Change

Recently, I had the opportunity to give a devotional in a small group.  My assigned topic was to choose a woman from the Bible.  After skimming through what turned out to be a very long list, my eyes fell upon the name of Rahab.  If you quickly flip through the Bible to each mention of Rahab, you find these facts. 

·        Joshua 2 tells us that Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho.  When the Israelite spies came into the city, they went to Rahab’s house and she hid them there from the king of Jericho.  She not only provided protection for Israel’s spies, she also arranged for their escape.

·        Joshua 6 mentions Rahab again, when the Israelites march around the city of Jericho and the walls “come tumbling down.”  Under orders from Joshua, the spies rescue Rahab and her family from the rubble.  Joshua spared her life and the lives of her family and they settled in the land to live with the Israelites.

·        The next mention of Rahab is in the New Testament account of the genealogy of Christ in the book of Matthew.  She is the wife of Salmon and the mother of Boaz. 

·        The fourth mention of Rahab is in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith.  It simply says, “By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish…”

·        Finally, we see Rahab used as a beautiful example in the book of James as a woman who puts action to her faith. 

Yet, what do these simple facts tell us about Rahab’s life and her faith? 

The first thing I noticed is that Rahab’s faith saved her. When the spies retrieved Rahab and her family from the Jericho ruins, they saved her life in a physical way.   Nevertheless, it is her faith in God that saves her spiritually.  We discover the evidence of her salvation when we see how she settled in the land of Israel.  Her faith was a real, soul saving faith.  A soul saving faith is also a life-changing faith.  Instructions on how to transform your life fill the libraries and bookstores of the world.  Only the work of God can accomplish true transformation for all eternity.  According to the book of Matthew, Rahab married Salmon who is part of the tribe of Judah and the lineage of Christ.  There is an ongoing work of God in her life.  She gave up her past as a prostitute and took on her new, God given identity.

The second thing I noticed is that Rahab responded rightly.   With a proper fear of God, she rejects the reaction of the crowd and follows the God of Israel.  The whole city of Jericho was afraid.   Rahab herself tells us the people of Jericho knew and heard of God and were very afraid.  Still, she is the only one who bent her knee and bowed her heart to the God of heaven and earth.  Think about the things that must have crossed her mind as she watched from her window while the Israelites marched around Jericho.  Remember, she had a front row spot; her home was on the outside wall of the city.  The citizens of Jericho knew that the people of Israel were about to storm their gates and yet they adamantly refused to acknowledge God.   Rahab was a light in a dark world.

I want to leave you with two challenges.  First, embrace your identity.

Rahab’s story is now our story.  Salvation begins and ends with faith in Christ.  When we place our trust in Christ as our Savior, we become his betrothed.  This means we should commit to leaving behind our idolatrous and adulterer ways and take on our new identity.  II Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 

Second, I challenge you to shine in a dark world.

Rahab’s testimony is now our example.  As the time for Christ’s return grows closer, we will face the challenge to reject the response of the crowd and follow God.  Just as Rahab stands steadfast in her faith, we must do likewise.  Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.” 

The message is clear; we are to walk in a manner worthy of His name.  I’m going for a walk, I hope you’ll come along.

Disappointment

I will not deny that I was disappointed in the results of the November 6^th election.  Moreover, I could write an entire blog on why I do not agree with Progressive Socialism.  However, I do not want to go there.  My purpose in writing my blog is aways to share what God is teaching me in the hopes that I influence the kingdom of God for His glory.  So with that out of the way, let us talk about what I am learning in the midst of disappointing political circumstances.

I have a great admiration and respect for a man named Daniel.  Daniel was Jewish and from the tribe of Judah.  In the third year of King Jehoiakim’s reign in Judah, things are not going well.  King Jehoiakim is the king of Judah, the southern kingdom from the original nation of Israel.  The king of Babylon marched his army to Jerusalem and the next thing you know, the land is now under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.   On top of that, humiliation, Daniel’s place of worship, his beloved Temple of God, has been ransacked and pillaged.  Then things get worse.  Daniel is among those who are brought to King Nebuchadnezzar’s palace to be immersed in Babylonian culture and thinking.  To make the leap that Daniel experienced disappointing political circumstances is not that hard.  Therefore, I decided to look at how Daniel managed his disappointment.

I needed only to read to Daniel 1:8 for my first instruction.  “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself…”  God’s economy is much different from the world’s way.   The world tells us that the end justifies the means; dog eats dog; toot your own horn. However, God tells us to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.  (Micah 6:8)  I must not defile myself with the ways of the world. As Daniel set himself apart from the world of Babylon, an interesting thing happened.  He was presented to the king for "inspection" and found to be ten times better.  Wow!  The story gets better.

In chapter 2, events in Daniel's life begin to heat up.  The King of Babylon has a bad dream; his wise men cannot give him the answer he is looking for; he becomes unhinged and decides to decimate his wise men.  This decree of death included Daniel.  This is where God taught me the second lesson.  When Daniel finds himself in a dire situation, he made the matter known to his companions and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven.  Part of that prayer can be found in verses 20-22: 

²⁰ Daniel answered and said:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
    to whom belong wisdom and might.
²¹ He changes times and seasons;

    he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to those who have understanding;²² he reveals deep and hidden things;
    he knows what is in the darkness,
    and the light dwells with him.

Daniel sets quite an example for us.  Daniel never loses sight of who God is and what God is capable of doing.  In his prayer, Daniel reminds himself, his friends and us that God is eternal, almighty, omniscient, and sovereign.  We must never lose sight of God's character. 

And this brings me to the third lesson I learned this morning.  Daniel had lined up his life, heart and attitude with God's will.  I am fairly certain it happened early in his captivity.  Nevertheless, it was in Daniel's prayer that I noticed it.  Because Daniel kept God in his rightful place on the throne, Daniel was able to accept all of the events in his life as opportunities to obey God rather than looking at them as disappointments.  When you read Daniel’s story, you do not see someone tossed about like a ship in a storm.  You do not see a man on an emotional roller coaster.  When you read Daniel’s story you see a man of prayer, a man who obeyed God without excuses and a man with a great big faith.

My instructions are clear.  Determine to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God; pray often-keeping God on the throne; contour my life with God’s will.  I hope you decide to join me.

Pride, part 3

It has been some time since I have sat down at my computer to write. It is good to be back and thinking about things the Lord would have me to learn.  I am reading a book that has been around for awhile but it is new to me.  It is called When People are Big and God is Small by Edward T. Welch.  To say it has consumed my thoughts would be an understatement.  I am obsessed with what I am learning from this book.  I highly recommend it.  But these things do not get to the subject of this post which is the consequences of pride.

I will begin my thoughts on this subject with the understanding that this blog is written by a fellow sojourner attempting to follow Christ the best I know how.  My thoughts are neither comprehensive nor guaranteed to be accurate.  I suggest, like with all Biblical teaching, you search the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to teach and guide you.  These are my thoughts and what I am learning along the way.

In my own life, I have suffered from the consequences of pride.  The first and hopefully most obvious consequence is that pride leads to estrangement from God.  We saw this scripture in an earlier post, Psalm 10:4, "In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God."  No room for God.  What does that look like?  For me it means that I am consumed with my own strength and self sufficiency.  Makes me think of the famous Frank Sinatra song,  My Way. One of the lines goes like this: "I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way." 

It is true, you can plan your own course and you can do it your way.  But I can assure you, you will spend your life and possibly eternity separated from God.  When I am doing life my way, I exalt myself above God.  I usurp his authority and rightful place on the throne.  It is never a pretty picture.

The second consequence can be found in both Proverbs 11:2, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." and Proverbs 16:18 that says, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall."  Every time I begin to think I am all that you can bet I am about to learn another lesson.  Thankfully the lessons hurt enough to send me to my Father with a prayer of confession.  If it doesn't, my head continues to swell and the next consequence will hurt a bit more. 

Continuing to ignore the consequence of pride will suck you into a vortex of sin that reaps destruction all over the place.  A perfect example of this can be found in 2 Samuel, chapter 11.  I challenge you to read this Biblical account of "a man after God's own heart."  His story is proof that even the most ardent lover of God can fall victim to the lure of pride. 

I have been sucked into this vortex and of this you can be certain: there is no blessing down that road.  What I learned about myself is that I frequently have one of two reactions in trying to justify the disaster of my pride.  I wonder if either of these ring true in your life.  The first is that I will try to minimize my failure.  I justify that what I did really wasn't that big a deal to God.  The second way I try to recover from the disaster of pride would be to blame it on someone or something else.  These reactions are wrong from every angle.  We cannot experience true forgiveness until we take complete ownership of our pride and its consequence. 

I cling to the promise of Philippians 1:6 "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."  God loves us too much to leave us in our muck and mire.  I am ever so grateful to him for not leaving me in my pit.  Will you join me today in saying, Yes, Lord!  Yes to his way.  Yes to his authority.  Yes to him!  God is God and I am not.

Pride, Part 2

I recently had a conversation about praying for the perpetrator of the Colorado movie theater shootings and his parents. My impression was that this person thought I was being far too generous to suggest that the shooter's parents or the shooter deserved any kind of compassion or prayer. Their argument was that the parents were somehow negligent and/or responsible for their son turning into such a monster. And while that may be true, I don't think we can automatically assume such a position.

Now, let me be clear, I believe this young man should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and should indeed be held accountable and punished. Make no mistake, if found guilty, he should never be released from prison. With that said, though, I do believe that all of us who follow Jesus should be praying not only for the victims and their families, but for the shooter and his family too. To think that any one of us who raises a child does it so well that this could not possibly happen to them is, I think, an insidious form of pride.

 And that brings me to what I talked about in my last blog: Point 2, Pride takes many forms. We often recognize the pride in other people long before we see it in ourselves. You may have experienced the repercussions of a boss or coworker who used insults to humiliate. Or maybe you've had a teenager roll their eyes because they were certain they knew more than you. But what about the not so obvious?

I went to God's word to see what I could find. Of course I found the Bible had much to say about pride. But what I wanted was not so much the consequences because that is for the next blog. What I really wanted was sort of a definition....a way to identify pride in my own life. I want to be able to see these subtle, but harmful tendencies in my own heart before God decides I need some consequences. What I found convicted my heart.

Jeremiah 9:23-24: Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

Another way to translate boast is "to glory in." I could be wrong, but I think the problem arises when "we glory in." Not a thing wrong with working hard, living right and teaching our children to make good choices. After all the Bible also teaches that we reap what we sow. But to think that I am immune to having a child go into a movie theater with the intent to harm simply because I did all the right things as a mom is to "glory in" my own ability. To think that I am somehow exempt or protected from tragedy because I do all the right things is "to glory in." There, and there alone, go I except for the grace of God.

I've been plenty guilty of having pride when it comes to my children.  I have often compared my children to some other's just to give my own ego a boost.  The same can be said about many areas of my life.  I'm ashamed to admit that God has pointed out numerous pits of pride for me to work on eliminating.  How about you?  Will you join me in saying,  "May all my boasting be in this: that I understand and know the Lord, recognizing His character and acknowledging He is the Lord?"

Pride, part 1

Several weeks ago, I was playing that drawing game on my iPad.  It is similar to Pictionary and you play with another person online.  Between the two of us, we were on a winning streak into the 40’s.  In spite of my serious lack of artistic ability, I discovered the joy of racking up points.  In fact, I had become pretty prideful about how good I was at drawing so many of the words.  I had even begun to secretly congratulate myself after every turn.  The computer beeped and I clicked on the appropriate icon to play the game once again.  I very cleverly sketched a fabulous outline of the Empire State Building with a stick figure King Kong at the top.  I included the helicopter and the beautiful young maiden that needed to be rescued.  Quite pleased with myself, I hurried to send the drawing to my friend.  As soon as I hit the send key to my shock and horror, I discovered my word was not King Kong, but Hong Kong.  Oh the humiliation that flooded my mind.

This sad but true story made me laugh out loud at myself and taught me some much needed lessons.  Lessons, I must continue to learn again and again.  You see what I have discovered about myself is that I have a huge spiritual issue with pride.  I’m telling you, it creeps in at every opportunity and if I’m not paying attention I end up smack in the middle of a train wreck every single time.  I bet you do, too. 

So, what’s a girl to do?  I asked God that very thing and He oh, so gently pointed a few things out to me from His Word.  The following is what I learned:

1. Pride is offensive to God.   
2. Pride takes many forms.
3. Pride has consequences.

Starting with how pride is offensive to God, we must understand who God is.  God is, well God.  There is none like Him.  He is the Alpha and Omega; He is Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnipotent. He is Creator of all and by His Word, all things hold together.  He is Light, He is Life, and He is Love.  He is perfect and He is Holy.  He is righteous and He is just.  He is my Healer, my Redeemer and my Savior.  There is NONE like the Most High God, Almighty.  Pride says, “I know more than God.”  He alone deserves the honor and in pride, we take what belongs to Him

I asked God to show me something special and immediately He caused me to find Psalm 10:4, “In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”  I wondered if this verse was one of the reasons that pride was detestable to the Lord.  Pride keeps us from seeking the Lord.  Wow, didn’t see that one coming.  When I have pride I not only say I know more than God, I also say there is no room for God. 

Yup… time for some much needed prayer.  I have much to confess.  We’ll talk about the other two things I learned next time. 

Look

I love the old hymn "Turn your eyes upon Jesus."  I really love that hymn!  Here is the chorus:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His Glory and Grace.

It was a favorite song for my mom as well.  We sang it at her funeral.  It has a tremendous amount of personal meaning to me.  I used it as a lullaby for each of my children.  Every time the babies would hear that song you could see them calm down and relax.  It worked like that for my mom as she suffered from dementia.  As she drew close to death, I would sing that chorus to her and you could see her physically relax.  As I walked through that dark time in my life, I hummed the song often to myself because it reminded me to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.

The author and composer of the song is Helen H. Lemmel who lived from 1864 until 1961.  In addition to being known as a brilliant singer and musician, Mrs. Lemmel was also widely recognized as a woman with remarkable literary ability. She wrote more than five hundred hymns and poems.  The inspiration for this hymn came from Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I've been thinking about these verses this week as I am in the midst of a Bible study on the book of Hebrews.  This week, yup, chapter 12.  There are a gazillion sermons that could be preached from these two verses.  They are so full it makes my head spin.  But as I pondered verse two:  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God," I found an amazing truth: 

The joy set before him.

What was the "joy set before him?"  I don't know all the answers, but I know one.  He knew that at the completion of his work on earth, man could be reconciled to God through him.  The "joy set before him?"  Me!  He was thinking about the joy of having a relationship with me!  He thought about you, too.  His very heart was to reconcile each of us to God, to himself.

Jesus fixed his eyes on the joy set before him so I could fix my eyes on Jesus.  Go ahead, I dare you to look.  In fact, stare.  Fix your eyes. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim. 

Resurrection

A Face Book friend proposed this question:  Would you believe the resurrection if someone told you it happened today?  What a great question.  I would have to answer “Yes!”  You see, my faith isn’t some pie in the sky mythology.  It is based on fact.  The facts are found in the very Bible itself.  The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the narratives of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  These books record that after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other women.  He appeared to the eleven disciples.  He appeared to two men on the road to Emmaus.  In fact, he appeared to several hundred people over the course of 40 days as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15.  Most of the people who testified to the resurrection of Christ were so convinced of the resurrection, they were willing to die for their faith.  From John 20:29 ’Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”’

I know from personal experience that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God who desires a personal relationship with His people. It says in Deuteronomy 4:29 “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  God tells us nearly the exact same thing in Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  Down through the ages, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has required one thing:  faith.  Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.   We have many examples from Scripture of those who had great faith.  By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man by God.  By faith Noah spent 100 years, in holy fear, building an ark even though he had never seen rain.  By faith Abraham, who was called to leave his home, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead.  By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the pharaoh’s command.  And later as an adult, Moses, by faith, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. These are examples from Genesis and Exodus.  There are many more as you read about Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel, and the prophets. (From Hebrews 11)

The bottom line is you either believe God or you don’t.  If I could talk you into belief than someone could talk you out of it.  Jesus is the Son of God who died for my sins and your sins.  Some say he was a good man and some say he was a good prophet.  Some say he did not exist until His birth.  But he is either Jesus, God incarnate or he is a lunatic.  He is who he claims to be or he is a liar.  So I would suggest that if you really want to know if the resurrection is true, you ask God.  Because if you seek Him, you will find Him, when you seek with all your heart.