Focus on Jesus

To all you timid souls, the ashamed and shamed. To you who think it is too late, what you have done is too terrible, too much, or not enough. That you have messed up, failed. That you are a mess-up, a disappointment. The mistakes you have made are unforgivable, unredeemable. God has left you in disgust. You there, feeling unlovable and unloved. You, there in the bushes. Come. I want you to hear something about this God you are hiding from: 

Some of us are religiously jumpy and self-conscious because we know that God sees our every thought and is acquainted with all our ways. We need not be. God is the sum of all patience and the essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections, and believing that He…

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. Psalm 86:1-2 (ESV)

Whenever I read Psalms like this, I stumble over parts of it. The “poor and needy” part I get, and the “trusts in you” part (though still wrestling there). But the “I am godly” part? I’m not so sure about that. It sounds so presumptuous and unobtainable. What does it mean?

The phrase translated “I am godly” above is variously translated “I am devoted,” “I am faithful,” and “I am holy (!).” The word is chasid, or hasid (חָסִיד). It is used a lot in the Psalms.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants (chasid: saints ESV, godly ones NASB). Psalm 116:15 (NIV)

Gather to me my faithful ones…

Did you ever notice that when God told Moses to set up the tabernacle, he was instructed to do it from the inside out – starting with the ark and the Holy of Holies and going out (Exodus 40:1-33), ending with the outside courtyard?

Then the Lord said to Moses: “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain …

Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work. Exodus 40:1, 33

What struck me was that they didn’t get the whole thing set up and then with great pomp and celebration bring in the ark at the end. They started with the ark, the place…

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:9-10

Sometimes God leads me to look deeper into a seemingly obvious and unremarkable word. That happened with the word translated “purpose” in the verse above. That word is prothesis (πρόθεσις) and in it I discovered an astounding hidden treasure.

The word means a proposal or intention, the setting forth or placing in view of something. Literally, it means “a setting forth in advance for a specific purpose, God’s pre-thesis.”¹ But the breathtaking thing about this word is that, specifically…