Verse of the Day 7/28

Through the Bible - Psalms 46-48, Acts 19:21-41

 

I read the following quote the other day from John Stott, I found it to be thought provoking. I thought I'd share it with you, how does it line up with your thoughts of sin and salvation?

 

"The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone."— John Stott

 

When I read that statement several verses came to mind.  Jesus' story of the rich young ruler came to mind (Matt. 19:16).  He wanted to follow God but could not give up control of his life, or at least what controlled him.  He could not trade his dreams for God's.

 

I was also brought back to the ten commandments in Exodus 20 where we go back to the basics.

Exodus 20:3 (ESV) "You shall have no other gods before me."

 In this day in this society there are seemingly endless "gods" that we can put before the true God.  But it boils down to putting ourselves and our own desires on the throne of our lives.  Many of us like the rich young ruler find ourselves caught in the middle.  Desiring to follow God but having our own desires that hold us back from the God who is.

 

In the passage in Matthew, the young man thought that he'd done a good job of keeping the commandments.  But in reading off his list, he forgot to mention this one, because he did have other gods before him that kept him in the middle, between his desires and the God who is.  He may have been asking himself the question posed by Casting Crowns in "Somewhere in the Middle".

 

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense
Deep water faith in the shallow end and we are caught in the middle
With eyes wide open to the differences, the God we want and the God who is
But will we trade our dreams for His or are we caught in the middle
Are we caught in the middle

Somewhere between my heart and my hands
Somewhere between my faith and my plans
Somewhere between the safety of the boat and the crashing waves

Somewhere between a whisper and a roar
Somewhere between the altar and the door
Somewhere between contented peace and always wanting more
Somewhere in the middle You'll find me

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender without losing all control

Do we ask the same question?

 

Blessings,
Mike
Follow the verse of the day at mikesvotd.blogspot.com

 

Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments

 ¹ And God spoke all these words, saying,

 ² "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

 ³ "You shall have no other gods before me.

 ⁴ "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.