From: "Beverly French" <frenchb@vcss.k12.ca.us>
To: "C & P Greene" <greenehouse72@juno.com>
Subject: Joyful Greetings
Date: Sunday, July 30, 2000 7:31 AM

The words of a song we sing in our Fellowship begin with:
"One thing have I desired of the Lord..."
 This started me thinking, we desire so many things of God, but what does
God desires of us.  We come to Him with 'our works' or 'sacrifices', ones
that we think will please Him.  How wrong!

Micah 6:8 says,
"He has shown you, O man, what is good;
 And what does the Lord require of you
 But to do justly,
 To love mercy,
 And to walk humbly with your God?

How well King David knew what God desired:
"For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
 You do not delight in burnt offering.
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
 A broken and a contrite heart, these You will not despise."  Psalm 51:16-17

I believe the Sermon on the Mount bears this out:
Blessed are the poor in spirit...Blessed are those who mourn...Blessed are
the meek...Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after
righteousness...Blessed are the merciful...Blessed are the pure in
heart...Blessed are the peacemakers...Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness sake..."  Matthew 5:3-10
[I will leave you to read for yourselves with what each is blessed.]

Look closely at the Beatitudes and the order in which they are placed.  Is
this not the exact path by which each Believer comes to the Lord?  With an
impoverished spirit, to a mourning, to a meekness -- a humbleness, then to a
hunger and thirst for knowing Christ who is righteousness.  Now, in Christ,
a
whole new nature; one that desires mercy, has a pure heart and is a
peacemaker.  And because of the testamony may be persecuted for
righteousness sake.  See, however, in and through it all there is grace upon
grace and blessing upon blessing.

Since all His ways are perfect and, "I have been crucified with Christ; and
it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God..." (Galatians 2:20)
then my desires must be those that the Lord desires for I no longer live.
Blessed beyond measure are we whose God is the Lord!

I must go back to the opening remark and tell you that the song we sing is
Scriptual and I believe is the desire of God's heart.  It is Psalm 27 which
is titled, "A Psalm of Fearless Trust in God", in the NASB.  Vs. 4 says,
"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."

The expanded version reads:
"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and
[insistently] require; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His
presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [sweet
attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate,
consider, and inquire in His temple."

In love and adoration, let's praise and worship our Lord.  All honor and
glory are His!