Tag: mercy

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Battle of “if’s.”

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.” Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

As mentioned before, this is first battle Jesus, as the son of God, faces with the adversary (a descriptor more than a title). Every mention of this evil character never gives this supernatural being the honor of a title. It is a specific insult to remind us, this creature is not worthy of anything! It has many descriptors, all of which designates a single, personal, supernatural being who stands in absolute opposition to God and His redemptive purposes. He is neither a mere force nor an impersonal principle but is consistently portrayed as a conscious, strategic adversary with intellect, emotion, and will. Its bag of title-tricks include, slanderer, tempter, accuser, schemer, murderer, prince of the power of the air & beelzebub (ruler over all other demons, some of which are fallen angels, but also include other spiritual beings, even mythological figures, and malevolent creatures that exist in our world.)

In this first physical, spiritual standoff, Jesus, at what will be his weakest moment, is led by the Holy Spirit to go out into the Judean wilderness. Jesus’ task; to be tempted, tested! This battle had no physical weapons, no swords, spears or slings – just words. It was all a verbal, mental battle of specific questions to be asked by a liar and refuted by absolute truth. All the training and preparation from birth until the pre-launch of His ministry, Jesus would have his moment with the one cast out of heaven and given dominion over this dark planet.

It was only a three question examine, but it would both reveal the patterns and plans of the accuser that had been used since its first conversation with the woman in the garden – undermining the will of God. These three questions did not directly confront God, nor His will or ways. What questions would you ask God’s own son to get him to betray his father and please himself, rather than doing the hard job of fulfilling God’s will? The deceiver didn’t just go after Jesus’ hopes and dreams, his aspirations and future accomplishments. It went after Jesus’ identity!

Three temptations all started with, “If you are the Son of God.” If, if, if… then prove it by: Taking care of your own physical needs. Challenging the true nature of care, love and safety of your Father, by choosing self-harm. And, taking the shortcut to power by accepting a path that does not require suffering. It might seem simple. It might seem silly.

To authenticate his own self perception and purpose, all he to do was make some bread out of stones, leap off the 450 foot, 30 story building to the desert floor below. And, to quickly secure his inheritance in the future, all he had to do was accept the seemingly “generous,” “no-strings attached offer,” from the temporary governor of the planet. Three questions that start with identity, then the attempts at subverting God’s will taking shortcuts to self fulfillment. Sound familiar?

Even in Jesus’ exhausted state of mind and body, he saw through the lies and was not fooled by the veiled threats of God’s ability to keep his promises. The enemy of God and of our soul has not changed its primary motives or methods. The liar still lies, the supplanter still schemes and slanders. And, not surprisingly, we still fall for it all the time.

The tricks of temptation still attack our identity first. “If you are a child of God.” Then the same ol’ process to get us to take shortcuts in our own disordered desires. To buy now, pay later. To click and receive immediate results. To have our physical, emotional and soul’s needs cared for expediently.

We’ve all got our battles of “ifs.” No desert, or forty-day fasts are necessary to reveal the schemer’s real motives. The murderer cannot kill God, nor win THE battle. So the tempter comes after us, to take as many as it can, to ultimately be separated from God forever. Know this; WE choose the lie over truth, we desire the shortcuts of sin – to fulfill the now, forgetting the later. Even though we (all of us) are a created child of God, God still gives us choice, the autonomy of will to walk away from his love instead of living in it.

Prayer

​Dad,
The battle is very real today as it was since the beginning. Even when we see truth, and know truth, we still choose the lie. We can still question who we really are and struggle with what we really desire! But your love, your grace and mercy is stronger, especially when we hide Your Word in our heart and use it as a powerful weapon against the “ifs” and the shortcuts. Help us O’ Lord! Help us to know you, walk with you, trusting you over our own delusions and delights. To resist the lie and the liar so it will flee!

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God goes for the rejected.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬-‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Luke gives us the story we were all so curious about. What happens when a kid comes back home, as an adult? Wow! Themes of familiarity, knowing someone when they were little, but now they are all grown up. Mothers who speak of feeding, burping and changing your diapers. Fathers who use phrases like, “knee high to a grasshopper.” Older friends talking about very stale stories when you were a child or teen, laughing about your “awkward” stage. Jesus went home, but he had changed even though Nazareth had not! It’s gets me.

I’m guilty of and surrounded by the stories of “back in the day.” Unfortunately, it’s one of the things you have to face when you’ve kept life-long friendships and relatives that are more sentimental than ever. Jesus went home and home only had memories of his past and a few stories of what had happened since he left. What a moment to capture! Thank you Dr. Luke for giving us such a dramatic, transitional moment in Jesus’ life, but also an amazing insight into how we tend to keep people locked in our memories, not allowing them to grow into God’s design.

To get the best possible picture of what these short moments in the local Nazareth synagogue looked like, you have to watch The Chosen, Season 3, Episode 3, called, “Physician, Heal Yourself.” To summarize: At the synagogue, Jesus reads a scroll from the Prophet Isaiah and declares its fulfillment on that day. Jesus uses the examples of Elijah with the widow of Zarephath and Elisha with Naaman to prove His pronouncement of salvation in the Year of Jubilee. Jesus then proclaims Himself as the Messiah, enraging and upsetting the hearers. The people of Nazareth reject and condemn Jesus for His proclamation as the Law of Moses, driving Him out of the town to throw Him down a cliff, but Jesus passes through their midst.

Wow! Jesus, comes home and literally causes a violent riot, with the local religious activists fully intending to kill him. Luke tells us, “When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious,” Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭28‬. What exactly were they furious about? Because right after Jesus said the prophetic promise was fulfilled that day. Luke tells us they spoke well of him and they were even amazed by his grace with authority. It was most likely the next thing Jesus told his own community leaders that ruffled their defensive feathers.

Jesus, led by the Spirit and reading the room, simply spoke what they were all thinking. What were they thinking? They were thinking about an ancient proverb that says, “Physician, heal yourself”— meaning, “Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.” Then Jesus presents the pharisaical elephant in the synagogue. “Your legalistic, religious zeal has blinded you because that same selfish spirit is what killed the prophets that brought God’s truth!” Jesus said, “no prophet is accepted in his own hometown,” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭4‬:‭24‬.

Bringing light and salt to their fake facades Jesus quickly summarizes two stories about two of the most favored, famous prophets; Elijah and Elisha. Elijah with the widow and Elisha with the Syrian general. Instead of God sending these two prophets to their own people, the Jews, God sent them to Gentiles – despised foreigners! Hard truth: God has passed you by because you’ve rejected truth, and God has moved on to invite all people – namely, the Gentiles, the Samaritans, the rejected and lost. This is what caused them to pick up their proverbial pitch forks and torches! They didn’t like what Jesus inferred, so they dealt with it exactly how our modern mobs deal with truth – let’s just kill the truth teller! Of course it was not Jesus’ time, it would come later. But, we all know you can’t kill truth, it will endure beyond individuals.

God still goes after the rejected. Paul even says God goes after His enemies – even while we were yet sinners… Christ died for us. Apparently that really makes self righteous folks really mad. The good news for the poor is the understanding that we know we’re broken, but God comes not to condemn us but to save us. If we can’t figure out how broken we are, then when we see God’s mercy given to someone not so good, it makes us angry not grateful.

Prayer

​Dad,
Sinners, know thyself! I know who I was and who I am now. I was not just lost, I was miserable. I knew without you, I would not have anything, no life, no future. You changed my life and I must see others through the same eyes that recognized just how broken I was. Thank you.

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Global Justice Justified.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Look! The Lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The Lord has spoken!” ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭24‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Isaiah writes that things were not looking to good for the planet and its inhabitants. God was about to devastate and scatter. Wipe out the surface of the earth and scatter the people. Sounds apocalyptic and final doesn’t it!

What is Isaiah writing about?
Did it happen?
Is it still yet to happen?

Most scholars agree, this is a future evert known as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21-22). This chapter is known as the “Isaiah Apocalypse.” Isaiah writes this in the 8th Century BC, almost 3000 years ago!

It is interesting that so many predictions by a man named Nostradamus pop up every so often, but virtually nothing is mentioned about the prophetic promises all through the Old Testament. Nostradamus, a 16th-century French astrologer and physician, is famous for his cryptic predictions, many of which have made their way into mainstream media. It’s estimated that hundreds of references exist across various media platforms. While Nostradamus wrote around 942 prophecies, the interpretations of these predictions are highly subjective, and few if any became a reality.

If we tracked Isaiah’s prophecies, around 20-30 percent of Isaiah’s prophecies are cited as having been clearly fulfilled historically. The remainder, roughly 70-80 percent, is seen as potential future fulfillments, especially regarding eschatological themes. Isaiah’s end-of-planet, is a massive doom-n-gloom prophecy, yet there are virtually no stories, no mad-max style scripts, no CGI/A.I. effects making to the theaters. The promise of the end of all ends, and there’s barely a peep about it out of Hollywood. There have been hundreds of apocalyptic films released in theaters since the dawn of cinema. Only four of them draw from the Isaiah style theme, The Book of Eli (2010), Knowing (2009), The Omega Code (1999) and the Left Behind Series (2000).

The point is this, God’s track record to fulfill His will, His way, His promises is flawlessly perfect, yet many still don’t take it seriously. Paul in the Book of Romans, uses the phrase, “without excuse” in Romans 1:20. Paul writes about how the invisible attributes of God are evident in creation, making humanity accountable for their disbelief. This implies that the evidence of God’s existence is clear in the world around us, leaving no justification for rejection of Him. So, just as clearly of creation leaving evidence for every human being to see and ask, we also have these prophesies tell of past events that have already happened and that yet unfulfilled ones that will absolutely take place. God’s mercy and love is absolutely long suffering and future events hold the finality of His justice which is also 100% love – evil cannot run rampant forever.

Prayer

​Dad,
I did not come to faith through the loud proclamation of creation nor the proof of promises fulfilled. I came to Jesus through the crushing reality of how my parents lived, knowing it would become my own life if I did not have help and make completely different choices. I came through faith! But, through Your Word, I learned about Your prophetic promises and the perfection of Your plans. I have come to believe there are no excuses, and there will be no excuses, as Paul said. Thank you for your patience and grace towards us.

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Community Concerns Matter

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“So you may eat any meat that is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If someone who isn’t a believer asks you home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered to you without raising questions of conscience. (But suppose someone tells you, “This meat was offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the conscience of the one who told you. It might not be a matter of conscience for you, but it is for the other person.) For why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks? If I can thank God for the food and enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it?”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭25‬-‭30‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The Apostle Paul, in writing to the wildly mixed cultural community of Corinth, spends quite a bit of time discussing social, ethical, moral and even spiritual concerns of others. Paul digs deep into the those who are strict adherents to the Old Testament Law as well as those who live in the freedom of Christ and the New Testament fulfillment of those laws. Jesus himself said, he did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

This concern about the Law was a major contention among the Jewish congregations intermingled with their Gentile brothers and sisters. Corinth was certainly the perfect city to watch the gospel work in both a Jewish tradition as well as a heathen one! Paul boldly pushes the idea that freedom, because of the grace of Christ, does not mean it should be exercised when it offends the conscience of another believer. Paul uses the “meat offering,” as an example of this dilemma. We know today there are many areas that believers may be free to participate in, but not free to offend and hurt other believers in the process.

We see a number of community issues brought to light in the Corinthian letters. Paul even used an example of abusing the sacrament of Communion to highlight the importance of guarding each other in love. Yet, in vs 29, Paul asks a seemingly contradictory question. “Why should my freedom be limited by what someone else thinks?” Great question – great dilemma! Why prefer someone’s conscience, OR exercise your freedom? Isn’t it just a question of momentary sacrifice on behalf of another’s sensitivity? Is this more about Christian maturity than it is about flaunting freedoms? Yes & yes. Although we are truly free in this example, there are also many other situations where the principle applies.

Are we willing to limit out of love?
Are we willing to pause on pushing the point when it might actually harm someone else? – Paul says, “causing them to stumble.”

I have heard several arguments about rights and freedoms, but very few arguments about humbling themselves, submitting to the love of Christ on behalf of another. Which attitude, which position, honors both Christ and a brother or sister. In those moments it is not the time to lecture, trying to help a weaker soul understand the true depth of freedom they should have in Christ. It’s a time to pause and remember how it was when we were once the young believer trying to figure out our faith under real world circumstances.

Not everything has to be argued or positioned.

When Jesus was asked about punishing the woman caught in adultery, he did not take the opportunity to lecture the Pharisees about mercy, which they sorely lacked! He simply reminded everyone watching and waiting for him to choose sides, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.” He put each one of them on the spot to risk playing the role of God who is both just and merciful. But they would have to do so by admitting they were perfect.

As much as I write about this, I am absolutely convinced that God wants us to take our theology, our knowledge and understanding of who God is and what God wants to do in our life, and practice it on each other. And, until we do – until we learn how to apply God’s work in us to the place where it goes out in others, we will just continue to struggle with the legalistic traps of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Prayer

Dad,
The hardest and the most beautiful parts of the gospel working in me is actually the gospel working through me. That’s where real change happens. That’s where real humility happens. That’s where discipleship makes the most sense. Even though I seriously value “my time,” along with my ways, I know that it also can stunt my growth in becoming like Jesus. Thank you for your grace and long suffering in getting me to look more like Christ.

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Stop believing Frophets.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord.” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭8‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God speaks to Jeremiah and tells him nothing but truth. God will not lie – EVER. God tells Jeremiah what will happen. This is in contrast to all the other frophets telling the nation what they want to hear! Jeremiah hears God AND hears his frophet peers; maybe struggling with who to believe.

The frophets were hearing voices and seeing dreams about Israel dodging God’s discipline and coming out prosperous and stronger than ever. God tells Jeremiah they are FAKES and are telling lies in God’s name. Notice God says, “your” prophets and “I have not sent them!”

They are Fake Prophets…Frophets!

God declares the truth, “You will be in Babylon for seventy years…” He also brings hope… “BUT THEN I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭10‬).

This leads to one of the most famous, misapplied promises of God in the book of Jeremiah. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭11‬). Why is it misapplied? Because the verses before and after do not say, “Do whatever you want and I will fix you.” The promise of God has context! The whole truth is that God put Israel in timeout to be lovingly disciplined for disobedience! And the powerfully quoted verse of comfort and hope is hinged on what God tells them in the following verses.

“In those days when you pray, I will listen.
If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” ‭‭(Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭12‬-‭13‬).

WHEN you pray. IF you look for me wholeheartedly. Humility and repentance is key to experiencing God’s mercy, forgiveness and blessings. Why would God want Israel or any of us to continue to whore after other lovers and still expect some kind of entitled promise?

These words IN context are absolutely true and are for us today. Quit listening to the lies of Frophets. We must yield to God’s discipline and turn our hearts towards Him! THEN, God will 💯% show us good plans with a hopefilled future. Because God does have good plans waiting for us, but it means we continually turn from our disordered desires to obey Him.

One of the worst things that can happen to us is discovering we’ve been LIED to. And what’s so humiliating is that we still fall for the lie! We want to believe the lie over the truth because it feels good, giving us a false sense of control; like we have “discovered” some kind of mystical lifehack that no one else knew about. It’s all the deceiver’s scam-sham-shakedown and we take the bait. God does not lie. The father of lies and our own sin makes the lie look so good, so real, that we rationalize it and make the trade – swapping out truth to believe the lie. Let Jesus’ words ring loud and clear to lead and guide our head and heart, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Prayer

​Dad,
Where would I be without your grace and mercy? What lies would I have continued to believe if you had not rescued me and began transforming my heart? Help me Oh Lord, to believe and trust you above all others. Guard my heart and mind, helping me apply your Word as a shield and weapon to resist the deceiver’s lies and my own desires.

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Negotiating with God

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Then the Sovereign Lord showed me another vision. I saw him preparing to punish his people with a great fire. The fire had burned up the depths of the sea and was devouring the entire land. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please stop or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.” Then the Lord relented from this plan, too. “I will not do that either,” said the Sovereign Lord.” ‭‭Amos‬ ‭7‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I know God loves and listens to me, but I don’t know what it would take to bargain with the Holy, Righteous Creator of all things! The Jewish people had a knack for negotiating and it came from their bargaining ethics that advocate for integrity and fairness in all business interactions. These principles guide individuals to conduct negotiations in a manner that respects both the letter and spirit of the law. They call it “Kiddush Hashem,” the sanctification of the Name. The act of glorifying God’s name through one’s actions. For example, we think of God’s Laws as the big 10 commandments, but for orthodox Jews, there are actually 613 commandments which continued to expand into the New Testament to over 1,500 commands. The deep level of specificity boggles my mind.

My point; Amos sees has no fear, confidently telling God he has a problem with His punishment. And, Amos had already had this discussion with God over the swarm of locust devouring all the crops, saying, we are too small to survive that! Similarly here, except this time it would be devouring FIRE 🔥. Amos said, Lord, we won’t survive that either.

God relented (nacham: To comfort, to repent, to relent). The root word of nacham is to sigh deeply. What is going on here? God knows Israel’s size. God even knows that Amos would plead on the people’s behalf. More critically, God knows Israel will continue to sin. These passages deal with a difficult, but necessary understanding of God’s character. God is fully, completely just, right and true – full stop. But, God is also merciful and long suffering, fully capable, yet compassionate! That seems impossible for us as humans to comprehend let alone emulate. Yet it is 💯 true.

The other part is easier for us to understand – God hears the humble pleas of a prayer of the prophet – “please stop.” And in these moments we see that God not only hears, but responds to this idea of intercession from the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. God relents, He pauses to recognize the voice of an advocate! We know by reading the rest of the story, that God eventually delivered the full justice as He had promised. But it’s in this delay, we see God waiting for someone to stand in the way of the path of justice to make a case for mercy. How beautiful is that?

These mini-episodes are all throughout the Old Testament pointing forward for a final enactment of justice, where God’s true and righteous punishment is poured out on the one and only advocate that will take all the sins of humanity upon himself as the perfect sacrifice for all who come under his own blood payment for us. The final outpouring of justice is still forthcoming. The only way to access God’s mercy this time will not be a righteous and humble prophet like Amos, or any of the other prophets. The mercy of forgiveness will only be for those who chose to follow the one worthy – full of perfection and fulfillment of justice – that is Jesus. Paul, wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:2, quoting Isaiah, “Today is the day of salvation.” My interpretation…now’s the time to negotiate with God for His mercy. When all things come to an end, it will be too late.

Prayer

​Dad,
My past, present and future were all settled when I said YES to following you all the days of my life. Jesus as my advocate is all I need to find the mercy I needed. And now is the time for me to pray, asking you for mercy for my friends, family and even our nation. We desperately need you in these days of lawlessness.

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The dilemma of suffering.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful? They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren. Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them.” ‭‭Job‬ ‭21‬:‭7‬-‭9‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Even with all that had happened to Job – immense loss and excruciating physical anomalies, he somehow held onto his quick wit. This chapter opens with Job wanting to talk to his friends, getting a word in edgewise, because when we are not in pain ourselves, we are just full of unhelpful opinions! Job tells his “comforters,” LISTEN TO ME. It’s the least you can do, “Listen closely to what I am saying. That’s one consolation you can give me. Bear with me, and let me speak. After I have spoken, you may resume mocking me.” ‭‭Job‬ ‭21‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ 🤣🤣🤣.

Job asks the question we all want the answer to, but God will not give it!

WHY?

Sure… why suffering?

But it’s far more than that. Because we are completely and obsessively comparative to others, we want to know about the sense of inequity, the fairness of it all.

Why ME, as opposed to why YOU?

I’ll just say it, “you’ve got to be worse than me, come on admit it!”

Ok, ok, ok – clearly I know I’m not perfect, but there has got to be someone worse than me out there. God… go bless them with suffering.

Job asks a fair, reasonable question, given the limited perspective we have about EVERYTHING. Why do the wicked prosper? Job lists all the incongruities and inconsistencies about suffering. Their livestock breed like rabbits, the kids hop about without a care in the world. They skip, dance and sing with innocent abandonment. Isn’t wealth supposed to be a curse? Aren’t they supposed to be miserable in their miser ways? (I added those last two). The wicked mock God and declare their independence from Him in every way. Plus, they truly believe they made all of it happen by themselves!

Job vomits out his frustration with unfiltered angst. “One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure, the picture of good health, vigorous and fit. Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life. But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.” Job‬ ‭21‬:‭23‬-‭26‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Job ends this chapter with a clap-back, “Thanks buds, I appreciate all your advice coming from seats of safety.” He writes, “How can your empty clichés comfort me? All your explanations are lies!” ‭‭Job‬ ‭21‬:‭34‬.

Wow! Job describes his (and our) dilemma but laying out the only thing he can figure out – you’ll find no justice in suffering! In fact, from our angle, our view, our experiences, we only see senselessness. If we think we can find the answer to the disparity of suffering in Job, we will be sorely disappointed. Suffering exists because of our own sin, which results in brokenness. But about the equal distribution of suffering? We just do not know. Only God knows. What we do know and can trust about God knowing all things: He is always right, true and just. Everything – EVERYTHING – He has done, does today and will do tomorrow is forever PERFECT. So we can try to pass the quiz God gave Job in chapters 38 & 39, which I guarantee you will fail. Or, we can have faith and trust the creator of all things, who does all things well. Simple, right?

Prayer

​Dad,
Whew. Every once in a while I get it in my head that I want to know things! Or, even funnier, that I want to control things. My thirst for knowledge of things and my curiosities feel so arrogant and foolish when I read Job. Job’s story helps me not only to be self aware in my lack of wisdom and understanding. It also helps me self correct my thoughts and opinions when going through suffering or being a good friend to someone who is going through suffering. You are so good God! I see it in the ancient text. I feel it in my spirit. Your love and mercy, your justice and goodness are more appreciated and apparent when suffering comes into my view. Thank You!

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Solomon’s oxymoronic dilemma.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

“After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.” ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭2‬:‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When I read about Solomon, in the early years I am impressed by his humility, loyalty and wisdom as he ruled the Israelite Empire. And, an empire it was for sure. Israel extended into the Sinai desert near Egypt in the south and to the Euphrates River in the north. It was roughly three times the size of Israel today and would have included parts of present-day Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Solomon himself was “greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.” God also granted him wisdom beyond any other human being. And yet Solomon finds himself searching, wanting, still “seeking wisdom.” In chapter two, he goes looking for trouble – “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life,”2‬:‭1‬.

It’s the next sentence that boggles my mind. “And while still seeking wisdom… I clutched at foolishness.” What a strange oxymoronic pursuit! God gave him more than enough smarts for several lifetimes, but it wasn’t enough? Proverbs and Ecclesiastes is filled with unfathomable wisdom, plenty to know about God, to love God and how to do right. Everything one needs to fulfill Micah’s self-examined question – what does the LORD require of us? Solomon started out with a life of acting justly, loving mercy, walking humbly with God! It seems as though Solomon’s pursuit of MORE had the strange effect of bewitching his life, family and future.

Solomon had the means and the shadowed motivation of experiencing the only “happiness” most find in the brevity of life? He bought and built anything his heart desired. He was consumed with this one idea, “Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure,” ‭2‬:‭10‬. He did the most dangerous, crazy social experiment any human would attempt, ”So I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and madness (for who can do this better than I, the king?).” Solomon did it so that we wouldn’t have to… or want to? Plunging himself into deep stupidity. Who would aspire to simultaneously be the smartest and dumbest human? What drove him? I have no idea!

I do know folks that have an insatiable hunger for more. And, conversely, I also know people that seem insanely driven to failure and oddly addicted to foolishness! Both are so sad to watch. I’m not trying to be self effacing, but I am just not smart enough to be one and certainly not dumb enough to be the other! Oh, I want to be wise, but not so much that it drives me to the edge of insanity. I have learned so much from the wisdom God gave Solomon. I’m hoping I will never need his tips on foolishness, other than avoiding them.

Prayer

​Dad,
When I started following Jesus I dove deeply into Proverbs because I was socially delayed as well as lacked discipline. Going through relationships and exploring love for the first time I also spent time in Psalms to learn how to both express and understand the disappointments of life as a teenager. I never did spend too much time trying to understand Solomon and the life lessons he provided. Now, all these years later I understand a little more, but I am still missing the big WHY of his life and Ecclesiastical writings. To have so much and yet still succumb to all the traps of sin and the lusts in our soul, leaves me puzzled still. I do trust you and know there was great purpose in having Solomon record his experiences as the “teacher.” Maybe by the time life ends I’ll figure it all out. Then again, maybe I won’t 🤨.

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Visions of disaster.

Reading Time: 3 minutes

”The Sovereign Lord showed me a vision. I saw him preparing to send a vast swarm of locusts over the land. This was after the king’s share had been harvested from the fields and as the main crop was coming up. In my vision the locusts ate every green plant in sight. Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, please forgive us or we will not survive, for Israel is so small.” So the Lord relented from this plan. “I will not do it,” he said.” ‭‭Amos‬ ‭7‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Amos has three visions in this chapter. The first, a swarm of lolkus eating up every plant. The second, a great fire, devouring the land. And the third, a plumb line showing how off, how crooked, Israel had become. In the first two it is clear that these “natural” disasters would decimate the people of Israel. Amos asked for God’s forgiveness saying, “Israel is so small.” This little country had seen so much wealth, and so many miracles allowing them to hold off the larger countries surrounding it. It was because God was for them, not against them.

But Israel, like us, believed it was their own might with skillful leadership, with each passing year paying tribute and worship to fake gods and mocking their own history and heritage. They believed their good fortune was tied to their ability to be cool and trendy idolaters like their enemies. Generation after generation, king after king, they slid further into breaking their promises and forfeiting their rights to God keeping His end of the covenant.

What is so interesting is this idea that God tells Amos what He will do, Amos ask Him not to. God “relents,” Hebrew: nacham – To comfort, to repent, to relent, to be sorry. So, is God’s sovereignty open to negotiation? Or maybe it is better understood as God being open to humble repentance.

On the third vision, Amos sees a plumb line showing just how far off the King of Israel really is. God will no long ignore the discrepancy, but tells Amos that the judgment will come against all the pagan shrines, the temples and King Jeroboam himself will be destroyed. God’s long suffering has limits, His patience will not be tested to endure forever.

Where does that leave us, as a new covenant believer under the covering of Jesus sacrifice for our sins? It leaves us forgiven from the judgment of death, but not from experiencing the consequences of our sins. It is the same today as it was then – God desires obedience over sacrifice! Hebrews 6:4-6 talk about the impossibility of those who have fully experienced the grace of God, tasting of the gift of the Holy Spirit and then turning away, denying it all – they are in danger of not being able to come back to repentance and thereby rejecting the Son of God. They themselves are nailing him to the cross once again! We too must be careful of not living a life of consistent worship of our own modern idols, with patterns of sin and disobedience without repentance.

Prayer

​Dad,
These Amos prophecies are encouraging on one hand and frustrating on the other. Encouraging because you are perfect in your justice and judgments. Frustrating because sin is very much a human frailty and is most insidiously designed to hit us in the most intimate ways. It’s powerfully alluring. Without your help, your strength and your Spirit working in us, I don’t see it even possible to bear it or beat it! I am thankful for your grace and mercy that covers my sin. I cannot wait until the day that it does not invade my life any longer.

Posted on

We’ve all got big debts.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, canceling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?” Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.” “That’s right,” Jesus said. ‭‭Luke‬ ‭7‬:‭41‬-‭43‬ ‭NLT‬‬

While sitting with the upper echelons of society, those so squeaky clean, so raucously righteous, that it would intimidate anyone that couldn’t match or surpass their religious reputations – Jesus has a meal with some Pharisees! Have you ever been around folks that “out-classed” you? I have!

I went to a nonprofit meetup with a friend and told a story to a group of folks there. It was about young boy in foster care who had never had a birthday party. I shared that his foster siblings, overhearing his claim, challenged their brother’s memory about not having a birthday party. “Yes, you’ve had one,” one of them said. The boy protested, “nuh uh.” The older sister said, “Remember the time they (foster parents) took us to Jack in the box.” Trying to remember, but unable to do so, his sister said, “Remember they bought you a hamburger.” Still puzzled, the boy shrugged his shoulders, reluctantly agreeing. His then sister said, “that was your birthday party.”

One time, one Jack in the box burger – no wonder at 8 years old he couldn’t remember ever being celebrated for being born.

Now, with a group of people leaning in to hear the rest of the story, I said, “can you believe it, the only thing he received was a crummy burger from Jack in the box.” There was a visible gasp from everyone except for one woman who said, “well, I think a Jack in the box burger is a pretty good gift.” The friend who invited me to the upscale mixer then said, “Glenn I’d like you to meet the wife of the CEO of Jack in the box.” I was mortified… and out-classed.

Was Jesus comfortable being in a room full of highly educated, wealthy and powerful men, He felt more accepted among the poor and needy. But there was no way that Jesus was out-classed! I am amazed at Jesus’ ability to NOT be shocked by someone’s behavior, social status, nor their past. Jesus was Mr. Cool, vibing or grounded around common humanity.

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus told a story about indebtedness? I don’t know how many of the Pharisees experienced debt while they were clawing their way up the religious ladders of success. Debt is a crushing but normal experience among people. No one likes to be in debt! Ah, but there are plenty of money lenders who love debt – especially when money is owed to them. It’s power over desperation – right? I believe the Pharisees around the table knew more about loaning money and collecting debts than they knew about the pressures of paying it back. Or, maybe Jesus knew that some in the room were dealing with debt.

But the story Jesus tells isn’t about sin and forgiveness or status, it was about debt and gratitude. Jesus gets their mind off their judgmental attitude, “Jesus doesn’t know who this woman is,” to thinking about the posture of being forgiven from massive debt. So Jesus could get them thinking about a mixture of social and spiritual awareness, about humility and gratitude. They could see the splinters of sin in the woman’s life, yet could not see the logs of sin in their own eyes.

They did not recognize God in the room and did appropriately act in reverence by washing Jesus feet (cleansing) and anointing his head (holiness). But the woman, so scorned and low in status, both washed and anointed Jesus’ feet, both acts of pure, grateful humility. How could such a woman of the streets read the room and recognize God more than the guys that worked for God? Because, even though religions and the world celebrates pride, the Bible says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34, 1 Peter 5:5 & James 4:6).

The Pharisees did not understand that their own hearts were deeply in debt. The woman, knowing her own heart, did. The woman left the dinner party FREE – “Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.” The Pharisees on the other had sunk deeper into debt saying, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?” What will it take for us to understand our own indebtedness and come to Jesus in humble gratitude, instead of comparing to the sins of those around us there by leaving with bitterness instead of forgiveness?

Prayer

​Dad,
I see my past and present sins! I am completely aware that I wasn’t just a sinner in the past, I am a sinner still today. Your grace and forgiveness feel more powerful in forgiving my debts now – this absolutely helps me forgive others and see them through mercy rather than judgement. I’m so busy ejecting logs out of my eyes that I rarely have time to examine the specs in other’s eyes. But, you know what really bothers me? Being around others with little spiritual awareness to see their own debt while questioning the sinfulness of others. We’ve got to daily die to our pharisaical observations, and see people through your eyes! Help us in this O Lord.