Sacred Time - Sacred Place

Psalms 3:1-5 (NIV) ¹ O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! ² Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." Selah ³ But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. ⁴ To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah ⁵ I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.


In my Bible the subtitle for Psalm 3 is A Psalm of David.  When he fled from his son Absalom.  This Psalm is a lament.

I was recently getting caught up on the life and current events of a dear brother in Christ.  What he was going through was astonishing.  It was a convergence of terrible things.  If you were to write down a list of what was going on in his life,  your response would be, "That can't be.  That's terrible."  Many would feel crushed under the weight of worry and confusion.

However, my brother's response was a tremendous blessing to me.  Was he looking for escape from this situation?  While he probably would welcome escape, he was not looking for it.  Was he wondering where God was in the midst of all this?  No.  Was he questioning how God could do this to him?  Not at all.

He told me that this time in his life was sacred.  He said he couldn't really say it was a blessing.  He said it was sacred.  A sacred time.  A sacred place in his life.  My brother's response reflects verses 4 and 5, "⁴ To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah ⁵ I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. "

Paul Tripp, author, seminary professor, Executive Director of the Center for Pastoral Life in Fort Worth, Texas and a member of the pastoral staff of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia has said, "God will take you where you would not choose to go in order to produce in you what you could not achieve on your own." 

I believe my brother would agree with this statement and welcomes what God is doing in his life, even though the situation is difficult and overwhelming. I also believe that, in time, he will also realize the blessing of God.

Wherever God is, that is where I want to be, too.  The sacred place.

My Heart: Clean or Cluttered

Psalms 51:10-12 (AMP)
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.


Left to my own devices, I can fill my life with clutter.  Some clutter you can see; like my desktop at work, or the room we call the Red Sox room in our apartment.  It's where the TV is. It's where I spend time watching the beloved Red Sox.  My computer is there, my iPod, the Wii video game that my kids gave me for Christmas.  Give me just a few minutes in there and I can fill it with clutter.

Fun toys provide hours of enjoyment for me.  Certainly there is nothing wrong with that.  However, they can also distract me from important things in life.  Like spending time with my God whom I love, and who loves me.  You see, there is spiritual clutter, too.

Some of the spiritual clutter I create, no one can see.  What are the things I find hard to give to the Lord if He were to ask me?  Worry, stress, my job, money, the acquisition of things, my problems, filling my life with busyness are all things that can clutter my heart.  They can become like idols before my face (see Ezekiel 14).  They can obscure my vision of God in my life.  Do I hold on to my problems instead of giving them to the Lord because I enjoy the attention I get?  Am I important?  Do people notice me?  Maybe I've discovered the biggest idol of all.  It's me!

Cleaning the clutter from my heart seems like too big a job for me to do alone.  Indeed it is.  David cried out to the Lord, "Create in me a clean heart."  "Renew a upright spirit in me."  "Restore to me the joy of your salvation." "Uphold me  with a willing spirit."

The heart is God's workplace.  He loves it when we invite Him in to do His work.

I had the privilege of preaching at New Testament Baptist Church on Sunday.  If God was glorified in the message, I am a happy man.  To hear it click on the link for New Testament Baptist Church.

May God bless!