I set your rules before me" (Ps 119:30)
I've been reading Psalm 119 lately. This verse caught my attention and launched me into a streak of memorizing and meditating verses from the long psalm. As I consider the enormous task of PhD studies that lies before me, the deciding factor between success and failure is this: Will I be faithful? Day after day, moment by moment, over the next three years: will I do what he has called me to do? "I have chosen the way of faithfulness."
There was a time in my life when I would have avoided the word 'rules' for fear of 'legalism'. This vague notion of 'legalism' and its accompanying fear has created as much disobedience as any other in the recent history of Christianity. It is too often thrown around without understanding of what it is about. [Have another look at Jesus' dealings with the Pharisees in the gospels (e.g. Matt 5:20) and/or at the letter to the Galatians (5:13-26).] Growth of any kind requires that we choose to embrace in some form a set of rules or disciplines. According to Romans 8 and Galatians 5, the Holy Spirit is the new Law in our hearts that leads us to fulfill his righteous laws. So we ask: What kind of rules would the Spirit create in my life? What would it mean to "keep in step with the Spirit"? As we pray, "I set your rules before me," we can rest assured that he has written his law within us (Jer 31:33).
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September 15:
In the fire of every affliction
Be the crucible that shapes my life.
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September 19:
I am called to be a theologian. A theologian represents God with words. But how can I do so, unless I also represent him with my life? The call to be a theologian entails the call to be a man of God. To be a man of God begins with, but does not stop at, being a child of God. The first step is to know that I am his child and to know his love for me. All good theology, whether lived or spoken, flows from this belovedness.
Lord, fill me with your Holy Spirit and power, dwell in my heart, that I may have strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of your love that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God. Grow me to be a man of God who bears well the image of Christ, who hears your voice, who performs your deeds, and who speaks your words. Make me to be a theologian who by discipline of heart, thought, word, and action speak words that give understanding and wisdom to the church and the world. By your grace make me equal to my calling.