Meditation and Prayer on Romans 12:9

"Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. "

Dear God and Precious Father, this command seems so far above us: “Let love be without dissimulation.”

How insincere we often are, Lord, especially in the matter of love. For love is not blind, nor deaf, nor
amoral.

Dear Lord Jesus, You said “If You love me, keep my commandments.”

The first and great commandment is to love You, our Creator and God, with all our hearts, with all our souls,
with all our minds, and all our strength.

What hateful things we sometimes do in the name of love. You have shown us the way, “Abhor that which is
evil; cleave to that which is good.”

Wickedness puts on a cloak of love and loves evil and hates the good. The minister is considered loving if he
does not rebuke sin and reprove ungodliness, thereby despising Your commandment. He sells his God for
the love of the world. This is not love, O God, but how hard it is to be faithful.

Abhor that which is evil. All kinds of evil. Evil ideas, evil doctrines, evil attitudes, evil posturing, evil
hypocrisies, evil speakings, backbiting, slandering, evil gossiping, evil deeds against Your commandments
that forbid disobedience to godly authority, murder and hatred, adultery and other sexual sins, thefts of all
kinds, destroying reputations, and even the evil desire for such things.

You abhor such things, dear Lord. You loath them. You hate them with every fiber of Your holiness. We
have no word strong enough to express Your hatred of them, but we see Your hatred of evil in the awful
sufferngs in the soul and body of Jesus Christ.

Your wrath came upon Him and He suffered the punishment that Your justice requires for transgression of
Your holy law, a coming short of the glory of God.

Grant us Your Spirit, not to dull our senses and obscure our moral natures, but to sharpen them and
invigorate us, for He is given to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment. We love in truth by
abhorring evil, for that is the meaning of the sentence; we also love by cleaving [sticking to, and being glued
to] that which is good.

How faithful You are, Dear Lord. You not only tell us to love, but You tell us how to love.

“Reprove” means 1) to convict, refute, confute 1a) generally with a suggestion of shame of the person
convicted 1b) by conviction to bring to the light, to expose 2) to find fault with, correct 2a) by word 2a1) to
reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove 2a2) to call to account, show one his fault, demand an
explanation 2b) by deed 2b1) to chasten, to punish.

You, O Lord, abhor the evil because You cleave to that which is good. You know how much better we
would be if we would repent and turn from our evil ways and evil thoughts and false doctrines and proud
thoughts.

You hate what we have become by turning away from You, the fountain of goodness and truth.

How our flesh hates this truth, dear Lord. Every fiber in our being rises against reproof and rebuke. We
rebuke the rebuker and reprove the reprover.

This is right when men rebuke in ignorance or to avoid the cross, but so evil when we resist truth and
counsel. We dissimulate and pretend to be wronged and add slander to our offenses against each other.

We sin either in tyranny, seeking to exercise lordship; or we sin in truancy, refusing to love our neighbor as
God has commanded us. We do evil in the name of love, and we know to do good and do it not in the name
of love.

And so we dissimulate and our eye is evil, and we do not see God. Men praise our foolishness which is
horrid in Your pure eyes, O Most High.

Grant us forgiveness and repentance, O Lord, that we might be salt and light in the world for Your glory and
praise.

Amos 5:10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.

Pr 9:8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Pr 24: 24 He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor
him: 25 But to them that rebuke him shall be delight, and a good blessing shall come upon them.

Pr 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

But how deceitful is my heart, dear Lord.

We reprove and rebuke, not out of love, but from spite and ill will, pretending love. This is why we need
Your Spirit so desperately, so we do not play the fool and sow strife and hatred in the name of love.

Give me a humble heart to receive instruction, and meekness and boldness of Spirit to speak truth plainly.
How hard it is to be obedient in this, O Lord.

May I be filled with goodness and knowledge and so be able [capable, strong, effective] to admonish others
in obedience to You, having examined my own heart and life.

May I love the good and the godly people and cleave to them and support and defend them. May I abhor
evil thoughts, doctrines, habits, practices, attitudes, with my whole soul, as You do, O Lord. Precious, Lord Jesus. 

How You loved us.

You took upon Yourself our horrid sins and bore them and received the punishment of Your Father for them
as if they were Your Own sins!

He withdrew His sweet presence from You in the darkness of that day that You were hanged on a tree, a
cursed thing, so that we might be freed from the curse and received into favor.

Stir up my heart and soul, Dear Father. Renew Your image in me through the blood of the Cross that I may
abhor all evil in myself and elsewhere, and cleave to the good, whether the work of Your Spirit in me, or in
others by Your grace.

For You are the fountain of life and from You all blessing flow. May I love people without dissimulation
enough to seek their good in all things, as did Your Only Begotten Son. In the Name of You my Savior,
Jesus Christ, for You “loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows….” Amen and Amen.

American Worship

 

I Thess. 1:9, 10 "Ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to

wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which

delivered us from the wrath to come.

It is time for repentance, to follow the Thessalonians.

 

Idolatry begins in the inner man because of inherited wickedness. Idolatry is nurtured

in the inner man.by wicked lusts and thoughts.  Idolatry is first judged in the inner man

by spiritual blindness and corrupt thinking.

American Idolatry: These are old idols and were condemned by the law and the

prophets of Scripture. Among Other Things:

Wealth: we think we can create bread from stones by issuing loads and loads of fake

money. We cannot pray in public for our daily bread, but we can lobby the government

for free everything.

Military: we think we can be secure behind the finest military in the world. We war

against God and build advanced weapons.

Education: We seek to create a new kind of virtuous man through education,

discipline, and nurture.  Teachers cannot teach children about being born again, but

every school has a psychiatrist for mental health problems and every parent has access

to mind changing drugs and behavior modification techniques.

Sex: sex, sex, and more sex of all varieties: fornication, sodomy, adultery,

pornography almost without restriction. Arts, Music, and even Religion is spiced with

sex to keep them from being boring.

Science. We reject the knowledge of Scripture and pour our energy in to broken pots

that hold no water. We dream that our every need will be supplied if we can only

master the knowledge of the creation. Not even the notion of God is necessary for we

have unlocked the secrets of nature and will soon be master of our own destiny and

happiness. We boast in our wisdom that over thousands of years that will understand

the workings of the world that God created out of nothing by the word of His power.

How foolish is the idolater in the midst of his self-congratulations:

Jeremiah 9:23, 24: "Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am

the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth:

for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."

Not only did the prophets speak against the idolatry of Israel, the covenant people, but

they also spoke dire warnings against the nations: Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Egypt,

Moab, Edom, Canaan, etc. for their blasphemies against their Creator, the living God,

and called them to repentance, warning them of famine, disruptions of nature and wild

animals, wars, pestilence, and other disasters.

Isaiah 2:17-22: "And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of

men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols

he shall utterly abolish.

And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of

the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the

earth. 

"In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made

each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of

the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory

of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose

breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

 

Heidelberg Catechism:

Q95: What is idolatry?

A95: Idolatry is to conceive or have something else in which to place our trust instead

of, or besides,  the one true God who has revealed Himself in His Word.[1]

1. Eph. 2:12; 5:5; Phil. 3:19; John 2:23; 5:23; II John 1:9; Psa. 62:5-7; 73:25-26;

81:8-9; Matt. 6:24

Prayer and Meditation on Psalm 16:1-3

Prayer and Meditation on Psalm 16:1-3

O Lord God, there is nothing that I need from You except the preservation of soul and body, but that is all
there is. I fly to You, for you are the Savior of all men, especially those who believe. What good is
temporary salvation, O God, if you do not keep my feet from falling and my heart from straying?

But I have received Your precious Spirit of Adoption, so that my soul cries out to You, “O Precious Father,
preserve my body and soul!” and I will trust you forever. You will preserve me until the resurrection of the
dead, and afterwards receive me, body and soul, into glory, into eternal rest.

I confess that I have no ladders of my own tall enough to reach to You, O Precious Father. Not my
goodness, not my determination, not my will, not my faith, not my righteousness can open the gates of heaven
and escort my soul into your presence.

Only Your dear Son, Jesus of Nazareth, reaches from heaven to earth to lay hold on sinners like me and give
us entrance into the mansions of your Father’s house of light. I have been humbled before your word and do
not trust in any, save the Lord Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

But I can reach out to Your people, Precious Father, to the saints in the earth who call upon your Name in
truth. I delight in them, O Lord for they are most excellent, being washed in the blood of the Lamb.

I can do this, Precious Father, only because the Spirit of Your dear Son has been given to me to love the
church that you purchased with Your own blood, to love your sacraments and ordinances and promises. For
in loving You, Precious Father, You have taught me to love Your Own. And in Your love, my soul is
preserved forever and ever. In the Name of Christ, Amen.

1 Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.
2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
--Psalm 16

What Is Man? Garbage to Discard? Road Kill?

To maintain naturalism, the humanist has to reject the idea that man's nature is to be the image of
God: that, among other things he has the ability and duty to make moral judgments.  To humanism,
man is no more than a rabbit or a wolf.  He has natural instincts but they are of the earth, the product
of evolution.  If there are gods, then these gods are completely natural, the product of later phases of
evolution. Man is nothing special; if defective, he can be culled simply as a herd of goats can be
culled of defectives to improve the herd. He can also be created into a new humanity through 
education and discipline.

There is no sense of sin in this view, only mistakes and correctable defects.  The schools become the
instruments of salvation, for man will educate himself into perfection, into godhood.

Humanist may talk of natural law, but they mean it only in this sense, the law of nature which can be
understood only by examining nature.  There is no Divine revelation and certainly no revelation from
the Creator which describes the nature of man.  The nature of man can only be learned from science,
the examination of behavior.  Men, like animals must always act according to the law of their nature.

Whatever laws there are come from experience, the experience of mankind; certainly there are no
laws revealed by the Creator that command the image of God.

Certainly man desires to live and will protect his life energetically.  But so what? So will a skunk or a
salamander.  How is man's life different from theirs?  Man desires liberty.  So do most animals who
resist domestication.  At the zoo, animals and birds are caged for the most part.  Why is man any
different from them?  All animals seek happiness: they want to have food, shelter, sex, comfort.

No animal has complete right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Other animals take these
rights away from each other every day.  Foxes feed on rabbits; hawks confine rodents to their holes;
the lion doesn't consider the happiness of the gnu.  So why make a big deal over natural law?  Those
who resist the "progress of the race" must be neutralized for the good of all.

It is impossible to stress how ungodly and satanic all of the above philosophy is.  When we minimize
sin and make righteousness relative, then we degrade our view of mankind.  The result is uniformly
cruelty, brutality, slaughter,and carnage.  Tyrants always deceive themselves and comfort themselves
with the illusion that their cruelty is for the better good.  Josef Stalin said, "To make a omelet you
have to break some eggs."  He broke millions of them and never produced the omelet.

But new saviors and new dreams continue to arise, denying the image of God, denying sin, and
putting salvation far away from them.  For by making themselves antichrist, the true Savior Jesus
Christ is pushed far away from them.  And the blood of the innocents cries out to God as did the
blood of Abel who was murdered by his brother.  Man is not road kill.  He is not garbage to be
dumped in landfill.  Ge 9:6 "Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the
image of God made he man."

Man's nobility and exceptionalism lies in the image of God. He was created in true righteousness,
knowledge, and holiness, with dominion over the creation. By Adam's sin, this image is defaced and
corrupted but cannot be eradicated in spite of man's rebellion against God.  His rebellion does not
erase of image of God, but makes him liable for judgment and the wrath of God, in whom he lives
and moves and has his being. He is a sinner precisely because he is the image of God and is called to
repentance, faith, and glory.  God loves His image, but hates its defilement and perversion and will
bring eternal wrath and judgment upon everyone who remains wedded to his wickedness.

John 8:  "21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in
your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come....  23  And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am
from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 24  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die
in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Before All Gods [Authorities]

Meditation and Prayer on Psalm 138:1-3

Our Father, Who art in Heaven, We worship You with all our hearts. You do not accept the will worship of
empty ceremonies, or vain motions of the body, for You are the only Living and True God, the only Holy
and Eternal Spirit Who created all things Wisdom and Power, in Jesus Christ Your Only Begotten Son,
through the power of Your Holy Spirit.

Therefore we come before You with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength.

We will sing praises to You and lift our voices. You are in heaven and Your true and Holy Temple is there,
for You inhabit eternity. Even the heavens themselves cannot contain You though You are not far from any of
us.

We will sing our songs of praise before all the world, before all authorities, powers. What You have told us
in private, we will declare from the mountain tops as You have commanded. Your word is not to be
treasured up in private or behind closed doors, but is to be proclaimed to all men, whatever their station and
power and authority. For You have magnified Your word above all Your Name.

You have been pleased to make Your presence known at times and places in the history of the world and
these revelations of Yourself pointed to the time when Your dear Son, the Lord Jesus, would be made flesh
and dwell among us. He fully loved You with all Your hearts, souls, minds, and strength and being made a
perfect man He offered Himself up as a perfect sacrifice for sins, not on a Jewish altar, but outside the city,
on Mt. Golgotha, and thus took away our sin.

He established His church forever to be His earthly dwelling place, by His word and Spirit. In Your Church
we will offer up the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving for You lovingkindness and Your truth, which
endure throughout the ages.

In Your church, You have magnified You word above all Your name. Your promises to us would draw our
minds up to You, in love and gratitude, for You have not failed to do everything that You promised to do. 
Not one of Your promises fail.

O Lord, may we by You Spirit be faithful and true to speak Your word to all men. May Your word not be
diminished in our eyes or in our speech, but may it be magnified in our bodies, lived and preached and
confessed and obeyed. As Your precious holy apostle Paul prayed to You, [Php 1:20} “that in nothing I
shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,
whether it be by life, or by death."

When we called upon You, O Lord, You heard and You answered us. You have strengthened me with
strength in my soul, so that I will not be ashamed. Blessed be Your Name forever and ever, Amen.
---------

“1 I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. 2 I will worship toward
thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy
word above all thy name. 3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength
in my soul.” (Ps 138:1-3)