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- Written by: Don Goulding
The LORD will protect you from all harm;
he will protect your life. The LORD will protect you in all you do,
now and forevermore.
(Psalms 121:7, 8)
At his orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico, a big-eyed boy glided a shard of broken mirror through the air, complete with sound effects. A wedge of glass isn’t a safe plaything, and I considered taking the fragment away. But I couldn’t confiscate his toy without deflating an entire universe of souls desperate for rescue by the heroic Shard of Mirror.
I also live in a make-believe world. In my fantasy, I take up a shard of life’s brokenness and pretend it protects me. I’m so busy playing with fragments of human acceptance and pieces of financial security, that I don’t notice demons are handing them to me.
We all have our shards—those consolations we imagine will complete us. Mine make perfect sense to me. It’s yours that seem make believe.
“Wake up,” Jesus says. “You don’t need your invented remedies. You have me.”
He’s right. Because I said yes to his love, I have him and he has me. He is in me and around me 24/7, 365 days a year. My spirit thrives under his protection.
At the end of our week of construction at the orphanage, we gave real toys to the children. The broken mirror was replaced by a safe gift. The orphan boy happily traded in his shard.
Now it’s my turn to exchange my fragments for the real protection offered only in Jesus.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, I trust in your care over my life.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. (2 Samuel 6:21-22) (NIV)
In West Africa they use a method of collecting offerings I call boogie for bucks. The worship band cuts loose with a beat that would make a Buckingham Palace guard tap his foot. Men, women, and children in bright Sunday finery form a Conga line and dance past the offering box, where they drop off the goods.
On a Sunday forever etched into my memory, I visited a church that added a twist to boogie for bucks. Eager to demonstrate my grasp of their culture, I joined the line, money in hand.
It was somewhere past the box, as I shook my bootie in place, that several observations stole over me. First, compared to the other worshipers, I was painfully rhythm challenged. Second, everyone watched me. Third, the men were still seated and only the women danced with me. There was nothing to do except boogie all the long way around the church and back to my chair, and enjoy my lesson in humility.
Whether it’s boogie for bucks or singing hymns, one of the richest gifts to earthbound saints is corporate worship. I may exalt God privately all week but I still love to gather with believers for celebration. It’s like a sip from the throne room in heaven.
What matters during group worship is not if our service is traditional or contemporary, but if it is genuine. Nothing is as boring as false liturgy or fake ecstasy. I’d rather be moved by the King of Kings until I transcend caring what others think. That’s dignified worship.
Prayer: Mighty God, help me lose myself in worship of you.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
But you must return to your God,
by maintaining love and justice,
and by waiting for your God to return to you. (Hosea 12:6)
An Australian electrician took his annual holiday in the nearby Fiji Islands. He met a pretty seventeen-year-old girl named Joy and promised to marry her. She got pregnant. He ran back to Australia.
A year later, the electrician returned for another holiday of parties with minor-aged girls.
Joy confronted him. “This baby is yours, and the least you could do is help with food and diapers.”
He fled once again and left the young mother to her tears and poverty.
Dani and I tried to get justice for Joy. We met with legal counsel, waited in courtrooms, and attempted service of the summons for a paternity test. The judge berated Joy for bad decisions until she gave up in tears.
We live in a universe of absolute justice, but it is delayed justice. That electrician didn’t get away with anything and neither do I when I sin. Every misdeed is written into the books John saw in Revelation 12. We are accountable for every moment.
Joy taught me a lesson. She knew when to release her perpetrator into God’s hands. Where the human judicial system failed her, Jehovah’s great white throne will prevail. The biblical promise that every action will be judged frees me from tracking the guilt of others. I can, instead, focus on repenting from my own sins.
Joy and I have a huge advantage over the electrician. Every sin we commit is transferred to the cross of our Savior. “Unjust,” some would cry. Indeed, it is unjust that innocent Jesus suffered for guilty us. But it’s the one injustice permitted by heaven.
Prayer: Jesus my righteous Judge, I rest in your justice.