CCC Gainesville | Blog
Tomorrow we celebrate palm Sunday with communion services at 8:30 and 11:15. You will notice in the foyer and sanctuary palms setting the scene just as they did when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Enjoy this insightful devotional to enter into your celebration
From Tom Wright: I have on my shelves a Bible that my grandfather used when he was a student, a hundred or so years ago. It’s good to have that sort of contact with earlier generations, but what pleases me particularly is being able to see how he read it, what was important to him in it. Here are his underlinings of particular passages. Here are the things he scribbled in the margins. When I remember him from my boyhood, he comes across as a cheerful, outdoor, friendly man. All that was true. But here, in his private jottings, I trace something of the inner man, and how he became who he was.
That is a small window on what we ought to think and feel as we read the Psalms and think of Jesus. It’s passages like this that make it obvious; but really we should sense, all through the Psalter, his quiet presence, inhabiting the ancient traditions of his people, pondering and praying through the joys and the sorrows, reflecting on the portrait of the coming king, agonizing over the constant refrain of sorrow and exile. Here, if we listen carefully, we trace something of how Jesus became who he was. ‘Even though he was the Son,’ says an early Christian writer, ‘he learned obedience by what he suffered’ (Hebrews 5.8). And, as we read the Psalms, we realize how he learned that obedience. His own praying had been formed by these poems. We are privileged to pray them with him, sensing his presence as we do so.
It would be good to read the whole Psalm, of course, not just these central eight verses. According to Luke (23.46), Jesus prayed verse 5 (‘into your hand I commit my spirit’) as he hung dying on the cross. The opening of the Psalm sets the agony of the central passage into the context of a rock-bottom trust in God, despite all that the world can do. The closing passage, too, celebrates God’s continuing and abundant goodness and protection. But here, in the middle, we find the passage which meant that, when Jesus was plotted against, whispered about, picked up by the soldiers, laughed at, spat at, abandoned by his friends, he knew this didn’t mean he had somehow fallen out of God’s hands. It didn’t mean he had taken a wrong turn.
This lesson is vital for the church as a whole and for every individual Christian. Of course, it is possible to take a wrong turn and suffer the consequences. It’s no use quoting these verses if you have rebelled and gone your own way, and find yourself in a mess as a result. The right thing then is to repent and get back on course as quickly as possible. But if, so far as you know, you have faithfully trusted and followed, and then find yourself in this kind of distress, lonely and misunderstood, it may be that this is simply part of your particular call to join in the prayer of Jesus, the suffering of Jesus, so that his life and joy may also be revealed in you and through you. Read 2 Corinthians 4 and see how one very early Christian came to exactly this conclusion, using the Psalms to help him.
And when the church as a whole finds itself in difficulties — lack of money, mocked in the media, perplexed about what to do next — that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s taken a wrong turn, either. Of course, scandals and divisions are shameful. It is all too possible for the church to get it horribly wrong. When that happens it must say sorry, to God and to everyone who’s been affected. But sometimes God’s people as a whole are called to follow their Lord through the darkness as well as into the light. That’s why the Psalms remain indispensable in our public worship as well as our private prayer.
TODAY
Thank you, gracious Lord, that we can share your own prayer as we go through the darkness. Help us this coming week to stay close to you and to share your faith and hope.
First Sundays o’ each month we gather at 6PM in the office complex for 55 minutes of kingdom-advancing prayer. Join us!
At the end of chapter 4 in Ephesians, Paul exhorts us to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.” Then he immediately follows up in 5:1 by saying, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children.” Meaning, he’s pointing back to 4:32 and talking about our character reflecting the character of God. What’s the motivation and engine to produce that character? It’s the heart of the Gospel — the free grace and unfathomable forgiveness God has shown us.
We always imitate what we love. As a child I wanted to have sweet juke moves like my favorite NFL running back, Barry Sanders, and would mimic them in my backyard (trees didn’t stand a chance of tackling me). As I look at youth culture, I notice how teenagers imitate the clothing styles, demeanor, or worldview of their favorite bands, celebrities, fictional characters, or friends. We always imitate what we love, whether consciously or unconsciously.
Phil Mickelson is considered by many to be the greatest left-handed golfer ever. I found out last week that he’s not actually left-handed. He throws a football, writes, and does everything but hit a golf ball with his right hand. The reason he golfs left-handed is because from the time he was 18 months old, he’d watch his dad (who was right-handed) practice hitting golf balls. As he grew up watching his dad, he’d mirror his swing and putting. Even though it was against his nature to be a lefty, as he gazed adoringly at his father as a beloved son, he became an imitator. It was backwards to his original nature, but looking and loving and practicing caused him to mirror his father.
Earlier in chapter 4 Paul says to “put off the old self” (4:22) and to “put on the new self.” (4:24) Let’s never pretend like nothing’s happened to us as Christians. God has done something! He’s broken in, given us new life, and changed us! There’s a new way to be human, a new basis for identity in Christ, a new hope for eternity, a new way to walk through life.
Paul reiterates his point in 5:2, saying, “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” There is a call to holiness for the Christian. The call to walk in a certain way isn’t determined arbitrarily. Rather, it’s vitally connected to the character of the God in whose image we were created. Often times our motivation for striving for holiness can stem from the wrong place, which usually leads to us falling into sin or having a crushed spirit from trying to keep God’s commands through our own power. Thank God He’s done something to save our weary, sinful souls and has given us His Spirit to lead us towards holiness. My prayer is that we’d gaze adoringly at our Father in Heaven. He is mighty and awesome and glorious and holy and just and rich in mercy. Let’s remember that He has forgiven us, loved us first, and cleansed us from our sin. Therefore, let’s walk as Christ walked. Let’s care about holiness (read chapters 4 through 6 of Ephesians to get some ideas of what that might mean). Let’s look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Be imitators of God, as beloved children.
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in his wonderful face,
And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace”
-“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” by Helen Lemmel
