Like water finding its way .. Your righteousness finds

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Ps. 31:1

How mighty and awesome is Your righteousness O Lord!
Your righteousness so cleaves You, so opens You, that You alone become a refuge for me – the unrighteous, the non-righteous, the never-righteous - in my sin.
Your righteousness so owns me in my shame, that it makes You fully responsible for me – the shamed, the shameful, the shaming – in my sin.
Like water finding its way to the lowest place – Your righteousness finds its way to low and lowest of me in my sin so that I might be raised up – by You.
Like water completely filling that which is empty – Your righteousness fills me in my emptiness so that I am filled – with You.
Like water washing away that which is filthy – Your righteousness washes me of my filth in the blood of Christ and I am cleansed – in You.
How far and wide Your righteousness is involved in all things for me.
Surely I am refuged well in You, when I ought be refused by You.
Surely I am put to glory in You, when I ought be to shame by You.
Surely I am delivered in You, when I ought be denied by You.
Surely You are Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness (Jr 33:16).

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.  Ps 65:5 

- pmwl

Hear … for no one else has ears to hear …

"Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” Ps 30:10 (ESV)

Hear me, O Lord, for I refused to hear.

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am unworthy.

Be my helper, O Lord, for I am helpless.

Hear me, O Lord, for no one else has ears to hear my need.

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for no one else has mercy to meet my need.

Be my helper, O Lord, for no one has help for my need.

O Lord, You alone heard my need in the voices that

betrayed You,

lied about You,

denied You,

condemned You,

mocked You

and cried out for remembrance of me in Your kingdom.

O Lord, You alone met my need as You suffered mercilessly at the hands of man and the wrath of God.

O Lord, You alone helped me in my need as the Father answered Your prayer that I be forgiven by making all that I am

Yours to deal with – for me,

Yours to answer – for me,

Yours to make right – for me,

and Yours to save – for me.

You hear O Lord, and now I hear the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).

You are merciful O Lord, and now I am saved from my end in sin (Nh 9:31).

You help me O Lord, and now in the shadow of Your wing, I sing for joy (Ps. 63:7).

The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer. Ps 6:9 (ESV)

- pmwl 

My inner arena in which the desires of my flesh are set against the desires of the Spirit…

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. Ps 25:1 (ESV)

My soul! My soul!

My inner battleground where the war between my sinful nature and my new nature in Christ is waged.

My inner battlefield where the law of my members wages its war against the law of mind, taking me captive to the sin that lives within my members (Rm 7:23)

My inner arena in which the desires of my flesh are set against the desires of the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are set against those of my flesh so that I am unable to do as I want (Gal 5:17-18).

My inner place where the paradox of being a sinner and a saint lives in almost unbearable unresolved tension and conflict.

My soul, my wretched soul, who will rescue you from me, from my conflict, from my sin?

He who has become my soul!

He who has become my life!

He who has become my forgiveness in the midst of my guilt.

He who has become my peace in the conflicts of my soul.

He who has become my joy in my defeats and despair.

He who on His Cross entered every war, every battle within me so that He might take both me and my losses to Himself.

He who, having fought all my battles and won every war, now gives to me His soul and with it, the safety and security of His victory.

He who promises never to leave me, nor forsake me or my soul.

He, who having begun this good work in me, will bring it to completion for me and my soul at His coming again.

My Lord! My Lord! Precious anchor for my soul (Hb 6:19), to You I lift up, to You I give the keeping of my soul and me.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.   Lm 3:25 (ESV)

- pmwl

And there where I am … there is only one to help me.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.   Ps 22:11 (ESV)

Lord, O Lord be not far from me, for in all my sin, I turn far from You, I have gone far from You.

And there to where I have turned in sin, trouble is near,

And there to where my sin has taken me, my sin has overtaken me.

And there where I am in sin, there is no one to help me.

And there where I am in sin, I am bound in my sin, and helpless in my sin.

And there where I am in sin, there is where the Savior has come.

And there He comes nearer to me than my trouble.

And there He has comes between me and my trouble.

And there with my trouble there is none to help Him.

And there with none to help Him, He put me far from my trouble.

And now I find, that be I here or there,

it is where the Savior is near, the Savior helps me, and the Savior always saves me.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Ps 46:1 (ESV) 

- pmwl

Only the damned know they are forsaken

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?    Ps 22:1 (ESV)

Who has not felt and sensed what these words speak. In all that they may have seen and experienced, hasn't everyone at one time or another believed themselves forsaken. How often do circumstances and sensations overwhelm me and all seems to provide the clearest of evidence that God has forsaken me.

Yet in all that I may experience, in all that I may feel or sense, I cannot truthfully speak these words while I am yet on this side of the grave.

Was I not conceived and born in sin, 

isn’t my reason still tainted by sin, 

aren’t all my senses still tainted by sin, 

and am I not still a sinner through I be redeemed?

With the answer to each of these being yes, all that I do experience, I experience in darkness, the deep darkness of sin. Thus I cannot know myself truly forsaken.

Only the damned know themselves forsaken. 

And in the darkness, the deep darkness of sin, there is one who stands with me, one who stands in my place, one who stands for me.

He has entered into my darkness, my deepest darkness to be damned for me, to cry out for me, to finish for me all possibility of God ever forsaking me.  

He is the Son of God and He has become a light for me that my darkness can never overcome (Jn 1:5 & 9).

He is Jesus Christ and He has come into the world to save me, a sinner (1 Tm 1:15).

He is God my Savior and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Hb 13:5).

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Ps 103:1-5 (ESV)

- pmwl 

A new and clean heart within my sinful heart

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear …  Psalms 10:17 (ESV)

Note what the Lord hears in prayer, “the desire of the afflicted.” Notice that the Lord listens far more than to the words offered up in prayer. He listens deeper than merely the words of the mouth, He listens to the heart for it is out of the heart that all things proceed. Even in the midst of all the evil that spews for from our hearts, our Lord has ears to hear the desire of humble heart.

A new and clean heart within my sinful heart;

• a humble and clean heart that lives and believes as the Lord Himself created in me through His Word and His Spirit;
• a humble heart that finds no worthiness in me to call Him Lord or call upon Him as my Lord, yet calls because He has made Himself my Lord;
• a humble heart that sets me before the mighty Lord as I really am, because as the Lord, He freely welcomes and saves me from all that I am so that I may be His own;
• a humble heart that looks to the Lord alone to save me from my sinful heart, my sins and the sins of others that press me on every side;
• a humble heart that, though I be burdened by the woe that is upon me for I am a man of unclean lips, still looks to the Lord of Hosts who meets me in my woe on the Cross to save me;
• a humble heart that calls only on the name of Lord to be saved and strengthened;
• a humble heart that rejoices in God my Savior who loves to fill to overflowing, all that I have emptied;
• a humble heart that rejoices in God my Savior who loves to make straight all that I have bent;
• a humble heart that rejoices in God my Savior who loves to completely take away every burden laid upon me by myself or others;
• a humble heart of faith, out of which come righteous desires and words that the Lord always hears and answers.

A humble heart of faith, that though it be ever so small, ever so tiny, is still the holy temple of the Holy Spirit who keeps me in the true faith through Jesus Christ the Lord. 

Have mercy Lord, and hear my prayer.  

The Lord bless you and keep you!

- pmwl 

The Lord loves to take the place of the poor

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.  Psalms 10:17-18 (ESV)

What a glorious reversal from the way of the world, the way of even my own sinful nature. The Lord, who is righteous and dwells on high, descends to the place of the afflicted, the place of the fatherless, the place of the oppressed, the place of the terrified, the place of the wrong, the place of sin.

Such are the places our Lord’s love is drawn, such are the places our Lord in His love cannot be kept from, such are the places our Lord has come to live that by His love each might be exchanged for the place He has prepared.

So great is His love that

He came to be afflicted so that in His affliction you are comforted.

He was made fatherless so that in Him you have the heavenly Abba Father as your father (Rm 8:15).

He was oppressed so that in Him you are lifted up on eagle’s wings (Is 40:31, Ps 103:5).

He was terrified so that in Him you have the peace that surpasses all understanding (Ph 4:7).

He became wrong so that in Him you are made right and righteous before God (Ep 4:24).

He became sin so that in Him the curse of your sin is destroyed in God’s forgiveness (Ga 3:13).

He became what we are so that in Him, in Christ Jesus, you are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come (Heb 2:14, 2Co 5:17).

Yes, though the Lord is on high, He always regards the lowly (Ps 138:6).

Surely the LORD is, and shall always be, to you as Isaiah speaks of Him: “You have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.” (Is 25:4).

The peace of the Lord be yours always.

- pmwl

A nothing of a prayer that prays for all things

Be gracious to me, O Lord!  Psalms 9:13 (ESV)

Such simple words, such a seemingly small thing to ask, yet these few words ask that nothing less than all that is Jesus Christ be given to me.

In these few words the living God is petitioned to fulfill every one of His promises to me.

This short prayer is a petition for the absolute heights, depths and breadth of God’s love to be given to me.

This mustard size prayer pleads for the Lord to move the mountain of my sin from me here to the Christ there.

This seemingly nothing of a prayer prays that the Lord provide me with everything.

This unworthy prayer prayed according to the worthiness of the Lord to answered it for me.

If you would know whether all that this prayer asks is answered – look to the manger of Christ, look to the life of Christ, look to the cross of Christ, look to the death of Christ, look to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and if you would find the answer to this little prayer in your life, look to your baptism in you were united by the grace of God the answer – Jesus Christ.

The grace of God be with you all. Amen.  

- pmwl

He is able to read the text of our tears

“Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.” 

Psalms 6:8

Who are these workers of evil? It is all those that are turned away from God, be it the Devil or the unbelieving sinner. St. Paul, an apostle no less, says that the works of evil that kept rising up and taking him captive, was sin that still lived in him. Our weeping over them, over what they do to us, over what they lead us to do to other, or what others have done to us -is the call of our heart, not our mouth and this the Lord alone hears, understands and responds in His loving mercy and forgiveness.

In what language does weeping convey its meaning? It is the language of the heart and it is universal. Weeping is the honest conversation of sorrow. Mankind never fully understands this conversation, whether it be the weeping of others or ourselves. And even if we could understand weeping’s conversation, we are powerless to answer it.

Yet, there is one who understands the conversation, the petitions of our weeping: “the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.” He who wept, is intimately fluent in the language of weeping and responds in mercy.

What blessed comfort is this in our sorrows, that our Lord hears the honest pleas of our weeping with the ears of mercy.

What easing of our sorrows that He is able to read the texts of our tears.

Each of our tears is an eloquent orator putting before the Lord the truthfulness of our sorrow and all that we are in our sorrow. Putting before Him our helplessness, and He who made Himself helpless for us on the Cross, responds with nothing less than the heaven sent help of God's forgiveness that gives us the victory over all our sorrows and their cause.

Even in our weeping, when words fail us, we can say with all confidence: “In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears.” Psalms 18:6

Gracious Lord, I give You thanks that when evil arises within me or without, You have the ears to hear words of my prayer and the words of my weeping. Let your mercies bear me up through my sorrows and my struggles, “because You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You.” Psalm 86:5

The peace of the Lord be with you always.

 -pmwl

THE BURDENS OF A PASTOR

I offer the following as an encouragement to a dear brother pastor I had the privilege to visit with today. A pastor like many, whose love for those he serves weighs heavy on him.    -pmwl

"Some things, even though openly known, ought to be tolerated for a time. That is, when circumstances afford no suitable opportunity for openly correcting them. For sores by being cut at the wrong time are the worse enflamed; and, if medical treatments suit not the time, it is clear that they lose their medicinal function. But, while a fitting time for the correction of those in one’s charge is being sought, the patience of the church leader is exercised under the very weight of their offenses.

Therefore, it is well said by the psalmist, “Sinners have built upon my back” (Psalm 129:3 LXX). For on the back we support burdens; and therefore he complains that sinners had built upon his back, as if to say plainly; those whom I am unable to correct I carry as a burden laid upon me. (Gregory the Great, c. 540-604).

PRAYER:

God our Father, Lord Jesus Christ, send Your grace and peace. Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, comfort us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort others who are in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from You. Amen. (2 Corinthians 1:2-4)"

from A Daily Prayer Catechism THE LORD WILL ANSWER CPH 2004 p,. 135