Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
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Scratching the Surface of the Psalms
#25
“Declaration of Dependence”
John
Huffman, one of America’s great pastors and personal friend of Billy Graham and
President Nixon, spent time during seminary with Norman Vincent Peale whose
ministry was often defined by his memorable emphasis on the power of positive
thinking.
Indeed, my
wife Leslie framed a cross stitch for me that I have always kept within sight:
“This Is A Positive Thinking Area.”
Peale
understood Christians are always ultimately positive because God the Father is
awesome, Jesus beat death, and the Holy Spirit sustains life.
It’s hard
not to be positive once we figure out God’s undisturbed, unperturbed, and
limitless love for us.
Anyway,
I’ll never forget John passing on some advice to me that Peale gave to him.
Peale
warned John as a young pastor who warned me as a young pastor with advice for
anyone in any kinda job: “Some people are like fireworks. They burn brightly but briefly. If you’re going to last, you must
have the power of positive thinking. That power comes supernaturally as we invite
Jesus into the heart as Lord and Savior.”
Jesus
opened the greatest sermon of all time (Matthew 5-7) with eight ways to
experience emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and happiness;
recalling how Robert Schuller referred to the Beatitudes as “The Be Happy
Attitudes.”
If we want
to be happy for the rest of our lives as a preface to the everlasting, Jesus
says, “Be poor in spirit…Mourn personal as well as corporate rejections of God’s
will for your life aka sin…Be humble…Hunger and thirst to be right with God…Be
merciful and gracious…Be purely motivated and wanting to give your totality to
God…Bring peace into the world by pointing people to God as the only One who
can overcome human instincts to divide, divorce, and destroy…and…Be willing to
suffer existential persecution for being a Christian as conscious of the big
picture of victory by grace through faith.”
Read those
opening verses of Matthew 5 for various translations to deepen cognizance,
courage, and commitment.
The first
one – “Blessed are the poor in spirit because the kingdom of heaven is theirs”
– is simple; paraphrasing, “How happy are those who know they need God and turn
to God and depend upon God because God takes care of everyone/anyone who does
that here and now and forever!”
It’s
reminiscent of the first half of the big ten in Exodus 20 that basically says
the same thing with severe emphasis on making God the only object of absolute
attention, allegiance, and affection; noting that with God as our God, we tend
to treat people a lot better as He expects of believers as outlined in the
second half of the big ten and throughout Holy Scripture.
Or as we
say on the corner of Lincoln and Main at the close of every worship service in
summarizing how Jesus summed it up in Matthew 22:34-40, “Love God and be kind
to one another…Love God by being kind to one another.”
Again,
always keep that connection in mind as Jesus explained it in Matthew 25: “As
you do it to/for others, you are doing it to/for Me. If so, so.
If not, not.”
Psalm 25
begins with the same faith, trust, confidence, and devotion to God: “Lord, I
turn my hope to You. My God, I trust in
You…I’ve thrown in my lot with You.”
Psalm 25 is
David’s declaration of dependence on God, echoed throughout Holy Scripture, and
the reason why believers experience, as Oswald Chambers observed, strong calm
sanity no matter who, what, where, when, or why.
We know God
will protect us: “Our enemies which are God’s enemies because God’s enemies are
our enemies won’t get the best of us…Ultimately, we won’t be disgraced or
embarrassed by our faith because God wins in the end…”
It’s like
Paul predicted with absolute confidence and eager anticipation about the
ultimate victory of God and the Godly, “Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord in the end.”
We know God
will guide us: “God makes His ways known to us…God teaches us His paths…He
schools us…He takes our hands and leads us down the paths of righteousness.”
He has
given us Jesus by the book so that who He is, who we are, what He has done for
us and our salvation in Jesus, and what He expects in grateful return are
undeniable.
We know God
will forgive us: “God is compassionate and loves limitlessly…God does not
remember the sins of our youthful immaturity and when we rebelled against
Him…He shows us how to turn our lives around in humility and greater passion
for being His in all things at all times in all places with all people…God forgets
our wild oats…God marks us off with His love as His…God plans only the best for
us…God corrects, connects, and communes…God leads us step by step into greater
unity with Him and the rest of the family of faith.”
People who
love God by loving like God don’t bring up our dating habits from high school if
we’ve repented from the bad ones along with our bad habits ever since if
we’ve repented from the bad ones; for as long we have a heart for God like
David – not meaning pure and perfect in every way but trying/wanting/praying to
be better than worse and confessing rather than rationalizing old, current, and
future sins – we’re on the same page with Him in time and in the end.
We
know our most grateful response to God’s existential and eternal graces is
worship: “Our eyes are always on the Lord…With our eyes on God, focusing on Him
and filtering our lives through Him, we won’t trip up as often as before.”
As Samuel
delivered the promise confirmed throughout history, “God honors everyone/anyone
who honors Him.”
A friend
told me about a boy named after the psalmist.
David grew
up in a Christian home.
His parents
kept their baptismal promises and David went to worship, Sunday School, youth
group, and confirmation class.
So when the
rains fell in his life, David was prepared.
Before the
rains, David was a star athlete.
6’2” and
over 200 ripped pounds.
He was a
member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and was preparing for full-time
Christian ministry in/through whatever job would be his.
Get it?
But at the
age of 27 when young folks like David are thinking about the endless
possibilities and opportunities before them, David was diagnosed with a rapidly
progressing cancer.
It wasn’t
long before the previously tall and strong athlete was reduced to a weak 80
pounds of flesh and bones.
Before
going home to Jesus, he had one final moment with his dad.
He said,
“Dad, do you remember when I was a little boy and how you used to hold me in
your arms? Do you think you can do that
one more time?”
The father
bent down, picked up his son, and cradled him.
With face
pressed to face, David said to his daddy, “Thank you for building the kind of
character into my life that can enable me to face even a moment like this. Thank you for telling me about Jesus and
making sure I was always connected to Him.”
Now go back
to Peale’s advice to John that he passed on to me.
Like the
old campfire song goes, pass it on.
Pass Him
on.
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
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Shatter the sound of silence!
Wake up! Look up! Stand up! Speak up! Act up for Jesus!
Salt! Shine! Leavenate!
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