Walking With Grace

Good morning, everyone! A few days ago, I wrote about how Psalm 100 was a perennial favorite for finding joy in my own life and encouraging others. Today, as I’m nearing the end of my Bible reading plan, I was meditating on Psalm 101 (my Psalm readings are not in chronological order), and was struck by the fact that this is actually a wonderful Psalm to ponder as we approach Christmas:

I will sing of your love and justice, Lord.
    I will praise you with songs.
 I will be careful to live a blameless life—
    when will you come to help me?
I will lead a life of integrity
    in my own home.
 I will refuse to look at
    anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all who deal crookedly;
    I will have nothing to do with them.
 I will reject perverse ideas
    and stay away from every evil.

I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.
    I will not endure conceit and pride.

 I will search for faithful people
    to be my companions.
Only those who are above reproach
    will be allowed to serve me.
 I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house,
    and liars will not stay in my presence.
 My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked
    and free the city of the Lord from their grip.

Psalm 101:1-8

My first reaction to reading this psalm was, “Wow, how inspiring!” But as I sat with it a bit longer and asked the Holy Spirit to illuminate my own heart, I became more uncomfortable. These are wonderful aspirations, and as the inspired Word of God, they represent God’s desired will for my life, but sadly I can’t say that this psalm reflects the truth about my life all the time. Even the opening gave me pause: I love singing praises to God in church and try to make a practice of singing at home as well, but can I with 100% certainty say that my praise is always coming from a completely sincere, undistracted heart? I was also struck by the verse “I live a life of integrity in my own home.” It’s easy to serve in church and focus on the status of my outward-facing relationships, but how would my family describe me? Even if Ivan affirms my integrity, how would I score with God, who knows the deepest secrets of my heart? And then there’s the part about not enduring “conceit and pride.” Once again, I’m fairly good at identifying certain overt sins, but a judgmental or critical spirit can slip under the radar.

By the time I’d reached the end of the psalm, I’d been reminded – yet again – that I am not above reproach, especially if I’m considering the thoughts of my heart that only the Lord sees. But instead of being depressed, I was encouraged that, while David’s aspirations in this psalm are righteous – especially given his role as king of Israel – at certain points in his life even he would not have met the requirements he was inspired to write.

But one of David’s descendants would. In addition to dying for our sins, Jesus lived the perfect life that none of us could ever live so that his righteousness could be fully credited to each of us who trusts him for salvation. I believe God includes passages like Psalm 101 for us in Scripture to remind us of his holy standard, and to encourage us to keep pursuing these character qualities once we’ve received our new nature as believers (Col. 3:10). As we look forward to Christmas, let us give thanks for the new natures we’ve received and the progressive sanctification that is taking place in all our lives, all because Jesus humbled himself, took on human flesh, and lived a perfect life in our place 2,000 years ago!

See you tomorrow!

As Grace mentioned, this year we’ve been starting the morning by reading and listening to carols together. Recently we came to one of my favorites: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” Not only is the music beautiful, but the lyrics really spoke to me this time around, and I hope you will be encouraged as we reflect on them together.

“It came upon the midnight clear, / That glorious song of old, / From angels bending near the earth / to touch their harps of gold: / ‘Peace on the earth, good will to men, / From heaven’s all-gracious King.’ / The world in solemn stillness lay / To hear the angels sing.”

Few times in the Bible do we witness such a direct intrusion of the spiritual realm into our earthly realm than when the angels announced the birth of Jesus to a band of shepherds at night (Luke 2:8-20). As messengers of the Eternal King of Kings, they heralded the arrival of His son, bringing the promise of that most elusive of human pursuits: peace.

“Yet with the woes of sin and strife / The world has suffered long, / Beneath the angel strain have rolled / Two thousand years of wrong; / And man, at war with man, hears not / The love song which they bring: / O hush the noise, ye men of strife, / And hear the angels sing!”

The second verse of this carol brings us from Bethlehem two thousand years ago to our own time, when man is still “at war with man.” Two thousand years of scientific and societal progress notwithstanding, the human heart today is just as much in need of grace and redemption as at the moment when the light of Christ broke into the darkness of our world. May our hearts not miss the divine “love song” poured out to us at Christ’s birth.

“All ye, beneath life’s crushing load, / Whose forms are bending low, / Who toil along the climbing way / With painful steps and slow, / Look now! for glad and golden hours / Come swiftly on the wing: / O rest beside the weary road / And hear the angels sing.”

It is when we come to the end of ourselves – tired, weary, and even broken – that we recognize the beauty and wonder of the life and love that Jesus offers. Our Lord is the gentle and powerful Shepherd of our souls who bids us to”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“For lo! the days are hast’ning on, / By prophets seen of old, / When with the ever circling years / Comes round the age of gold; When peace shall over all the earth / Its ancient splendors fling, And the whole world give back the song / Which now the angels sing.”

As children of the Risen King, we look forward to the time when peace covers all the earth, and all creation magnifies the one true God, in all His splendor and glory. God, who is faithful, has promised that He is making all things new, and will one day restore ourselves and our world. What is broken will be made new, and sorrow will permanently be replaced with gladness and thanksgiving.

If you are walking through this Christmas season with joy and hope, I rejoice with you and praise God for His goodness and blessing. If in this season you are walking through a valley, carrying a heavy load, I pray that the words of this Christmas carol will lift your gaze to the One who, one night two thousand years ago, came to give us hope, who gives us that hope still, and who has promised to bring us safely to the “age of gold, when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling.”

Something I’m extremely grateful for is the chance to study French with a real expert! It’s no secret that Paris is my absolute favorite city, and I would move there in a heartbeat. We’ve been blessed to visit twice in the last three years, first in June 2023 on a school trip and then on our own last Christmas for our ninth anniversary. I started learning French in preparation for our 2023 trip using the Pimsleur language program as well as YouTube and movies, and loved the trip and the language so much that I’ve tried to keep up with it ever since. For the short amounts of time we were in Paris, I was grateful to be able to generally understand what was said, as well as shop/order food/navigate. However, as any of us who love a language and long to spend an extended amount of time in a foreign country are aware, being tolerated by a certain breed of polite native speaker does NOT equal being competent in your desired language.

When the opportunity arose a few months ago to actually practice French in person, I couldn’t have been more blessed. Judy taught French at Ivan’s school, Valley Christian, for three decades and is legendary for her skill with the language, her enormous heart for students, and her love for the Lord. It’s been such a privilege to spend time with her on Wednesday mornings talking about life and counseling (another shared passion) building my French vocabulary and grammar, reading the delightful book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and memorizing Scripture.

See you tomorrow!

Good morning, everyone! Today I’d like to continue our Christmas carol theme by sharing with you the history behind one of my personal favorites, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”

While some may put forth a Northern European favorite like “O Come All Ye Faithful” or “Good King Wenceslas” as the oldest carol still sung today (both were composed in the 13th century), the award most likely goes to the song I’ve posted above.

“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” was a Greek hymn that originated in the 4th century as preparation for taking communion. It emphasizes God’s holiness and power, as well as the awe we should experience as we contemplate his shocking choice to descend from heaven, dwell with us, and redeem us with his very own body. In the 19th century, this hymn was translated, paired with a French folk tune, and revitalized as an Advent carol. I love the richness of its imagery and its unique role as a window to what worship in the early church might have been like.

See you tomorrow!

I’ve shared before how the brain injury makes it difficult for me to overcome negative emotions because there’s a physiological disconnect between the “thinking” and “feeling” portions of my brain (short-circuiting the wisdom that if you renew your mind with truth long enough, your heart will follow suit). As a counselor, I’ve also spent time listening to people’s struggles with sin and suffering and praying about the best way to help them move forward biblically. My struggles, as well as some of those I’ve walked alongside, served as part of the inspiration for our second book, Hello, God.

These journeys have also taught me to love Psalm 100, both as a source of encouragement for myself and for others. It’s very brief, but I believe it offers some universal principles for joy:

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
     Serve the LORD with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!

 Know that the LORD, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

 For the LORD is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100:1-5

First of all, joy – and rest – comes from acknowledging that God is sovereign and good. So much of my anxiety and sadness can be traced back to wishing situations and people would become something other than they are, which at its root suggests that I don’t truly believe God knows what is best for me – or the people in my life. And I suspect this may be true for a lot of people who struggle with these emotions. He is creator and shepherd – completely powerful, and completely personally invested in the lives of each one of his flock.

Second, I love Psalm 100’s reassurances about the Lord’s character and his heart toward his people. No matter what is going on in the moment, we can trust these declarations that God’s love and faithfulness are eternal. There are times – even long periods – when our circumstances may tempt us to doubt this, but the psalmist encourages us to zoom out from our personal experience and survey the testimony of redemptive history. Once we consider how God has faithfully, relentlessly pursued his rebellious human creatures from the Garden of Eden right up to the present day, pouring out his unbridled wrath on his own precious Son so that he could offer us salvation, things begin to look different. And every time I consciously remind myself that my eternity is secured because of what Christ suffered in my place on the cross, whatever trial I happen to be facing takes a different hue.

As the Apostle Paul famously wrote, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-17)

See you tomorrow!

Something I’ve loved about this series is watching God work in big and little ways I never imagined when I began. Like I noted in my first post, I prefer to plan my writing in advance, pray about potential topics and themes, and have lots of time to ponder and edit before posting. This daily series doesn’t let me do that, so I’ve had to be much more dependent on the Lord to provide both topics and the time to write each day.

The first time I became distinctly aware of how God was working through this process was when our idea to periodically post Christmas carols led to my listening to my favorite Christmas recording by Jubilant Sykes and drafting a post about him on the day of his passing. I didn’t become aware of his death until after I was done (I subsequently updated the post), but I do believe God often puts people on our hearts for a reason, and I don’t think this was a coincidence since his family is deeply in need of prayer.

On a lighter note, I’ve continued to see God’s hand at work in prompting me to write about how he speaks through creation. The day after that post, Ivan and I were out in the park next to our condo and we ran across a beautiful, medium-sized coyote! I’m very grateful we live next to a park with lots of trees, grass and a walking trail, but this was a startling encounter because we are still in an urban area. Although we occasionally see raccoons and possums, and some of you may have heard about Ivan’s terrifying but anticlimactic run-in with a skunk last year, the critters in our complex are typically under three feet tall. Even more surprising was the fact that this unusual canine visitor did not seem the least bit disoriented or nervous around the families and dogs that flood our park every Saturday afternoon. In fact, he seemed quite at home.

We spent more time than was probably advisable admiring and photographing him (I don’t know for sure it was a “he,” but he had a very easygoing vibe in my opinion), and when we got home I was so curious about his nonchalance in the middle of a city park that I decided to do some research.

Apparently, the “urban coyote” is a well-established phenomenon and has its own Wikipedia page, as well as educational resources from the National Wildlife Federation and PBS. The short story is that urban coyotes are extremely adaptable and resourceful animals, useful for controlling rodent populations, and are unlikely to be aggressive if given proper space and respect.

I think this “friendly” coyote – if there is such a thing – is a wonderful example of God’s creation continuing to metamorphose as our society changes, and both Ivan and I were so grateful to experience a something a little “wilder” than the squirrels and finches we usually see on our afternoon walk.

See you tomorrow!

I recently heard the song “Once Upon” by Sovereign Grace for the first time, and these lyrics stood out to me:

“Once upon a bed of straw / slept the Sovereign Son of God / Lord of the universe /breathing the dust of earth.”

What an amazing love this is; there is none other like it. No other love freely gives up so much for such a poor return: leaving the glories of Heaven for a dirty stable, trading the worship of angels for the scorn and enmity of the humans He created.

The more I reflect on God’s sacrificial love for you and me, the more I am humbled and convicted of the shallowness of my love for Him and others. And the more I am grateful that He loves me this much. My hope lies in the character, acts, and promises of God, the One who never changes and who has promised to walk with me every day. The One who emptied Himself for my sake, to reconcile me to Himself. I belong to Him and can rejoice in Him.

May we take in the joy and wonder of Christmas more and more as we reflect on the eternal truth and love displayed in the birth of the baby in the manger.

See you tomorrow!

Good morning, everyone! Continuing the theme of resting in God’s presence that I started yesterday, I want to share that one way I enjoy spending time with the Lord is by taking a daily walk. While I affirm there is great reward found in beginning the day with prayer and Bible reading, and God has helped us both be faithful with this practice since college, there are also many Scriptures that emphasize how God uses creation to reveal various aspects of his character to both believers and unbelievers (e.g. Psalm 19, Psalm 29, and Romans 1).

Walks are a great encouragement to me because they provide an opportunity to disconnect from technology, observe the beauty of God’s creation, respond with thanks and praise, and pray over anything the Lord brings to mind. I continue to learn so much about God’s infinite creativity and attention to detail by noticing the tiny variations in the plants and animals around me. These times also bring me great comfort as I ponder the even greater care and attention the Lord lavishes on the lives of his human children:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matt:10:29-31

See you tomorrow!

I’ve spent a lot of time meditating on Psalm 131 this year, and I wanted to share it with you all today, as Christmas certainly comes with more opportunities to gather, do ministry, and travel to see friends and family than we encounter any other season. Depending on our life situation, this may create excitement and anticipation as December 25th draws near, or it may exacerbate other emotions like discouragement or anxiety about the future.

And these temptations to get swept away by the hustle and bustle or give into other, less pleasant feelings are why I’m loving Psalm 131 so much right now. I first began sitting with this Psalm in the spring during a counseling class, where we were challenged to meditate on and pray over it every day for a month. If you’re interested in trying this out for yourself, I’ve attached an article that gets to the heart of the psalm and also describes ways to begin praying and meditating on it here. In the summer, our church did a series on the Psalms of Ascent which included Psalm 131, and that prompted me to revisit it for another fruitful season in my prayer life.

Until this year, I’d tended to gloss over Psalm 131, because I never really understood what David is saying when he compares himself to a weaned child. But these seasons of looking at it more deeply helped me realize that part of the beauty of the psalm is not just this unusual metaphor but also its counter-metaphor. A weaned child trusts that his mother will feed him at the right time and so can simply enjoy sitting in her lamp (i.e. her presence) without constantly being anxious about whether or not he’s going to be fed. In contrast, an infant’s primary concern is for survival. He’s not yet able to enjoy his mother’s company. He’s driven by the instinctual belief that, unless he screams, he will not be fed. So this psalm is a picture of David’s calm confidence that God will meet his needs in the right way at the right time, without him having to “take matters into his own hands” to force that to take place.

Whatever your current emotions may be as we find ourselves halfway through this Advent season, I encourage you to take a few moments today to meditate on this brief psalm and re-center on the rest and quietness that is always found in contemplating God’s gracious, loving sovereignty.

Lord, my heart is not proud;
    my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
    or too awesome for me to grasp.
 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
    like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
    Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord—
    now and always.

See you tomorrow!

Good morning, everyone! Today I’d like to introduce you to a wonderful missionary couple, Shannon and Danielle Hurley, who are also fellow authors with Shepherd Press.

The Hurleys founded Sufficiency of Scripture (S.O.S.) Ministries in Uganda, where their mission is to strengthen the local church and raise faithful believers through Shepherd’s Training College and Legacy Christian School.

To support the Hurley’s ministry, Shepherd Press is currently offering a 20% discount and will match 20% of all profits to donate to S.O.S. Ministries through Sunday, December 14th.

See you tomorrow!