Yesterday morning the pond that is the water hazard on the golf course hole on which we live was perfectly still. There was no water movement at all. I could see a perfect reflection of the trees and if I would have gazed into the still waters, I would have been able to see a near perfect reflection of my face. The mirror you looked into this morning as you brushed your teeth, it too reflects your image.

Water and mirror reflectance are called specular reflection, because the light is reflected in one direction off those smooth surfaces, whereas diffuse reflection coming off rough surfaces tends to reflect light in numerous directions. And both water and mirror images are virtual images, as opposed to real images, because the light rays only appear to emanate from the object. Real images on the other hand are actual light rays coming from an object and being projected upon another (such as a cinema screen). In one way, mirror images differ from water images. In a vertical mirror, the top and bottom of the image remains the same while the left and right sides are reversed. Looking at the reflection created by water, just the opposite. The top and bottom images are flipped while the left and right remain the same. See the picture in this post.

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, and the wisest man to ever live (1 Kings 3:11-15) wrote this in Proverbs 27:19 – “As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the person.”

David, after being confronted by the prophet Nathan about his adulteress affair with Bathsheba, and conspiring to have her husband killed as a coverup, said this in Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.”

You might be saying that you have the power to cure what ails your heart. But we are told that our hearts are incurable (Jeremiah 17:9) … incurable outside the power of God.

David knew that – “Create in me a pure (clean) heart.” The Hebrew word used here is “bara’.” It means to create, shape or form. You say that makes sense; I can do that. I can “bara’” my own clean heart. Yes, we can do our part by being careful about what we do, what we say, who not so fast. Le hang out with, what we watch and read, on and on. But let’s look at the Hebrew word used in this context for “create.”

This word “bara’” is used over 50 times in the Old Testament. In every single case, God is the subject; meaning He is the one doing the creating. We see that same word in Gen 1:1 – “In the beginning, God created (bara’) the heavens and earth. In v.27 we are told that “God created (bara’) man in his own image; he (bara’) him in the image of God; he (bara’) them male and female.” This kind of creating is a divine creating; meaning it is God who initiates a clean heart in us.

So, today and tomorrow, and every day after that, will you make this your desperate plea – Oh God, help me guard my heart, and please, by only what only you can do, create (bara’) in me a clean heart, a pure heart, making my spirit right!

When you look into the mirror or the water, what reflects back?

You have probably heard, or even used, one of these two phrases – “The glass is half full” or “The glass is half empty.” If the glass is filled to 50% capacity is it half empty or is it half full? That rhetorical question is often a litmus test of a person’s perspective on a certain situation or circumstance. What you see as half full someone else might view as half empty, or vice versa. A person with a “half full” perspective generally has cause for optimism, and conversely, “half empty” often implies a pessimistic outlook.

To look at it another way, let’s turn to football. When does a punter come onto the field? The punter is most often called upon when the offense has failed to gain ten yards on three attempts. So, on fourth down, the punter takes a snap from the center and punts to ball to the opposing team, hopefully taking away their field position advantage, or better yet, pinning them deep in their own end. The punter on my college football team used to occasionally run with the ball to try and gain a first down instead of kicking it to the other team. That drove our coaching staff crazy but George would run off the field and say, “Coach, even though it was 4th and 20, I saw a first down!” Now that is definitely a glass half full mindset!

[As a side note, he was a three time all-conference selection, one of the best and most consistent punters in the league.]

The Bible tells us that we should sing to the Lord whether we face 2nd down and 1 yard to go or 4th and 20. Psalm 104:33 says this, “I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 47:6 puts it like this, Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. And in the Book of Acts (16:25) we read that when Paul and Silas were in prison – that certainly would be cause for a half empty point of view – they were praying and singing, and guess what, other prisoners were listening.   

The Westminster Catechism puts it this way – “Man’s chief aim is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy him forever.” We worship not based upon how we feel. We worship because God is worthy of our praise (Psalm 86:9: Rev 4:11).   

So, I ask you today, what is it in your life that has a grip on you? What is it that is zapping your joy? What is it that is causing you to want to punt on 4th and 20? You might not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change your outlook. Worshipping every day, whether you feel like it or not, will change you and it will change those around you.

And remember this, even if your glass if half empty, it is also half full!

[As a postscript, sadly, George died in 2013 after a long and courageous battle with cancer, and even on his death bed, as cancer had eaten away his body and he only had hours to live, George still had a glass half full mindset, he still saw a first down possible, even at 4th and 20. The last time I talked to George was only days before he died and he ended the call with these words, “Dave, thank you for your friendship, it means a lot to me.” I replied, “No, George, thank you!” Love you and miss you ol’ #42!]

On a daily basis we engage in many activities – sleeping and waking, going to school or work, sitting in from of our computers, taxiing kids, caring for aging parents, exercising, watching TV, grocery shopping, the list goes on and on.

And throughout the day you also find yourself getting hungry. This is your body’s way of triggering the normal physiological need to eat. Eating provides our bodies with the fuel and energy needed to remain healthy and active. There is another sensation other than hunger also associated with eating; the desire to eat, called appetite. Sometimes our desire to eat is due to hunger, other times, simply because we’ve seen or smelled appealing foods. What causes us to feel hungry? When you eat, the hormone leptin is released into your body, causing a decrease in the motivation to eat. As your body begins to run low on fuel, leptin levels decrease, triggering another hormone (ghrelin) to be released, increasing your sensation of hunger.   

It is our appetite (desire to eat) that so often gets us into trouble, not our hunger (need to eat.) Next time you say that you are “hungry,” ask yourself if it is your body telling you it needs refueled, or is it just a craving, habit, the availability of food, or some other social or emotional factor?

Scripture tells us that we should be hungry for reading and digesting God’s Word. We need to regularly ingest (take it in, absorb it) scripture in order to digest it (use it for our benefit). When God was instructing Joshua about how the Israelites would take possession of the Promised Land, He included an important instruction to Joshua. Here is what we read in Joshua 1:8 – “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Jesus called himself the “bread of life” (John 6:33-35), promising that whoever comes to Him will never be hungry or thirsty. In what are known at the Beatitudes, Jesus says this – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6).” “Hunger and thirst” vividly expresses a deep longing. It is more than just a casual desire; it is an active desire. The Greek word used in this verse for filled is “chortazo;” which comes from the root word for a place where grasses grow and animals go to graze. The image is “to feed with herbs, grass, hay, to fill, satisfy with food, to fatten.” It implies filled to the point of being satisfied.

We are promised to be filled if we hunger and thirst after the right things (Isaiah 55:1-2).

So today, I ask you two questions – What are you hungry for? And are you hungry for the right things?

“You can dress him up but you can’t take him anywhere.” You’ve probably heard that statement used to describe someone, or maybe it has been used to describe you. It is a reference to the fact that no matter how fancy someone looks on the outside, they are still the same person on the inside. Do you really think behavior or attitudes change simply because someone is wearing a tuxedo or a lovely gown?

You have a little red wagon that when you bought it was shiny fire engine red. Over time its shine has dulled a bit and some rust spots have appeared. You buy a can of red spray paint and cover the dull wagon with a brand new coat of shiny red paint. It looks brand new! But soon, the rust spots appear again. Why? Because unless you first sanded the rust away and then covered those areas with primer before painting, you only dressed up the wagon on the “outside” without removing the rust on the “inside,” so soon the rust reappears.

When our daughters were younger, every year I looked forward to coloring eggs. First the eggs were hard boiled and then they got painted and dyed fancy colors. Sometimes the girls had more dye and paint on them than on the eggs. The dull white shell was transformed into an array of bright colors. But the “inside” anatomy of the egg, the yolk, albumen, chalazae, air cell, and membranes has not changed. The egg is still an egg, only the “outside” has changed.

When we commit our lives to Jesus, He is not interested in changing us on the outside, simply dressing us up. Instead, He wants to change us on the inside. Real change only happens from the inside out, not the other way around. And no matter how hard we try, we cannot really change ourselves. Sure, we can tweak here and there, but because of our sinful nature (Ecc 7:20, Ps 51:5, 1 Jn 1:8), the real change we need can only come through a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we become “cleaned up and dressed up on the inside.”

The Old Testament prophet Ezekiel shared these words of the LORD to the people – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez 36:26).

And God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, said this – “I will give them a new heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their hear” (Jer 24:7).

David, in Psalm 51:10, asked this of God – “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

In Isaiah 64:8 we are told that God is the potter and we are the clay.

Jesus died on the cross to give you new life, both eternally and also while you still have breath in your lungs. (See John 10:10). So, today, if you want to be more than dressed up in fancy clothes or a newly painted rusty red wagon or a brightly decorated Easter egg, then ask Jesus to change you on the inside. Ask Him to give you a new heart, a pure heart, and put a new spirit in you.

My prayer for this Good Friday is that you get a fresh sense of what Christ dying on the Cross means for us.

To me, one of the most powerful and personal verses in the Bible is Matthew 27:51. Here is the context – we read in Exodus 26-27 that in the Tabernacle the Most Holy Place (sometimes called the Holy of Holies), the innermost sanctuary of the temple, was separated from the Holy Place by a curtain (veil). God resided in the Most Holy Place. Any Israelite could come to the temple to pray or to bring an offering, but only priests could sacrifice the animals or burn incense in the Courtyard. And only the high priest could enter the Holy Place one day a year (Day of Atonement) to offer blood for his sins and the sins of the world.

The meaning of all this is that in Old Testament days the people did not have personal access to God. We see this is Hebrews 9:7, “But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.” (I encourage you to read this in context in Hebrews 9.)

Having said all of that is to say this – When Christ died on the Cross we read these words in Matthew 27:50-51a, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”

The curtain (veil) referred to in that passage is the curtain that separated the people from the presence of God. What does that mean for us here and now? Because of Christ’s death on the Cross, through His blood, we now have personal access to God, who would never again dwell in a temple made by human hands (Acts 17:24).  

Jesus is now our High Priest and through Him we can come into God’s presence. In answering Thomas’s question as “how can we know the way (to the place Jesus was going),” Jesus answered him like this, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

We see similar language in Hebrews – “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (10:19-22).

It is in God’s presence that we find true joy, peace, and contentment. Let these words of King David soak deep into your soul – “Surely you have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence” (Psalm 21:6). It is also in God’s presence that seemingly impossible things objectively happen – “Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water” (Psalm 114:7-8).

So, today, take some time to reflect upon what it means for you to be able to come into the presence of God.

Admit, some mornings you jump out of bed and the sky is blue while other mornings you simply have the blues. The origin of the expression feeling blue might come from the tradition of ships flying blue flags when its captain or a crew member died. Another origin is likely derived from West African cultures in which mourner’s garments were died indigo blue to indicate sadness and suffering. Slaves working in Southern Plantations would sing songs of lament, songs of misery and oppression; this became the origin of “blues” music. The English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in his short poem Complaint of Mars wrote this – “With tears blue and a wounded heart.” You’ve probably heard some people say they have the winter blues.

Having the blues is understood to mean feelings of melancholy, being downcast, misery. And these feelings often lead to us hosting a pity party, one in which we feel sorry for ourselves. When we are, or at least when I am, feeling blue, I too often listen to the “what if” conjectures of my blue heart, leading me deeper into despair, from light blue to dark blue. It is a vortex that sucks us down and down some more.

The psalmist who penned Psalm 42 and 43 appears to be in one of those blue moods. Three times (42:5,11; 43:5) he says this – “Why are you in despair my soul and why so restless in me?” But instead of simply listening to his blue mood, he seems to be arguing with that blueness by remembering all the good that God has done – “My whole being is depressed. That’s why I remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep called to deep at the noise of your waterfalls; all your massive waves surged over me. By day the Lord commands his faithful love; by night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life” (42:6-8, CEB).

In those same three verses where the psalmist cries out “Why are you in despair?,” he also says this – “Wait for God, for I will again praise him for the help (hope) of His presence, my God.” Here the psalmist announces what he actively intends to do to combat his blueness. He will wait on God and praise Him again. Elsewhere in these two psalms, we also see the psalmist’s soul panting and thirsting for God (42:1,2) and making God his citadel, his stronghold (43:2).

So, when you feel blue, do not simply listen to your troubled soul. Instead tackle your blueness head on, arguing with it, hungering for God’s presence, remembering His love, and securing yourself in His strong tower, putting all your hope in Him.