Free to choose — BUT…

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:7–14)

Every choice I’ve made, including every sin, has consequences. Obedience to God generally results in good things, for that is His intention. He tells me what to do that will bless my life.

However, if my choice comes from “I know better” or “I want something different” the results can vary greatly. If I confess the sin, God forgives…

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

But confession and forgiveness may not change the consequences of what I said or did. David’s confession did not bring Uriah back to life, nor did it keep the baby from dying. Yet unlike Saul, God did not removed David from the throne because of his disobedience.

The NT promises that those who put their faith in Jesus Christ have a guaranteed eternal hope. I may lose rewards but not the everlasting life. It is a gift of grace based on what Jesus has done, not on what I have done or failed to do.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

Why then the consequences? For me, they show me why obedience is important, wake me up to the importance of God's will, and teach me that I am not as wise as I thought I was. 

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:5–11)

Jesus, consequences are seldom easy, but they are not a punishment as much as they are a classroom and a tool to teach me humility and lead me into deeper faith. In them I see Your great determination to transform my life but also they reveal Your awesome holiness.

Forgive but can’t forget?

One of the books on my computer is “Everyday Prayers” and I just read one about forgiveness. The pastor who wrote it described an unexpected encounter with someone who had deeply hurt him, but he thought he had forgiven this man. However, the pain came back and he realized thad he had not truly done so.

Years ago I taught a seminar on forgiveness. One point was that the slogan “forgive and forget” is not true. God does use the word “forgive” but it is usually in regard to Him forgiving us. When “forget” appears, it is often about the feeling of being abandoned. The Bible says my sin was forgiven in that He no longer holds it against me: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) But God does not forget anything.

That is, because of Christ, forgiveness is making a choice to not hold the sin of someone else against me. God does not forget and I may not either, but like the choice of not being upset all day against the person who cut me off on the freeway, I can choose to not hold the sin of another against them. The man who wrote the prayer about his own failure to forgive said: “I may never enjoy the gift of my brother’s repentance, at least this side of heaven, but there’s no justification for me tying my repentance to his.”

Years ago, a person I still spend time with told me a lie. When I realized it, trust in that person fell in a black hole and stayed there. I’d hoped for an admission of the lie (it wasn’t about me but about that person’s own mistakes) but it never came. Instead, it grew and became part of many incidents and choices, all based on that one lie.

Most often I think if a person lies about one thing, they will do it with other things, so my trust level could not crawl out of that hole, nor could I enjoy that person’s company. Every statement made me wonder if it was true, or a figment of imagination, or a bald-faced lie.
This morning, that statement from the prayer struck me as vital to my spiritual life: “I may never enjoy the gift of my brother’s repentance, at least this side of heaven, but there’s no justification for me tying my repentance to his.” My lack of forgiveness is a barricade. Jesus says it more than once:

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:12–15)
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11:25)
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:13)

A long time ago, someone else sinned against me in a far worse manner. This person would not respond to or accept forgiveness or even talk to me. So I put a chair in front of me, imagined that person in it, and then described my pain and expressed my decision to forgive. This meant not to hold that sin against that person, not that I could forget that it happened. 
God is reminding me to do this again. The one who lied is His child and He is the Father who makes the decision about what to do concerning that sin — my role is not to play God — as if I could.

PRAY: Thank You. Lack of forgiveness is not always on my mind nor an obvious block to my relationship with You, but this morning I can see it — and also know that Your choice is to remove it from me. Thank You, thank You.

Choices and consequences…

A radio preacher tells of a conversation with a person who thought she was neutral about faith in Christ. He tried to explain that if we have a choice, we are already in one of the choices. That is, she was saying NO to Jesus during the time she was not saying YES. She didn’t get that and insisted she would make a choice later. Finally the preacher said to her, “You can choose whatever you wish, but you cannot choose the consequences.”

How true. The OT is filled with examples. I read yesterday how Solomon began to serve as Israel’s king with faith and wisdom. However, he later chose many women outside of the people of God. Then, as God warned him, they led him from his faith and he began to worship idols. 

Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. . . .  Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. (1 Kings 11:6-11)

This man had been warned but he wanted what he wanted and lost all blessings from the Lord. As Piper says, doing our own thing can feel good in the process. Had Solomon experienced pain or sorrow, he would not have strayed. His story, and much of the OT is filled with reasons for remaining true to God. 

if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. (Leviticus 26:15–16)

God’s OT people were repeatedly warned, yet they continually forgot God and did their own thing. What about the NT? Does the sacrifice of Christ for sin free me to do what I please? Some think so, but the truth is, even though God's forgiveness and grace keep us in His forever family, we still face the consequences of our choices.

The main thing sin does is mess with my relationship with God to the point that I’m not talking to Him or relying on Him. I miss out on the benefits that go with being close to Him and able to rely on His help. This is not God pulling away from me, but me pulling away from God. 

Another consequence is shame. It may not visit me right away, but guilt does that. It also puts me under another task-master…

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:15–16)

Trusting Christ sets me free from sin. It seems senseless to go back to it. However, the human heart is deceitful. So are the lies of Satan and the lures of the world. The NT says repeatedly that my old nature is dead to God and must be treated that way, put off, ignored. If the danger was not there, God would not keep warning His people.

As for the consequences, this is an ‘if-then’ thing. My actions bring results, some in this life that bring blessing or sorrow, guilt, and unwanted events. Some are dealt later when God evaluates me at His judgment seat, not for faith but for the quality of my deeds. 

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:12–15)

If I live for self, all such ‘works’ will be lost. Just as we say about money and possessions, ‘you cannot take it with you.’ The consequences of running my own life is having all of that burn up because it is rejected by the Lord. Only what is done in obedience will remain. 

PRAY: Jesus, this is both a relief and a warning. All my days are filled with choices. Following Your lead is important, not only for this life but for what will survive purging at the “Bema” seat where consequences are sorted out. Give me wisdom for each day. Your Word says if I “Trust in the Lord with all my heart, and do not lean on my own understanding, and in all my ways acknowledge You, that You will make straight my paths.” (Proverbs 3:5–6) This is a great assurance that good consequences will follow.

My efforts vs. God’s enabling

 
In our small group Bible study, my focus is often on the flesh vs. spirit issue but received as if I’m saying we don’t do anything — all of our obedience is God’s doing. But I’ve not made clear that there are two “we’s” in the discussion. The flesh is dead and useless. To obey God, I must be walking in the Spirit, not the flesh which is my old nature. The problem is that I have not been clarifying which “we” is helpless and which is able to obey.

Another confusion is that many Christians do not recognize when the flesh is at work (even though it is dead to God) or what being filled with the Spirit is like. Many do not want to examine their motivations but it seems vital to me that I know why I do what I am doing.

Today’s reading begins with a question about pursuing faith. Since it is a gift from God, do i try to increase it? As with anything else He grants, I cannot make it happen without faith or by my human efforts, but God is eager to enable me to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” so that He is glorified “both now and to the day of eternity.” (2 Peter 3:18) Certainly faith is a gift from God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake… (Philippians 1:29)

Other verses show that faith is granted to us by a revelation to our hearts. That is, He makes it possible for me to believe. This is also a gift as Jesus told Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17) Otherwise, flesh remains in darkness. We need the gift of new life and the light from God which He shines “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Even though faith is a gift, the Bible says it needs to grow so I am trusting Him all the time. What is true for salvation — “faith comes from hearing through the word of Christ” — is also true after that new life comes. Being in the Word, spending time with Jesus and with His Body, and obeying Him are important, yet also must be activities of the new nature. The flesh can go through the motions but is not the way to build faith or express it. If I do anything, even what seems like ‘good works’ I am not honoring God nor producing fruit without His enabling.

So faith is about walking in the Spirit, not the flesh, and about glorifying God and not doing things to make the old nature feel good or be praiseworthy. I now see when I talk about being useless, I need to better clarify that all that talk is about the old me — and my flesh needs to be ignored. The new nature listens to God and obeys. This means that I need to be able to discern which is which. The old nature wants to rule things and can imitate or fake godliness and render my actions useless to serve or honor God.

PRAY: Jesus, Thank You for clarifying how to better explain when I make comments about passages like John 15:1-5 or 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 and how ‘I’ am useless yet I can do all things through Christ. Most Christians tend to be unaware of the flesh-spirit conflict because they have not recognized the differences or do not want to admit how the flesh messes with their faith. You want me to be clear about my battles so all of us are better at walking in Your Spirit and enable to do so by Your amazing grace.

Choices and Consequences

 

READ 1 Samuel 5–10

In today’s world, failure to see cause and effect is common. Not so in the days of Samuel, at least with the Philistines, enemies of Israel. They had taken the Ark of God from God’s people and recognized that this was the cause of affliction that then happened:

The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” (1 Samuel 5:6–7)

They sent the ark to another city, Gath, but “after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.” They sent it to Ekron, but the people cried out, “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people.” They called their leaders to send it back to Israel “that it may not kill us and our people” for there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven. (5:8–12)

They knew why they had been struck, and their method of sending it back settled any doubt . . . “send it off and let it go its way and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land . . . then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.” (6:8–9)

They did this test after realizing the power of God when their idol made of stone fell on its face two times before the ark. That knowledge is missing today. We hear all kinds of assumptions about cause and effect or no connections between the two are made at all, as if life is random and God is not involved.

The Israelites also knew otherwise. They realized that their own worship of idols was bringing trouble into their lives so “the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.” (7:3–4) However, their devotion didn’t last. When Samuel grew old and his sons failed to properly take on his responsibilities, the people wanted a king like the other nations. Samuel was not happy. He prayed . . .

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them . . . . And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (8:5–9; 18)

This answer reveals how the people needed to be warned about cause and effect. Their decision to run their own lives the same way as the pagans around them may have messed with their ability to see what would happen because of it. Lack of faith has consequences.

Samuel did anoint a king and God gave this new king a boost of His Spirit and a new heart (10:6; 9). Even though Saul was handsome and the people were excited, there were some who said, “How can this man save us?” and they despised him and gave him no support. (10:24–27)

Would support have made a difference? Would these people pray for their king (like the NT commands) or would they go along with his disobedience to God? Would they see the errors of his ways and recognize the consequences? Or would they be like today’s people who select a leader because they don’t want to be led by the Lord? And because he or she looks and sounds good, failing to recognize that even leaders can fail to see the future results of their choices and actions?

Lord Jesus, all this makes me realize how often I act on impulse without consulting You or thinking ahead to how my choices will affect my life and the lives of others. I don’t want to make the same errors described in this passage and carry on as if I know better than You. Grant me the grace to stop and think far more often and more seriously than I do. Amen.