The Awesome Word

Joseph -- God's amazing provision

2008-12-25T06:12:00Z

Matthew 1:19 So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

    It's Christmas Eve, and I've been thinking a good bit about Joseph and the way he reacted to the pregnancy of Mary.
    To begin with, Joseph reacted with mercy when he found out Mary was pregnant. It was quite a blow to him and his pride, but he thought of her in how he handled it. Joseph decided to divorce her quietly. This meant some sacrifice on his part. If he ended the relationship publicly because of her pregnancy, he could get back the money he had paid to her family to establish the marriage. But by divorcing her quietly, he wouldn't be able to recover that money.
    Joseph had to believe that Mary had been unfaithful to him, yet he was trying to protect her. It wasn't just embarrassment and scandal Joseph was trying to avoid. At that time, there were only a couple options available for a single mother. If it became known that Mary was pregnant out of wedlock, she would not be able to marry respectably. She would either have to live the rest of her life with her family -- if they would have her -- or she could become a prostitute. Those were really the only alternatives. Joseph wanted to spare her that future, so he was willing to have people believe the worst about him and sacrifice his money to protect her.
    Later, when an angel told Joseph that Mary had been virtuous, that God was working through her, he was obedient. That had to be tough. His family, friends, everyone had to be telling him he was a fool. You can imagine the discussions: "Joseph, she told you she's still a virgin, despite the fact that she's pregnant? She tells you that God made her pregnant even though she hasn't been with a man? And you believed that story?! You can't be serious!"
    The views of the people around us and the reputation we have are extremely important to us even when don't admit it to ourselves. Much of what we do is motivated by our desire to make others think well of us. It's human nature. It had to be important to Joseph too, but it wasn't as important as protecting Mary or being obedient to God. We focus so much on Mary and the Christ child, but Joseph is an impressive figure in this story.
    It shows the power and wisdom of God that he had prepared and provided this man to be the earthly father of Jesus.

Beatitudes VII - Cursed are peacemakers, who lack competitive edge

2008-10-28T03:25:00Z

Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God.

The world likes to act like it values peacemakers. It hails them and gives them awards, even when they fail in their mission. But the behavior of the world betrays its true attitude. The world dismisses those who make peace as lacking in a necessary aggressive attitude or missing that competitive edge. We believe it is necessary for us to win, and for others to lose. We have to push our advantage and crush the competition. There is no room for making peace. We can literally thank God that he never took that attitude.

Blessed are the peacemakers. This blessing is not for the peace-callers but the peacemakers. It's not for those who talk about peace, who loudly insist on peace with warlike cries, who sing "Give Peace a Chance." That's easy. What's really hard is to make peace, to achieve peace, to take enemies and find common ground and use that to bring them together and end hostilities, forming a new relationship. That's difficult. It requires more than platitudes. It requires genuine work and real genius.

Of course the greatest peace, and the most costly, is the peace between man and God. We were God's enemies. We had rebelled against him in our sin. And while we were still in rebellion against him, Christ died for us on a cross. He died so that we would no longer be his enemies. He died so that we could be reconciled to him. Christ is our example for the greatest of peacemakers. He gave the most to make the greatest peace.

What are we promised if we are peacemakers? We will be called sons of God? Like Jesus, THE son of God.

Christ explored this thought a little more in Luke 6:35: "But love your enemies, do [what is] good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil." This is exactly what Jesus did. He loved his enemies, loved us enough to die for us. Our reward is that we will be sons of the Most High, as he is.

Being Christlike is the greatest goal and the greatest reward. We can ask for no higher honor than to be called sons of God like Jesus is. We are called to emulate him. We are promised that if we do, we will share in a portion of his glory. We will be considered to be like him. What more could we possibly ask?

How do we do this? How do we become peacemakers? To begin with, we focus on that peace that matters most -- the peace between men and God. We let other people know that this peace is available to them. It has been made and purchased and is offered to them for free. All they have to do is accept it. We can share the peace that we have experienced. We can let others know that God offers forgiveness and amnesty to those who will accept it and surrender to him. We can help spread this peace. And then we will be considered sons of God, honored to be like the one who made that greatest peace!

Beatitudes VI - Cursed are the closed-minded for they have no fun

2008-10-23T02:50:00Z

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God.

Holiness vs. happiness -- The world believes there is a conflict between the two. They pity Christians and reject faith because they think it will suck the happiness right out of their lives. They see a faith as a system of thou shalt nots that takes the fun out of life. Jesus tells us this view is wrong. Happy are the pure in heart, he says.

The pure in heart are those whose hearts are clean, set apart for God, uncontaminated by the love of sin and devotion to the world. Something is pure if it contains just one substance. Pure water is clean and contains nothing but H2O. Pure gold contains no lead, just gold. A pure heart contains love for God and others. It doesn't contain selfishness, evil desires that seek to please the self and build up the ego. Notice that Jesus is not talking about outward purity here, people who do good things and avoid doing wrong. He talks about a pure heart, people who truly love the Lord and act on that love.

The world has no respect for the pure in heart. It thinks of the pure in heart as being naïve and ignorant. It's much better to be sophisticated and open-minded, to accept all kinds of thoughts, ideas and practices. That kind of open-mindedness is never valued in scripture. It goes completely against the concept of being pure in heart. We should have no room in our hearts for sin and rebellion against God. There is no benefit to keeping our hearts and minds open to this. The world values an open mind over a pure heart, but the world's values are simply wrong.

The pure in heart are happy because they are able to see God. The pure in heart are closer to God, not only through eternity but here on Earth. The pure in heart have a relationship with God now.

In fact, only the pure in heart want to see God. Those with impure hearts want to avoid God. They don't take comfort in God. They want to avoid him and by doing so avoid being confronted with the contamination in their hearts, to hide the sin they cherish within them. An impure heart cannot stand the presence of God and his holiness. Those with contaminated hearts hold to their unhappiness and hide it from others and God. All they have to do is give it up .

That's how we become pure in heart. We give up the impurities to God. Create in me a clean heart, O God. (Psalm 51:10) We ask for a pure heart. We start to live with God, and we get closer to him. That's the way toward real happiness. The open-mindedness of the world is the path toward misery.

Beatitudes V - Cursed are those who don't press their advantage

2008-09-30T03:05:00Z

Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Mercy is a quality that is valued by God and valued by the world, but in different ways and degrees. The world recognizes that it is good to offer mercy to friends, to help out people when they are down, to extend a helping hand. That kind of mercy is also valued by God, but he goes much further. The Lord also demands that we show mercy to our enemies, to those who would destroy us and all we work for. The world thinks that when you have an enemy down, you push your advantage and finish him off. The world turns on a beaten adversary and taunts him with: "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

Compare that with our perfect example of mercy, Christ. Romans 5:8 tells us that Jesus shows his amazing love in that "while we yet sinners Christ died for us!" That's a major dose of mercy. We were sinners, which means that we were God's enemies. We had rebelled against him, had ignored him, broken his commandments, shown no respect for his authority and rule. We had spurned his love and his holiness. But he still loved us so much that while we were still in outright rebellion against him, he died to save us from the consequences of our rebellion against him.

That goes beyond not pushing an advantage. If someone opposes me, tries to hurt me and ends up hurting himself, I may forgive him. I may treat him nicely, but I am unlikely to try to pay for the consequences of his actions myself so he won't have to. I am much more likely to smugly watch while he suffers because of the nasty thing he tried to do to me. There is no smugness in Christ. When I was still blocking my ears to his words and rejecting him, he died for me and paid the penalty for my very rejection of him.

We tend to underestimate how important mercy is to God. It's one of his top priorities for us. In Hosea 6:6, God tells Israel: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." The Lord did not want the outward trappings of loyalty and devotion to him -- the burnt offerings and the ceremonies the Jews offered him. He wanted their hearts. He wanted them to be transformed into people who loved others and showed mercy.

Jesus quoted this verse to the Pharisees when they wanted to know why he dined with sinners. (Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." The incident is a good portrait of everyday mercy. Jesus was eating with Matthew, the tax collector, and his crowd of hardcore sinners. The Pharisees were scandalized. No one who claimed to be righteous would ever associate with those people. Jesus told them to learn mercy, that what God desired of them was not such holiness that they never associated with sinners. He wanted mercy from them, mercy that would cause them to reach out to sinners and bring them back to him.

Jesus quoted this verse again when his disciples had picked some grain to eat on the Sabbath. The Pharisees again fussed about this violation of law. Jesus defended his disciples and reminded the Pharisees that they still hadn't learned about mercy and God's desire for it. (Matthew 12:7 If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. )

Mercy is not a byproduct of the character God wants us to have. It is a key element of the outlook he wants us to have toward others. We are to show mercy to others, even those who would hurt us if they were in a stronger position. We are to look out for others and their interests. In particular, we should not judge others, but reach out to them with the gospel.

Notice the second clause in this beatitude: "for they shall receive mercy." We will all require mercy -- not just for salvation but for our constant relationship with God. The Lord didn't just show mercy to me when he saved me, he constantly shows mercy toward me in that he forgives me for my sins every day. He shows mercy in that he doesn't cast me away from him and go find someone more worthy. Without a truly awesome degree of mercy, God wouldn't have anything to do with any of us. Our task is to emulate that mercy.

Beatitudes IV - Cursed are the fanatics for they need a life

2008-06-02T04:13:00Z

Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

The world doesn't see those who hunger and thirst for righteousness as blessed. It thinks they are on a hopeless, unrewarding and quixotic quest. The world thinks they should wake up and become more practical. Many nominal Christians share this view. They believe that being saved is enough, Christians shouldn't be consumed by their religion. They think we should keep our salvation in the background as part of the foundation of our lives but not let it dominate our daily actions. The world's version of this beatitude would be: Cursed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they are fanatics who are obsessed with their religion and need to develop real lives.

God does not agree. Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed because they will be satisfied. They want righteousness, and they will get it. The implication is that all that is necessary to achieve righteousness is to want it. And that's true. If we want righteousness, if we desire it at the level the hungry desire food and the thirsty desire water, we will get it. It will be a priority for us. We will base our decisions on what the Lord wants of us. We will seek to do what he wants us to do. We will avoid sin like the plague, as we would avoid anything that would threaten attaining our desires. If we desire righteousness, we will spend time with God. We will be in his word. We will be on our knees in prayer. We will become close to God and that relationship and his power will help us attain righteousness.

All that is really necessary to obtain righteousness is to truly want it.

The world does not believe that. It thinks righteousness is unobtainable and not worth desiring in the first place. The world thinks that we should be content with ourselves as we are. After all, the world says, this is the way God made you. That perspective ignores God's call for us to become Christlike. When we do try to gain righteousness, the world thinks we pursue an impossible goal, that we can never become better than we are. The world is also insulted by the implication that if we become better than we are, then we seek to become better than they are. The world believes that people are people, and if we try to become better people, then we are saying that some people are better than others, an idea the world abhors.

The world thinks that people who hunger and thirst for righteousness are dangerous. They are fanatics who do not share the world's values and priorities. They make their decisions based on criteria the world doesn't understand, so the world considers them irrational and unreasonable. They are obsessed and need to relax and live in the real world.

God knows that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness do live in the real world. They are focused on the eternal, which is more real that this temporary world. They are building something of eternal value, and they are promised success.

When we seek righteousness, the world thinks we are on a hopeless, irrational quest destined for failure. God promises that if we truly desire righteousness, we will be satisfied, and that satisfaction will last throughout eternity.

Beatitudes III - Cursed are the meek, for they will never stand up for their rights

2008-05-29T03:15:00Z

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

I hesitate to repeat too much of my earlier posting on meekness, but this is the most underrated virtue by our culture. The world puts no value on meekness (also translated as gentleness). The world sees meekness as weakness. The world's version of this beatitude is: Cursed are the meek, for they will not stand up for their rights.

Our culture puts a strong emphasis on standing up for your rights, demanding what should be coming to you, looking out for number one. You have to take care of yourself and you have to make sure that the world treats you right. You can't let other people roll over you. You can't be too nice. The world sees the meek as doormats. It couldn't be more wrong.

Our role model for meekness is Christ. And there is no weakness in him. Christ did not stand up for his own rights. He was falsely accused, unjustly beaten and wrongfully executed. He did not denounce his treatment as unfair. He did not call upon the strength he had to evade the punishment he didn't deserve. He went to the cross to benefit those who put him on it. Jesus put aside his rights and his welfare to ensure our lives.

That's the kind of meekness we are called to emulate. We don't insist that everything be done our way. We don't always insist on our rights. We put aside what is best for us in order to pursue what is best for others. This doesn't come from weakness. It comes from controlled strength. It also comes from adopting God's perspective and priorities.

We can afford to not look out for ourselves because we have God looking out for us. And he is so much more capable of protecting us and providing for us than we are ourselves. That strength gives us the freedom to look out for the interests of others, to consider their needs first. That is meekness (gentleness) that comes from true strength.

The weak cannot afford to be meek. They must look out for their own interests because they know no one else will. They don't have the strength for true meekness, only for a stubborn insistence that they be treated fairly.

Meekness is misunderstood and despised in our culture, but it is highly valued by God, who gives us the power to be meek and thereby to inherit the earth with him. I really love the paraphrase of this verse in the Phillips New Testament: "Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole earth will belong to them!"

Beatitudes II - Blessed are those who avoid loss, for they shall remain happy.

2008-05-20T17:37:00Z

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

How can we possibly be blessed when we mourn? Blessed means happy. In fact, some versions translate "blessed are" to be "happy are." Aren't mourning and happiness mutually exclusive? After all, mourning means sadness. It means loss and grief. How can it possibly mean happiness and blessing?

First, it helps to understand that the Beatitudes don't stand on their own. They come as a set and build on each other. They don't describe individual circumstances and blessings for various people. There isn't one guy who is blessed because he is poor in spirit and another who is blessed because he mourns. These are characteristics that describe the attitudes and the outlook to be held by all believers.

Jesus is showing us the attitude we can have as believers that sets us apart from the world and its pursuit of happiness. Jesus is showing us that in a relationship with God, there is blessing everywhere. We don't have to seek happiness on our own, because the Lord will give us his blessings in all situations. In the beatitudes, we see how God sets us free from the constraints of the world's perspective, frees us to live a fuller, more blessed life in him.

The Beatitudes are cumulative. So if we are poor in spirit and see our inability to be self-sufficient, and we are aware of our sin, then we mourn and repent. When we do so, we are comforted. When we mourn for our sin, we are forgiven, restored to God and elevated into a closer relationship with him.

Yet mourning encompasses more than regret for sin. When we mourn the loss of another person, we are reminded that as one of God's children, we will be reunited with our brothers and sisters in Christ. That comfort is ours in Christ. When we mourn a relationship or a position, we know that as a child of God, he has a plan for us, a plan for happiness that is greater than the blessings we could obtain by following our own plan. If something we want is taken or withheld from us, it is because God has a greater blessing he wants to give us.

Comfort is ours in any loss.

How is this different from the world's perspective? The world thinks: "Blessed are those who avoid loss, for they shall remain happy." But that's impossible. The only way to avoid mourning is to withdraw within yourself, to never acknowledge any need beyond what you can give yourself. To be like that old song: "I am a rock. I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries." Such a life has no real happiness, only a quiet, denied misery. We are called to live fuller lives, lives that will involve pain and mourning, but we are promised comfort for those times.

The world tries to live without mourning, failing to recognize the pain that sin brings. By doing so, they wallow in that pain without the comfort that salvation brings. Worldly people live hoping to avoid any loss so they can avoid the pain that comes with loss. This is impossible, and when the inevitable loss and pain comes, the lost don't know where to find comfort.

When we mourn fully, knowing where to go to find comfort, we are comforted. And that is a real blessing.

Beatitudes 1 - Cursed are the poor in spirit, for they need more self esteem.

2008-05-16T03:21:00Z

Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[I apologize for not updating this blog recently. I have been going through some very busy personal times and have let this slide. I hope to post more regularly in the future.]

I wanted to take a look at the Beatitudes. It occurred to me recently that the Beatitudes are a perspective adjustment. They came at the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus used them to set the tone for the teaching he was going to give the crowd and to get their attention. The Beatitudes must have been a shock to his listeners because they represent ideas so different from those the world held then and now. Jesus wanted to turn the people from the world's attitude and perspective to God's. So I want to look at the Beatitudes in that context. Let's see the perspective God wants us to have as it compares to the attitude the world has. The Beatitudes deal with blessings. They define who is blessed in the eyes of God and who is blessed in the eyes of man. And there is a big difference.

The first Beatitude is about "the poor in spirit," but what does that mean? Think of the poor in spirit as the opposite of haughty or high-spirited. The poor in spirit recognize that they need a savior. They know that they need God to help them, to guide them and build them up. The poor in spirit recognize that they can't do it all themselves, that they must lean on God for direction and strength.

The world recognizes no value in being poor in spirit. The world sees this as a curse rather than a blessing. The world would say: "Blessed are the confident and self-reliant, those who can take care of themselves." In fact, if there were a version of this beatitude in the world's gospel it would be: "Cursed are the poor in spirit, for they need more self esteem."

The world does not teach us to depend on God. It teaches us that we have to be able to depend on ourselves for everything. We set our own direction for our lives. We set our own standards. If it doesn't seem wrong to us, then it isn't wrong. We have to follow our dreams, do it our way and look out for number one. The world values the haughty. It looks up to them, admires them and urges us to emulate them. We are to be independent in all things.

God knows that this is impossible. Haughtiness is temporary. The haughty are always brought down. We can't be independent. We can't do whatever we want. We will mess up our lives. We need to depend on God for guidance, standards, and endurance. Genuine success isn't found in doing it on our own until we crash and burn. It means recognizing that we need to depend on God and grow in our relationship with him so that we stay within his will for us.

What a crushing burden it is to be self-reliant, to know you can only depend on yourself, to have your own capabilities as the limit of your strength, wisdom and resources. Think of the horrible weight of being responsible for everything. We don’t have to shoulder that weight. Jesus frees us from it here. We can put it down, let God carry it and we are free to enjoy the kingdom of heaven.

That’s the reward this beatitude promises us. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Our world doesn't even look for the kingdom of heaven. We look for our own material utopia here on earth, usually through wealth. But look what we get for being poor in spirit. We get the kingdom of heaven. This isn't some cheap knock-off success like jet-setting to glamour spots around the world. This is the actual kingdom of heaven, a life full of the very riches God has designed especially for us to make our life the best it can be. And we get it now. Jesus doesn't say for theirs will be the kingdom of heaven. He says for theirs "is" the kingdom of heaven.

When we rely on God rather than on ourselves, we get the kingdom of heaven now, not just after we die and actually go to heaven. We get to live in the kingdom of heaven because we have a relationship with God and walk with him. We have access to his blessings now. We are so very blessed to be poor in spirit!

Why were they so afraid of Jesus?

2008-03-21T04:32:00Z

John 18:6 When therefore He said to them, "I am He," they drew back, and fell to the ground.

Today is Thursday of Holy Week or Passion Week. Thursday was the day of the Last Supper, Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus. I want to take a look at Jesus' arrest because I think the church has taken a superficial view of that event and missed much of the information. That information can give us much deeper insight into the character of Jesus.

When the officials go to arrest Jesus, they literally take an army. The Romans sent a cohort, which usually consisted of 600 men. (Each cohort had a commander with six centurions under him.) The Jews sent a contingent of temple guards. Plus there was a large number of temple leaders. So we're looking at between 700 and 1,000 men. Most of these guys are hardened professional soldiers. They are well armed. Why send so many to arrest one itinerant preacher and a handful of fishermen?

Then notice what happens when they show up to arrest him: Jesus approaches this huge mob and asks them what they want. They say they want Jesus. He says, "I am he." And this crowd of tough armed men, in the words of John, "drew back and fell to the ground." There are at least 600 armed, well-trained Roman soldiers here, plus temple guards, yet when Jesus announces his presence they jump back and stumble over each other. They are afraid!

They are as scared of Jesus as they can be. That's why they took so many armed men to arrest him. They don't know what he might do. They aren't sure what power he has and how he will use it. They aren't just afraid of Jesus' popularity and the people. They are afraid of him.

We overlook this aspect of Jesus character. We think of the doe-eyed Jesus in the paintings on the Sunday School classroom wall -- Jesus holding a lamb or bending down to children. That is one aspect of Jesus. He could be very tender and no one has ever loved as much. But he could also be terrifying.

I believe that one of the main reasons they are so frightened of him is because of the cleansing of the temple. We know from John that in the first year of his ministry, Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover and chased all the merchants and money lenders out. We know from Matthew that in the final year of his ministry, just before he was crucified, he went to Jerusalem for the Passover and chased these people out again. I believe that Jesus must have also done this in the middle year of his public ministry. It doesn't make much sense that he would go in the first and third years and not go to Jerusalem for the Passover in his second year.

We tend to think of the temple cleansing as just one incident, but we know it happened at least twice, and probably three times. This is a major reason that Jesus is arrested. The temple leaders made a lot of money off this temple trade, and Jesus was costing them money. They also couldn't control him and maintain the order they wanted in the temple.

Think what this was like for the Pharisees and Sadducees. The first year Jesus goes into the temple they are surprised. No one expects one man to be able to cause trouble like this. The temple is a huge area. It covers a big part of the city and it has several sections. This particular section is the court of the Gentiles, a courtyard where Gentiles could go and worship, since they couldn’t enter the rest of the temple. This is one of the busiest parts of the temple, and this is the busiest time of the year. For Jesus to enter this area and throw out the merchants and moneychangers is like one man going into a large mall on the Saturday before Christmas and clearing out the whole crowd. The temple leaders couldn't believe it could happen.

The second year, they're watching for him. The temple guards are on alert with orders to stop Jesus if he looks like he's going to cause trouble. Jesus comes to the temple again and clears it out again, and no one can stop him.

By the third year, they are ready for him. They have enhanced security at the temple. There are more guards, and the place is on high alert. If Jesus comes, they will stop him. Yet when he comes, no one can act against him. His righteous rage consumes the activity there and no one can move against him. He acts and speaks with a petrifying authority and power that leaves everyone else frightened into inaction.

Add to this the miracles they have seen Jesus perform. They have seen him cure the sick and even raise the dead. He tells demons what to do, and they obey. They have no idea what tremendous power he will show when they try to arrest him.

The disciples have the same view. When they try to arrest Jesus, Peter draws and knife, rushes forward and cuts a man. Why would he try to take on several hundred armed soldiers? Because, like the soldiers, he expected Jesus to do something awesome and terrible -- maybe angels would come and do battle on his behalf.

But no one expected that he would simply surrender and allow himself to be arrested. That's because no one else understood the truly awesome magnitude of his mission and plan. No one expected him to allow himself to be crucified. But that's because no one expected him to rise back up from the grave, having reunited God and man. When we better understand each aspect of Jesus' character, including his strength and his ability to terrify men, we can better appreciate the magnitude of his sacrifice for us.

America's ripe harvest

2008-03-13T02:24:00Z

2 Timothy 4:3-5 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

New York Times: WASHINGTON - More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

A new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows that Americans are switching their religious affiliation fairly often. They are not sticking with the faith in which they were raised. Instead, they are seeking a faith that suits them and feels comfortable to them. You can find the study at http://religions.pewforum.org/.

We shouldn't be surprised by this. Scripture tells us -- 2 Timothy 4:3-5, above -- tells us this will happen. People will turn from the truth to myths. They will listen to a great number of teachers who tell them what they want to hear.

But this isn't necessarily bad news. A population that is willing to leave the faith in which they were raised in order to seek spiritual progress is one that is likely to be receptive to the gospel.

People aren't just sticking with the church their parents attended. What this means is the diminishing importance of cultural Christianity. Cultural Christians are those who think they are right with God because they were baptized as infants, raised in a Christian church, confirmed as teenagers and believe somewhere in the back of their minds that Jesus Christ is God. They treasure this heritage like they treasure the concepts in the Constitution. And it makes about as much difference in the way they live their lives.

These people are often hard to reach with the gospel because they think they don't need it. They have heard the traditional language and it holds no fascination for them. This cultural Christianity is an impediment to the gospel, and the more we are rid of it, the better.

If people are seeking real spiritual experiences, they are more likely to genuinely consider and accept the gospel. They are also more likely to consider and accept false gospels and religions as well. But lost is lost, and when these fail them, we need to be ready to show them the way to Christ.

2 Timothy 4:5 gives us our instructions in times like these: "But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. " We are to spread the gospel, even more as we see people hungry for truth and looking for spiritual fulfillment. There will be plenty of people out there working to spread lies. We have to spread the truth.

We can see that the harvest in America is ripe. Christians all over the globe should pray for workers for this harvest. In the U.S., we should be reaping.

Christians and politics

2008-03-05T05:44:00Z

Matthew 22:21 Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

In the United States right now, we are in the midst of a tumultuous political season. In fact, I was just watching the returns on the Texas and Ohio primaries. I thought it might be worthwhile to take a look at how much of our energies Christians should focus on politics.

To begin with, we are citizens. In a democracy, we have an obligation to be involved, to vote and express our opinions. Christians have no less -- and no more -- right to do so than anyone else.

But what bothers me is when I see Christians, and even whole churches, pouring themselves into political activity as if it is the core of their mission. In this country, I see some Christians acting as if the solutions to our society's problems lies in politics. There seems to be a belief that if we can get the right people elected and the right policies enacted, our society and nation will be on the right spiritual course.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In America, if we elected a Christian president and a completely Christian Congress, we would not bring our countrymen any closer to Christ. The solution does not lie in politics, and that is not where our focus should be.

The only action that will bring a spiritual revival to this land, or to any other nation, is evangelism. We must spread the gospel. We must pray. One by one, we have to tell people about the gift of salvation offered to them. That is all that we can do that is of eternal value. None of our political activity will matter in eternity.

Think about Jesus. He consistently refused to get into political discussions. His disciples had political ambitions for him. His enemies feared that he had political ambitions. Questioners repeatedly tried to get him to take political stands and he refused. Why? Not because he wanted to straddle the fence. It was because he had limited time for his ministry, and he didn't want to get distracted by what was not important to him.

We should follow his example. We should not withdraw from politics. We should do our duty as citizens. But we should remember that changing the political climate is not our mission. It is neither the end nor the means of our mission. Our mission is to spread the gospel and win people to Christ.

God is not a crutch

2008-03-03T03:27:00Z

Colossians 2:10 and in Him you have been made complete

I was confronted the other day with the old cliché that "God is just a crutch for you Christians." I have heard other Christians respond to that by saying that a crutch isn't bad if you’re limping. Others have asked: "Don't you sometimes need something to lean on?" Both are wrong answers.

The truth is that a relationship with God is the only way that people can avoid the use of a crutch.

We were created to be with God, to be in constant communication with Him. We were designed by Him to associate with Him and to depend on Him. That is our intended state.

When we don't have a relationship with God, when we are separated from Him, we are living in a way in which we were not designed to live. Living without that intended relationship with God is like living without one leg. People who are separated from God feel that loss. They try to compensate for it in many ways. They may turn to alcohol or drugs. They may put all their efforts into a career or into a relationship with another person. They may take up causes. All of these are crutches. These people with only one leg are grabbing anything they can to try to hobble along in a life they were not designed to live. Because they are using a crutch, the best they can do is to limp along.

The person who accepts grace through Christ and establishes a relationship with God is not using a crutch. He is living the way he is designed to live. This person can drop all his crutches because he doesn't need them anymore. Only through God can we stand on two legs and walk and run the way we were created to run.

The person who believes in God is not leaning on a crutch. In fact, Christians are the only ones who are not leaning on crutches.

Called to compassion

2008-01-06T04:48:00Z

Matthew 9:13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' …

In Matthew's gospel, Jesus twice tells the people that God desires compassion (also translated mercy) rather than sacrifices. He's quoting the prophet Hosea, and the lesson he gives is as important -- and forgotten -- today as it was in the days of Matthew and in the time of Hosea.

In Chapter 9, Jesus is dining at Matthew's house. The future apostle was a tax collector, and he had invited a bunch of other tax collectors and assorted sinners to come eat with Jesus and his disciples. The Pharisees were scandalized and expressed their outrage to Jesus that he would socialize with such low people. Jesus told them that doctors don't go to heal the healthy, they go to heal the sick. Then he said: "But go and learn what this means: 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Clearly, he expected them to have compassion on the sinners he was trying to reach. What's more, he told them that God wants them to have compassion.

In fact, God prefers compassion (mercy) to sacrifices. The Pharisees were short on compassion, but they were long on sacrifices. They were obsessed by the rituals and ceremonies of their religion. They fastidiously tried to observe all the rules, but they had no spiritual life. They had no relationship with God and did not care for others. Jesus reminded them that this is not how God wants us to live. He wants our focus to be on people rather than rituals or rules.

In Chapter 12, Jesus and the disciples were walking through fields of grain on the Sabbath. The disciples got hungry and started munching on heads of grain. The Pharisees again protested that picking grain amounted to working on the Sabbath. Jesus pointed out the scriptural grounds for the disciples' action and the told the Pharisees: "But if you had known what this means , 'I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent." Again, they were focusing on the rules and rituals rather than people and their needs.

We can fall into the same trap as the Pharisees when we care more about rules and traditions than we do about people. Do you spend more time leading people toward the saving power of Christ or condemning sin when you see it? They aren't necessarily the same.

We should condemn sin when appropriate, but it isn't our primary mission. The Great Commission is not to go throughout the world and fuss at sinners wherever we find them. It is to spread the gospel.

That doesn't mean we tolerate sin, especially within the church. And it doesn't mean that we waffle on what is and is not sin. It simply means that we focus on meeting the needs of people, not condemning their sin.

It's hard to win someone to Christ by pointing out their sins. That's not even our job. It's the Holy Spirit's job. And we can't create the impression in people that they have to get rid of their sins before they can accept Christ. That's backwards. As the comedian Mike Warnke once said, you don't have to get clean to take a bath. We do people a real disservice when we make them think that their sins are an impediment to accepting Christ. Few people give up sins before they come to the Lord. It's after they become a Christian that they clean up their lives.

If I wander around self righteously tut-tutting about every circumstance that doesn't meet my standard of purity, I am like the Pharisees. If others think of me as someone who looks down his nose at everyone who doesn't live up to my standard, I am as bad as the Pharisees. Do I show people the love of Christ or the haughty arrogance of the Pharisees?

If people hear more from us about sin than about grace, then we are not pleasing God. And we too, need to learn that the Lord desires mercy rather than sacrifice.

Shepherd's Story

2007-12-24T06:16:00Z

One of the shepherds I employ to keep my flocks on my land outside Bethlehem related a unique story to me. He and the other shepherds who work with him in the area insist that the story is true. It is so unusual and has such great importance if true that I thought I would record it. His story is as follows:

Two nights ago, five of us had met to combine our flocks and camp for the night south of Bethlehem. Do you know where the stream runs between the hills and there is a flat place around the bend? We had made camp there. It had been a routine night. There were no major threats to the sheep. We ate and talked for a while around the fire, lay down and started drifting off to sleep.

The other four were asleep, while I was taking my turn watching over the flocks, when something appeared there standing on the ground near our camp. It’s so hard for me to describe it. It wasn’t a man, and it wasn’t a beast. Honestly, it didn’t seem to be flesh and blood at all. It appeared there and this bright light shone all around it and around our camp. It was in the middle of the night, but that camp was lit as bright as day.

It’s so hard to describe the person who stood there and the light, but it’s easy to tell you the reaction it caused in me and in the others, who woke up when he appeared. We were scared. More than scared, we were terrified. I have never been so frightened in my life. It wasn’t just that it was so unusual for this person who was not a man to be standing there or for this light to be there. It seemed that the light could shine right through me and the person could see through me.

All of a sudden, I felt like all the lousy things I’d ever done in my life were obvious to everyone, that this person could see them and that his job was to come and kill me for them. I was sure that I was about to die and go straight to hell, and I was also sure that I deserved it. And all of this hit me in just the second that he appeared. My terror was unimaginable.

But the first words he said were: “Don’t be afraid.” He said don’t be afraid, and my fear vanished. I wasn’t afraid. For some reason, I trusted him to be telling me the truth. The person and the light still left me uncomfortably aware of all the wrong I had done in my life, but I knew this person wasn’t there to punish me. I hate to admit it, but I wasn’t even thinking of the others there with me.

Then the news got even better. This person was a messenger from God. He told us: “I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today, a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David.”

I swear that this is true. I know that it makes no sense for a mighty and holy God to send a messenger to a bunch of unclean shepherds, especially with a message as important as the coming of the Messiah, but that’s exactly what he told us.

I didn’t know what to think. The Messiah had come. I don’t go to the temple at all, and no priest has had anything to do with me since I was a boy, but even I knew about the Messiah. I’m not claiming that I had been praying for his arrival, or even that I had spent much time in prayer at all. But I knew that devout Jews had been waiting for him. I knew that his arrival was supposed to mean the resurgence of our Jewish kingdom. But even then I didn’t think it would make much difference to me.

The messenger said he would give us a sign, and the sign was that we would find the baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a manger. I was just starting to be surprised that someone like the Messiah, a king, a savior, would by lying in a feeding trough for animals, when something else happened.

At that moment, a lot of other messengers appeared. They were angels, and there were too many of them for me to count. They were everywhere. They were standing all around the camp with the first messenger, and they were in the air. Some of them looked like the first messenger, and some looked completely different. You couldn’t really tell where they were and where they weren’t because, like I said, they weren’t really made of flesh and blood.

But they all backed up what the first angel had told us. They started praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

It sent such a thrill through us to listen to them. I can’t describe their voices or the sounds of their praise, but I felt like it lifted me right off the ground. We couldn’t do anything but just stare. We stared long after they disappeared. We just stood there staring at the sky like we couldn’t imagine what could happen next. Then we started looking at each other. None of us could believe what had happened. But we couldn’t not believe it either. We had all seen it. If it had just been one of us, the rest would have said he was just dreaming. But we compared what we had seen, and we had all heard and seen the same thing.

Then we decided to go into town and see whether we could find this newly born Messiah. I’m sorry, boss, for leaving the flocks, but they didn’t seem to be in any danger, and we just couldn’t ignore what the angels had told us.

We went into town and started asking about any babies born that day. It wasn’t all that easy. You know most folks don’t like to talk to shepherds, and it was in the middle of the night. But eventually, a beggar asleep in the road told us he had overheard people talking about a baby born in the stable by the inn, so we hurried there.

We did find a man and woman from Galilee and their newborn baby. He was wrapped in cloth just like the angel said. And his mother had placed a layer of hay in the bottom of the manger and was using it for a cradle, just like the angel had told us.

The baby looked just like any other baby you had ever seen, and he didn’t appear to do anything different either, but I can’t tell you the feeling I got when I got close to him and looked into his eyes. In a way, it was like the feeling I had when the angel first appeared. I was instantly aware of all the ways in which I was lacking, all the wrong I had ever done, all my faults, all the bad thoughts, rotten feelings and shameful desires I have in me. But I wasn’t afraid like I was with the angel.

I had been convinced that the angel was there to punish me, and I deserved it. I didn’t get that feeling there with the baby. Instead, I somehow knew that this Messiah was going to get rid of all that for me. He wasn’t going to punish me for who I was, he was going to free me to be better. The angel called him a savior and I could feel that he could and would save me from myself and everything that has ever held me down and back. The other guys felt the same.

We stayed there as long as we thought we could and then we just had to tell everybody about this. Nothing this exciting has ever happened before. Not just to us, but to anyone. Lots of folks figure we were all drunk at the time, but we weren’t. Those angels were real and that baby is real. I’ve been telling everyone that they just have to go and visit that baby if they don’t believe me. This is an amazing thing that God has done for us, and we’ve just got to tell everyone we can.

Rumors of a new king

2007-12-17T03:39:00Z

JERUSALEM – The visit of three notable leaders from Persia threw the city into turmoil this week as emergency meetings were called, and rumors of a new king spread quickly.

The three Persians came to Jerusalem asking to see a baby that had been born to be king over Israel. The appearance of three notable, learned and wealthy men from Persia would have generated much interest under any circumstances, but their request rang a note of alarm in the palace and the temple.

The three said they had seen a new star in the sky more than a year ago. They determined the star to be a sign indicating the birth of a new king for the Jews. They have been following the star and just reached Jerusalem. They were surprised that the authorities in the city were not aware of the child.

Official Jerusalem did not take their announcement lightly. King Herod called an emergency meeting of the head priests and experts in the law. Sources say he demanded to know whether anyone knew of the birth of a baby that could be considered to have any claim to the throne. No one had any information about such a child.

According to two sources who were at the meeting, Herod asked the priests and scribes where the prophets declared the Messiah would be born. Prophecy indicates that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.

Experts in scriptural prophecy said it is possible that a baby born in Bethlehem could be the Messiah. They also said the Messiah would be considered to be the king of the Jews. But those experts caution that many more prophecies would have to be fulfilled before any such claim could be considered.

In Bethlehem, residents say the astronomers from Persia are not the first to make this claim. The census ordered by Rome was under way at the time the astronomers said they first saw the new star. During that census, a group of shepherds camped near Bethlehem claimed they saw an angel and were told by the messenger that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem. The shepherds created quite a stir in the town, telling anyone they could find that they had seen the Messiah. Most Bethlehemites discounted the story as drunken ravings.

There are some in Jerusalem who also credit the accuracy of the astronomers. Several temple regulars remember an aged man named Simeon who insisted that a baby brought to the temple last year after his circumcision was the Messiah. An old widow had made the same claim about the baby. Both have since died.

But temple experts say the tale is highly unlikely. Although prophecy does indicate that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, they say the child certainly wouldn’t stay there and wouldn’t stay hidden. Experts in the prophecies say the arrival of the Messiah will be great and glorious rather than humble and hidden. “There’s been no one of proper lineage and circumstances in Bethlehem to give birth to the Messiah,” one priest said.

The king, who is known for taking every potential threat to his throne seriously, is not ignoring this one. The Persians left for Bethlehem after the Sabbath, and Herod asked them to report back to him once they have found the baby they are seeking.

One palace official, who refused to be named, said the king may have the baby killed when he receives word from the astronomers. He is counting on their research. If they fail to find the baby, the king will have few options. “You can be sure of one thing,” the official said, “trouble will follow those Persians to Bethlehem.”

Handling doubts about your faith

2007-11-14T03:47:00Z

Matthew 11:2-3 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent [a message] by his disciples and asked Him, “Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Even the best among us can have doubts and crises of faith. Jesus said that there was no one among those born of women greater than John the Baptist but he had doubts. And Jesus praised John immediately after hearing about John's weakening faith.

We can learn much about how to handle such crises of faith by looking at what happened to John and how Jesus reacted to the prophet's doubts.

Remember that John had known about Jesus for a long time. When he was still in his mother's womb, the Holy Spirit enabled John to recognize the approach of Jesus within his pregnant mother. (Luke 1:41) When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John knew who he was and declared him to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) And John was willing to hand over his ministry to Jesus when he began his public preaching (John 3:30). So why would someone who knew so well that Jesus is the messiah have doubts?

Look at when John expressed his doubts. He is in prison. He has been arrested by his nemesis, Herod, and is likely to be killed. Circumstances probably aren't working out the way John thought they would. He most likely thought that once the messiah started his ministry, things would start to get straightened out. People like Herod would suffer or be brought down. They certainly wouldn't become stronger and be able to threaten him. God's plan isn't meshing with John's plan, and that is causing him to wonder whether he had been right about Jesus.

We are the same way. When God's plan doesn't match ours, when things don't go the way we thought God would direct them, according to our plan, we wonder if we were right about God. Maybe God doesn't love us. Maybe he's not involved in our lives. Maybe he doesn't even exist. When we are troubled, and we can't see how God is working, we start to doubt.

How do we handle that doubt? We do what John did. He sent a message to Jesus, asking him: “Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matt. 11:3) We take our doubts to God. We get on our knees and confess our doubts and ask for reassurance. Why would we do anything else? Should we act all faithful like we don't have any doubts so we don't insult the Lord? God knows we have them. We can't hide them from him! Like anything else and everything else that bothers us, we should take it to God.

How will he react? Look at how Jesus reacted to John. He told the messengers to report back to John that "the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed.” (Matthew 11:5-6) Jesus provides John with the assurance he needs. Jesus doesn't send them away with some vague demand that John show more faith. He reassures John.

And Jesus doesn't condemn John for his doubts. He turns right around and praises John for his ministry and calls him greater than all other men. The Lord does not expect us to be stronger than he knows we are. As long as we handle our crises of faith by turning to him for guidance and reassurance, we will obtain that assurance without condemnation for any temporary weakening of faith.

So don't be surprised if you doubt your faith during times of difficulty. Just do what John did and take it to the Lord.

What is an easy yoke?

2007-11-08T03:12:00Z

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This is a familiar passage, but what does it really mean. How is Jesus' yoke easy? And if we are weary and burdened, why would we want to pick up a yoke at all? How is there any rest in taking up a yoke?

As you know, a yoke is the wooden piece that goes around the neck of oxen by which they pull a plow. In the Bible, it's often used to denote slavery or servanthood. At the very least, it seems to stand for hard work. Why is it equated to rest here?

Think about it this way: Work we do for the world puts all the responsibility on us. We have to meet goals. We have to pass evaluations. We are responsible not just for working hard but for the success of our work. As Jesus was preaching, the Pharisees had the people in the same kind of rut. They were responsible for their own salvation. They had to obey all these dictates of the law, those that were in the scriptures and those the Pharisees had added. They had to work hard to earn their salvation and maintain it.

We have it so much easier in Christ. He earned our salvation and gave it to us. We don't have to earn it, and we don't have to maintain it. All we have to do is subject ourselves to his lordship, to trust him with our lives and abide in him. We accept his yoke in that we accept his lordship over us.

Even the work is easier because we aren't responsible for its success. All we have to do is be obedient. We have to go where he tells us to go. We have to do what he tells us to do. But we aren't responsible for the success of what happens, only our own obedience. For instance, if the Lord directs us to share the gospel with someone, we are responsible to do so. But we aren't responsible for whether that person responds to the gospel. We are not like salespeople who are judged by how many sales they make. We are responsible only for our obedience.

That's a lot of pressure taken off of us. Think about the stress that is gone. All we have to do is obey him and abide in him. Jesus takes care of all the rest. The success of all these endeavors is up to him, not us. If we are weary and burdened and stressed, we need to focus on him and our work for him, and we can rest in the one simple burden of obedience. I can control my obedience, and I don't have to control anything else. What a relief!

Meekness - The despised virtue

2007-11-05T02:31:00Z

Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. [NIV]

Meekness is the most misunderstood and least appreciated virtue the Bible calls us to emulate. Our society places no value on meekness. Instead of admiring the meek, we look down on them. We think of the meek as cowardly wimps. Our models for weakness are Walter Mitty, Casper Milquetoast and Wally Cox. We fail to realize that our real model for meekness is Christ.

This is because we don't know what meekness really is. We think the meek are that way because they have no choice. We think that meekness comes from weakness, from having no choice. Our models for the meek show this quality because they lack the strength and the courage to stand up for themselves. The truth is different.

As with other virtues, Christ models meekness for us. And in Christ, we see that genuine meekness comes from power and strength rather than weakness. Part of the reason we don't recognize genuine meekness is because we have distorted images of Christ. Some people tend to think of Christ as weak, a victim on the cross, gentle and mild because he had no strength. The Bible does not support this view.

Remember when they went to arrest Jesus? They sent several hundred armed men to the Gethsemane. Hundreds of professional Roman soldiers and temple guards. Why such a huge force to arrest an unarmed carpenter backed only by a few fishermen? Because they were afraid of Jesus. They had seen his power and strength when he cleared the temple, throwing out all the vendors, while temple guards stood by unable to interfere with him. They had seen him work miracles. When Jesus stepped forward and announced to them that he was the one they sought, they jumped back. This huge force of hundreds of armed professional soldiers was afraid of this one carpenter.

Jesus was the most powerful man who had ever walked the face of the Earth, and people around him could sense that power. Yet he was meek. His meekness came from power. Meekness is not submitting to others because you have no choice but to cower before them. Meekness is a conscious decision to put the interests of others ahead of your own, looking out for others first and not yourself. It goes hand-in-hand with humility. Meekness, like humility and love, does not insist on its own rights. It springs from a proper perspective on who I am and who God is, on what is important and on doing what God wants us to do.

If I know who God is, and I know that he loves me, and I know that I work for him and belong to him and am working in his will, that gives me tremendous authority and puts God's power behind me. Yet, in these circumstances, we are called to be meek. What this means is that we take care of other people. We are considerate of their needs and do what we can to help them.

The NASB and the HCSB translate meek in Matthew 5:5 as "gentle." We are gentle with others. We treat them with respect, consideration and kindness through humility. We try to help them with their needs. We take care of them. This is true meekness. And it comes from the overwhelming power of God through his love.

Even if the world understood real meekness, it wouldn't like it any better. It goes against the grain of this world. Human society tells us to look out for number one. Don’t be a doormat. Take care of yourself and let others worry about themselves. This is the real position of weakness. They always have to look toward their own interests because no one else will do it and because they don't have the power to secure those interests once and for all.

God tells us to look out for others, and he will look out for us. This is our position of strength, from which we can be humble and meek. When we can focus on looking out for others, trusting God to look out for us, we are on our way to humility and meekness.

Fearing God - Part 2

2007-10-19T02:20:00Z

Matthew 10:26-31 “Therefore, don’t be afraid of them, since there is nothing covered that won’t be uncovered, and nothing hidden that won’t be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper, proclaim on the housetops. Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I struggled over this passage. I knew that the Bible tells us to fear God. And I knew that the Bible tells us that the Lord has the hairs of our heads numbered. But I did not realize that they are in the same passage of scripture -- in the same paragraph of this English translation. Why does God tell us, in the same breath, that we should fear him and that he cares about us so much he numbers the hairs of our heads. It seems contradictory. What is the message we should get here?

I think we are to look at fear in the way we look at the focus of our lives and our priorities. Our fears set our priorities. We act to address our fears. If my biggest fear is that I will lose my job and be unable to feed and house my family, then I will focus most of my efforts on securing my job or getting a new one or working to amass money for the pending disaster. Likewise, if my main fear is God, my primary goal will be to please him. Most of my efforts will be to please him.

So in what way should I fear God? Should I be scared every day that he will pour out his wrath on me? Should I be afraid that I am always just a moment away from boils and plagues and the earth opening up and swallowing me? No. I think that's why God puts the verses in this passage that make it clear how much he values us. He reminds us that he truly loves us and cherishes us so that we know he will not lightly destroy us. We don't need to fear God as an overwhelming unpredictable force that may at any moment come against us. We are on his team. And he values us. Instead, we should fear the consequences of not pleasing God more than anything in this world.

We have to maintain a proper perspective of who God is and who we are. God is awesome, powerful, holy, pure, good and wise. We are not. We are powerless, sinful, filthy, bad and foolish by comparison. That's not to say we should be constantly downgrading ourselves. But we have to remember where we stand in relation to God.

When we do that, we will fear him. We will know his majesty, and we will not want to appear before him and have to justify a lousy record. We will know that the only thing that counts is pleasing him, and we will make that our highest priority. When we understand this perspective, we won't be tempted to think that we know best. We will know to seek out the word of the Lord and his guidance.

This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We can't have any wisdom until we recognize who God is and who we are, until we understand the relationship between us and God. We can't have wisdom until that point because we won't know where to find it. Until we understand this, we will seek wisdom in ourselves and in other people. We will miss the only real source of wisdom.

Fearing God - Part 1

2007-10-18T02:22:00Z

Psalms 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight. His praise endures forever.

Scripture tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jesus later tells us to fear God rather than the world. We have been told that this is really telling us to have an awe and reverence for God. That's true in part, but I think we should have a real, genuine fear of the Lord as well. It will help us to maintain perspective.

Sometimes I think we get too uppity in our relations with God. We think of God more in the role of our friend than as the Lord of the Universe. He is both, but we limit our comprehension of Him and our relationship with Him when we focus solely on a friendship with God. We must also remember that he is not just our friend. He is our Lord, our master, our creator.

Look at the fear people will have of Jesus at the end:

Revelation 6:15-17 Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the military commanders, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of Their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?”

They will be so afraid to face the Lord that they hope the mountains and rocks fall on them and crush them so that they can avoid him.

This makes me think of the people I know who say: "When I get to Heaven, I have some questions for God." You don't get that image from Revelation. You don't see people lining up to get all their questions answered. You see them quaking and trembling. They are beside themselves with terror when confronted face-to-face by God Almighty. We can't imagine what that's like. It is beyond our comprehension. But we should know that when the time comes that we stand before our Creator, the last thing on our mind is getting our questions answered. We can have assurance of our salvation. We can know that God loves us. But when we come before the father's throne, we will not only feel awe and reverence, we will be filled with fear at the sheer awesome scope of his glory, majesty and power, which we will find out is like nothing we could have ever dreamed.

Of course, people who say they have questions for God are really saying that they intend to hold God accountable for the way He designed the world and acted. Not very veiled is the implication that they could have done better and had some better ideas. They think they can hold God accountable.

This is what comes from having taking God too lightly, from seeing him as a friend rather than Lord. God doesn't answer to us. We answer to him -- in fear and trembling.