Nothing Is Perfect…

"Nothing is perfect." I heard Robin speak those words to one of the kids early in our recent vacation. We were on the road, on our first day, and something had happened which in the child's view wasn't quite right. I have no idea today what it was and I agree with the words Robin spoke at the time, with one exception.

As Robin spoke some wheels spun inside my head, bringing up this phrase from somewhere in the Bible: "The word of the Lord is perfect." Turns out the among the many imperfect things is my memory, because what the first phrase of Psalm 19:7 actually says is this:

"The law of the Lord is perfect"

I believe that the law that David had in mind as he wrote this psalm was God's moral law, or what God has declared to  be right-and-wrong, from his point-of-view, which in the Old Testament is best summarized in the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments. You shall not this. You shall not that. On and on. Boring. Not relevant today. We are more advanced than those folks were. 

Or so many people today might have us believe. And not just today. The Bible shows the Ten Commandments being broken almost as soon as they had been given.

The truth is God's law teaches us how to live with God and how to live with other people. It teaches us from God's point-of-view, in God's own words. It is a teaching that is timeless.

The greater storyline of the Bible would also show us that there was no single person besides Jesus who perfectly kept God's perfect law. Not Adam. Not Moses. Not David. Not Daniel. Not John the Baptist. Not Peter. Not Paul. Nor any of the many other lesser characters in the Bible's pages that we would rightly look towards as heroes of the faith.

But the fact that Jesus kept the law perfectly is exactly what we need, for when we look to him and believe that he is our Savior, our sin is removed and God sees us as if we had kept the law, even though the truth is that we still break it each day.

The law of God still has a purpose for Christians. Not to condemn us as sinners, but to show us the great love of our Savior in keeping it on our behalf. God's perfect law stands before us, inviting us to do our best in keeping it each day, not to earn God's favor, but in gratitude for what Christ has done for us.

The imperfections of my daily life are many. The picture shows one example, where I recently tried to close the hood of our van without moving the arm the held it open.

God's law is perfect, as was the work done by Jesus in keeping it on my behalf. Not only is God's law perfect, but so is the love of Jesus for all of those who have faith in him. May you live today resting in the law that he kept for you.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Subtle Irony

Last week we went on an overnight trip from Dulce, NM to Ouray, CO.  As far as options for our route go, there are two, and we took the shortest one.  So we drove to Durango and then took the highway north.  A few miles after leaving Durango we saw a sign thanking the group that has taken on the responsibility of cleaning the litter along that section of the highway, the Durango Skeptics and Atheists. 

Hmm, I thought.  That, of all groups, is an ironic choice for this section of highway.  Shortly after passing the sign I took the picture to the right.  Robin was doing the driving so that I could see the sights.  We had made this trip one other time.  I drove that time and this route requires a high degree of concentration.  So she took on the driving and I enjoyed the views, taking this picture from the car as we went along at 55 MPH.

Taking a picture from the car doesn’t really do justice to how pretty things are on the road running north from Durango.  This section was pretty, but fairly tame.  A few more miles along and the landscape becomes more mountainous, and sharply so.  There are twists and turns.  There are sharp drop-offs without guardrails.  The speed limit decreases at places to 15 MPH.  If you look-up the Million Dollar Highway, the section from Silverton to Ouray, you'll quickly see why so much concentration is required to safely drive this route.     

Back to the Durango Skeptics and Atheists. Generally speaking, skeptics are people with doubts, specifically about the existence and purposes of God.  There might be a God, but they aren't sure and they lean more towards disbelief than belief.  And atheists deny the existence of God.  As far as they are concerned there is no God, and that is the end of the story.

Take a look at the photo I took from the moving car.  It gives just a taste of the majesty of the San Juan mountains in this part of Colorado.  And that majesty becomes more pronounced just a few miles farther along the highway.  And in the presence of this majesty, which I would call "creation," is a sign from a group that denies the existence of a Creator. A subtle bit of irony. 

As we look back and try to understand creation, I don’t have the answers to the ultimate questions of how it all came to be.  Neither do the Durango Skeptics and Atheists.  But as we look into the physical world, be it the views as majestic as those found along the Million Dollar Highway, or something much more commonplace, such as the lines marking my fingerprints, I can't find it possible that these things of exquisite complexity and beauty essentially created themselves.  To my mind, the presence of creation requires the presence of a Creator.   

To me it seemed as if the juxtaposition of a sign affirming a group of skeptics and atheists, in the presence of nature's majesty, was more than a little ironic.  Psalm 19 begins with this bit of truth,

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world."

Without being too harsh on the skeptics and atheists I'll confess that for a long time, far too long really, my views on God were ill-defined and virtually non-existent.  But God is merciful and one day He opened my eyes, and it was to much more than the mere fact that the world is a marvelous and intricate piece of His creation.  It was to His very person, a person most fully revealed as Jesus Christ. 

May your eyes and heart be opened to the beauty and glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

A Scenic Vista

This week we went camping at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is located in the western edge of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in south central Colorado.  I took the picture here while sitting at our campsite, looking east across the San Luis valley, with the San Juan mountains rising in the distance.

Looking at a map I would guess that it is about 40 miles from the park to the San Juans.  The first night of our trip I sat at our campfire and looked across that distance, seeing a thin line of lights appearing to spread across the base of the mountains, running as far as I could see from south to north.  And while I looked at those lights and the distance they covered, three things came to mind, in this order.

First was verse 1 from Psalm 19,

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

While on the one hand that verse is pretty standard fare when we pay attention to the glory of God in creation, on the other hand it remains true whether we notice the work of God's hand or not.  Creation, every bit of it, large and small, declares the glory of God.

Second, that panoramic nighttime vista brought a thought from Job.  Yes, Job.  Job 1, specifically verses 6-7,

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”"

Looking at the space it was easy to imagine Satan, wandering back and forth, looking for weaknesses to exploit in his battle with God.  And as I pondered that idea it was easy to imagine that at the moment Satan was having a measure of success, but that also there were people who have faith in the Lord God and were turning to Him to resist in whichever ways they were being tempted.

And that brought a third thought to mind, from Revelation 21, verses 1-4,

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”"

The world is a beautiful place but in God's story it is not our final home.  Satan is a powerful enemy of God and all who love Him, but his power is not unlimited and his defeat is certain.  And so as beautiful as my daytime and nighttime views were on our trip, God has something much more glorious in the works. 

A new heaven and a new earth, with Satan permanently defeated, and best of all, where God's children will behold His very presence, forever. 

To God be all the glory. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.