Paying the Price

Friday, February 14, 2020

Then at last the land will enjoy its neglected Sabbath years as it lies desolate while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.  Then the land will finally rest and enjoy the Sabbaths it missed.  As long as the land lies in ruins, it will enjoy the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.  “And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies.  You will live in such fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing.  You will run as though fleeing from a sword, and you will fall even when no one pursues you.  Though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other as though fleeing from a sword.  You will have no power to stand up against your enemies.  You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.  Those of you who survive will waste away in your enemies’ lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.  “But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.  When I have turned their hostility back on them and brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their stubborn hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.  Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.  For the land must be abandoned to enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted.  At last the people will pay for their sins, for they have continually rejected my regulations and despised my decrees.  “But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies.  I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the Lord their God.  For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God.  I am the Lord.”  These are the decrees, regulations, and instructions that the Lord gave through Moses on Mount Sinai as evidence of the relationship between himself and the Israelites.  Leviticus 23:34-46

It may seem a harsh thing for God to be at the back of punishment.  The Israelites hadn’t even reached the Promised Land and Moses was laying out this threat that if they wouldn’t keep this commandment or that commandment, God was going to see them off in chains to their enemies.  Truth be told, punishment for sin is the one part of relationship with God that gives more people trouble than anything else.  It’s been my experience in the past 38 years as a pastor to hear these anguished and angry words quite often:

I find it impossible to believe in a God who sends people to Hell.

Yet that is the rub…I find it hard too!  And the hardest part for me isn’t that God SENDS people to their punishment; in reality God isn’t the one who chooses the rebellion that causes punishment, we do.  Like a ticked four year-old who stamps his feet and lashes out at his Mom or Dad because he isn’t allowed to drive the family car, rebellion is what it is…a kicking against rules we don’t like, but the wiser parent has chosen for our own good. 

The physical laws often find a parallel in spiritual realities.  For instance, in Newton’s Third Law of Motion[1], for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  For every up there is a down; for every cold there is hot…and so on.  So, the fact that punishment exists at all should be no surprise.  It would go against all the laws of creation for the opposite reaction of Newton’s law of motion to be interrupted.  The real surprise is anyone living in the kind of denial that imagines God could just wink at sin.  As our heavenly parent God is loving and desires a close relationship with us.  We can choose to accept God’s offer…or we can choose the other…the ball is in our court!

For You Today

Part of a healthy prayer life is self-examination and confession.  The only other alternative is denial of reality that there is a cost to rebellion.

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

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Newton’s Third Law of Motion - image

Things That Make Perfect Sense

[1]

Friday, January 25, 2019

The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.  The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  Psalm 19:7(NLT)

Some days, more than others, I need to be made wise, revived, and awake!  Maybe the Psalmist understood this because he also had a toaster in the refrigerator.

Elizabeth and I are getting to that age…well, rather we are firmly entrenched in that age…where mundane tasks can turn out anything but mundane.  I couldn’t NOT take a picture of my toaster in the fridge.  I’m the breakfast guy around this house…cook it, serve it, and clean up after it’s over.  One morning last week I was in a hurry to do the cleanup, and in all the dishwashing, trash-emptying, counter-cleaning, and putting-awaying, I grabbed the toaster and the butter dish.  The butter went in the pantry cabinet and the toaster…well…you can see.

I’m not the only one!  Elizabeth was making the bed one morning several weeks ago.  It was one of those mornings she was changing the sheets.  Out with the old, slept-on for three nights, and in with the clean and fresh that’s so inviting at the end of a day.  Our bed has a big foot board, so making the bed is no small task for one person.  You have to make many trips around the bed, pulling, tucking, and straightening sheets and covers.  One bedding change equals four walking trips to Raleigh and back.  As my bride was finishing-up this monumental chore, just smoothing-out the last few wrinkles on the quilt and precisely adjusting the 62 pillows to complete the perfect bedroom effect, Elizabeth’s eyes saw the one thing out of place on the chair over in the corner – somehow the sheet, the one that should have been underneath all those sheets, blankets, quilt and 62 pillows, was not on the bed; it was neatly folded on my chair, grinning at her from the corner of the room like a toaster peeking out from a refrigerator!  Some days it hardly seems wise to get out of bed; you’d just have to make the thing anyway.

For You Today

For human beings there are times, days, even months, and perhaps years like that (I’ll let you know if our toaster and bed misbehave more frequently than usual). 

Nobody is exempt from the wandering mind syndrome; we all occasionally (or even regularly) do the absent-minded things that can end up with the phrase:  what was I thinking? 

If that’s been your lot lately, learn to smile, and thank God it wasn’t an alligator you stuffed in the fridge, or the peanut butter you spread on your bedsheets. 

It could be worse!

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

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth, own image

In Green Pastures and Beside Still Waters

[1]

Thursday, April 19, 2018

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. 
He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.  Psalm 23:1-3^(NLT)

Green meadows with peaceful streams are quiet places.  Every human needs times of quiet to be restored – to have strength return to the body and mind.  For the Christian follower of Jesus those times are for prayer, casting all our cares upon the Lord.[2]  And, in order to do that there must be times of repose, purposeful rest!

For me the ability to gain restoring to my soul requires exchanging my exhaustion for God’s renewal.  This is an issue of sabbath, a principle God established early on for His people to prevent wearing out prematurely. 

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.  On that day no one in your household may do any work.  This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested.  That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.  Exodus 20:8-11^(NLT)

I have known people who seemed to think the concept of sabbath was so antiquated it didn’t apply to them.  The idea of taking a day off seemed wasteful; there was a world to be conquered out there, and taking time off from the conquest was lazy and irresponsible.  God may have rested on the seventh day, but the world would fall apart if they did…with all due respect, it doesn’t; your world comes unglued when you fail to rest.

Even one of the most famous myth creators knew this well.  The story goes that Aesop was playing a children’s game with some very young kids when a colleague walked by.  The man remarked that Aesop was wasting time with those children, playing a worthless game when he should have been working.  Aesop got up, picked-up his bow and laid it in the middle of the road and then challenged the man to tell him the meaning of what he just did.  The man wracked his brain for a long time, but couldn’t come up with an answer.  Having won this battle of wits, Aesop then explained, 'If you keep your bow tightly strung at all times, it will quickly break, but if you let it rest, it will be ready to use whenever you need it.' In the same way the mind must be given some amusement from time to time, so that you will find yourself able to think more clearly afterwards.[3]

For You Today

If you ignore sabbath you run the risk of being ineffective as a disciple at least.  But the more weighty transgression is to know that you have marginalized something God said was important.  If it’s been awhile, rest your bow today!

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

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Russell Brownworth

[2] 1 Peter 5:7

[3] Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002. 

The Importance of Jots and Tittles

[1]

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  

Matthew 5:18^(KJV)

In our vernacular to jot something down is to make a quick little note of something you don’t want to forget.  In that same sense the language of Scripture contains jots and tittles, among the smallest of notations.  Jesus was adding commentary to his “Sermon on the Mount” cementing the importance of the entirety of God’s Word.  In short, you cannot pick and choose what you care to obey, or attempt to change what Scripture declares.  In the final verses of Holy Writ John makes that point with stark clarity:

And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book:  If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.  And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.  

Revelation 22:18-19^(NLT)

The jots and tittles are important in any communication.  Consider just how important the little comma is in English.  In the hymn Jesus Loves Me[2] note how the placement of the lowly comma in the verse about loving Jesus at the point of death can reposition your theological stance from Calvinism (once saved, always saved) to Arminianism:

Calvin:  If I love him, when I die He will take me home on high.

Arminius:  If I love him when I die, He will take me home on high.

It may be straining at a gnat here, but changing the position of the comma makes a difference in how you think about the way God treats us.  Calvin would separate the fact of loving Christ into a momentary change of heart with a life and eternity result all settled (once saved, always in that condition).  Arminius would add perseverance to that, moving the comma further down the line to include loving Jesus when I die.  Calvin just wants to know IF you love Jesus…Arminius thinks it’s important to know if you’ve kept loving Jesus all the way home.

Again…straining out a gnat while swallowing a camel?  Is it THAT important?  Well, it has been; the verse quoted here appears in the Baptist Hymnal version (Calvinist theology), while it is ommitted in the Methodist Hymnal (Arminianism).  That one concept about walking away from the salvation of God has caused quite a stir over the years.

But there is still plenty of common ground Calvinist and Arminian bent thinkers share, despite the difference stated; we both agree it is loving Jesus that is the correct response to God’s love in Christ towards us.  Neither Arminianists nor Calvinists want to change Scripture, or omit what God has said.

There is another contemporary controversy heralding a new split that may be far more pervasive and damaging to the church than moving the jot or tittle a little farther down the sentence…the legitimizing of homosexuality, bisexuality, trans-sexualism, et al.  The Biblical fact – no matter how some may try to deflect or distort the meaning of what God said – is clear; other than heterosexual relations within the bonds of marriage, the rest is perversion.  What do you do with a clear prohibitive like Leviticus?

Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman.  It is a detestable sin.  Leviticus 18:22^(NLT)

There is too little space in this devotional slot to effect a comprehensive look at how doctrinally and Scripturally far off course we are taken with normalizing sexual sin.  So let me just put my cards on the table, so to speak; the writer of Leviticus (Moses) did not stumble or stutter when he wrote…or more accurately…when he wrote down what God said.  The whole point would be that if Moses was wrong about sexual activity between persons of the same gender being wrong, and detestable to God, he was then also not to be trusted with those other ten words he said were from God!

For You Today

Some will call this hate speech; I prefer it be known as speaking the truth…in love.

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

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Jesus Loves Me, Bradbury/Warner 1860/62, The Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, Convention Press, 1991), p.344

Thou Shalt Not Steal

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

But the Lord said to Joshua, “Get up!  Why are you lying on your face like this?  Israel has sinned and broken my covenant!  They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me.  And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings.    Joshua 7:10-11 (NLT)

During the conquest of the Promised Land Joshua led many battles and conquered many cities; some of these victories were against all odds.  The victories were so lop-sided and complete that the Israelites gained a reputation of being unbeatable! 

Then came Ai.

Ai was among the smallest of cities, so Joshua only sent 3,000 troops in to do the job.  They got clobbered!  When the defeated platoon came running back to camp Joshua and the elders prayed all night asking God “what went wrong?”

God was more than willing to unpack that for Joshua.  In a previous battle at Jericho ^{(See Joshua 6)}, the Lord had instructed Israel to conquer, but destroy the city entirely – without taking so much as a crust of bread or a dish as spoils of the war. 

One man, Achan, just couldn’t resist.  He took and hid some stuff, thinking nobody saw.

But God saw.

And at the next battle (of Ai) the strength of Israel’s army was gone.  The mighty conquering Israelites were rejected and sent away with their tails between their legs like whipped dogs. 

All because of sin in the camp.

The New Israel

Many are accustomed to thinking of the church as the “new Israel”.  We call ourselves the children of God.  And rightfully so…there is much in New Testament theology to warrant this kind of thinking.  But there is a point at which we, in American church culture, do not wish to continue the comparison.  That point is usually when we start talking about sin in the camp.

Achan’s sin involved theft from God.  Integrity in financial responsibility is a given in Scripture, and it is evident why God had to make an issue of it.  Giving helps us recognize that we are accountable to God’s ownership of everything. 

Giving is also good for us.  It teaches us kindness and the fragile nature of life; the person we see in need today could very well be me tomorrow.

But we in the church, this “new Israel”, don’t really know Biblical (or Godly) giving.  In American churches we give roughly twice as much to charity as secular people.[1]  

But that statement loses its luster when you understand that secular giving is a little less than 1% of income.  So Christians, people “committed” as God’s people to Biblical giving and generosity, tithing 10% (or more) give a little less than 2%. 

Simple math:  That’s sin in the camp.

Simple conclusion:  Forget all the other so-called sins – LGBTQ agenda, political correctness, divorce and remarriage, smoking and dancing…the church is anemic and ineffective in its mission primarily because its people rob God.  And that won’t change until we quit.

For You, Today…

Take out your checkbook and your W-2. 

How is obedience to God faring in your house?

---

[1] National Center for Charitable Statistics

Thou Shalt Not

Thou shalt not                                            .  Exodus 20:        .

^{There are 10 of these…take your pick}

Years ago when my children were young teens, one of them asked me as we drove past another abortion clinic, are the doctors that perform abortions going to Hell for that?

While the answer is not as simple as “yes” or “no”, it highlights what is in the mind of most people: 

Which sin is bad enough to send me to hell?

How good do I have to be to get to Heaven?

In case you’re wondering, the answer I gave to my children is that they were asking the wrong question.  It’s not a matter of how good you need to be to escape Hell and make it to the safety of Heaven; the question is, how good did Jesus have to be for me to make it to Heaven?

Scripture informs us that you only have to break one of the “thou shalt nots” to be a sinner; we are all guilty at that point.  (Those who think not have already broken that one about lying, and there is something in there about self-righteous pride!).

Scripture also informs us that all the good stuff you do cannot blot out a single “sin-stain” from our record; not even Mother Teresa gets a pass on that one.  It is only the blood of Christ that cleanses us from our sin ^{(1 John 1:9)}.

So, the issue is then (to paraphrase President Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech):

Ask NOT which THOU SHALT NOT  I must keep;Ask Christ to forgive what I have broken and cannot fix about me.

Today

If you’re like me, when you realize you’ve offended a friend, co-worker, or anyone else in your life, the sunrise cannot come too early on asking forgiveness.

It works that way with your God.  

Ask and thou shalt receive forgiveness!

Cosmos, Commands and Cleansing

Psalm 19 is all about the great and wonderful gifts of God; many of us take them for granted.  Israel’s poet, King David pulls out the shopping list of these gifts and holds them up as a prayer of praise and adoration to Yahweh.  It’s a wonderfully appropriate prayer for us; today we can bring this prayer to the table to offer our thanks.  It’s first, a prayer of thanks for
His Cosmos; a sermon without words
1 The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.    2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.  3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; 4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.  In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.  6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat.   Psalm 19:1-6  (NRSV)
God’s world is awesome.  If asked, there wouldn’t be many of us who couldn’t tell of some time when raw nature gave us a powerful and lasting memory.  I am always moved by mountain scenes.  I’ve stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls in Africa.  This magnificent world is, in the words of Eugene Peterson, God’s glory…on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.  (TMSG)
This world is a sermon of God’s majesty, this cosmos.  Without speaking a word that we can hear, God broadcasts to every living thing, that every living thing outside of God is not God!  We do well to remember frequently that only God is God!
We humans tend to congratulate ourselves for our phenomenal wisdom and sophistication every time a new version of Windows, or a more powerful Mac tablet hits the market.  But we’re confused at best, because it’s God who is the Creator – we are the creatures.  We mess around with, and rearrange HIS creation – often badly – but it is God who established everything we see.  King David also wrote these words – from everlasting to everlasting THOU art God! (Psalm 90:2).  I would have added….and not me!
Our prayer of thanksgiving begins with the cosmos – God’s universe, a sermon without words.  And then we also give thanks for…
His Commands; words with life
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.  
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.  11 Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.      Psalm 19:7-11  (NRSV)
Often people want to debate that God’s Word is just a bunch of “rules” that oppress certain groups.  But that is the blind side of human beings.  By nature we all have a rebellious side; nobody enjoys having to follow rules.  To be sure, even a lot of Christian believers want to know just how little they can believe and behave, yet still qualify for the train to heaven.
But, if you view God’s Word rightly, you can see that it is really a lamp for your pathway through God’s world – a light that shows us how to find real joy.  His commands are words that lead to life!
Jesus said that his words were truth, life and the way to the Father; anyone who would come near to Jesus and trust him as the guide through this life, would not only find heaven, but know deep down inside that they really belong with God.
So we come to the table giving thanks for God’s cosmos – a sermon without words, God’s commands – words that lead to life, and…
Our Cleansing; God’s forgiveness for what truly ails us
12 But who can detect their errors?  Clear me from hidden faults.  13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me.  Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.  14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.   Psalm 19:12-14  (NRSV)
“Clear me from hidden faults” is what God’s supper table is all about.  At this table is cleansing – not just the outward washing that may be necessary when you roll around in the mud; it’s the inward cleansing of your heart, your life…that part of you we call the soul.
Now, the bread and cup are not like some automated “scrubbing bubbles” that cleans your heart like a porcelain bathtub.  We don’t pour it in and feel it effervescing inside as the sins melt away.
Rather it is like the mortar that binds us to Christ in faith.  And Christ is the brick mason; he is the only one who can do this job.  When you come to faith in what Christ has done for you on the cross, Jesus takes your life and builds your relationship with the Father.
The prophet Isaiah wrote that all of our righteousness – all our attempts at taking over this business of cleansing our sins – is like claiming you’re wearing a new outfit, when, in fact, you’re wearing torn and filthy rags.   (Isaiah 64:6)
King David’s life fell apart.  He was the most powerful man in the world and was loved by both God and humans.  But he had this secret; he’d gone against God’s design for his life and his sin was really bad – first degree!  He tried to cover it up by plotting an innocent man’s death; he even had other people carry it out.  The thing was somewhat hidden from humans, but God saw it like an HD movie on a 75-inch plasma screen TV.  David had it together on the outside.  But the outside was like makeup on dark circles, or a band-aid on cancer; on the inside David was coming unglued.  And he knew it – just like you and I know it when we’ve sinned against God.
What did David do?  He ran to God with confession on his lips.  Listen to how David recorded it in his diary.  He wrote it down, and later we labeled it Psalm 51.  Hear how it sounds in today’s language when a king repents; listen to David getting honest with God:
1Generous in love—God, give grace!  Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.  2Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.  3I know how bad I’ve been; my sins are staring me down.  4You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.  You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.  5I’ve been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.  6What you’re after is truth from the inside out.  Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean, scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.  8Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.  9Don’t look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.  10God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
11Don’t throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.  12Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! (1)
When David got honest with God, God came – and then, there was cleansing.  That’s what God is like – and you don’t have to be a king.  You don’t have to speak a special language – you do have to pour out your heart to Him!
So do that; and then come to the table.  Let God do what God does; he’ll cement your life and His together.  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen!

Footnotes
(1) Eugene Peterson, The Message