guide the lost and save the sinner.

You are:
The God of goodness,
The Elohim of eternity,
The Shepherd of salvation,
The Father of faithfulness.

Therefore, you are worthy of worship, praise, glory and honor. So I bow before you now in awe, praising you in gratefulness. I rise up in your joy to exalt you in thankfulness and obedience.

May you be glorified today in my thoughts and actions, words and reactions, O Great and Mighty, Lovely and Lavish , O Just and Joyous Jesus!