Moral Vulnerability

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp.

The following post is one that I would encourage you to spend some time thinking about. If you don’t have time now then bookmark it and come back later. It’s a very good description of the road to sin, sorrow, destruction and redemption.

If you are honest you will recognize the well worn path. It’s one that most of us travel fairly often. If you are among the overconfident and deceived, it will make you think of someone else.

Don’t just read it once; meditate on it and let God speak to you. Get familiar with it while you look at it from a distance. Perhaps next time you hear the tempting call to get back on the path you will recognize what is going on in a different way than you have before. Maybe you will catch yourself before it’s too late. Or maybe you will find yourself traveling the path right now.

Following is the complete meditation. I couldn’t find anything I could cut for this post without diminishing the whole.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Beauty compelling
Tugging, seducing
Wanting and craving
Weakened resolve;
Lingering, staring
Moral transgression
Look of desire
Selfish rebellion
Act of betrayal
Weakened resolve.
Long consideration
Dreams of possessing
Evil hoping
Enemy lurking
Heart now racing
Battle raging
Nervous thinking
Flesh growing weaker
Drawn to the darkness
Weakened resolve.
Wrong seen as righteous
Plausible lies
Twisted pretenses
Self swindling
Guilty logic
Deluded perspectives
Weakened resolve.
Deciding and choosing
Date and location
Concrete plans
Words of acceptance
Verbal contract
Shared deception
Anticipation
Tracks covered over
Weakened resolve.
Deed now accomplished
Fleeing the scene
Dark of night
Trembling hands
Afraid of discovery
Made up stories
Weakened resolve.
Morning remorse
Hard to imagine
Fear of discovery
Rehearsed denials
Lust unweakening
Purity lost
No undoing
Weakened resolve.
Protecting secrets
Telling lies
Acting the part
Believable excuses
Internal battles
Hunger for more
Weakened resolve.
Haunted by guilt
Crushed by conviction
No more delusion
Power of truth
Weakened resolve.
Stain of iniquity
Remorse of transgression
Cries for forgiveness
Hope for mercy
Cast on compassion
Admission of guilt
Weakened resolve.
Bitter harvest
Sweet forgiveness
The grace of cleansing
Joy in acceptance
Rescuing Savior
Loving Redeemer
Patient Father
Acting in power
Sin's bondage broken
No more compulsion
Freedom is given
Weakened resolve.
Confession of weakness
Tell of His mercy
Worship and service
Willing obedience
Resisting temptation
Steps of protection
Weakened resolve.
Seeking assistance
Sacrifice gladly
Witness to battle
Praise and thanksgiving
Long perseverance
Gone is deception
Weakened resolve.

Here are two questions from the meditation:

Try to identify evidence of moral vulnerability in your life. Where are you tempted to see as beautiful what God says is ugly? Where are you tempted to believe plausible lies? Where are you tempted to hide or cover your tracks?

Where do you need the help of God's grace so you can confess, seek help, stand and fight, refuse to listen, and speak the truth?

Here are my final thoughts:

Sin will take you places where you don't want to go.
Sin will cost you more than you want to pay.
Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay.

Philip


Get this book and join the journey:

Olive Tree – PDA or Smartphone

Amazon - paper

Jennifer Knapp

I have been listening to Jennifer Knapp – The Collection today; such great music and lyrics. I came to appreciate her music long after she faded from the public. I always wondered what happened to her.

It was with great sadness that I read a few weeks ago that she was snatched by the devil. Here is the story. I guess it’s a good reminder that no one is above temptation and deception. It doesn’t matter that you were once blind and reveled in the sight of salvation. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest…and destruction soon comes.

I will go on listening to the music that I have. It will be with sadness inside. I will pray for her restoration.

Philip

Rhubarb Crisp

Made this tonight from some yummy rhubarb from our yard.

TOPPING:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

FILLING:
4 cups rhubarb, cut in 1/2 pieces
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water

Mix together flour, oats and sugar in large bowl. Stir in butter with fork to make a crumbly mixture. Set aside.

Combine rhubarb, sugar, flour, cinnamon and water in 8x8 baking dish. Stir to mix well. Cover with plastic wrap. Microwave 3 minutes on high.

Sprinkle topping evenly over rhubarb mixture and press it in a little. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until topping is golden and crisp.

9 Servings

Enjoy!

Philip

What in the World Is Hyssop?

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. Devotional is indented.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

It seems such a strange request from a man who's in the throes of grief over sins that he can't deny and can't take back. I would propose to you that it was exactly the right thing for David and for each of us to pray whenever we're confronted with our sins. But when you first read the word in Psalm 51, it does make you wonder, "What in the world is hyssop?"

What you really need to know, in order to understand the grieving in David's request, is Old Testament history. David's mind goes to that original Passover, when the firstborn of Egypt were stricken dead and the houses of Israel that had blood on the door frames were passed over. What does this have to do with David's request? Here it is: God directed the Israelites to take a branch of hyssop and dip it in blood and paint the door frames with it.

Here is David, grieved by his sin and bowed before God between the "already" and the "not yet." Already the blood of the first Passover had protected Israel from death and made their exodus to freedom and the land of promise possible. Already the Mosaic system of constant animal-blood sacrifices covered the sins of God's people. But the promised Lamb had not yet come. Not yet had his blood been spilt, once and for all, in the final moment of sacrifice that forever ended any need for further sacrifice.

What a blessing to live in this time where we can experience Christ’s blood shed for us. We live in the reality of that not just hope of what will come.

When your sin really does become ugly to you, when it produces pain in your heart and sickness in your stomach, you celebrate forgiveness, but you want something more. You want to be clean. You long to be once and for all purified from all sin whatsoever. You want your sin to be once and for all washed away. You want to be free of every dark residue of sinful thought, desire, word, or deed.

That is where we live. We can be clean – whiter than snow. That is what God tells us; our sin isn’t just covered, it is gone.

I don’t think we can really grasp that. We hold sin over our own heads and we’ve all had someone else hold our sin over our head. It doesn’t matter if it has been confessed and grieved over; it’s still the wedge, the trump card that can be pulled out whenever it’s needed. So it’s hard to think that God isn’t that way and He knows the depths of our heart. He knows all the sins, big and small and yet He chooses to forgive and with that forgiveness the sin is cleansed and gone, never to be brought to our attention again. He more than anyone could uses it against us but never does.

David never sang that great, old hymn "Nothing but the Blood," but maybe he'll hear it some day and remember the tear-stained prayer that followed the visit of Nathan. Maybe someday he'll celebrate final cleansing with a chorus of the ages singing:

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow,
That makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Here is a question from the meditation:

Look back on your life. Identify the many, many places where you need to celebrate how God daily delivers you from sin. What things that once plagued and controlled you are no longer part of your life? (Be concrete and specific.)

Look ahead. Where do you see the need for more of God's cleansing? What things still tend to tempt and trap you? Pray and seek God's help.

Philip


Get this book and join the journey:

Olive Tree – PDA or Smartphone

Amazon - paper