It Takes Time

John 14:6 NIV

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

What Will You Do About The Truth?

Last month our church had a potluck and it was poorly attended.  In fact, there were fewer people in the worship service that day than I can remember.  A number of people put a significant amount of work into getting the potluck ready and the food was great.  Yet I wasn’t sure if we should have another one for a while.  I asked a couple if they thought we should wait a few months for the next church potluck or have one this month and they both smiled broadly and insisted that we have it this month.  I was caught off guard by their enthusiasm and then in a split moment of certainty, I knew that the Lord had spoken to me through them, that He wanted us to have a potluck so I went ahead and scheduled it.

I must admit though that I had a dilemma.  How was I to know that it really was God speaking to me and not just peer pressure?  It is not always God speaking to you when you want it to be and it isn’t easy knowing if you are right or wrong in it.  I did not have any Bible verse I could point to as evidence that this was coming from God.  Do you just rely on positive thinking and optimistic strategizing to guide you when you aren’t sure how to connect with the Lord on some matter that means a lot to you?  What is your go to method for hearing from God?  Most don’t care what God might be saying; they never give it much thought but what about you?  Have you come to the place where you want the Lord to show you the way?

Good people, God’s people have made horrible mistakes, when it comes to God.  We rightfully commend Peter for his tremendous faith taking God at His word and walking on the water.  When he and his fellow disciples were going across the Sea of Galilee in the middle of a great storm, they all saw Jesus coming toward them but at first none of them were really sure it was Him.  Timidly, Peter cried out to the Lord with a tremendous request.  "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."  "Come," he said.  Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.  (Matthew 14:28-29 NIV)  However, quickly Peter’s faith failed him and he started sinking into the billowing waves.  But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"   Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:30-31 NIV) When Peter started out toward Jesus, He had complete confidence in God to take him along but it didn’t last and rather than walking in the might and protection of God, he went out in his own strength and insight.  He could see no way that he was going to survive the waves and down he went.

The same was true with Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Instead of maintaining her faith in Jesus and walking in Him, she trusted in her own wits and along with her children, came to the conclusion that Jesus had lost His mind.  What He was teaching and how He was behaving seemed irrational to her.  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." …Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. (Mark 3:20-21,31 NIV)  You can talk yourself into nearly anything if you rely just on you to figure out everything, including deciding that Jesus is crazy.  When Saul, who later became Paul was an unbeliever, he was convinced the Christian people were the worst sorts of souls and he set out on a quest to destroy them.  It seems so very reasonable, any conclusion you make when you are walking in yourself and deciding what you think is best.  The most rational and acceptable determinations are made by those who have no relationship with Christ.  They make sense and their arguments are levelheaded.  Mary, Saul and Peter all had their ducks in a row with their conclusions but just because the whole world agrees with you doesn’t mean it is so.

Jesus told His disciples not to talk about certain things until He was risen from the dead.  As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. (Mark 9:9 NIV)  There are many things you cannot understand nor can you grasp their importance until Christ is raised from the dead in you.  No matter how hard you look at a matter, regardless of how intensely you stare at a problem or an idea, you cannot get the gist of it until Jesus Christ has come alive in you.  Here is a Biblical example.  When Saul was just an ordinary person and had no sense of Christ in Him, he thought it was best to do whatever He could to stop the progression of the Christian message.  However, He met Christ and could no longer refute His Presence or authority as Lord.  Jesus became alive in Him and it completely changed the way He saw everything.  There is  a magical moment recorded in Acts 13 that completely altered the course of His life.  In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul.  While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."  So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went… (Acts 13:1-4 NIV)

Consider just how monumental this really was.  Saul, who had been instrumental in the horrific persecution of Christian people in the Middle East, who personally ordered the murder of Christians and their imprisonment was now being commissioned to begin the great missionary movement into the depths of the Roman Empire.  Not only that, Saul was accepting the call and going off on the enterprise...without coercion, without resistance on his part!  We treat this lightly because we are used to Paul being the greatest of all missionaries and the author of one fourth the New Testament.  This was new ground however; for the Church as well as for Saul. Never before had any Christian workers officially with the blessing of the Church been sent out beyond the narrow confines of the Jewish world and certainly not someone of Saul’s notoriety.  You must consider the risk being taken by everyone involved.  What if Saul turned on them?  What if he wasn’t spiritually strong enough to withstand the persecution they might face?  What if Saul’s Christianity had no staying power?  It was a most shocking enterprise!

Take a close look at how this decision to send Saul and Barnabas into the wild pagan world of Roman rule developed.  In this one church in Antioch, there were a group of believers who had some experience hearing from God and praying.  While they were in a time of worship, the Holy Spirit told them to make Saul and Barnabas missionaries.  Somehow, the Lord got this message across to each one of these Christian leaders and church members.  They knew it was God saying it and they were certain of what He said.  Also, Christ in some way prepared Saul and Barnabas for this dramatic change of course.  They were not like Moses or Gideon who were spiritually unprepared for the calling each received from God.  Saul and Barnabas were ready to go; up for the challenge.  God did that in them.  God prepared their hearts for this crucial mission.

God has important things to say to you.  He has tasks for you that matter for eternity.  He has a way of looking at things that He wants you to see.  The Lord has plans for you, challenges for you, certain ways of doing things that are critical for you and for others that you may not even know yet.  You can be oblivious to Christ and remain in a spiritual fog if you like or you can come up into the bright sunlight of God and His word.  You can know what only Christ can show you.  You can see what only the Lord can reveal.  It is possible for you to be just as alert and spiritually alive as those Antioch church members who all knew God wanted Saul and Barnabas to be the first missionaries to the world outside the Middle East.

You must read the Bible if you want to hear from God.  You can never be certain it is Jesus talking to you if the Bible isn’t a part of your thinking.  You don’t read the Bible to get something out of it but to be with Jesus.  If you don’t care what He is doing or how He thinks, then keep the Bible on your coffee table or stuck in your phone.  But if you want God to talk with you and be close to you, then you must read the Bible.  Do what God says whenever you know what He wants you to do.  The Lord will be as silent as a door knob if you disobey Him and ignore what He is telling you.  Pray.  Just sit with God and tell Him you love Him and be quiet…do this several times a day.  You don’t have to ask for anything.  If you have a sin to confess then confess it.  If you feel the desire to thank Him or tell Him you love Him, then do that.  Mostly just sit with Christ and let the Lord have room in your mind to work in it.  Become someone the Lord talks with and gives His thoughts and directions.  Be a disciple that the Lord can guide and lead.  Make the best use of your time here on earth by being one of the Lord’s trusted friends.  Be a disciple!

How’s It Going?

1 Kings 19:4 NIV

"I have had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors."

Do You Ever Get Discouraged?

Last Sunday I was.  I came home and could not shake my frustration with how things were going.  It turned into grumpiness that led to moping about the house and not wanting to be around anyone.  I would like to say my discouragement ended that night but it didn’t.  The entire next day I felt its oppression and even into the third day.  It made me moody and I had a tough time concentrating.  The trouble is, I felt like I had a right to feel sorry for myself and be upset.  That made it almost a moral right; that anyone in my situation would and should be dejected too.  I honestly did not see any reason why I should change my mood even if I thought I could.  No one could talk me out of being discouraged, because my frustrations seemed justified.  I didn’t reach out to anyone for support and didn’t try to cheer up myself.  I was all alone in my discouragement…or at least it seemed like it.  Like crawling into a closet and closing the door behind me, psychologically, I shut everyone else out and convinced myself that no one cared how I felt.

One of the great preachers of all time, the world famous Charles Spurgeon went through long and intense bouts with depression.  He made life miserable for everyone in his family when he went through them.  He isn’t the only Christian leader who suffered from despair.  Charles Stanley, the great pastor out of Atlanta battled discouragement even while leading a great church and wildly popular radio ministry.  When you get discouraged, what leads to it?  Have you wanted to quit, isolate yourself; have you ever become hard to be around because of how dark your mood was?  There is such a matter as clinical depression and doctors speak of chemical imbalances that lead to terrible despair but that is a topic for another time.  Today we are looking at discouragement and its implications.  What should we do about our discouragement and how should we think about it?

We find many in the Bible who became so discouraged that it led to despair.  One of the great figures in the Old Testament, someone who was a shining example of courageous faith is the prophet Elijah.  The brutal honesty of the Scriptures gives us great insight into the psychology of discouragement and its spiritual roots.  Although he was a great man of God, Elijah battled despair and even his faith did not protect him from despondency.  Elijah is best known for the stand he took against paganism on Mt. Carmel.  Elijah courageously challenged the pagan priests of Israel to a spiritual contest.  Whoever’s God sent fire down from heaven and burned up a sacrifice placed on an altar would be declared the true God.  Eight hundred pagan priests stood on one side of the mountain with their altar and slain bull while just Elijah stood on the other side by his own altar dedicated to the Lord.  Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire."  So they took the bull given them and prepared it.  Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. "O Baal, answer us!" they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.  (1 Kings 18:25-26 NIV)  There never was a response.  The pagan priests called late into the day but no fire came down from heaven for them.  Finally Elijah went to work.  Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Your name shall be Israel."  With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed.  He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, "Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood." (1 Kings 18:31-33 NIV)

It was then that a great miracle took place that verified the majesty of the Great God Almighty before the people of Israel.  At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.  Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."  Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.  When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The Lord-he is God! The Lord-he is God!"  (1 Kings 18:36-39 NIV)  Immediately the people at Elijah’s command slaughtered the prophets of Baal and declared their allegiance to the Lord as the one true God.

Such a great victory should have sustained Elijah and his faith to the end of his life but it didn’t.  The queen of Israel who was a staunch follower of the pagan religions when she found out about the massacre of the prophets of Baal, immediately ordered her soldiers to track down Elijah and kill him.  Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, Lord," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (1 Kings 19:3-5 NIV)  Even the great Elijah saw no purpose in his life and could not imagine any way things would ever improve.  That is the nature of discouragement.  It may not be rational but it is reasonable.  Elijah witnessed one of the great miracles of all time and saw just how popular the Lord was still among his people but the threat of Jezebel the queen was enough to derail him.

The battle for Elijah’s mind did not end there in the desert.  He was never the same after this and finally God took him away in a fiery chariot.  It cannot be said that Elijah lacked evidence of God’s care and protection.  He was miraculously fed by ravens during a famine and raised from the dead the son of a widow who provided him lodging during a three year famine.  Elijah had more than enough evidence to believe in God and trust Him to take care of him but for some reason his faith in God drained out of him and he gave up on ever finding a reason to live.  Discouragement is not rational.  But it is reasonable.  No one could have blamed Elijah for seeing things as he did.  He had plenty justification for being afraid and thinking his situation was hopeless.  How could he ever out run Jezebel’s soldiers and who would stand up for him when they got to him?  He had no allies, certainly none as powerful as the king and queen.  God was not taking up his cause.  If He was, Jezebel would have accepted defeat and agreed that the Lord was God just as the ones on Mt. Carmel had.  Instead the Lord left him to fend for himself against the terrible and terrifying Jezebel.

Discouragement is the self-absorbed reaction to stress.  Despair is simply discouragement taken one step further.  Elijah fell into despair because he lost track of where he was.  He wasn’t off in the desert by himself.  He was not alone to face the great threat of Jezebel’s henchmen.  He was with God and standing in His might.  Now we must be careful here as we address this matter of discouragement.  The tendency is to feel sorry for those who are discouraged because they face such great trials and they can’t help being knocked down by them.  Of course the trials we face could be monumental and life altering but they may be insignificant too and not change the course of our lives in any measurable way.  It is not the size of the threat that determines how discouraged you become.  It is the loss of perspective.  My sister-in-law once had a conversation with her son that still makes me laugh if it were not so serious to those who were in the conversation.  The son came to his mom and complained about the actions of his sister, wanting something to be done to her obviously.  My sister replied, “Now who are you in charge of?”  She wanted to establish that he was not the parent of his sister, even if she was out of line.  My nephew quickly answered, “Myself!”  This was of course correct.  That was how he was supposed to respond.  But my sister-in-law immediately realized the error in that sort of thinking because he was not in charge of himself, his parents were.   If he was in charge, then he could do whatever he wanted and that could not be the case.  To clarify, she shot back, “No you’re not, I am.”

Discouragement is the emotional reaction to forgetting God is in charge of your life.  Rather than trusting Him to work out everything, you get tired of waiting for God to do what you want done and decide you know better than He does how everything should go.  Your frustration at not getting your way can be too much for you to handle and discouragement and despair often follow. The disciples were discouraged and dismayed when Jesus was arrested but our Lord wasn’t.  It was the way God was going to work out salvation for the world.  When my ego becomes too big to let God have final authority in those matters that impact me, then I become agitated and discouraged by what I don’t understand or like.  You don’t become discouraged because things are going badly, you become discouraged because you think you are smarter than God and know more than He does about what is best for you and others.   Your frustration at no getting your way either becomes anger or discouragement and you start moping and feeling sorry for yourself.

Once you hide your life in God and trust Him to in love take care of you and those you cherish, you will find that your joy and peace will bubble back up to the surface and your discouragement will leave you like a scared lizard.  Say this prayer when you are disappointed by how things are going and there seems to be no way out of your troubles.  “Lord, I don’t have any idea what to do and I don’t feel like I can take much more of this.  I need you to protect me from Satan and from fear and from discouragement.  Give me peace today.  Give me joy and help me let go of my problems and trust you to take care of them.  In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.”  Remember this simple little statement in the Bible.  What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31 NIV)

Good

Luke 18:19 NIV

"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good — except God alone.”

What Is Really Good?

Can I be blamed for thinking that California is one of the best places on Earth to live?  Of course there is much that is wrong with the state but nearly all of its problems can be pinned on the values and actions of those who live there.  There is something to be said though of a region that has both Yosemite and Muir Woods, the beaches of San Diego and the San Francisco Bay.  California certainly isn’t perfect but there are some aspects of it that approach perfection.  I was driving with a friend through Mississippi and he introduced me to the woods there, pointing out how lovely the forests were.  It was about like when I went with a classmate to visit his family living in Southwest Missouri and he commented on the beauty of the Ozark Mountains.  Now I am not one to denigrate another person’s “pride and joy”  but I had difficulty complimenting the skinny pine trees of Mississippi after hiking through redwood groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  And I must say that there are mountains and then there are MOUNTAINS.  Who am I to tell someone what to like and not like.  Perhaps New York pizza really is better than Chicago style and Japanese cars are better than Russian ones.  Yet am I correct in telling you that you would be happier living in the San Francisco Bay Area than you would be  staying in Amsterdam or Beijing, or Branson, Missouri?  We have a right to our opinions…and every one of us has them!

Goodness has the feeling of being just another aspect of opinion.  If you say you’re good, does that mean you are?  Serial killers and pedophiles and vandals who tag sidewalks may say they are good and really believe they are but is it true?  Probably even Stalin’s mom saw something good in him and Hitler was respected and honored by quite a few people.  It is funny though how easy it is for us to see the good in ourselves and not see it in others.  We use a sort of sliding scale when we evaluate people…whether it is ourselves or others.  Part of the reason we can see good in “bad” people is that there still is in each of us the hint of the good God put in us when he made us.  It may not be developed goodness or disciplined goodness we see, it might only be strand of what was left in us when the Lord put us together but it is there and we fool ourselves into thinking that is who we are rather than the hint of the good of God Himself. 

The account of James and John thinking they were good because they wanted fire to come down from heaven and burn up a poor Samaritan village because the people had the audacity to not want to pay to feed and house Jesus and His disciples is too true to human nature ever to have been fabricated.  As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.  And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.  When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"   But Jesus turned and rebuked them,  and they went to another village. (Luke 9:51-55 NIV)  I am sure, and probably you are too, that James and John thought they meant well, thought their hearts were in the right place but clearly Jesus saw things differently.  It was not good that fueled their anger at the Samaritans although if you had asked them before Jesus rebuked them, they probably would have seen themselves as good people.  You and I can’t judge them.  We might just as well have said exactly what James and John did if we were there.  This though is the problem with the strand of good we all have and make much of.  All too many of us think we are so good that we don’t need God…don’t need Him to significantly change us, don’t need Him to remake us.

I can’t imagine Jesus was very happy with one of the discussions the disciples had when He was gone.  If it were not for the fact that it was so very telling of the human condition, we might get a good laugh at it.  Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest.  Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.  But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. (Luke 22:24-26 NIV)  Now if we just think a bit about this whole argument, there is a critical observation we must make.  At no point do the disciples consider what part God must play in their lives for them to be good!  It is all about them and their abilities, their morality, their skills, their religion.  God is not even needed.  Did they have to be saved?  Was there any hint in them that salvation was required?  It is fascinating, this strange reluctance to see ourselves, to really look at who we are without God.  We have that strand of good in us to keep us content but the truth of who we are eventually hits us.  We need a Savior.

Consider the sad case of Joseph and his brothers.  Joseph’s brothers were fed up with Joseph.  They had enough of Joseph being the favorite of their father, enough of his proud strutting about with his fancy coat and enough of the dreams he claimed to have had that according to Joseph foretold that they all, even their mothers and father would bow before Joseph one day as if he were some sort of king.  The boys decided to fix Joseph and with their dad not around, sold him into slavery.  So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the richly ornamented robe he was wearing — and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.  As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.  Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?  Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.  So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:23-28 NIV)

Evil like that is tough to comprehend.  How could anyone do such a thing and yet it was done.  Each one of those brothers thought he was a better person than Joseph.  Each believed Joseph was arrogant, selfish and self-righteous.  You don’t sell your brother into slavery if you haven’t decided he is pretty bad.  Here is the irony of this.  Each brother felt like he was good, a decent soul because that strand of good was in him, and yet…At least two of them became murderers, one slept with his father’s common-law wife and one sought out prostitutes after his wife died.  We don’t know about the rest…they were at least bad enough to sell their own brother into slavery.  Here is what we see in all of us.  Each brother thought he was the good one…at least better than his brother was and each brother thought his brother was worse than he was, more evil and needing to be fixed.

There is a passage in Isaiah that does not receive the attention it deserves.  It has a profound message describing what God is going to do with us.  He will save us, that is true…or we should say He does save us.  The prophecy was made eight hundred years before Jesus brought us our salvation though and it says something quite important about what that salvation will do for us.  A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:3-5 NIV)  You and I are that desert.  You are the one God will Himself make right so that you are a fit place for Him to live.  The good you think is good will be made perfect.  No strand of self-righteousness will be left to it for God Himself in Christ will make it truly good.  The evil in you will be leveled, and torn out and the glory of the LORD will be revealed in you.  Everyone will see it…that you are perfect, lovely in every way.  God will walk in you and make His home in you and nothing, not the worst of your sins, not the ugliest of evil that could ever be found in you will be there anymore.  There will be no corrupted goodness, no pretend morality or broken love or fractured peace.  Only goodness, real goodness that perfect God can make of you.  He has spoken.  And once again God will say of you.  “You are very good.”

One or the Other

2 Corinthians 4:5 NIV

 For we do not preach ourselves,

but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

Who Runs The Show?

A few years ago a little Chihuahua mix showed up in our yard without tags.  Two of the kids were the first ones to spot the little dog and they thought they noticed someone in a parked car watching to see what happened to the dog and when they picked her up, the woman drove away.  Pretty soon it was clear the puppy was a part of our family and I cannot say which is true: we adopted her or she adopted us.  Early on, Salsa, as we named her, responded to me as the alpha male.  She quickly came when I called her and although others in the family might give her a command, it was hit or miss whether she would obey.  Our daughter taught her cute tricks and Salsa loved everyone in the home and everyone loved her but my voice always brought her obedience even if others might find her stubbornly resistant to doing what they said.  Even now, when someone must get her back, it is me that can push her to obey if no one else can.

The Civil War in the United States was not about slavery although that was the spiritual issue.  The Civil War was fought over authority.  Who would make the decisions for the entire country?  That was the question at hand and it is the chief issue for each person today and from the beginning of time.  Who directs the soul?  We make religion unnecessarily complicated.  Most intuitively comprehend its essence but it is a ball of tangled twine when put in human hands.  The question we face today and since the first humans walked the earth is, “Who runs the show for you?”  We have lots of possible candidates.  Science.  Political figures.  Celebrities and You-tube stars.  Parents.  Spouses.  Employers.  Allah.  Shiva.  Fame.  Fortune.  Yourself.  Christ.

The very first sin in the world was initiated not by lust or even desire but by a question as to who runs the show.  Pay careful attention to the interaction between Satan and Eve.  It begins with a rather innocuous question.  Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1 NIV)  Essentially Satan was asking Eve if she was sure what God said.  Eve replied without hesitation. The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Genesis 3:2-3 NIV)  There was no fumbling for an answer.  She stated precisely what the Lord told her husband Adam before she was made.  And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17 NIV)

So Eve was not unaware of the command of God.  She knew exactly what the Lord’s instruction was.  Quickly Satan came back with the most devious of insinuations.   "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  (Genesis 3:4-5 NIV)  It was subtle, this intimation.  “You can’t count on God to tell you everything.  I know what I am talking about and I can help you enjoy life better.  Trust me in this!”  Eve fell for the trap.  Her loyalty shifted and Satan gained her trust.  Most are like Eve.  They don’t even realize what they have done before its too late.  Rather than be God’s through and through they take up some other lord for a bit and then as they go along, it is not God at all but Satan who is trusted.  Nothing about this transaction seemed weird or devious to Eve.  It was not premeditated or spiteful.  Satan gained Eve’s confidence and off she went like a child chasing the ice cream truck down the street

Most of us don’t decide that Satan is our great friend and advisor.  We aren’t a part of some devilish cult!  Yet we give ground to Satan in our hearts and without knowing what we have done, great tracts of our reasoning and decision making become Satan’s.  It killed Eve and it kills us too.  Not immediately and never grotesquely but comfortably, casually.  Nothing illustrates this quite so eloquently as the brief comment the Apostle Paul makes at the end of his life.  Writing to his good friend Timothy, Paul sadly tells of how his once faithful co-worker Demas gave ground to Satan and changed his mind on God.  Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.  (2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV)  “Loved this world” is code in the Bible for taking up with Satan.  It sounds rather comfy though.  “Loved this world.”  Warm and cozy like sitting in front of the fireplace as a toasty fire burns brightly, loving the world seems reasonable when put before you by Satan.  It just means that you like to be comfortable, you want to enjoy life.  Do what makes you happy.  Yet, dogging our steps as we slip through the door and into the world is that what was true for Eve and then for Adam is true for all of us.  “The wages of sin is death…”

If you knew Demas, you probably would say that he was a good guy.  He may have been witty, smart, talented, working for good causes.  Yet, there was something terribly wrong with him and it was that Jesus was not Lord of all for him.  Christ was a companion, a great source of insight and important to him but not Lord and that is the dividing line in life.  Either, Christ is Lord and King over you or Satan is reasonable and makes sense to you.  It is fascinating the account of Joseph and his unyielding allegiance to God.  We cannot say how Joseph acquired such persistent loyalty to the Lord.  It probably was not his mother who pushed him along there because she famously stole away from her father his household idols.  Joseph was firm in his commitment to God and it manifested itself in his response to temptation.  When Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and came to be a servant of the Egyptian Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife tried her best to seduce him.  Joseph’s response to her revealed his fidelity.  How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"  And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.  (Genesis 39:9-10 NIV)  This was real commitment to God that transcended cool interests and enticing opportunities.  It was loyalty.

When Jesus gave the summons to James, John, Peter and Andrew to come follow Him, it was not about what most stress.  Nearly every teacher of the passage emphasizes the wrong aspect of it.  Read Jesus’ invitation in its entirety. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19 NIV)  When you follow Jesus and really do follow Him, not just when it is convenient or necessary or reasonable, He remakes you.  What is so damaged and wrecked by sin becomes His to heal and make perfect.  In the disciples’s case, Jesus said He would make them into fishers of men.  What might He do with you if you choose Him over Satan at the moment there is a choice between the two?  It is impossible to know just now but you will find that He will do this.  He will remake you and could there be a more wonderful and desirable gift you could ever receive?  Depression and discouragement will be taken out of you when you are fiercely loyal to Jesus.  Anger and addiction will be removed also.  Even the hurts and brokenness caused by sin will be carefully and tenderly done away with in you if you are loyal to Jesus.  So many Christian people struggle to be free of the damaging effects of sin in them and they could be made right by ceaseless loyalty to Christ.

Elijah put it to the people of his time this way.  "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." (1 Kings 18:21 NIV)  Either it is God or it is Satan.  Waffling between the two leads to every plague of the heart.  Consider just how badly warped both Adam and Eve were psychologically after only one time choosing Satan over God.  They were afraid of God, disconnected from each other and self-loathing.  Imagine the complexity of brokenness hundreds and thousands of times choosing Satan over Christ brings.  Jesus put it another way.  "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”  (Matthew 6:24 NIV)    It is either Christ or Satan at any moment and you must decide who it will be that runs the show.  You can always tell when someone has let Satan lead them around and be the one guiding them.  They lack the supernatural peace only Christ can give those who follow Him.  Remember just what Jesus says to each of us who come to Him.  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

Bethel

Genesis 35: 1 NIV

Then God said to Jacob, “Go up to Bethel and settle there...

Where Are You Going?

We recently went camping with my brother’s family and my sister and her daughter up near Yosemite.  While there, the key to our car broke apart.  The metal part came out of the plastic fob that holds the chip which activates and deactivates the alarm system.  I could make the key work by using pliers to turn the metal section of the key while holding the fob near the key but I ran the risk of snapping off the part of the key I was using to grip it.  We went to a hardware store to have a duplicate made but it didn’t work.  My brother used his phone to try and find out how to get a replacement key and contacted the Toyota dealer closest to our campground. He was told that a new key would cost nearly $400. That was a stunning price and so he kept trying to find someone who had could help us get another key.  The suggestion was made that we go to a locksmith and see if someone could replace it for us but we did not know where to go or who to ask.  Finally it was time to leave and I was able to use the pliers to turn the key and we made our way back to “civilization”.  It was a four hour trip and I did not stop on the way for fear I could not restart the car.  As I drove, I kept pondering the dilemma.  Should I just go to a Toyota dealer near our house and pay the $400 or try to find a locksmith and see what could be done.  Mary Jo, once we got phone service, went on line to try and find a locksmith near our home but did not get a call back from one and the other said he was not equipped to fix the key.  He did though suggest a locksmith in the town next to our city and when we called there we were told he thought he could fix it.  When we got to the shop, the locksmith was able to replace the car key for just $35.  As we made our way home, I thought just how foolish I would have been to have gone straight to the Toyota dealership rather than following my brother’s advice and try to locate a locksmith.

There is a great risk you take when it comes to your life with God.  You can without grasping what has happened, lose track of Him.  It is a subtle shift, one that barely registers in you but it happens and without warning you find yourself away from God and on your own.  You probably won’t realize it, which makes it difficult to undue.  We were at a campground with hundreds of campers there but only about ten of them came to a worship service offered on Sunday morning.  If the collection of campers at the campground fit the national average, somewhere around two hundred or more identified themselves as Christians but saw no need to attend the worship service they easily could have attended.  Of course there were probably a wide range of excuses many had for not participating but the majority most likely just did not see a need to obey the Bible and worship with God’s people on Sunday and they were oblivious to what effect that would have on them.  The Christian community is at a critical crossroad and you might be too.  How far will you go with your life in Christ?  Is it important enough to you to make it your top priority or will you like so many other American Christians drift away from God and be comfortable casually going along on your own?

The Bible has a fascinating case study that must be considered if we care about this life with God.  Jacob, the son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, famously finagled out of his brother his birthright as the oldest son for a pot of soup and then tricked his father into giving to him the blessing intended for that same brother Esau.  Esau grew distraught over his change in fortune.   Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"  Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"  Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud. (Genesis 27: 36-38 NIV)  Esau became so infuriated by how Jacob had stolen from him the blessing his father had for him that he plotted Jacob’s murder.  When Jacob caught wind of Esau’s fury, he fled for his life to the home of his mother’s brother, some four hundred miles away.  Over twenty years Jacob stayed there, marrying a pair of sisters and gained their maids as concubines.  Altogether Jacob had thirteen children, a daughter and twelve sons.  Finally, Jacob was so fed up with his conniving and scheming father-in-law Laban that he was willing to risk his life and face the wrath of his brother rather than spend one more day living under Laban’s “rule”.

                                                                                                              

Jacob’s return to his homeland was no mere whimsy.  The Lord directed him back home.  In a dream, God ordered him to leave Haran and go back to where he met the Lord the first time.  “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.” (Genesis 31:13 NIV)  Jacob packed up his family and left but not without trepidation.  He was afraid of leaving his controlling father-in-law and Jacob was terrified his brother still wanted him dead.  Almost home, Jacob was told by his servants that just ahead of him Esau, his brother, was approaching with four hundred men.  In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.  He thought, "If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape." (Genesis 32:7-8 NIV)  Panicked, Jacob prayed to God for help.  Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.   But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted. (Genesis 32: 11-12 NIV) 

How many of us have been in a similar situation, desperate for God’s help, we pray for Him to rescue us.  The Lord did save Jacob from his brother’s wrath.  In fact it went far better than he expected; Esau shockingly wanted to rebuild the brotherly bond he once shared with Jacob.  Rather than seeing God was in all this, Jacob turned down the opportunity to move close to Esau and his family and instead settled in Shechem.   The choice of where to set down roots seemed inconsequential to Jacob at the time.  He had “arrived safely” at Shechem Genesis 33: 18 tells us or as the Hebrew text reads, “in peace” or “shalom”.  In other words, Jacob felt pretty good about his move.  However Shechem was “hell” for his daughter and the devil’s playground for his sons.  Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, was raped there and two of her brothers in a fit of rage and lust, murdered all the men of the town and stole their livestock.  Crushed by the wickedness of Shechem and his own sons, Jacob found the Lord was still there with him.  Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." (Genesis 35:1 NIV)

Before Jacob set off from Haran and moved his family south into Canaan, the Lord made it clear to Jacob who He was.  “I am the God of Bethel…”, not Shechem.  It was never Shechem God chose for Jacob to take his family, it was Bethel!  However, Jacob was not paying attention to the Lord and it cost Jacob’s family dearly.  Shechem was Jacob’s Sodom, his Egypt.  The happiness he had that his brother no longer wanted to kill him was like a spiritual drug for it numbed his fervor for God.  The lack of attention to the Lord’s guidance had proved disastrous.  He took his eyes off the giver of peace and put it on the pleasure of peace.  God is patient with our distracted minds but just like checking your cell phone when driving can cost you your life or the lives of others, the failure to keep your eyes on God can be devastating.  Nothing excites Satan more than when God’s people are distracted by all the stuff they are doing and they don’t have time to think about what the Lord is saying to them.  Before you know it, you give in to a little temptation here and disobey a scripture there and life begins to spin out of control.  You become so disoriented by Satan’s subtle prodding that the God of strength and wisdom will be a distant memory. You will find yourself thinking just like any pagan would and the fruit of the Spirit God so eloquently described in Galatians 5: 22 disappears.

Consider just how wrecked Jacob’s family was spiritually.  As soon as he heard from the Lord that he needed to move to Bethel and build an altar there for worshipping God, Jacob knew that his family had big changes to make.  So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. (Genesis 35:2 NIV)  Notice how bad it was.  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. (Genesis 35:4 NIV)  Satan had worked its way into the fabric of his family but Jacob had the courage and conviction to root Satan out and start over.  What a tremendous joy it is to be so full of God that He bursts out of you wherever you go!  With their hearts right, Jacob and his household practically sparkled with holiness and spiritual power.  Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. (Genesis 35:5 NIV)

Like a rat making a nest in your house, the impulses of Satan work their way into you and refuse to leave on their own.  We do this, we say that and don’t give a thought to whether it is of God or not as if it doesn’t matter but it matters greatly.  There is a Shechem for every one of us and if we take our mind off the Lord, we will find ourselves there and think everything is alright but it isn’t.  God’s power will have left us and we no longer have Him working with us.  We will say and do things that are more of the devil than they are of Christ and like Samson, we won’t realize we are making a mess of what we have been given.  But then, in our Lord’s patience and mercy, He will make Himself known to us and we will have to decide if we will go to Bethel or not.  When we get rid of our own foreign gods and do away with the stuff that we love more than Christ, we will find that the power of Jesus crucified and resurrected fills us and the fear of the Lord falls on those who come across us.  As you build your life with Christ and set your mind on Him at a moment by moment basis, you will have a way of knowing just what to do and when to do it that will be supernatural and unexplainable to human reasoning.  Make Bethel your home and stay away from Shechem.

Taking Charge of Our Emotions

Some are surprised to discover when they read the Bible for the first time the range of emotions Jesus exhibited.  Emotions are a normal part of being human.  Jesus was emotional and was not embarrassed by His emotions;  He never tried to hide or stifle them.   Jesus could thrive within His emotions because they were perfectly aligned with the Father on every matter.  So why are our emotions out of whack?  Our failure is summarized in Psalm 4: 4.  In your anger do not sin…  When our emotions are drawn into sin, they collapse into a fit of rebellion and vanity.  The depression that forsakes God in its despair, the anger that strips fellow sinners of their humanity and the fear that immobilizes us and keeps us from being led by the Holy Spirit need a Savior.  In Psalm 68:3 we find God’s plan for the normal Christian life.  God has designed  you, regardless of your circumstances and difficulties, regardless of where you were raised or who is in your family, to live happily.  But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. (NIV)  Of course you may think that this is impossible.  You may call it a pipe dream or something only for those who die and go to heaven.  But the psalmist is quite practical and states without equivocation what God’s plan is for you here and now.  However, you have to decide if this is something you want!  Are you ready to have Jesus rework your emotions?  Do you want God to give you supernatural happiness?  Jesus maintained His joy because He continually aligned Himself with the will of the Father.  It takes courage and faith to believe that your circumstances are Christ given, that those who surround you are placed there by God and that your body is safely in the hands of the Father.  Each time you find your emotions sweltering with panic, rage or despair, breathe deeply and whisper a prayer of child-like dependence upon Christ to rework your heart.  “God, save me.  Come to my rescue and restore to me the joy of my salvation!  I have a Savior.  I have a Father who loves me.  I am safe.  My Lord is good!”

Jesus wept. John 11:35 NIV

Another Plan

Proverbs 14:12 NIV

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Do You Know What To Do?

Our youngest son recently played in his baseball league’s all-star game and he did well.  He drove in the tying run with a base hit to center and he was brought in to pitch the 7^th inning with the game tied and got the batter to ground out to second with the bases loaded to end the threat.  The bottom of that inning, our first batter grounded out and our second hitter came up with nobody on base.  He hit a drive deep into right field and got all the way around to third base for a triple.  Now the winning run was at third base with only one out and a left handed hitter up to bat.  He was in the ninth slot which meant he was the worst hitter in the line-up.  As I stood behind home plate watching the action, almost immediately a plan came to my mind.  I knew exactly what strategic move the manager should make to try to get the winning run home.  It was not my call though and so I waited to see what the batter would do.  Our team had been killed all year by the team we were playing so it was a monumental moment for them.  What would the manager do?  What was his plan for trying to score the winning run?  Was he thinking like me?

Perhaps you have had a tough time trying to figure out what to do.  It’s not easy sorting through all the options.  Maybe it’s more of a binary decision…this or that.  Here or there.  Yes or no.  The idea that God cares about what you do and has input into your decisions and decision-making is not universally accepted and outright rejected by many.  One of the primary arguments for abortion rights is the position that a woman has a right to do with her body as she wishes.  Without addressing the specious basis of that contention, we must consider the theological issue here.  Is God in the abortion equation?  Does He play a part in the decision-making of what to do?  Now that is a critical question to ask, and not just with regard to abortion but in every area of life!  Is there room for God to have a say in what you do?  It matters what you decide on this.  Either God guides you or He doesn’t and how you land on this can have huge ramifications for you and others.

The Bible certainly has a lot to say about this but let’s look at some particular case studies in Scripture that illustrate the ways others have dealt with this issue.  Rebekah is certainly not a well-known figure in the Bible but she plays an important part in the lineage of the nation of Israel as well as for Jesus Himself.  She seems to have been a young bride who married an older man in a quasi-arranged marriage.  After twenty years of going childless, finally she conceived and it was not a single child but twins in her womb.  She wasn’t sure why she felt so much turmoil in her womb so she went to the Lord to see what was happening in her.  The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23 NIV)  That of course was surprising news but before we move off this, let us take a closer look at Rebekah’s response to the prophecy.  We don’t know how Rebekah heard what God said to her or why she knew God said it.  Perhaps there was an audible voice or maybe like many of us, somehow the Lord got this message to her in an inaudible but knowable way.  Regardless, the point to be made is that the Lord declared to her the future of her still unborn twins and Rebekah knew it was really God who put it in her brain.

Over the course of the next forty years, Rebekah grew more attached to her younger son Jacob than her older boy Esau.  This happens.  It isn’t shocking to us that parents develop favorites among their kids.  Of course it is sad and in this case it led to great turmoil and pain for the entire family.  Rather than trusting God to do what He said He would do and make the younger stronger than the older in due time, Rebekah decided to rush the process along in her own way.  Believing perhaps she was acting for God, she got her son Jacob to trick her husband Isaac to give the blessing he planned on giving to the older son Esau to Jacob.  Rebekah took advantage of her husband Isaac’s blindness by having Jacob dress up in his brother’s clothes and lie that he was Esau.  Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.  She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with the goatskins. Then she handed to her son Jacob the tasty food and the bread she had made.  He went to his father and said, "My father."  "Yes, my son," he answered. "Who is it?"  Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing."  (Genesis 27:15-19 NIV)

Rebekah heard the voice of God.  He spoke to her about both the present and the future and she knew it really was God saying it all after she did give birth to twins like God said she would.  But then something happened that takes place a million times across generations.  Rebekah went off on her own without God.  Perhaps you have done this too.  God spoke to you about something.  It was undeniably Him.  You were certain of it.  But then time passed and you stopped waiting for Christ to lead you.  You trusted your own wits.  You believed in your intuition, your understanding of things.  And then, without you even really knowing it, you were on your own…without God…without Him showing you the way.  It happened with Mary the mother of Jesus.  She knew God told her that Jesus was the Messiah, God in flesh.  It was a great miracle, His conception.  Mary bravely bore the child and raised Him to believe He was the Messiah.  But then something went wrong in Mary.  She watched Jesus as He moved among the crowds, heard what He was saying to them and grew concerned about Him.  The work of Jesus wasn’t going as she thought it would and Jesus wasn’t saying the kinds of things Mary expected.  Mary thought something wasn’t quite right with Jesus; that maybe He was losing His mind and so she decided to take matters into her own hands.  Without consulting God or even knowing what the Father wanted of her, Mary gathered her other sons and brought them to where Jesus was sitting with His disciples, teaching a small crowd in a home.  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind." … Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him.  (Mark 3:20-21, 31)

What happened with Mary happens over and over in the hearts of people who genuinely love Jesus and want Him to be in charge.  Something doesn’t seem right.  Plans aren’t going as expected.  It is tougher than you thought it would be.  The career isn’t taking off.  Family isn’t what you had hoped.  You aren’t what you envisioned.  It is hard and God is not fixing things.  Or, it could be too easy for you.  You’ve got everything together and you unconsciously don’t need God anymore.  He is just not on the list of things that matter most to you.  We don’t see this in ourselves, the impatience, the eroding faith in God, the nonchalance about His will and direction but it happens.  We slowly stop going to Christ for guidance.  We start figuring things out ourselves and without warning we are on our own, the master of our ship.  What comes of this growing independence, this “self-actualization”?  We are on our own!  We are like all others who have no God to guide them, no Spirit to help them along.

There is something heartwarming about the Israelites as they stood at the edge of the Red Sea with the terrifying Egyptian army and all their chariots and weaponry barreling down upon them.  Logic insisted they surrender.  As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.  They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"  (Exodus 14:10-12 NIV)  We mustn’t forget what a frightening sight the parted Red Sea must have been as an escape route the LORD had chosen for them.  It could not have been inviting to see hundreds of feet of water piled up on each side of the path but they took it because the Israelites believed, even if it was just a bit of faith, that God knew the way for them.

Within you, if you have been born again, the Spirit of God lives and He is ready to guide you.  He can show you the right way to go at each moment if you are willing to let Him be in charge.  If though you turn your back to Him or ignore Him or reject Him, the Spirit will be silent and let you go along on your own.  He will give you the opportunity to see just what it is like without God putting your life together.  Rebekah found out  how great her plan was when a few days later she watched her beloved son Jacob walk out the door, never in her lifetime to return.  We need Christ to lead us, to show us the way.  It is the greatest of gifts to have the Lord of the Universe living inside us, ready to open doors for us, give us wisdom that is supernatural and make things work out that couldn’t without Him.