Jesus’ Way is Better

Readings for today: Micah 1-4

Everyday I try to read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. I read Time Magazine and skim the headlines from CNN, FoxNews, and the BBC. I scroll through social media feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. My goal in all this is not to punish myself or to get down or discouraged though I have to process those feelings constantly. No, the goal is to get in touch with real people and their real hopes and dreams, fears and anxieties, pain and suffering. I want to know and understand what’s driving our world to ruin and why we choose this path over and over again. As I’ve pondered these questions and many more, the only conclusion I can come to is the one arrived at by an ancient prophet as he surveyed the world around him.

“All the other people live however they wish, picking and choosing their gods. But we live honoring God, and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.” (Micah 4:5 MSG) Micah clearly perceives the contrast between living for God and living for gods. He understands the true cost of idolatry. The death and destruction and despair it invites. He sees the helplessness and hopelessness of a people who live however they wish and who make up their own gods to justify their self-destructive decisions. I see it all the time myself. Every decision every person makes in their life for good or for ill seems rational to them in the moment. Human beings don’t make irrational decisions by and large. We make decisions that we believe are best for us even when we are self-deceived. The people Micah is called to prophesy to have chosen to go their own way. Do what is right in their own eyes. They try to make sense of their world by picking and choosing the pagan gods they will follow. Not much has changed. People in our world make similar decisions. They follow similar desires. They try to make sense of their world by picking and choosing the pagan gods of money, sex, power, addiction, you name it. And where does it all lead? To destruction. To self-inflicted pain and suffering. Isolation and loneliness. Heartache and heartbreak.

Thankfully God will not abandon His people. Not in Micah’s day. Not in our day. There is a time coming, according to Micah, when all things will be made new. The world will be set right. Every tear will be wiped away. Peace will break out. Justice will become the rule rather than the exception. Listen to how he describes it from Micah 4:1-4, 6-8, “But when all is said and done, God’s Temple on the mountain, Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains, towering above surrounding hills. People will stream to it and many nations set out for it, Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain. Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God. He will teach us how to live. We’ll know how to live God’s way.” True teaching will issue from Zion, God’s revelation from Jerusalem. He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations and settle disputes in faraway places. They’ll trade in their swords for shovels, their spears for rakes and hoes. Nations will quit fighting each other, quit learning how to kill one another. Each man will sit under his own shade tree, each woman in safety will tend her own garden. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so, and he means what he says…On that great day,” God says, “I will round up all the hurt and homeless, everyone I have bruised or banished. I will transform the battered into a company of the elite. I will make a strong nation out of the long lost, A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action, as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity. “And you stragglers around Jerusalem, eking out a living in shantytowns: The glory that once was will be again. Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”

The glory that once was will be again. There was a time when human beings lived in glory. We walked in glory. We loved in glory. At the dawn of creation, when God saw everything and it was good, humanity tilled a garden. We were naked and unashamed. We lived in complete freedom, complete peace, and complete transparency before the Lord and before each other. The echo of this existence still haunts us to this day. We all have a longing deep inside to return to Eden. To recapture the glory that was once our own. God’s promise is that we will see that day again if we turn to Him. And He reveals the fulfillment of that promise in the Person of His Son Jesus Christ. The One in whom the fullness of God’s glory dwells. And when we place our faith in Jesus, the Spirit comes to reside in us, filling us with His glory once again. This is why the Apostle Paul says, “God has chosen to make known to His saints the glorious riches of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)

Readings for tomorrow: Micah 5-7

The Narrow Way

Readings for today: Isaiah 5-8

Recently, I’ve been reading a book by a rabbi named Abraham Joshua Heschel. Rabbi Heschel was one of the foremost rabbi’s of the 20th century. Internationally known as a scholar, author, activist, and theologian. He was the professor of ethics and mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary in America and combined both disciplines to create a way of thinking about God and life and humanity that is deeply compelling. In one of the chapters of his famous book, God in Search of Man, he charts out the narrow way of what it means to know and follow God in this world.

What is the secret to righteous living according to Heschel? “A truth so universal: God is One. A thought to consoling: He is with us in distress. A responsibility so overwhelming: His name can be desecrated. A map of time: from creation to redemption. Guideposts along the way: the Sabbath Day. An offering: contrition of the heart. A utopia: would that all people were prophets. The insight: humanity lives by faithfulness: his home in time and his substance in deeds. A standard so bold: ye shall be holy. A commandment so daring: love thy neighbor as thyself. A fact so sublime: human and divine pathos can be in accord. And a gift so undeserved: grace and the ability to repent.”

Contrast this way with what both the secular and religious worlds have to offer. The secular lives by the creed offered in Isaiah 5:20, “Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” Progress looks like regress. Advancement looks like retreat. Transcendence has been traded for degradation. We’ve exchanged our heavenly aspirations for earthly desires and have crashed harder than cryptocurrency. The same is true for the religious. It’s simply the flip side of the coin. Rather than embrace the incomprehensible mysteries of God, we prefer the straight jacket of our theological systems of belief. Rather than embrace the wideness of the love of God, we narrow the field to those who think like us, believe like us, look like us, act like us. Rather than embrace the radical grace of God, we exhaust ourselves trying to earn our salvation through our own effort and wisdom and strength.

God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His wisdom seems like foolishness to us. A virgin shall conceive a son? You shall call His name Immanuel? God will come to dwell with us? All of us are like Ahaz if we’re totally honest. We refuse to believe the words of the prophet because they simply do not fit human logic and defies human categories of understanding. And yet, isn’t that the point? God is not like us. God exists on a higher plane. He is infinite and we are finite. He is omniscient and we are limited by what we can know from human experience. He is not bound by the laws of the universe He created nor is He trapped by paradox. This is why prophets like Isaiah fall on their faces before God when they see Him face to face. They simply cannot process all that He is and reveals Himself to be. Thankfully, God is merciful and gracious to us. Rather than striking us down for our sin, He wipes away our guilt and shame with the touch of a coal from His altar. And then He sends us out to proclaim His gospel to the world.

Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 9-12

A Political Faith

Readings for today: Isaiah 1-4

“The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.” (Isaiah‬ ‭1:1‬)

The book of Isaiah begins with a political statement. Everything he says from this point forward (66 chapters!) must be viewed through a distinctly political lens. Uzziah. Jotham. Ahaz. Hezekiah. We know their stories. We’ve just read through their histories in the Kings and Chronicles. We know Uzziah reigned for over fifty years and for the most part remained faithful to God. However, at the end of his life he grew proud and brazenly entered the Temple to offer sacrifices. We know his son, Jotham, reigned for sixteen years and also remained faithful to the Lord but failed to address the nation’s ongoing idolatry on the high places. We know Ahaz reigned for sixteen years and was an evil, faithless king. The entire kingdom suffered under his rule. We know Hezekiah returned to the ways of the Lord, experienced the miracle of healing, but also grew prideful and set his descendents up for disaster when he shows off his riches to the envoys of Babylon. 

Isaiah presumably witnesses all of this. He sees it all go past. He lives it. His prophetic career begins at some point during the glory days under King Uzziah and ends at some point during the reign of King Hezekiah. Through it all, he watches his nation shift its allegiance from Yahweh to other gods. He watches his nation descend into cultural chaos as they abandon true worship and true righteousness. He watches the leaders of his nation attempt to reform and revitalize the country. He sees the ups and downs of their efforts. The successes and failures. He sees it all and then offers this Word from the Lord. It is honest. Real. Raw. No holds barred. He confronts. He speaks the truth. He calls out his own people. “Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Villainous gang, band of vandals— My people have walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back.” (Isaiah‬ ‭1:4‬ MSG) “Listen to my Message, you Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God’s revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people.” (‭Isaiah‬ ‭1:10‬ MSG) “Jerusalem’s on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in my face.” (Isaiah‬ ‭3:8‬ MSG) 

At the same time, he offers hope. He calls them to repentance. He begs them to return to the Lord to find grace and healing and mercy.  “Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless. “Come. Sit down. Let’s argue this out.” This is God’s Message: “If your sins are blood-red, they’ll be snow-white. If they’re red like crimson, they’ll be like wool.” (Isaiah‬ ‭1:16-18‬ MSG) He directs their attention to the glorious day of the Lord when all flesh shall witness the appearance of our God. “There’s a day coming when the mountain of God’s House Will be The Mountain— solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it. They’ll say, “Come, let’s climb God’s Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He’ll show us the way he works so we can live the way we’re made.” Zion’s the source of the revelation. God’s Message comes from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah‬ ‭2:2-3‬ MSG) He calls them back to faithfulness. Back to loyalty. Back to a right relationship with God. “And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment. Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.” (Isaiah‬ ‭4‬:‭2‬-‭6‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

One can easily recognize the parallels to our own time. How many of us lament the state of our nation? How many of us lament the moral drift of our culture? How many of us lament the pain and suffering and sin and degredation we see all around us? And yet, are we not as guilty as the people Isaiah was speaking to? And are we willing to hear his words as the Word of the Lord to us? Are we willing to repent and return and re-commit ourselves to God’s ways?

Readings for tomorrow: None

God Knows Best

Readings for today: Hosea 10-14

I was talking to one of my children the other day about their future. They are in their mid-twenties and just moved to a new city. They are starting their first real job as a teacher and are looking to make a career of it. They are a bit anxious as you can imagine. They are feeling the pressure to make the right decisions. They wonder how life is going to turn out. I get it. I remember when I was in their position. All the feelings I had when I was getting started came rushing back. Then a few days later I was hanging out with a college buddy. We are both in our fifties now and for the first time in our lives, we can see the horizon of our careers. I happen to be a pastor. He happens to be a business owner. We’ve both been blessed beyond measure. We have great marriages. Great kids. Great jobs. We derive a lot of meaning and joy from what we do. At the same time, we’ve also faced significant challenges in our lives. Life has not always been up and to the right. It’s been filled with both success and failure and through it all, we’ve both tried our best to serve the Lord. As we hung out in his pool overlooking a beautiful valley in the hills of California outside Los Angeles, we talked about how we got to where we are today. What was the secret?

Honestly, there isn’t one. We simply did our best to follow the words given by the prophet Hosea when he says, “If you want to live well, make sure you understand all of this. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll learn this inside and out. God’s paths get you where you want to go. Right-living people walk them easily; wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.” (Hosea‬ ‭14‬:‭9‬ ‭MSG‬‬) To be clear, I’m not talking about a “health and wealth” gospel here. These words are just as true for the rich as they are for the poor. Just as true for the powerful as they are for the powerless. Just as true for those who seem to sail through life as they are for those who seem to suffer at every turn. The truth Hosea expresses here is not dependent on circumstances. It’s not dependent on the size of one’s bank account or the number of degrees on the wall or the neighborhood where one lives or the power and influence one accumulates. It’s simply a reflection of the reality that God’s ways are better than our ways and His thoughts better than our thoughts. If we seek Him with our whole heart, we will get to where He wants us to go. If we seek Self or any other idol in place of God, we will find ourselves stumbling and bumbling along the way.

God knows best. Such a simple and yet profound truth. If we believe what the Bible reveals about God then we know we can trust Him. He is our Heavenly Father who will not give His children stones when they ask for bread or snakes when they ask for fish. He is merciful and gracious, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. He is Love who lays down His life for us. This is who God is. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-good. All the time. So when this God instructs us, advises us, and gives us commands to follow; we would do well to obey Him because He knows what’s best for us. Not just what’s best for us in this world but for all eternity. Not just what’s best for us in the moment but over the course of a lifetime. He knows where we are going and He knows the best path to get us there. Trust Him. Believe Him. Surrender to Him. Let Him take the wheel of your life and guide you along the way!

Readings for tomorrow: Isaiah 1-4

Turning to God

Readings for today: Hosea 6-9

I’m convinced there comes a time - or maybe multiple times - in a person’s life where they realize their resources are played out. All their strength and wisdom and wealth and power simply are not enough to meet the demands of the moment. I think of a friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. He was the very definition of a “self-made” man. He came from a challenging background. His family was dysfunctional and abusive on so many levels. He worked hard to build a company from the ground up. He was extremely successful and ended up selling it for millions. He traveled the world and had all kinds of “once in a lifetime” experiences. He met all kinds of amazing people along the way. And yet, he had broken relationships with both his kids. Sadly, the patterns of abuse from his family were perpetuated through him. He was a high functioning alcoholic who often verbally assaulted those around him. As he lay dying from complications from the multiple health issues derived from his hedonistic lifestyle, I had the opportunity to share Christ with him. To talk to him about how the life he had worked so hard to build had come crashing down around him and though he lived in a huge home with all the material possessions one could ever want, his resources were simply not enough to save him.

How many of us have come to the same place in our own lives? I remember getting to this place in college when the life I had so carefully constructed came down around me. The facade I projected to the world of self-confidence was really a cover for deep insecurity. All my achievements up to that point were attempts to distract people from what was really happening inside. I was a mess. As smart as I was and as strong as I was and as successful as I was, I was losing ground in a hurry. My life headed on the fast track to nowhere. That’s when I met Christ and turned to Him. In our passage today, Hosea looks forward to the day when Israel will return to the Lord. Listen to his words again from Hosea 6:1-3 MSG…

“Come on, let’s go back to God. He hurt us, but he’ll heal us. He hit us hard, but he’ll put us right again. In a couple of days we’ll feel better. By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new, Alive and on our feet, fit to face him. We’re ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground.”

Come on, let’s go back to God. Such beautiful words. They represent the very definition of “repentance.” All of us have wandered and gone astray. All of us seek our own way. All of us do what is right in our own eyes. And where does it lead us? Into cul-de-sacs of pain and heartbreak. When we place “Self” on the throne of our lives, we find our appetites insatiable. Our desires uncontrollable. Our passions unquenchable. The result is oppression. Bondage. Slavery. God wants to set us free from “Self” but the only way that happens is if we turn to Him. We must dethrone “Self” and enthrone God if we want to experience the freedom and peace and joy He promises. This is why the Father sent His only Son. To show us the way back home to Him. He didn’t want to leave us wandering in the darkness. He didn’t want to abandon us to our fates. He refused to rely on random chance or wishful thinking to reclaim His wayward children. Like a good shepherd, He pursued us and pursues us until He finds us and embraces us. Stop running. Stop hiding. Turn to God today.

Readings for tomorrow: Hosea 10-14

The Pain of Unfaithfulness

Readings for today: Hosea 1-5

I’ve been a pastor for over twenty years and have spent countless hours counseling people through all sorts of painful circumstances and tragic life events. Death. Terminal illness. Addiction. Abuse. Criminal activity. The breakdown of marriages and families. Honestly, I’ve just about seen it all. One of the worst, in my experience, is helping couples deal with the pain of marital unfaithfulness. There is nothing quite like it. The betrayal of the most intimate relationship one can have in this life cuts a relationship to the heart. The breakdown of trust makes recovery almost impossible. And while with God all things are possible, the burden is too much to bear for most couples and they end up splitting over the affair most of the time.

This is one of the many reasons to read and meditate on the Book of Hosea. In fact, I’d encourage you to read it in the Message version so you catch the full weight of what God is saying to His people through His prophet. Hosea is called to an impossibly shameful life. He is called to marry a prostitute. He is called to give his children horrible names. He is called to live his life publicly in front of Israel with the hope that what he endures will be seen as analogous to what God is enduring through His covenant with His people. Imagine the pain Hosea has to endure. Imagine the heartbreak he experiences on a daily basis. Imagine the suffering he undergoes as he seeks to serve God with all his heart. Don’t let anyone ever tell you again that “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Hosea absolutely begs to differ!

And yet, all is not lost in this story. Throughout there are signs of God’s great faithfulness even in the face of our great unfaithfulness. Though we abandon God to chase after idols. Though we worship so many other things other than Him. Though we give our heart and our resources to other gods, God will not let us go. He continues to pursue us no matter how many different lovers we take. He continues to search for us on the slave blocks of this life. And when He finds us, He redeems us and brings us back home. Not only that but God promises there is a day coming where “in the very place where they were once named Nobody, they will be named God’s Somebody. Everybody in Judah and everybody in Israel will be assembled as one people. They’ll choose a single leader. There’ll be no stopping them - a great day in Jezreel! Rename your brothers ‘God’s Somebody!’ Rename your sisters ‘All Mercy!’ (Hosea 1:10-2:1)

Make no mistake, our unfaithfulness to God is painful to Him. It is heartbreaking on levels we cannot begin to understand. The story of the Bible is the greatest love story of all time. It’s also the greatest tragedy of all time. It’s the story of God’s pursuit of a people who reject Him and mock Him and ignore Him and abandon Him. But He never gives up. No matter how much pain He endures. No matter how much He suffers. No matter how much heartbreak He must undergo. He will never stop until He wins back the deepest affections of our hearts. That’s truly the message of the cross. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

Readings for tomorrow: Hosea 6-9

The End of Judgment

Readings for today: Amos 6-9

Reading from the Message today was like reading something straight out of the headlines of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Amos’ prophetic words powerfully describe what’s happening in our nation today. Listen to them again from Amos 6:3-6…

“Woe to you who are rushing headlong to disaster! Catastrophe is just around the corner! Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain! those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin.”

Greed. Exploitation. Indifference. Indulgence. Unrestrained hedonism. The constant pursuit of the dopamine rush. Obsession with appearance and the fountain of eternal youth. These same sinful attitudes infect our culture today and they represent a clear and present danger to the future of our country. God will not be mocked. He will hand us over to the lusts of our hearts and allow us to suffer the natural consequences of the choices we make. We might as well be “holding a horse race in a field of rocks” or “plowing the sea with oxen.” (Amos 6:12 MSG) We have forgotten God. Even worse, we have specifically rebelled against His will and created design. It won’t end well.

So what are God’s people to do? What are we to do when we read Amos 7 and the series of visions God gives His prophet, foretelling the destruction of Israel? What are we to do when we see the cutting locust on the horizon? The firestorm that’s on it’s way? The plumb line God is holding over our nation? We do what Amos did. We pray. We intercede. We call on God to remember His love for His people. We call on God to remember His love for the world. Most of all, we call on God to remember the judgment He poured our on Jesus Christ who died not just for our sins but for the sins of the world. (1 John 2:2) Amos cried out to God. Three times he interceded for the people of Israel. Jacob is so small. Jacob is so weak. He cannot stand the coming judgment. Twice God relented. The third time He brings judgment and it is terrible but leaves Amos with a promise.

“But also on that Judgment Day I will restore David’s house that has fallen to pieces. I’ll repair the holes in the roof, replace the broken windows, fix it up like new. David’s people will be strong again and seize what’s left of enemy Edom, plus everyone else under my sovereign judgment.” God’s Decree. He will do this. “Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree. “Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people Israel: “They’ll rebuild their ruined cities. They’ll plant vineyards and drink good wine. They’ll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables. And I’ll plant them, plant them on their own land. They’ll never again be uprooted from the land I’ve given them.” God, your God, says so.” (Amos‬ ‭9‬:‭11‬-‭15‬ ‭MSG‬‬)

God’s judgment is never the last word. It is always a means to the much greater end of restoration, redemption, salvation. God longs for the nations of the earth to turn to Him. God loves every nation on earth. Every people group on earth. Every tribe and tongue and language. This includes our own. The most important thing we can do as God’s people, called to live and serve for such a time as this in our nation’s history, is pray for our country. Pray for our leaders. Pray for the hearts of our neighbors. Ask God to intervene and bring us to repentance for we, like Jacob, are small and timid and weak and cannot stand the coming judgment.

Readings for tomorrow: Hosea 1-5

Testing God

Readings for today: Amos 1-5

Violence. Slavery. Rage. Greed. Desecration. These are just a few of the sins of the pagan nations that prompt God’s judgment. Rejection. Disobedience. Deceit. Sexual immorality. Mistreatment of the poor. These are just a few of the sins of God’s people which God clearly will not overlook. It doesn’t matter that Israel and Judah have enjoyed a special relationship with Him for centuries. All the history of God’s mighty acts of deliverance on their behalf provides no safety blanket when it comes to sin. Humanity, especially the people of God, have tested God’s patience. They have pressed Him too far. As The Message puts it, “I’m hard-pressed - to the breaking point. I’m like a wagon piled high and overloaded, creaking and groaning.” (Amos 2:13 MSG)

It’s hard for us to imagine God’s patience being tested. We tend to think of Him as immutable - unchanging - or impassible - unaffected by emotions. And while these things are true on a certain level, they tend to reflect more Greek philosophy than Biblical theology. The God who reveals Himself in the Bible - and especially through the prophetic books of the Old Testament - is a God who is deeply moved by the actions of His people. He is a God who exists in intimate relationship with them and His heart breaks over and over again at their sin. One can hear the pathos of God throughout our reading today from Amos.

“Out of all the families on the earth, I picked you!” (Amos 3:2a MSG)

“Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren’t going to the same place?” (Amos 3:3a MSG)

“In the same way that a shepherd trying to save a lamb from a lion manages to recover just a pair of legs or the scrap of an ear, so will little be saved of the Israelites…” (Amos 3:12 MSG)

Amos presents God’s judgment as a kindness. An action by God to bring His people to repentance and back into right relationship with Him. “I’m the One who emptied your pantries…but you never got hungry for Me…I’m the One who stopped the rains…but you never got thirsty for Me…I hit your crops with disease…but you continued to ignore Me…I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues…but you didn’t notice Me…I hit you with earthquake and fire…but you never looked My way…All this I have done to you, Israel, and this is why I have done it.” (Amos 4:6-12 MSG) What is it about us that causes such resistance to God and His ways? What is it about us that causes us to fight God every step of the way? Why do we bring such judgment on ourselves rather than turn and embrace Him?

Two reasons. First, we forget God. We forget who it is we are actually dealing with. God is not an idol of our own making. He is no abstract thought or philosophical idea or ethical system of our own creation. “Look who’s here: Mountain-shaper! Wind-Maker! He laid out the whole plot before Adam. He brings everything out of nothing, like dawn out of darkness. He strides across the alpine ridges. His name is God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.” (Amos 4:13 MSG) Second, we forget where we live. We live in God’s universe. We live under God’s rules, like it or not. We live in the world God made. Despite what we may think, we are NOT the masters of our domain. We are NOT the captains of our destines. We have little, if any, real power or authority. All that we have is given to us by a Will much bigger and greater than our own. “Do you realize where you are? You’re in a cosmos star-flung with constellations by God, a world God wakes up each morning and puts to bed each night. God dips water from the ocean and gives land a drink. God, God-revealed, does all this. And He can destroy it as easily as make it. He can turn this vast wonder into total waste.” (Amos 5:7b-9 MSG)

Now think about your own life. Are you aware of where you are and under whose authority you live? Do you cultivate a deeper awareness of God’s presence in your life? Do you marvel at all He has made and the gift it is to live in the universe He has made? Do you intentionally seek to grow your understanding of God’s greatness and glory? Do you intentionally slow down to see the beauty and wonder of a flower or watch a bird in flight or stand to take in waves of grain that grow in the field? Do you ever look up at the night sky and catch your breath in awe at the stars God knows by name? These are the kinds of everyday practices that draw us deeper into relationship with God and set our hearts on the path back to Him.

Readings for tomorrow: Amos 6-9

Reluctant Evangelist

Readings for today: Jonah 1-4

There may not be a more reluctant and yet more successful evangelist than Jonah. Called by God to preach repentance in the capital city of his mortal enemies, he runs in the opposite direction. (The picture above is from the ancient seaport of Joppa.) In order to bend him to His will, God sends a storm to turn him back. In the midst of the fierce storm, after the sailors have implored their gods for help and done all they can to lighten the load, Jonah is given the opportunity to share his faith with them. Their response? Worship. Sacrifice. Vows. And God stills the waters and calms the seas.

After being vomited up onto dry land by the giant fish, Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches repentance. What was their response? Worship. Fasting and prayer. Saving faith. And God relented from the disaster He was going to bring onto the city. Was Jonah happy? Not at all. He was enraged. He lost his temper. He yelled at God. “God! I knew it - when I was back home, I knew this was going to happen! That’s why I ran off to Tarshish! I knew you were sheer grace and mercy, not easily angered, rich in love, and ready at the drop of a hat to turn your plans of punishment into a program of forgiveness! So God, if you won’t kill them, kill me! I’m better off dead!” (Jonah 4:2-3 MSG) Can you imagine the hatred that would drive this kind of response?

Reading Jonah causes us to ponder our own reluctance to evangelize. What is it that keeps us from sharing our faith? Fear? Insecurity? Disobedience? Bias? Prejudice? Hatred? What is it that keeps us from sharing the good news with those who need it so desperately? Most of the people I know are afraid to share because they don’t feel they have enough knowledge of the Bible or the faith. But how much is enough? Isn’t it enough simply to share what God has done for you? What He means to you? Still others are afraid of how the other person might respond. They fear rejection. They fear dismissal. They are afraid of the tension it might create in the relationship. But if we are able to let go of any agendas or need to control others or force our perspective on those around us, are we not then free simply to share how Jesus changed our lives? How His presence fills us with incredible joy and peace and strength? Still others don’t share because of their anger or bitterness or hatred for the other person. Most of the time these feelings are grounded in painful experiences they suffered at the hands of those around them that cause them to withhold. They don’t want those who’ve caused so much pain to come to saving faith. I can understand this perspective. I’ve felt it myself. So did Jonah. And yet God wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of His truth. Even our enemies.

So what answers does Jonah provide? Not much. Even at the end of the book, Jonah is still frustrated and angry and wanting to die. The book ends with a question. A question that remains to be answered by every “Jonah”, every reluctant evangelist, who has come after him. What if God offers mercy instead of judgment to those who are lost? What if God offers forgiveness rather than punishment to those who’ve committed great crimes? What if God takes more pleasure in the repentance of the wicked than He does their destruction? Are we willing to trust Him by sharing our faith?

Readings for tomorrow: None

High Places

Readings for today: 2 Kings 14-15, 2 Chronicles 25-27

High places. We see them pop up all over the place in the Kings and Chronicles. (In fact, the picture for today’s blog is a “high place” from Petra that I climbed to when I was there last summer.) Often the righteousness of kings is judged on whether or not they tolerate them. What are they? Originally, they were sacred spaces where the Canaanite tribes worshipped their gods. If you flip back to Deuteronomy 12, you read these words, “You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.” (Deut. ‭12:2-3‬) Yahweh had set His people apart. They would be different. They would not be like any other tribe or nation. Because they were a nation of priests, they would worship Yahweh in the way He prescribed. “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.” (Deut.‬ ‭12:5-7‬) 

Where was this place? Originally, it was the Tabernacle that traveled with them in the wilderness. After Solomon, it was the Temple in Jerusalem. This was the place where God had set His name and indwelt with His presence. This was the “place” the Israelites were commanded to seek when they worshipped. However, the travel could be difficult. The cost was high. It meant time away from the fields. Time away from home. After the kingdoms split, it meant possible defection by the northern tribes so the Israelite kings set up their own shrines (the sin of Jeroboam) and forbade their people from traveling to Jerusalem at the prescribed times. The people set up their own shrines to Yahweh on the very high places He once commanded them to destroy. If we assume the best of them, they were trying to worship Yahweh. Trying to remain faithful. Just not in the way He demanded or the way He deserved. At their worst, they adopted the worship practices of the locals and worshipped false gods.  

God cares about our worship. He cares about what happens week in and week out in local churches all over the world. Not because God is taking attendance but because God seeks worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Worshippers who will give Him the worship He demands in the way He deserves. Worshippers who will not compromise. Worshippers who will honor Him as holy. Worshippers who refuse to make themselves the center of the experience. Worshippers who lay aside their wants, their needs, their desires, their preferences to come before the Lord in humility. To do anything else is to create a “high place.” A shrine to another god. And most of that time, that “god” is Self. The besetting sin of the Western Church is the idolatry of self. We are the object of our worship. Our satisfaction is the key performance indicator. We engage worship based on our own personal preferences. We refuse to honor God as holy. God as supreme. God as Lord. We are proud. We are arrogant. We think far too much of ourselves. And if the lives of the kings teach us anything it is this...God will not be mocked. We will be judged on the basis of who or what we worship. 

Readings for tomorrow: Jonah 1-4

Covenant Faithfulness

Readings for today: 2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24

God always keeps His promises. He made a promise to Noah never again to destroy the world by a flood. He made a promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a son and make Abraham the “father of many nations.” He made a promise to Isaac and Rebekah and to Jacob and Leah and Rachel to make their family a people He would call His very own. He made a promise to Moses to deliver God’s people from slavery. He made a promise to Joshua to go before him into the Promised Land. He made a promise to David to always give him a descendant to sit on Israel’s throne. In the ancient near east, such promises were sealed by a covenant. An agreement between two parties outlining their responsibilities. If one party breaks the covenant, the other party is not only freed from it’s obligations but is justified in taking revenge. Not so with God. Though His people abandon the covenant over and over again, though they refuse to obey it’s conditions and live by it’s terms, God remains faithful. He never lets Himself off the hook.

“But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence until now.” (2 Kings 13:23) These are stirring words especially for the Christian. We know God is so committed to keeping His promises that He sent His only Son to fulfill not only His obligations to us but our obligations to Him! Jesus took our place. He became the faithful “covenant-keeper” on our behalf. He paid the price we owed. He died the death we deserved. He carried the full weight of God’s righteous judgment of human sin, turning it aside through His atoning death on the cross. This is how committed God is to us! He will never leave us or forsake us or abandon us or grow impatient with us or cut us off. His grace is eternal. His love never-ending. His mercies new every morning. His faithfulness is greater than we can ever know.

So what about us? How can we show this same faithfulness not only to God but to one another? How can we extend this same grace to those around us? This same love to those who find themselves lost and lonely? How can we be merciful to others as Christ was merciful towards us? There are so many divisions in our world. So many divisions in our churches. So many divisions in our families. We sin against each other. We disappoint each other. We let each other down constantly. And yet the call to covenantal faithfulness remains. To walk with each other through the darkest valleys where life often takes us. To love each other even during those times when we are unlovable. To extend grace upon grace towards each other when we inevitably fail. Only God can give us the strength to do this and the good news is He promises to do just that for all those who would seek Him. All you have to do is ask. Make sure to ask God to give you what you need so you can serve those you love today!

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 14-15, 2 Chronicles 25-27

Judgment

Readings for today: 2 Kings 9-11, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12, 23

Today’s reading is harsh, brutal, and terrifying. How can we begin to get our minds around the judgment we see in this passage? First of all, we have to remember God’s commitment to work through human beings to bring about His sovereign will. Justice in the ancient near east was a communal affair. It involved not only the person who committed the crimes but their entire families. It included those who supported them. Everyone connected with the former regime was hunted down and put to death. So when God calls Jehu to execute justice on the entire line of Ahab, the impact ripples out to every man, woman, and child connected to them.

I know it’s hard to get our minds around the blood and violence. It’s hard to understand how this could be fair and just and righteous in God’s eyes. How could a good God allow such unrestrained violence in His name? Once again we have to take a step back and remember that though the Bible was written for us, it was not written to us. What happens in today’s passage would have made perfect sense to the people living in ancient Israel at the time. They would have perceived it to be fair and just and righteous according to the cultural standards of their day. And while we may struggle to understand why they made the choices they did, it should cause us to reflect on the justice systems of our own day and age. What will future generations say about us three thousand years from now?

Once we take a step back from all the blood and gore, we can begin to understand and see the greater purposes of God. He alone has the right to judge. He alone has the right to execute justice on the earth. The line of Ahab got what they rightfully deserved after generations of false worship and murder and theft and corruption. God proved faithful to His promise to avenge the death of Naboth and his family. He proved faithful to His promise to bring an end to the pagan ways of Jezebel. And their lives serve as a warning to us. Unless we turn from our sin and place our faith in Jesus Christ, we too will come under the judgment of God. Only the blood of Jesus Christ shed on our behalf can satisfy the justice of God. May we humble ourselves before Him, confess our sin, and call on the One who is “faithful and just” to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9)

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 12-13, 2 Chronicles 24

Role Models

Readings for today: 2 Kings 8:16-29, 2 Chronicles 21:1-22:9

One of the main reasons I try to change versions and/or translations each year when I read through the Bible is get a fresh read on the text. It keeps it from becoming rote or boring. For example, this year I’ve chosen to read using the Message version. Admittedly, it’s not word for word or even phrase by phrase. It’s a paraphrase which means the translator is doing their best to translate the original language into modern idioms that we can better understand.

For example, look at how 2 Chronicles 22:4 is translated…“After the death of his father, Ahaziah attended the sin school of Ahab, and graduated with a degree in doom.” Isn’t that good? It helps us understand why God was growing so angry with the kings of Judah. They were abandoning His laws and His ways and were choosing to follow the pagan ways of their northern cousins. The “sin school of Ahab” must have been very enticing. After all, Ahab ruled the northern kingdom of Israel for over twenty years. He was a successful warlord who won several victories that strengthened his kingdom. He made alliances through marriage with powerful city-states. His own father admired Ahab so much, he had started to imitate him and even married into Ahab’s family. So it must have felt very natural for Ahaziah to look to his older cousin as an example. Sadly, he couldn’t have chosen a worse role model.

How often do we make the same mistake in our lives? How often do we choose the popular, the rich, the powerful, the influential to imitate rather than people of character? Isn’t this one of the main problems we have in politics right now? A recent poll found that a majority of Americans across both parties believe our political system and political leaders are corrupt. It make sense when our airwaves and newsfeeds are filled with stories about laptops, classified documents, ethics violations, double-standards, tax evasion, violent rhetoric, hate speech, etc. It is further confirmed by the number of political leaders whose personal wealth increases dramatically while they are in office. And yet each election seems to be a race to the bottom when it comes to character. We jettison principle in favor of power. We excuse the egregious sins of our candidate as the “lesser of two evils.” It’s a brutal, Darwinian system that simply isn’t sustainable. Like Ahaziah, our leaders have gone to “sin school” and “graduated with a degree in doom.” It cannot end well.

There is a better way. It requires us to relinquish our obsession with power and instead look to men and women of godly character to lead us and set an example for us. This starts in our own personal lives with the role models we choose. Are we choosing men and women who fear the Lord? Who walk in wisdom? Who love others unconditionally? The next step is to think about the leaders we lift up in business, education, healthcare, churches, and the non-profit world. Are we choosing leaders who place the welfare of others before their own? Do we give the right voices airtime? Are we celebrating the right people for the right kind of success? Finally, we have to reconsider the way we elect our political leaders. Are we choosing men and women who have a heart to serve rather than be served? Are we looking for humility over arrogance? Respect over contempt? True patriots over those who are out for themselves? God honors those who seek to honor Him. The only role models worth following are those who put God first in their lives.

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 9-11, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12, 23

Loving our Enemies

Readings for today: 2 Kings 5:1-8:15

The kingdom of Aram in the Bible was essentially a collection of city-states, the most prominent of which was Damascus. Though they never became an empire per se, their influence dominated the region. In fact, Aramaic will become the lingua franca of the area for centuries, extending even to the time of Jesus. Israel had a contentious relationship with Aram as we see in our passage today. There was conflict. There was war. The Aramaeans were their enemies. And yet the great prophet Elisha seems to have as much love for them as he does for his own people.

When the great general of Aram who surely had led armies against Israel came to him for help, Elisha healed him of his disease. When the armies of Aram surrounded Dothan in an attempt to capture and kill Elisha, he asked God to strike them blind and then led them to Samaria where he encouraged the king to throw a feast for them. When the king of Assyria fell sick, it was Elisha who went to visit him. These are strange acts for a holy man of God. Why in the world would he extend love and grace to Israel’s enemies? Pagan idolators? A nation who caused so much suffering for his own people?

God loves the nations. God’s desire is for the nations of the earth to come to saving faith in Him. The vision we get from the closing pages of Revelation is of the nations bringing their gifts to the New Jerusalem to offer them before the Lord. The leaves of the trees in the eternal city are for the healing of the nations. This has always been God’s heart. It’s why He sends the nations prophets like Elisha and Jonah in the Old Testament and it’s why He sends the nations His church in the New Testament. God looks forward to a time when all wars will cease. All weapons will be beaten into instruments of peace. All enemies will dwell in peace together. Listen to how the prophet Isaiah puts it, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬-‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

It’s a beautiful picture and when we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are asking God to bring His vision to pass in our time. In our world. In our community. In our relationships. In our lives. Jesus is the greater Elisha and as such, shows us how to love our enemies. From the cross, He asks for our forgiveness. Through His suffering, death, and resurrection, He tears down the dividing wall of hostility that exists between us. While we were still at war with Him, He laid down His life for us and He calls all who follow Him to do the same. How can you respond to this call today? Who do you need to reach out with love and grace?

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 8:16-29, 2 Chronicles 21:1-22:9

Miracles

Readings for today: 2 Kings 1-4

Today’s reading is full of miracles. God healing the waters of Jericho. God filling up a dry land with pools of water. God creating a supply of never-ending oil. God raising a child from death. Miracles are hard for those of us raised with a scientific worldview to accept. We believe such phenomena need to be observable and repeatable or they can’t have happened. We believe there must be some kind of natural explanation so we do all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to explain them away. Surely the water wasn’t actually bad? Surely the water that filled the pools was a freak rain storm? Surely the woman just wasn’t aware of how much oil she had? Surely the boy was just sick or unconscious or in a coma of some kind.

Miracles are by definition unrepeatable events. They are one-time occurrences where the Lord of the universe intervenes supernaturally in His creation. If one truly believes there is a God then one must conclude He is not bound by the same laws of nature He established that govern His creation. He is the Creator after all. Not a created being. He exists outside of time and space. He is truly free and unbounded. He is not subject to what He creates and therefore is able to act as He sees fit.

I have personally witnessed miracles in my life. I have many friends around the world who testify to miracles they have seen. I have seen God heal those who are sick. I have even witnessed a resurrection. These are awe-inspiring events that drive me to my knees before the Lord. They are humbling because of how they bring you face to face with the power of God. But I also know many who question God’s miracles. They wonder why they haven’t seen God act in such ways. They wonder why God performs miracles for some and not others. They sometimes reject miracles simply because they seem so arbitrary and unfair. Such thinking only exposes the poverty of our spiritual condition.

We don’t deserve miracles. We don’t earn miracles. We don’t claim miracles. God is not a genie in a bottle who owes us three wishes. He cannot be manipulated or controlled or bound to our will. He is sovereign. He sees all of history and all of creation stretched out before Him all the time. He chooses to act as He wills to accomplish what is often a hidden purpose. Who are we to question His wisdom? Who are we to question His judgment? God never promises us life will be fair. He never promises to treat everyone the same. These are American ideals. Human ideals. And God is not bound to follow our limited understanding of justice. What does God promise? He promises to love us. He promises to be with us. He is faithful to us. He loves each of us with an everlasting love and that should be miracle enough for us.

Readings for tomorrow: None

Trusting God for Victory

Readings for today: 1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18-20

Jehoshaphat is one of my favorite kings. He’s not perfect. He makes mistakes along the way. He makes alliances with the wrong kind of people. And yet, his heart is for the Lord. “Jehoshaphat kept his residence in Jerusalem but made a regular round of visits among the people, from Beersheba in the south to Mount Ephraim in the north, urging them to return to God, the God of their ancestors.” (2 Chronicles‬ ‭19‬:‭4‬ ‭MSG‬‬‬) I cannot imagine the daily pressures a king faces. Pressures to make decisions. Pressures to provide for his people. Pressures to defend against his enemies. Pressures all around and yet Jehoshaphat made it a priority to go out among his people and bring them back to the Lord. He obeyed the Great Commission long before Jesus spoke those words. He taught his people to obey all the Lord had commanded. He believed one of the defining priorities of his kingship was the ability to make disciples. To foster an environment in his nation where his people would grow spiritually. It’s truly stunning when you take a step back to think about it.

Now some might ask what purpose did it serve? Some might question if this is really the king’s job? Shouldn’t he be attending to affairs of state? But then we run across a story in our reading today where God’s people had to put their faith into action and all the hard work Jehoshaphat had put in bore fruit. Once again, God’s people had come under threat. Another enemy rose up and came against them. They were outnumbered. They were outmatched. They were outgunned. But rather than despair, Jehoshaphat turned his heart to the Lord. He called on the Lord to be faithful to His promises. He walked by faith, trusting God to deliver him. And his people - having been taught the faith by Jehoshaphat himself and seen his example firsthand - followed him. Listen to what Jehoshaphat says and does, “They were up early in the morning, ready to march into the wilderness of Tekoa. As they were leaving, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Listen Judah and Jerusalem! Listen to what I have to say! Believe firmly in God, your God, and your lives will be firm! Believe in your prophets and you’ll come out on top!” After talking it over with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed a choir for God; dressed in holy robes, they were to march ahead of the troops, singing, Give thanks to God, His love never quits. As soon as they started shouting and praising, God set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir as they were attacking Judah, and they all ended up dead.” (2 Chronicles‬ ‭20‬:‭20‬-‭22‬ ‭MSG‬‬‬)

Imagine trusting God so much that you can literally face death with a tune on your lips! Imagine believing in God so much that you can walk into battle with a song in your heart! Imagine facing whatever overwhelming odds you may face in your life today with joy because you know…YOU KNOW…the Lord is good and His steadfast love endures forever! It can happen, friends! I’ve seen it and experienced it myself! Last fall, I was in northern Ethiopia training church planters. Over 100 of them were being sent north into a region where a civil war had been raging. Everything had been burned to the ground. There was famine and hardship and incredible suffering. There had been violence and war crimes and the ceasefire was fragile at best. The challenges these men and women faced were overwhelming. All of them will be persecuted. Some of them will lose their lives. But as we finished commissioning them, they left the platform singing! Singing! They believe God has gone before them. They believe God will be with them. They believe He will have the victory no matter what happens to them. It was simply incredible.

How does one get to such a place in their faith? By worshipping God. Spending time with Him regularly and frequently. Never neglecting the gathering of God’s people. Seeking to serve God in all you say and do throughout the week. Keeping God’s will and God’s glory as the overarching priority of your life not because you are trying to earn anything or have something to prove but simply because you love God and you want to live for Him. Will you do this perfectly? No. Neither did Jehoshaphat. But God’s not asking for perfection. He’s asking for your heart. Give Him your heart today.

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Kings 1-4

Abuse of Power

Readings for today: 1 Kings 20-21

At first glance, the story of Naboth’s vineyard seems to not be a big deal. Not cast against the backdrop of the geopolitical scene in the Ancient Near East. It would seem that Ahab has much bigger fish to fry as he wrestles over his relationship with his neighbors. But the true intentions of our hearts are often revealed in how we handle the small challenges of life. On some level, it’s easier to understand why Ahab makes the decision he makes regarding Ben-Hadad. He is doing his best to secure alliances to keep his kingdom safe. Now it’s not the right decision. It certainly isn’t God’s will and he rightfully falls under judgment but I think we all can recognize the pressures he’s under. But the episode with Naboth is petty and small and reveals the depths of the greed and selfishness that runs through Ahab’s heart.

Ancestral land is a big deal in Israel. It traces all the way back to the original allotment given to each tribe and each family when Joshua divided the land. This is why Naboth resists the king when he asks for his vineyard. We’re not just talking about a business transaction here. We’re talking about transgressing the law of God who gave Naboth and his family the land in the first place. To relinquish his land to the king is to dishonor the gift of God. That’s why he cannot accept the king’s money or even the offer of a better vineyard. Jezebel obviously has no qualms about stealing the land. She was a pagan princess with no connection to the covenant relationship God has with Israel. She doesn’t understand it much less respect it. She simply does what all those with power do. She takes what she wants when she wants it. She arranges a hit on Naboth and Ahab embraces the scheme thus cementing his doom and that of his family.

Now think about your own life. How have you responded to the pressures of trusting God when facing the big challenges of your life? Even more importantly, how do you trust God in the small things? The everyday decisions you have to make. The ordinary. The mundane. The seemingly insignificant. Nothing is insignificant in the eyes of God. All of life is sacred. Every decision is an opportunity to trust the Lord. Make sure you are honoring God today.

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 18-20

The Reason for Evil

Readings for today: 1 Kings 17-19

The Bible could not be more clear. The source of all the evil and suffering and trouble and heartache in the world is because humanity continues to chase all the wrong gods. Our idolatry is literally killing us and those we love and live among. In ancient Israel, the idols took the form of little statues called “Baals” that represented things like the forces of nature. The people of the ancient near east worshipped these idols and made sacrifices to them in an attempt to harness those forces on their behalf. They worshipped from a place of fear, always anxious of what might happen if they didn’t get say the proper incantation or make the right sacrifice or do something that might displease the local god.

Listen to how the prophet Elijah describes it to Ahab when he confronts him in the midst of a deep drought. “It’s not I who has caused trouble in Israel but you and your government - you’ve dumped God’s ways and commands and run off after the local gods, the Baals.” (1 Kings 18:18 MSG) Rather than turning to God for help in the midst of a national crisis, Ahab turned to false gods. Rather than call on the Lord of the Universe to provide for His covenant people, Ahab turned to pagan idols. The result was predictable. Nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing changed. No help came. Why? Because Baal is not real. He is a concept, nothing more. A deification of the forces of nature. A human attempt at control. His idols are simply wood and stone. They have no power. They have no voice. They have no ability to hear and respond to our prayers. This is why Elijah mocks the prophets of Baal as they punish themselves to try and grab their god’s attention. He knows Baal cannot answer.

Why do we still chase after Baal? Sure, most of us don’t make little statues but we do make idols of money, time, power, success, significant others, sex, substances, or certain social/political ideologies. We worship them in an attempt to gain control in and through them over the forces of our world. It doesn’t seem to matter how much technological progress we make or how deep we probe the mysteries of this world, there is a pagan impulse within all of us that pushes us to worship creation rather than the Creator. And this, again, is where things go so very wrong in our world. The devastating impact of human idolatry is on display every day in the news or on social media. It’s brutal and terrifying and traumatic. How much better would this world be if we simply would turn to God? Submit our ways to Him? Obey His commands? Love as He loves? Serve as He serves? Give as He gives?

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 20-21

Godly Courage

Readings for today: 1 Kings 15:25-34, 1 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 17

Humanity is broken. Though originally created in God’s own image to bring beauty and goodness to the world; we lost our way. Exiled from the Garden because of sin, we find ourselves wandering in the shadowlands of our own making. We grope our way through the darkness, struggling to make any kind of progress. We are at the mercy of something twisted deep inside us that causes us to choose sin over and over again. We just can’t seem to help ourselves. Proverbs 26:11 describes it viscerally, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” We see this pattern repeated throughout Scriptures. From Genesis to Revelation, God reaches out to humanity. Raises up men and women after His own heart. Noah. Abraham and Sarah. Moses. Joshua. Deborah. Hannah. Samuel. David. But with each passing generation, things seemingly go from bad to worse. Spiritual entropy on display. The faithfulness of those who’ve gone before us is lost as our lust for power and control and self-gratification takes over. Jeroboam abandoned the ways of God and sets his kingdom on disastrous course. After he dies, chaos sets in. Constant conflict. Assassinations. Betrayal. Rebellion. And throughout we read this refrain, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord...”

What keeps us from experiencing a similar fate? Courageous faith. I love how the Bible describes King Jehoshaphat. 2 Chronicles 17:6, “His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord.” What does this mean? Jehoshaphat removed all the idols and shrines that kept getting built on the hills throughout Judah. He loved God and followed His commandments. He sent out his officials to the farthest reaches of his kingdom to bring God’s Word to the people. Doesn’t that sound like the Great Commission? Rather than wait for the people to come to him, come to the Temple, come to Jerusalem to learn about the ways of God; Jehoshaphat he sends out evangelists to them! Incredible! And what does God do in return? He honors Jehoshaphat. He entrusts him with wealth and riches. He gives Jehoshaphat power and authority. His kingdom experiences a season of peace as the fear of the Lord falls on everyone around them. 

Is your heart courageous in the ways of the Lord? Do you seek God daily for wisdom and guidance and strength? Do you love His Word? Hunger and thirst for time with Him? Do you love to worship? To gather with God’s people to bring God praise? Do you seek to serve Him in all you do? Is your work an offering? Is your home a temple? Do you share the good news of the gospel with those around you who do not know the Lord? Do you pray for revival in our nation? Do you want to see God move powerfully in our town?

Now more than ever, we need men and women of faith whose hearts are courageous in the ways of the Lord! It’s literally the only answer and the only hope we have! I’ve seen it in action. I’ve seen what happens when men and women dedicate their lives to God. They plant churches. They risk pain and suffering and persecution and death for the sake of the gospel. They give up all they have for the glory of Christ. If I’ve learned anything from my African brothers and sisters it is this...nothing can stop a man or woman whose heart is courageous in the ways of the Lord! Thousands of new churches. Hundreds of thousands of new believers. Entire communities and regions being transformed. There’s simply nothing like it on earth!

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 17-19

A Daily Choice

Readings for today: 1 Kings 15:1-24, 2 Chronicles 13-16

Every day we wake up facing the same choice. Will we place our trust in God or will we trust in human strength and wisdom? Will we believe God when He says He will be with us or will we set up contingency plans just in case He doesn’t come through? Will we walk by faith or will we give into fear?

The accounts of the kings of Israel and Judah set these choices in stark terms. Abijah trusts God for his victory over Jeroboam and his much smaller army routs the larger army of Israel. Asa clears the land of pagan shrines and prostitutes, deposes his grandmother for committing blasphemy, and defeats a massive Ethiopian army many times the size of his own. However, each of these men had their issues as well. Abijah was not whole-hearted in his devotion to the Lord. Asa end his reign by cutting deals with the pagan nations around him rather than continuing to place his faith in God. Both of these kings faced choices every day just like we face choices every day and the impact of their choices rippled out to those they loved and served.

We are not kings nor do we live in ancient Israel but the challenge for us remains the same. Will we trust God when we face challenges? Some of which may seem insurmountable? I think about the challenge of aging. As we get older and our bodies fail or our minds wander, will we trust God and embrace the aging process with grace or will we do all we can to hold onto our fading youth? I think about the challenge of suffering. Maybe it’s a chronic illness or mental health condition. Will we engage God in prayer for healing even as we seek the help of the professionals He provides or will we allow our condition to make us bitter and frustrated and angry? I think about the challenge of doing hard things. This seems to be especially difficult for many of our young people these days. Will we trust God for the strength to overcome the obstacles life often puts before us or will we simply give up? I think about the fight against injustice in our world. So many assume we are powerless before the forces arrayed against us. The “powers and principalities” are too deeply entrenched for us to root out. Will we trust God and speak up for those who have no voice? Perhaps most importantly, I think about the people in our lives whom we love who are lost and wandering spiritually. Will we trust God and share the gospel with them patiently and persistently and prayerfully with the hope that one day they will turn and place their faith in Christ?

Every day we are faced with these and/or similar decisions. Every day the impact of the decisions we make ripples out on those we love and serve. Every day we get to choose whether we will trust God or trust ourselves. Will you place your life, your resources, your future in His hands?

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Kings 15:25-34, 1 Kings 16, 2 Chronicles 17