The Good Portion

The story of mankind is an epic tale of truth versus falsehood. Eden, the perfect garden that God planted for Adam, was home to a beguiling serpent whose chief desire was to undermine God’s truth. The fact that the serpent was allowed in the garden that God had declared “good” shows us that He always intended the people He created in His image to be discerners of good and evil. God’s way of dealing with Adam was straightforward. He created him, provided for him, gave him dominion over the earth, and gave him all the wisdom he needed to do it. Then God gave him a wife, a partner made from his own flesh, to rule with him. Their responsibility was blessedly simple, just believe God’s words and respond accordingly. We can only spec ulate as to what kept Adam from entrusting his wife with all the wisdom God had given him, but her response to the lies of the serpent make it clear that he had not. Eve was not stupid. She was inadequately educated. When confronted with alternative “fact

This is the third time I’ve written here about Psalm 15, and by now you might be wondering why, out of the whole big Bible, I have stalled over these five verses. If I answered that it’s because I love God so much that all I want in life is to sojourn with Him in His tent, that would be partly true. I say “partly” because this side of heaven, I’m not sure anything about me will be entirely sincere. And that gets to why this Psalm has such a hold on me. Life is hard. People can be cruel, judgmental, and deceptive. But God’s tent is a safe place. It’s full of people who can be trusted, people who have each other’s back, who laugh and cry as one, who genuinely want the best for each other. After the life I’ve lived and the heartbreaks I’ve suffered, what more could I ever want than to be loved by God and surrounded by people who love me? But when I read this Psalm I also realize that I don’t belong in that tent. Though I wish it weren’t so and in spite of all my prayer and effort

“O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent, who shall dwell on your holy hill?”  Ps. 15.1 Photo via Visual Hunt I went to a lot of churches, for a lot of years, before finally trusting Christ at age 40. During those years, I picked up a lot of ideas about God and heard a lot of talk about holiness. Several of those churches put a lot of emphasis on speaking the right words to build faith, to appropriate God’s promises, and to ensure I remained safe under the umbrella of God’s protection. Speaking the wrong words would open me up to the curses of Deuteronomy 28.I went to a lot of churches, for a lot of years, before finally trusting Christ at age 40. During those years, I picked up a lot of ideas about God and heard a lot of talk about holiness. One church I visited refused to let me in because I was wearing slacks. But since I was the guest of an influential person, the ushers hurried to get a special dispensation from the pastor to allow me entrance. Permission was granted

This week my Bible reading plan took me to Psalm 15, which took me back 43 years. The little girl’s name was Sooner, because she was born too soon after her parent’s wedding date. Pawned off, she was raised in squalor and treated like a slave. Her only friendship was with a wild bird she rescued and nursed to health. It wasn’t clear whether the bird couldn’t fly or whether it wouldn’t, only that it never did. It followed the child with the careless trust of having known nothing from her but kindness. When Sooner was rescued by a young childless couple, the bird came with her. All cleaned up, Sooner went nervously to school and made her first human friends. When they came to visit her at home, they saw the bird hopping after her wherever she went. She told them it never flew because it didn’t want to. They set out to prove her wrong. They stomped at it. When it didn’t fly away, they picked up stones and began throwing them. Sooner watched, eyes wide, silent. Then she stooped, to

Photo credit sagesolar via Visualhunt  CC BY My neighbor’s house was built out of straw bales. For a year, its progress through my kitchen window was my entertainment while I washed dishes. Watching a building rise up where there was none before is fascinating. The Scriptures show me that I am not alone in that fascination. Jesus’s disciples marveled at the stones of the temple, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” Jesus’s reply shocked them: “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” Peter would later use the imagery of a building to explain what God is doing in the church. Though the stones of Herod’s temple would indeed be thrown down, it was part of God’s plan: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” In the same Psalm where the people sang, “Blessed is he who comes in t