Knowing God: “Keeping the Fire Hot!” – Psalm 1

When it is cold, you want a good fire that can keep you warm. It is easy to look impressive with a “flash fire” -  a large yellow ball of fire that bursts forth from some grass or leaves. At the same time, it doesn’t last. A good heating fire is built carefully and maintained attentively.

Key Principle: Godliness is a well built and consistently maintained set of choices – but its warmth endure for generations.

 “Five truths concerning my choice to walk with God”

Truth One: It is Chosen – A stable and mature life for God begins with discernment over where I must choose to build my life:

 Psalm 1:1 How blessed (eh’-sher: from a root word rawshar that has to do with well supported or leveled for building) is the man who:

• Does not walk (holek: from hawlak, to pass by and notice, to make one’s periodic walk through) in the counsel (b’ay-tsaw’ –in the advice) of the wicked (raw-shaw’ – morally condemned or criminal),

The desire for mature stability in the Lord makes me deliberately focus my view. I must interpret life based on His Word, and not succumb to the temptation of heeding the siren’s song of those who are morally adrift. Moral truth and guidance comes from those who know God and walk with God – not those who I encounter along the path of life that have no such connection.

We live in a world of prodigal sons and daughters. In his book, Balancing the Tightrope, Barry Powell relates from a survey of 200,000+ college freshmen, 76% listed financial prosperity as the most important of their life goals. Is it any wonder that one of the top issues in almost every Presidential election is the economy? What has it come to when our top voting priority is our buying power? Even more important than crime, foreign policy or moral values. You see, like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable, we can buy into this world’s mind set and make the same mistake he did: that life really does consist in the things that we possess. We must be careful to challenge that thinking and not buy into it.

• Does not stand (awmad – to take one’s stand in or characteristically build thought patterns) in the path (derech- the way or characteristic actions of) of sinners (chata’im – those who miss the mark and thereby offend),

The desire for mature stability in the Lord causes me to dismiss opportunities to define life by the actions of the crowd who routinely offend God. My standard cannot be found there! I dare not pause to long and ponder their ways, nor do I take my stand on the basis of their actions.

Do not misunderstand. God still values the person who is making all the wrong choices, but we are not to take our stand among them. Holiness cannot be transmitted by osmosis, but corruption can (Haggai 2:10-13) – so we need to be warned. A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of over 200 people, he asked the question, “Who would like this $20 bill? Hands started going up. He said, “I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to crumple the $20 dollar bill up. He then asked, “Who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. “Well,” he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. Now who still wants it?” Still the hands were up in the air. “My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. Because it did not decrease in value, it is still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God’s eyes. To Him, dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him. You see, it did not matter to the people sitting in that room that the $20 bill was dirty, crumpled, torn and worn down. (sermon central illustrations). The issue isn’t the value of the lost person, it is the placement of the yielded one. Do not spend too long in the world’s way of thinking – trouble will result.

• Does not sit (yawshab – to take a seat or dwell comfortably) in the seat (moshawv – the dwelling place) of scoffers (loots – one who derides or mocks) !

The desire for mature stability in the Lord presses me so that I cannot become comfortable with dwelling among people who have no love for God and His Word. I must keep my distance from those who openly mock Him or what He has done.

Step away from the first verse and do not allow yourself to become uncomfortable with the negative nature of the words. In them is LIFE. God makes clear that my walk with Him will produce a happy and mature stability – but it comes at a price. I must choose not to follow those who have made their choice for a path that is NOT meant to honor Him. Some friendships that draw me into darkness must be courteously curtailed until I have the strength of the Spirit to renew them and bring to them a real comfort and example of the love of God. This cannot be done without grace, but we must be strong enough to stand in a windstorm before we venture into it. Many a testimony has been ruined by one who went into the storm without the proper strengthening – and the testimony was eroded rather than enhanced. Every choice to spend time in an activity is a choice to DENY spending time in all others. It is not intrinsically a negative thought – it is a simple truth. We will not become stable, mature and happy in our walk with God if we do not limit the places our feet take us.

Look carefully at your life. How are you being influenced? The opportunities to stop and pay attention to the world’s wisdom abounds. The checkout stand in the local market promises to offer techniques on how to look like a movie star and “make our man or woman scream in ecstacy” in the bedroom. Horoscopes promise wisdom from the stars. Talk show hosts promise us the answer to everything from politics to personal hygiene. Everyone knows how WE can be successful – even if they can’t stay married while they give us the advice.

Truth Two: It is Grounded – A stable and mature life for God is built on recalling and drawing from the truth God has revealed.

2 But his delight (khay’-fets does mean care or favor, but comes from an agricultural root word for the “bend” of a branch; a repositioning that allowed the branch to get best light and be most productive) is in the law (to-raw’ – the term for the LAW is actually from an archer’s term for an aimed shot; it was also used of a bullock, who set the way of the furrow) of the LORD, and in His law he meditates (yeh-geh is from daw-gaw’ – to utter or devise a plan from) day and night.

We are not without a place to get truth. The world has their experts – we have the revealed truth of the Living God! When we deliberate our decisions based on its light and aim to hit the target of its principles our devised plan brings a result that honors our Master. Regardless of the results in this life, from the eternal perspective, the desire to honor and delight the Lord has its own result.

Look at the word “delight”. Are we bent toward the Word for our answers? 1 Peter 2:2-3 reminds “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” Our appetite for the Lord and His Word becomes quite dull when we have eaten too much of this world. We are satiated by the wrong things, and our hunger for good food has been displaced by the world’s sugar-laden sauces.

Sometimes we have to listen closely to hear God’s truths. Some of the deepest ones come from the most unlikely places! I read this and could not resist it:

A couple of years ago I heard a story of a boy named Jeremy. He was born with a twisted body, a slow mind and a chronic, terminal illness that had been slowly killing him all his young life. One Sunday morning in early Spring Jeremy’s Sunday school teacher told the children the story of Jesus, and then to emphasize the idea of new life springing forth, she gave each of the children a large plastic egg. “Now,” she said to them “I want you to take this home and bring it back tomorrow with something inside that shows new life. Do you understand?” The next Sunday morning, 19 children came to Sunday school, laughing and talking and gathered around Ms. Miller as she opened each one to see what was inside. In the first egg, there was a flower. “Oh yes, a flower is certainly a sign of new life. When plants peek through the ground we know that spring is here. “A small girl in the first row waved her arms. ”That’s my egg, Miss Miller,” she called out. The next egg contained a plastic butterfly, which looked very real. Ms. Miller held it up. “We all know that a caterpillar changes and turns into a beautiful butterfly. Yes, that is new life, too” little Judy smiled proudly and said, “Miss Miller, that one is mine.” Another egg had a rock with moss on it.; the moss, too, showed life. Billy spoke up from the back of the classroom. “My daddy helped me” He beamed. Then Ms. Miller opened the fourth egg. She gasped. The egg was empty Surely it must be Jeremy’s, she thought, and, of course, he did not understand her instructions. She thought to herself, “Perhaps I should’ve phoned his parents.” Because she did not want to embarrass him, she quietly set the egg aside and reached for another. Suddenly Jeremy spoke up. “Miss Miller, aren’t you going to talk about my egg?” Flustered, she replied, “but Jeremy – your egg is empty” He looked into her eyes and said softly, “yes, but Jesus’ tomb was empty and I have new life because of it” Three months later Jeremy died. Those who paid their respects at the mortuary were surprised to see that 19 children had placed plastic eggs on top of his casket, all of them empty. (sermon central illustrations).

Truth Three: It is a Process – A stable and mature life for God will show itself in time – not necessarily in the immediate.

3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit (per-ee’ – can be fruit or foliage) in its season (ayth – its times) and its leaf (aw-leh’ – leaf or branches) does not wither (from naw-bale’- disgrace or wilt); and in whatever he does, he prospers (tsaw-lakh’- in the agricultural sense it is the breaking out of the new shoot from the branch that appears dormant).

God is a farmer. He does most of His important works in a process. Creation was a process. Salvation was a patiently erected scheme of the Master. Our lives are played out in a process. With that in mind, we must patiently tend to godliness. It is not instant, but it is productive over time. Ungodly behaviors may yield quicker results, but not BETTER results. Stop for a moment and really ask yourself, “What kind of person am I becoming? Am I growing in my walk with God? Am I investing the time there that one day I will stand before Him and hear – ‘Well done!’”

When we are becoming what God intends, we are refreshing and encouraging to be around. We bring LIFE to the hearer. We supply the encouragement and the reassurance to the others. New shoots are evident – we are like spring time. Is that truly a description of us?

Truth Four: It offers Perspective – A stable and mature life for God allows us to look at the longer view of life – the eternal one.

4 The wicked (raw shaw – evil doer) are not so, but they are like chaff (chamots – from a word for the unusable part of the grain blown away by the wind) which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand (from koom – to abide or be able to endure) in the judgment, nor sinners (chata’aim – those who have missed the mark of) in the assembly (edaw –has a base word “ed” or witness) of the righteous (innocent or acquitted ones).

Though it may not appear so in this life, there will come a day when all the gains of this life will evaporate in the lives of those who do not choose to follow God. The rich will be abased and understand the bankruptcy of heart they have lived in. They will clearly see the choice they made was in the wrong life and for the wrong pleasures. The very witness of the godly in that day will stand both as a signet to the glory of the Savior and an affront to the choices of the unrighteous.

It is easy to see the ungodly as gaining. Psalm 73 :12 mentions that the “wicked are always at ease and they have increased their wealth.” And sometimes it can seem that way. It troubled the Psalmist to the point that he said in verse 16 “it is troublesome in my sight.” It wasn’t until he came “into the sanctuary of God and perceived their end” that things changed in his view in 73:17.

Truth Five: It is Personal – A stable and mature life for God does not escape His notice, nor His reward.

6 For the LORD knows (from yaw-daw – to know in this context both thoroughly and intimately) the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish (aw-bad – to perish or have evidence eliminated).

God does not forget those who serve Him. His steadfast commitment to repay any sacrifice truly made for Him cannot be abated. At the same time, the Lord remembers grace…

A young man named Robert Robinson had been saved from a very sinful life in the mid 1700s through George Whitfield’s ministry in England. Soon afterward, the 23-year-old Robinson wrote the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” You may recognize some of the lyrics: Come thou font of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace, Streams of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise….But sadly, Robinson later drifted away from those streams he had written about and, like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the far country of decadence. Then one day he was riding in a stagecoach, sitting next to a young woman who was deeply engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked Robinson what he thought of it. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. Bursting into tears, Robinson said, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the “streams of mercy” mentioned in his song still flowed. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his “wandering heart” back to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship. — (Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories, p. 52)

Godliness is a well built and consistently maintained set of choices – but its warmth endure for generations.