Only God Can Make a _______

Only God Can Make a Tree

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. —Psalm 1:3

The author of the ODB today states that only God can make a tree. While we can make ourselves into saplings or buds, only He can makes us a tree that bears fruit.

The author includes this prayer, which is also mine this morning:
A Prayer: Lord, I want to be used by You in others’ lives. Teach me from Your Word so that I can help others follow You. And enable me to let go and trust You to work in them. Amen.


Only God

1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2"The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5"Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'

8"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.[b] 11The greatest among you will be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

13"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.[c]

15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.

16"Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18You also say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.' 19You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it -Matthew 23:1-22

Very strong words indeed that Jesus has for the Pharisees, and I believe the root of it all is that they love being called "Teacher" and "Rabbi" and "Master" and "Lord." They are busy making themselves great and putting themselves in positions of power, forgetting that they are all brothers and sisters. Doing so forgets that our Lord is one and sovereign above all things, above us all. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled.

We have to continually watch ourselves on this account. Here in graduate school some people have this fascination with the Ph.D, being called "Dr." From the inside I don't believe it's so glamorous... but some people are still in great awe of it. Some people think they'd be more attracted to someone with a PhD... not me. I fell in love with a bank teller. But, we always need to be watchful that we're not earning these titles to be looked up to, not putting ourselves in positions of power. In fact the more that the world sees us that way, the more we need to assure students, friends, relatives that it isn't true. Anyone could do it... just only some want to. That's what I tell everyone about a marathon. They say, "I could never do that." I say, "Sure you could. You just don't want to." You don't want to give up the hours and hours it takes to train. And I don't blame you.

But the overriding point here is that there is only God who is upheld and Holy and Almighty. We need to serve Him and others, humbling ourselves. The COB traditionally did not have a pulpit or a platform from which the pastor preached. They took terms preaching and they were all called "brothers" and "sisters." They didn't even have a front of the sanctuary. If you want an extreme experience, go worship with the Quakers one Sunday. Learn about a group of people who don't even go by the 'majority rules' in decision making in order to honor each voice among them.


Can Make A Temple

1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded."

2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."

6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. -Exodus 36:1-6

As I read this morning about the temple I could see the blue and purple and gold in my mind, and it looked so beautiful. And God used people to do it. These people "whom the Lord had given ability." How wonderful it is to remember that every asset we have was given to us by the Lord. Our God gave us the ability to do certain things, so it is only right that we should use those abilities to worship Him, to give it all to Him.

I'm also touched by the fact that Moses needed to stop people from bringing things to the temple because there was enough. I wish for a day when we bring so much of our talent, our goods, our monetary gifts, our spirit, everything to the Lord... so much that it is overflowing.

I always loved to see church workdays. We spend so much time caring for our homes, but it's a beautiful thing when we would come together in the Spring and do weeding and general cleaning, straightening up of so many things, making our place of worship lovely for God. And that's not to say that I believe you need a beautiful house of worship. I believe the act of service, working together for Him, is more pleasing to the Lord than the actual outcome.