Turn Back ... and Live!

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

“Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord.  Of course not!  I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.  However, if righteous people turn from their righteous behavior and start doing sinful things and act like other sinners, should they be allowed to live?  No, of course not!  All their righteous acts will be forgotten, and they will die for their sins.  “Yet you say, ‘The Lord isn’t doing what’s right!’  Listen to me, O people of Israel.  Am I the one not doing what’s right, or is it you?  Ezekiel 18:23-25(NLT)

I’ve heard it so often, and I expect to hear it again whenever the news reports:

·      some financial ruin, or a gruesome diagnosis, or …

·      some violent act like a mugging or hate crime, like last week’s shooting.

It goes something like:  How could God let this happen to innocent people?

There are a myriad of responses we could trot-out, but there are two ringing loudly in my bones today on the heels of another deranged man killing eleven people, and the ensuing accusations and counter-blame attempts:

1.      There are no totally innocent people.

2.      While God appears to be passively standing-by and passively letting it all happen, nothing could be farther from the truth.

About innocence in the human family

The apostle Paul, quoting the Old Testament prophets said that, among humans, there are none righteous.[2]  Paul, as well as traditional Christian theology (not to mention common sense) tell us we have inherited, and respond to Adam’s sinful nature.  That is why God’s acceptance of penitent sinners is based on mercy through His grace and mercy[3] not on our behavior.  Thank God for that!  It is our behavior which gets us into trouble; Christ’s behavior of sacrifice on the cross is what gets us out!

About God being a passive by-stander

It’s exactly the opposite; sovereign God is not only our Creator, He is the sustainer of all life and active in all that happens.  Just consider these few verses:

…“O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!  2 Chronicles 20:6(NLT)

Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder:  “Praise the Lord!  For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.  Revelation 19:6(NLT)

To reign as a sovereign means you’re actively orchestrating the life and order of your subjects.  God, omniscient, understanding and aware of everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen is the very definition of supervising His Creation … and with a very detailed hand!  When the early stages of man’s development took a wrong turn, God turned things around.  Nimrod, King of Babel, decided to succeed from the union of God with man, and built him a monument…God did not stand passively by:

But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building …  Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages.  Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”  Genesis 11:5-7(NLT)

Ultimately God, Sovereign ruler of the universe and all that exists is orchestrating life and the times and events of mankind to suit His plans for what is His!  Like it or not we must be ready to cooperate with that plan. 

To do otherwise is beyond foolish.

For You Today

Do you have plans for today?  What in those plans convinces you that you are cooperating with God’s sovereign will?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Romans 3

[3] Ephesians 2:8-9

Night Waiting

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Friday, August 10, 2018

From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help.  Hear my cry, O Lord.  Pay attention to my prayer.  Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?  But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.  I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him.  I have put my hope in his word.  I long for the Lord more than sentries long for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn.  O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love.  His redemption overflows.  He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.  Psalm 130:1-8^(NLT)

It’s hard to forget the angst of waiting for the dawn when you’re on sentry.  There is always something so unfriendly about the darkness.  It is no wonder Scripture uses darkness as a descriptive for sinful activity; it’s something that has inherent destruction about it, and always leads to no-good.

My unit in Vietnam did not have overwhelming casualties; we were in more secure areas than some.  However, we still had to be on guard.  When my turn came around to pull guard duty through the night it seemed they were the longest nights of the century.  We were posted by twos to the guard stations, and, although we became sleepy, the threat of an enemy sneaking into the camp was more than enough to keep us alert…and on edge!

During one moonless night shift it was so still and dark, even the sound of an ant breathing could disturb the silence.  Suddenly a firefight broke out in the valley below us.  It was truly unnerving to see the flashes of rifles and feel the thunderous concussion of grenades and mortars exploding, and the helicopter gunships above raining-down streaks of machine-gun fire.  In 20 minutes, that seemed three-weeks long, it was over, and you could see and smell the traces of leftover smoke from the explosions, floating, slowly fading to dark and quiet.  The memory of death, altogether dark and quiet; this is the fearful waiting of the night.

The Psalmist was hoping desperately for the dawn.  He compared his waiting to the angst of the military sentries longing for dawn.  But the kind of dawn he was longing to see wasn’t of physical threats of darkness and death; the writer of this Psalm was agonizing through the long night of darkness in the soul of his nation.  This was a spiritual void, a place of godlessness that created an unlit void in the God-shaped place we humans call our hearts.  When we walk in sin, we give power to the darkness to overwhelm and take us prisoner.

But the prophets pointed to the dawn:

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant?  If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God.  Isaiah 50:10^(NLT)

For You Today

The most unique departure from the constraints of nature and the physical absence of light, compared to spiritual darkness, is a matter of control.  In the physical realm, humans have no control over when the sun comes up…that’s God’s work. 

But we have the Lord God in which to trust, Who removes our spiritually-blind ways…and the switch of faith is always within reach – and entirely our choice.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Finding God

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Monday, August 21, 2017

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  Jeremiah 29:13^(NLT)

Jeremiah’s message is a great comfort to those who are earnestly seeking to know God.  And especially comforting to those who still have many questions about who God is, and how you can be certain you’re finding him among all the clamoring voices in the world proclaiming they have the truth.

Have you ever felt like the Roman centurion who came to Jesus about healing his critically-ill child?  Jesus asked him if he believed, because that was important. 

The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”  

Mark 9:24^(NLT)

C.S. Lewis took on many of humanity’s questions about God, because he was a brilliant thinker who wouldn’t settle for someone else’s faith; he had to struggle (as do we all) with doubt and fear that he might miss God.  Much of this comes out in his writings.

This is what we see in his children’s Narnia fantasy series.  In The Last Battle one of the characters who has been serving Tash (the enemy of the lion, Aslan, representing Jesus) comes face to face with the true king:

…in a narrow place between two rocks there came to meet me a great Lion. . . . He was more terrible than the Flaming Mountain of Lagour, and in beauty he surpassed all that is in the world even as the rose in bloom surpasses the dust of the desert.  Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honor) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him.  Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him.  But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, ‘Son, thou art welcome.’  But I said, ‘Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash.’  He answered, ‘Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me.’  Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one?  The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false.  Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him.  For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.  Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him.  And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted.  Dost thou understand, Child?  I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand.  But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days.  Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly.  For all find what they truly seek.”[2]

In Genesis Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers; years later when they met Joseph had the upper hand and his brothers stood trembling before him.  Joseph had Pharaoh’s authority to have them all put to death immediately.  But he said:

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  Genesis 50:20^(NLT)

They didn’t deserve that…but neither do I deserve God’s kindness.

For You Today

If you haven’t worked out the last detail of who God is, and whether you’ve got it all together how to have a relationship with him…but you’re hot after that, you’re seeking God with all you’ve got…try to relax and breathe a little in the knowledge that you will always seek, until the day you see Him face to face. 

And what a surprise and joy that will be!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy Pixabay.com

[2] The Last Battle. Copyright © 1956 by C. S. Lewis Pte., Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1984 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © 2010 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Extracts taken from The Chronicles of Narnia. Copyright © C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. 1950-1956.  Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.