Partnering With the Devil

 

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.  I say this because many deceivers have gone out into the world.  They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body.  Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.  Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve.  Be diligent so that you receive your full reward.  Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God.  But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.  If anyone comes to your meeting and does not teach the truth about Christ, don’t invite that person into your home or give any kind of encouragement.  Anyone who encourages such people becomes a partner in their evil work.    2 John 6-11

Some choices promise better than others, but there is a new choice every second of every lifetime:

          ·       To remain…or go; continue breathing…or not

          ·       To smile…or growl

          ·       To resist life’s tragedies…or embrace the challenges

          ·       To love…or partner with the devil.

I recall reading the account of a young man’s life, who, due to a skiing accident that crushed most of his body’s bones, left him facing the reality of climbing uphill for what was left of his days on this planet.  Those days were filled with pain, chronic, agonizing, and, at times, overwhelming pain.  Among the choices he entertained during that dark time was the possibility of ending it all…the pain, any hope of recovery, a miracle, or just the satisfaction of holding-on.  I cannot recall the man’s name, or where I read the story, but his words still ring deep in my soul: 

I do not have choice about the pain and the circumstances of my life, but, when it comes to joy, I can choose misery, or I can choose joy.

His testimony was that choosing joy over misery gave him a purpose; part of that purpose was to help others embrace whatever challenge life throws their way.

Apostle John, the same one whose Gospel account says that Jesus loved him, warned the church that there were merely two choices available in life – love God, or partner with the devil; the latter being a life built on deception, the chief of which was that Jesus hadn’t really come in a flesh-and-blood body, to die a horrible death for our sins.  That was beneath God’s dignity, and no self-respecting God would do such a thing.  In short, those living in deception denied Christ. 

The opposite side of that deception is truth, and to live in truth is to accept what is real. Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection means everything else He told us is true.  And, past that point of accepting Christ, we live as He told us to live, acting with love toward every other human being, and doing that, no matter if it is reciprocated. 

That is the way God loves, and our mission is to live like our God demonstrated.

For You Today

When facing particularly challenging circumstances remember the choice between misery and joy.  Partnering with the devil’s deception looks like a much easier way out, and it is – it’s your gateway to a life of misery without parole. 

The other choice will always seem more difficult, requiring faith, yielding control to Christ’s plan for your life.  But in doing so you will discover the pathway to genuine joy.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

VIDEO

Title image Pixabay.com  ∞ Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on 2 John see: Imposters and Old Words That are New

 

The Wisdom of Elihu - Part 2

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Friday, October 19, 2018

Elihu, Job’s friend, continues his speech from yesterday, attempting to show Job the futility of arguing with God:

“Pay attention to this, Job.  Stop and consider the wonderful miracles of God!  Do you know how God controls the storm and causes the lightning to flash from his clouds?  Do you understand how he moves the clouds with wonderful perfection and skill?  When you are sweltering in your clothes and the south wind dies down and everything is still, he makes the skies reflect the heat like a bronze mirror.  Can you do that?  “So teach the rest of us what to say to God.  We are too ignorant to make our own arguments.  Should God be notified that I want to speak?  Can people even speak when they are confused?  We cannot look at the sun, for it shines brightly in the sky when the wind clears away the clouds.  So also, golden splendor comes from the mountain of God.  He is clothed in dazzling splendor.  We cannot imagine the power of the Almighty; but even though he is just and righteous, he does not destroy us.  No wonder people everywhere fear him.  All who are wise show him reverence.”  Job 37:14-24(NLT)

Yesterday, Elihu (in my humble opinion), flirted with the border of meddling where he didn’t belong, flinging out a defense of God’s character and behavior.  He offered the standard thinking of the day:  if you’re suffering, you’ve done something wrong, and God is justified in raking you over the coals until you get it right.

However, I believe Elihu missed two important points:

a.      He wasn’t qualified to know Job’s insides, and what guilt was or wasn’t there

b.      He definitely wasn’t qualified to know God’s insides, and why God does what God does!

Common sense would have been well-served had Elihu followed the advice of the sage:  It is better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open that mouth and remove all doubt![2]

Well, here, even though Elihu’s lips are still cranking out what his brain is trying to understand, he seems to have scrambled back on the higher ground of reverence for both God and Job, his friend, who appears to be going under in a classic crash-and-burn of self-justification. Elihu rehearses for Job some of the everyday miracles of God’s sovereignty over the universe – the heavens filled with clouds, thunder and lightning, and just like trying to look into that fireball of a sun with naked eyes will blind you, attempting to scrutinize Jehovah’s right to meddle with Job’s good life could get you toasted to a crisp.  Elihu is telling his friend to be careful when he opens a conversation with God.

As much as there is wisdom and verity in what Elihu says (and probably a very pure-hearted concern for Job), I still must take issue with that part about being careful when you speak to God.  Rather, I would say it is at those times when you talk to God that it is particularly important to drop your guard completely and let everything out!

Prayer is not a time to convince God of anything or try to flatter God into giving you what you want.  Prayer is a time for emptying the heart and letting God choose what to put in there.  As others, wiser than I have suggested, I don’t change circumstances by my prayer; in prayer God changes me to stand and face the circumstances.  I am like a frightened little boy who runs to his Papa.  Papa embraces me, and then turns me around to face what frightened me…from HIS perspective.

For You Today

And so, the bottom line, for Elihu, Job, or any of us, is:

When you go to God, don’t hold back…run full-speed into His arms, empty it all out, fears, needs, sorrow, joy, anger, unbelief…

And then don’t be surprised when he turns you back around to face the music; just know that you’re not standing alone…He’s standing right where He can have your back!

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] Proverbs 17:28 (also famously attributed to such wise men as Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln)

The Wisdom of Elihu

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Thursday, October 18, 2018

Elihu, Job’s friend is speaking, attempting to show Job where he slipped off the road and got so derailed that God had to use drastic misery measures to straighten him out:

“Let me go on, and I will show you the truth.  For I have not finished defending God!  I will present profound arguments for the righteousness of my Creator.  I am telling you nothing but the truth, for I am a man of great knowledge.  “God is mighty, but he does not despise anyone!  He is mighty in both power and understanding.  He does not let the wicked live but gives justice to the afflicted.  He never takes his eyes off the innocent, but he sets them on thrones with kings and exalts them forever.  If they are bound in chains and caught up in a web of trouble, he shows them the reason.  He shows them their sins of pride.  He gets their attention and commands that they turn from evil.  “If they listen and obey God, they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives.  All their years will be pleasant.  But if they refuse to listen to him, they will cross over the river of death, dying from lack of understanding.  For the godless are full of resentment.  Even when he punishes them, they refuse to cry out to him for help.  They die when they are young, after wasting their lives in immoral living.  But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer.  For he gets their attention through adversity.  “God is leading you away from danger, Job, to a place free from distress.  He is setting your table with the best food.  Job 36:2-16(NLT)

With each statement Elihu throws out, God is “defended” just as this wise man proclaimed he would do…and yet, each statement becomes a target.  While his words are true in one sense, they fall apart elsewhere…at least from the human perspective.

For instance, being blessed with prosperity throughout their lives will be wildly applauded in Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church, but does that mean everyone living under the poverty line is a big-time sinner?  Or if Joel’s words are accurate, meaning prosperity will be measured with financial gain, that God somehow has lied, and keeps poor people from His blessing?

Twisting Scripture or using circular logic because God’s Word says one thing, and you want it to mean something else, is just plain wrong.  God’s Word is a stand-alone reality, needing nothing of human wisdom to complete what God wants to say. 

(That being said, I must be out of my mind to comment daily on God’s Word in this devotional…right?)

The whole point of what I want to say today is what I say often to the congregations who listen to my sermons every week:  Don’t just listen to what I say; check everything I say against God’s Word.  Hold me accountable to God’s Word! 

In the same way, don’t fall into the trap of Elihu.  He said some wise things to Job, but when you check out the first chapter of this book and hear the conversation in Heaven between Lucifer and God, you find out Job was not the problem; he hadn’t walked away from God, sinning so badly God had to pour adversity on him to get his attention.  Job was a poster child of obedience and worship.  In fact, he was so good God held him up as a challenge to Lucifer so that Job’s troubles could be a blessing to you and me.  God wanted us to witness the unfolding of God allowing bad stuff to happen to good people. 

Elihu, as wise as he was, had not heard the dialogue, nor read the transcript of the Heavenly plans that God was working out.  And so, he made the rookie counselling error of pushing his pet and pat theology on Job’s misery.  It was unrighteous salt in a righteous wound supervised in Heaven’s surgery center.

For You Today

If you’ve got a friend going through some deep water that doesn’t seem to make any sense, resist Elihu’s error, running off the at the mouth, giving all sorts of godly-sounding reasons for their misery.  Just do what Elihu started out with; sit with your friend – and sit silently.  God will speak when God is ready.

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

Bitter & Beloved

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Monday, September 17, 2018

But as for me, I almost lost my footing.  My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.  For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.  

Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside.  I was so foolish and ignorant—I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you.  Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.  Whom have I in heaven but you?  I desire you more than anything on earth.  My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.  Psalm 73:2-3, 21-28(NLT)

We have dogs!  That’s something of an understatement.  We have two old castaways who stole our hearts and would love to steal each other’s food.  Dinnertime is a test of ingenuity.  On Elizabeth’s and my part, feeding time means trying to keep the two little philistines from going to war over the last scrap to hit the floor; on their part it is working out the last details of stealth and distraction, so they can get what the other possesses!  Their bitterness and jealousy fade quickly into full bellies and lying next to each other in dreamland (they sleep 18-52 hours a day!).  Being dogs, they don’t hold on to bitterness.

In this Psalm the writer has a dawning/saving moment as he realizes the bitterness envy has created in him.  He realizes his mental stability and his relationship with God and all humanity is at risk because he has allowed the green monster of jealousy to take over. 

And in the next thought he marvels that, despite his wicked and envious, jealousy, despising others, God still loves him and even holds him close, gently guiding him back to the fold. 

In this instant of self-discovery and realization (that he is loved), the Psalmist blurts-out a doxology of praise:  Whom have I in heaven but you?  I desire you more than anything on earth…God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

Bitterness is a strange and repugnant quality; yet it is a condition that infects much of the human family.  Envy is a kissing cousin to bitterness; one follows the other with building blocks of misery.

In Stephen Crane’s poem, In the Desert[2], a rider has a conversation in the sand with a beast:

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”

Bitterness spawns all kinds of terrorism in strange places – from preschool to the geriatric ward.  It guides the hand on the controls of a 747 crashing into a World Trade Center building or giving the order to annihilate a whole population.  It rests in dark places and never rests at all.  It is, as the Psalmist points out, that which makes its’ host all torn up inside…foolish and ignorant like a senseless animal.

If there is anything that can (and will) turn bitterness away and restore a dark heart, it is the unconditional love of God.  There is just something about being loved which calms and soothes the most ferocious of us, despite our bitterness and anger.

For You Today

It’s a good idea to periodically take some time to root out bitterness before the root of bitterness has a chance to be at home in your soul.

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

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Stephen Crane, In the Desert, 1895, Copeland & Day (courtesy of Wikipedia)