Wrath withheld?

In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. (2 Chronicles 32:24–26)

This portion of history I would like to see repeated. This attitude of a leader being blessed by God but not responding with humility happens, and pride of heart is making mockery of what God has done. Will the wrath of the Lord happen these days? Or will God treat today’s pride-filled leaders with mercy and test them with continued success? He did that with Hezekiah.

And Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels; storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds. He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God had given him very great possessions. This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart. (2 Chronicles 32:27–31)

It seems the world is slowly falling apart. For some time, the damages are “out there” and far from us, yet they creep closer. A news item this morning shows me I do not live in a safe little corner. 

Example: A local gas station did damage to several automobiles by filling their customer’s tanks with half gasoline, half water. Deliberate or accidental is not known but it made me feel as if I found a dead mouse in my cereal box.

Hezekiah reminds me that the people of God have a huge responsibility to obey God. Our actions, or lack thereof, affect the world we live in. A half-holy life might keep individuals from seeing the consequences, but the next generation may suffer because of God’s wrath on the sin of this generation.

Hezekiah’s son Manasseh reigned next, started out well, then led the people astray. He finally repented but his son took his place and. . . .   

Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done. Amon sacrificed to all the images that Manasseh his father had made, and served them. And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred guilt more and more. And his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his house. But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place. (2 Chronicles 33:21–25)

The conflict and sorrow caused by those who served in a half and half way affected many. The word therefore fails to fully describe the results, especially on the masses who lived under their leadership. 

Jesus, You know all things. Your goodness can be experienced even when those who rule politically waffle from mocking evil to being evil. Do we have any idea what true justice would do to the populations who suffer? Are You using the evils in this world to bring some to their knees before You? Trust without seeing Your plan is challenging many. Keep my focus on You and on the promises of what You are and what You will do to make all the world bow before You. 

Returning to normal?

Joshua 8; Psalm 139; Jeremiah 2; Matthew 16

A letter from a missionary requests prayer that the virus threat would soon be over so she can get back to work. People talk about a return to ‘normal’ meaning they want their lives to be what they were before this pandemic. This way of thinking reminds me of a noted Christian educator who said, “Christians deeply resist change — forgetting that is our destiny.”

Jeremiah spoke to a people who had abandoned God. They didn’t want change either. He said of their problems, “Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord your God, when he led you in the way?” (Jeremiah 2:17) This prophet went on:

“As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’ But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah. (Jeremiah 2:26–28)

This morning’s newspaper had pictures of people crowding beaches, going to parties, saying ‘no way’ to social distancing and to being careful . . . as the statistics are rising and thousands are getting this virus and dying. While we don’t like loss of control and our government telling us what to do, the Bible is clear: yield to God (totally) and obey the governing authorities even if they are doing a lousy job of it (in our opinion) for God has put them in place and to resist our leaders is to resist God. (See Romans 13). We want our way and resist change.

God doesn’t work the way we think He should. His priority is not my comfort. While He cares for me and wants to bless me, His priorities are revealed in Jesus Christ. This passage says much about the error of worshiping the good life, even of putting my priority on ‘normal’ and life itself:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:21–26)

The things of man? Peter figured that of all people Jesus should not die. He was clueless about the plan of God to use the death of His only Son to change the world. Am I clueless about the purpose of Covid-19 in the plan of God? I hope not.

Come after Him and deny myself? Deny what? That could mean watching TV, eating too much dessert, loafing in the sun, all sorts of good life things, but Jesus says self-denial means my whole life. It means losing all desire and effort to gain the world — which Scripture defines as the “desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life.” (see 1 John 2:15-17). I’m asked to pray that things return to ‘normal’ but I don’t think so, not if normal means going back to the opposite of the will of God and enjoying what keeps me from putting Him first.

APPLY: Give up any idea that I or the rest of the world needs what we call normal when it includes that so-called freedom to do whatever we want. Romans 12:1-2 tells me to present my body as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable to Him for this is worship. I’m not to be conformed to this world/age but transformed. My thinking is to be like His thinking so I can discern His will and realize its perfection, that it is good. Woe to me should I ask Him to make life like it used to be when my destiny, and the destiny of the whole world, is change . . . change that glorifies God.

 

 

Yielding in the tough times

Jeremiah 29:1–30:24, Romans 6:1–14, Proverbs 20:13–30

The Bible tells me to yield to God and resist the devil. It only works if done in that order. When temptation, trials, or even sickness threatens, God wants me to yield to Him. During many of those occasions, I’ve learned to say, “God, if you have any purpose in this, then I accept what is happening and surrender to you . . . .” and must really mean what I say. This is not a formula!

However, by surrendering to God and accepting whatever He desires, the threat often vanishes. Even when it does not, I am confident that God’s hand is in it, and can face the struggle in faith instead of dismay.

This is a difficult lesson. The OT people of God struggled with it as God allowed them to be taken captive in Babylon. He told them, “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare . . . . When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:4–13)

Essentially God was telling them to settle down and live normally in enemy territory! They were supposed to yield to Him and not fight against this strange request, but cooperate and learn the lessons He had for them. They learned, but it took seventy years.

Solomon also instructs me to yield to God. He says: “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.” (Proverbs 20:22) He explains that this and all suffering can have a good purpose: “Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts.” (Proverbs 20:30) Some trials are strokes from God. In them, I can grow more like Jesus, but must yield and let God have His way in me.

The NT covenant of grace stresses that salvation from sin is a work of Christ. This begs the questions: Can I now do whatever I please? Can I insist on a comfortable life and simple avoid as much pain as possible? (Industry makes millions by producing all sorts of products and services to alleviate suffering.) Now that my salvation is secured by grace, can I sin without consequences? The Bible says no way! Grace means security, yet grace continually calls me to yield to God, not giving myself to sin.

“Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life . . . . We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin . . . . So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:1–14)

This ‘now but not yet’ salvation is something like the end of World War II. Officially, it ended on a specific day, but some battles continued after that day. My fight with sin and self is much like that, a “now but not yet” principle in God’s kingdom. Another way to say it is: I am totally saved from the penalty of sin, totally being saved from sin’s power, and eventually will be totally saved from its presence.

By grace, I am “in Christ” and have died with Him, even risen to new life with Him. In the mind of God, this is a done deal. However, it has yet to be lived out in my experience. The war is over, but not yet finished.

Key to a full victory is realizing that suffering is part of the experience. Struggles draw me into deeper reliance on Christ and a deeper awareness of His loving commitment to preserve me for Himself. Going for comfort does not change His plan, but it can certainly interfere with the process!

He is the Savior, I am not

Most Christians fall into the trap of trying to deliver themselves from sin of some kind, perhaps a bad habit or a nasty attitude or giving in to a recurring temptation. After days or weeks or even years of struggle, we recognize that we cannot do it. At that point, some give up, make excuses such as, “It isn’t really that bad” and let that besetting sin get the best of them.

This struggle usually happens over impurities that others might not give much attention to, such as fussiness with food or clothing, being stubborn over the way to do my ministry, or having an irritated impatience when someone sits in “my place” at the table. While these seem fairly inconsequential, the Lord knows there are deeper problems beneath the surface, deep-seated stuff that must be brought to awareness, confessed and cleansed.

Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” (Exodus 15:22–26)

In the case of the Israelites, they grumbled because they were thirsty and the only water they found was not fit to drink. This seems a “normal” response, something like I might have if I took a gulp of milk and realized it was sour. However, God sees deeper. Their grumbling always flowed from a heart filled with selfish unbelief. They blamed Moses, but he was God’s servant. They were actually angry with God for the “hardships” He was putting them through, as if He didn’t know what He was doing and as if He did not care about them.

The professor for the current course I am taking says that next to idolatry, grumbling is likely the worst sin in the Old Testament. To have a complaint against Almighty God who is holy, knows all, loves beyond what we can comprehend, and is wise, is equivalent to blasphemy.

When I grumble, I am declaring that in my mind God is not any of those things. I am saying that God isn’t doing what I want Him to do, as if I know better than He does. When I wish things were different than they are, or want something denied to me, then I am expressing that I do not really trust God as I claim.

This ties to my struggles with besetting sin. In the battle, God finally gets through my thick skull that at the root of all sin is a heart of unbelief. I either want something He denies, or don’t want something He permits. Either way, I’m open to whatever bait is dangled in front of me and open to the enemy’s suggestion that the bait will give me what I want or fix what I don’t want.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13–15)

While God does not cause temptation, He may allow it to bring out the fact of that inner desire, the one that says He doesn’t know what He is doing, that I know better or that I am a better judge of what is best for me. While the desire may not be sinful (it is okay to be thirsty), taking the bait is. It begins a journey down a winding garden path that leads into a patch of entangling thorns, and even to a dark and bottomless well.

God is the healer. He can change bitter water to sweet, fussiness to contentment, stubbornness to yieldedness, impatience to calm trust, hard hearts to soft. Instead of insisting on “I want what I want right now” I can trust Him to supply all that I need, even the grace to be satisfied — content with whatever state I am in or how long He takes to change things, or even how long it takes me to learn these lessons!

Trusting God with bad news

Hearing bad news in the lives of others makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable talking about the good things going on in my own life. And at times, their bad news is like a warning that anything can happen to anyone. Will I be next?

This past week I was made aware that a friend’s daughter had a stroke that left her paralyzed. A cousin also had a stroke that put him into a full-time care facility. The newspaper is filled with sad stories, but these two are closer to home.

When things like this happen, I can dwell on the “what if’s” of life and become anxious. Life is not predictable. However, today’s devotional has something to say about how to respond to life’s unexpected nature. It begins with this verse.

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. (Proverbs 16:33)

In those days, the people of God sometimes used the equivalent of dice to make decisions. They knew that God could make the die go whatever way He wanted so they trusted Him when they cast their lots. Spurgeon asks, if the simple casting of a lot is guided by God, how much more the events of our entire life? Then he reminds me of another reality about God.

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6–7)

If God cares about sparrows, even about the number of hairs I have, then surely He cares for me. I need to focus on who God is, rather than having fearful thoughts about the future. This is important for several reasons. When I am anxious about anything, I cannot pray with faith. When the troubles of this world occupy my mind, serving Jesus is pushed to the side. When I worry about what might next happen to me or my loved ones, my mind is filled with myself, not the Spirit of God. Instead of abiding in Christ, I am tied up in myself.

Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33) and not to be anxious about tomorrow. He is in charge. When I think otherwise and fret about it, I am meddling with Christ’s business, and neglecting my own. My place is not to fix or provide or arrange, but to obey. As Spurgeon says, it is wise to attend to the obeying and let Christ manage the providing.

If I get my eyes off circumstances and worries about possible circumstances, then I can see the great provision of God more clearly. I can see His heart of mercy, His inscrutable wisdom. He never makes mistakes, no matter my anxieties or even my opinion.

Most of all, God has always dealt graciously with me. Because He remembers even sparrows, will He will never forget even the least of His children. I can cast all my burdens on Him for He has promised to never suffer the righteous to be moved.

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Lord, this season when joy is proclaimed and the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated, there are sad events and news that is not so good. Yet You are still God. Every trial I have ever experienced has worked good in my life because You know what You are doing. While I do not understand the trials that others experience, I need to have the same confidence in You — for them. You control the roll of the die. How much more is Your hand involved in each event of life, working out Your plan to draw each one of us closer to You. If I can help others, I will, but worry is no help. Move me from being anxious or self-centered about anything and grant me the grace to trust You with all my heart — no matter what is happening.

What is that in your hand?

Years ago, I spent hours in front of an easel with paints and brushes. At times, supper was late and my chores undone. Even though I sold these paintings and used the money for missionary support, I felt that God was not pleased with my neglect of other duties. It seemed that I should stop this activity and give full attention to my home and family.

For a long time, I never touched a paintbrush, even gave my supplies to someone else. However, the oddest emotions gripped me every time I was in a store that featured art supplies. I’m still not able to describe it, but it seemed as if deep was calling to deep and I was saying NO to a part of who I am. Was this God? Or my selfish desires?

In today’s devotional from My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes of missionary motivation. He refers to this fragment of a verse: “For His name’s sake they went forth” from 3 John 7.

In his comments, he describes how we should show our love for Jesus by being interested in people and their needs just as He is interested in them. He points to Peter’s experience when the Lord asked him, “Do you love me?” After Peter replied that he did, Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.” The Lord affirms that loving Him means taking care of others, and as Paul wrote later, this love is about attitude as much as it is about actions. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. . . . (1 Corinthians 13:4–8)

Love is also practical and active, focused on relationships. It is also the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad the love of God in my heart. His love can pour through me to others. I need to build relationships so that can happen, and I remain loyal to His name’s sake when I love others in this way. Chambers says anything else is sentimental jargon.

Here is the rub: the key to devotion to Christ has nothing to do with being detached from external things. Jesus wasn’t, at least in the sense that I gave up painting. He was involved in life, eating and drinking with sinners, walking in the fields with His disciples. He had a mission but He was also a carpenter. While the Bible gives little space to His vocation, it is clear on one important thing: His detachment was not about shunning externals but was on the inside in utter devotion toward God.

Chambers says this, “External detachment is often an indication of a secret vital attachment to the things we keep away from externally.” This statement hits me and explains my emotions in the art supply stores. He goes on to say that the loyalty of those in Christian service is about keeping our souls open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. God sends out ordinary humans with a dominating devotion to Himself. It is not about giving up who we are, but about doing as He says and caring about people.

God has directed and redirected my artistic bent, using it to bring me in contact with people. While I’ve mistakenly resisted paints and brushes, He worked out other ways to use creative endeavor (either mine or mutual interest) to bring me closer to others and often giving opportunity to share His love with them. It has taken me a long time to realize that it wasn’t creative ability that God wanted me to drop, but the selfishness involved. Instead, He wants to use those abilities as a channel for His blessing.

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Lord, You have shown me again and again that You can use any interest or occupation as an arena for demonstrating Your love. Even human hobbies and other interests can be wonderful connecting points with people, particularly those who are not yet interested in loving or serving You. Rather than letting my varied interests become an obsession, they are tools in Your hand (much like Moses’ staff became a tool in his hand and Yours). Forgive me for taking so long to see that it is okay to use the tools, not throw them away and think that being empty-handed makes me more useful. At the same time, help me to keep my focus on bringing glory to Your name and using whatever You put in my hands to that end.