"Mene mene tekel upharsin" were the mysteriously-written words on the wall in Daniel 5. Daniel interpreted them to mean doom for the kingdom of Belshazzar.
This morning I ponder the word tekel..."you are weighed in the scales and found wanting." I'm not one to be gloomy or self-condemning. I'm not one to forgo God's grace in exchange for weighing my good and bad deeds on some spiritual scale. I know I'm lost in sin but found in Christ, and my heart sings a hearty HALLELUJAH at that!
But it's fair and reasonable to ask the question, "Am I found wanting?" in this season of self-examination, renewed goals, and fresh accounts. I join the psalmist in saying, "Search me, O God, and try me."
My kids have a plastic balance scale that we used to teach the math concepts of more, less, and equal when they were preschoolers. We moved little blocks around to teeter the scale, then held our breath until we brought it back to even.
I've been holding my proverbial breath lately because I know I've been teckeled. I have traded the pursuit of God for a hundred other little things that throw the balance, but in God's goodness, He calls me back, inviting me to be again like the deer, panting for the Water.
Let the oldest saint look well to the fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads may cover black hearts: and let not the young despise the word of warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the rottenness of hypocrisy...By the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you a hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth his praise, I beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of you, "Mene, Mene, Tekel: thou art weighted in the balances, and art found wanting." -Christian Classics Ethereal Library
No comments:
Post a Comment