Reading
through Psalm 15, David makes it clear that only those people that live their
life totally surrendered to the Lord will enter God’s Holy
Tent and live on His holy mountain. I like the way the New Century
Version translates this very small but powerful Psalm.
“Lord,
who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? Only
those who are innocent and who do what is right. Such people speak the
truth from their hearts
(emphasis mine) and do not tell lies about others. They do no wrong to
their neighbors and do not gossip. They do not respect hateful people
but honor those who honor the Lord.
They keep their promises to their neighbors, even when it hurts. They
do not charge interest on money they lend and do not take money to hurt
innocent people. Whoever does all these things will never be destroyed (emphasis mine).” Psalm 15:1 – 5 (NCV)
When
I think about entering into the Lord’s Holy Tent or living on His holy
mountain, I think about the eternity I am going to spend praise dancing
with Jesus! [I can't t help but to throw that imagery out there.] We were made to
worship the King and we will all be dancing around the throne in Heaven
singing praises to the King of Glory. I can’t even begin to imagine what
that is going to be like. I mean, I have heard songs about
heaven…“Surrounded by your glory what will my heart feel? Will I dance
for you Jesus or in awe of you be still?” Now I know how Bart Millard
(of the band MercyMe) must have come up with the lyrics…but the fact
remains it is simply hard to imagine anything like it!
Ok
let me come back down to earth for a minute. I want to focus on one
other aspect of Psalm 15. In the above passage I emphasized the words from their hearts.
Committing your life to Christ is just that…a commitment! It is not a "
check the box" thing or a "follow the law" thing. It is a living,
breathing, life altering, hearting changing thing. There will be no way
to spend eternity with Christ if we just try to follow a bunch of laws
and check a box at the end of the day saying we managed to “color within the
lines.”
Everyone
is separated from God because of their sin and their sinful behavior.
The apostle Paul tells us in Romans (3:23) that all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. Paul continues in Romans (6:23) to tell us
that the wages of sin is death. But the gift of life
is through the price God’s one and only son paid on Calvary for your
sin and for my sin.
Isn’t that wonderful news?!? This is the gift of grace. We did nothing to earn it. It’s a free gift. All we have to do is accept it. I love the way the Message sums up the gift of grace in Ephesians 2:7-10
Yes!
Jesus loves us so much,
HE paid the price so
none of us have to die.
Isn’t that wonderful news?!? This is the gift of grace. We did nothing to earn it. It’s a free gift. All we have to do is accept it. I love the way the Message sums up the gift of grace in Ephesians 2:7-10
“Now
God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the
next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all
his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do
it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role.
If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole
thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making
and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the
work he does, the good work he as gotten ready for us to do, work we had
better be doing.”
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