Slippery slopes

Genesis 13; Nehemiah 2; Matthew 12; Acts 12

The contrast between good and evil is sometimes sharp, sometimes subtle. Those without faith in Christ can do what appears to be good but falls short of the glory of God. Those with faith in Christ can divert from the will of God into doing what seems okay at first but later realize it was a slippery slope.

In Genesis 23, Abraham and his nephew are both so prosperous that their herdsmen fight over who gets what pasture for their flocks. Abraham decides this is not good so offers Lot his choice. Lot picks what looks good. Instead of seeking the Lord and walking by faith, he walked by sight and stepped onto a slippery slope, winding up living in the sinful city of Sodom. However, Abraham trusted God and knew he would get whatever God wanted him to have.

In Nehemiah, this man was still in captivity and heard his homeland city was in a mess. He privately prayed, received permission and blessing from the king (his captor), privately checked out the condition of Jerusalem then told the people what they were going to do. It would not be easy. Two enemies protested but he replied: “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.” (Nehemiah 2:20)

Nehemiah would go on to rebuild the city, withstanding the harassment of these enemies. His life of prayer and seeking the Lord’s will kept him off that slippery slope called fear that leads to disobedience.

Matthew tells how the Pharisees determined that living by sight was not good, nor should they be distracted from following God by the threats of enemies. But their solution was a list of rules for life. However, that list began to mess with their ability to use logic and care about people.

For example, their rules were more important than the basic human need for food, than the value of a man over an animal. They saw the goodness Jesus was doing as the activity of Satan and failed to realize that His gentle way of dealing with sinners was a fulfillment of the prophets. Their determination to do ‘faith’ by rules made them blind to His identity and blind to the reality that their own hardness of heart was at the root of their behavior.

Their rule-making lives were oblivious to the grace of God in Jesus Christ, even as He cast out demons and blessed all those who were concerned to do the will of God. Jesus told them that even a person freed from evil could not keep himself free by his own efforts or by rules. Such a person was in danger of being overtaken by much worse. He also made it clear that family relationships do not make a person right with God. They missed the point that Jesus desired mercy (inner spiritual vitality) rather than the external formality of merely following rules. Instead of trusting Him, they conspired how to destroy Him. (Matthew 12:14)

In my own life, insisting on a ‘rule’ is dangerous. It leads to self-righteousness, blindness to goodness in others, and makes me rigid and narrow-minded. Living by my rules is a terrible slippery slope, yet many Christians have a list of them and miss the joy of walking in the Spirit.

In Acts 12, the issue is glory — the desire for it. This is a departure from faith in God and easy to spot in pagans, not so much in practicing Christians. Herod (Agrippa I) killed James. When he realized this move made him popular with the Jews, he arrested Peter planning to do the same. However, his claim to fame didn’t work as the Lord sent an angel to set Peter free. Herod put to death the sentries who had guarded Peter. His desire for power and glory was at the expense of others.

In my own life, when God enables obedience, I can say so, say thank you, or pat myself on the back. Glorifying God instead of basking in compliments keeps me in place but as soon as I start reveling and thinking ‘look what I did’ (or ‘didn’t do’) the ground begins to tilt.

Too often this slope brings down pastors, entire churches, and certainly a lot of us average people. It certainly brought down King Herod. He later sat on his throne before an adoring group:

And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. But the word of God increased and multiplied. (Acts 12:22–24)

Today I’m so thankful for the grace of God and for the many times He has rescued me from my own stupidity and selfishness. This is grace.

Today, hubby and I are still coughing and decided to stay home from church rather than share our germs. We went online to Scottsdale Bible Church and listened to the first part of a series on Grace by Pastor Jamie Rasmussen. I believe this is the reason God allowed us to get sick, since we rarely get colds. Rasmussen is an ordinary guy blessed by God and blessed us incredible with a message that everyone should hear. LINK 

Grace offends?

NOTE: This post is for July 31 and is late because I am at my sister's and it took awhile to get on the Internet!

The religious people in Jesus’ day were not happy with Him, particularly when He told them about the grace of God in their history, implying that they must depend on God rather than their own merits. He gave them this example:

“. . . And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.” (Luke 4:27–29)

The story Jesus referred to would be familiar to them, but not popular. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man in high favor with his master, because the Lord used him to give victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

In one of their raids, his army took a little girl from Israel and put her to work for Naaman’s wife. One day she told her mistress about a prophet who could cure Naaman of his leprosy. Naaman went to his king and told him that news. His king sent a letter to the king of Israel with a generous gift asking him to cure Naaman.

The king of Israel read the letter and was upset. He said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

However, Elisha the prophet heard about it and offered his services so that Syria would know that there is a prophet in Israel. Naaman went to Elisha’s house and Elisha’s messenger told him, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.”

Naaman was angry. He thought the prophet would stand before him, call upon the name of the Lord, wave his hand over the place and cure his leprosy. He wasn’t impressed with the Jordan either, thinking the rivers in his own country were better. The Jordan was just a muddy creek to him. But his servants were wise. They said,

“My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5:1–14)

Salvation is like that. God’s grace is apt to select the most unlikely person. This man was a pagan idolater, an enemy of the people of God and a long way from God’s prophet who had many other needy people nearby. Yet God reached this man.

For most of us, this choice makes no sense. However, does the grace of God ever makes sense? He declares that faith comes by hearing, arranges the good news to be heard, and opens the hearts of listeners, sometimes the hardest of hearts. When my sister became a Christian in a foreign land, she began to pray for her family. She thought I would be the last one to be interested in Jesus Christ, but to her surprise, I was the first one to be saved.

^^^^^^^^

Dear Jesus, I’ve no idea why You chose me to be Your child, yet am incredibly glad that You did. Not only does this blessing fill me with joy, it also fills me with hope. As I pray for others, I often say that because You saved me, You can save everyone and anyone on my prayer list.

Judgment by water and by fire

Genesis 6–8

A certain Bishop Leighton defines the danger of sin: “Sin is first pleasing, then it grows easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed; then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he is resolved never to repent. And then he is ruined.”

Today I heard a marvelous sermon in which the pastor pointed out that conviction and confession from sin, and repentance, are evidence of God’s grace. It saves us from total ruin!

He is right. After the sin of Adam and Eve, humanity went from bad to worse until, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord . . . . Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:5–9)

Note that God was grieved by sin, not outraged. It makes Him sad because He knows its destructive power in the lives of the people He created. Note also that Noah was righteous, but that means responding to God in faith. It does not mean that this man was sinless.

For this man and his family, God had a plan of grace, not judgment. He said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.” (Genesis 7:1)

Most do not realize that this was a massive ship, even by today’s standards. It was 450 feet long and large enough to carry this righteous man and his family, two of all animals, and their food through the deluge to come.

After it was finished, God put them into it, then blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. (Genesis 7:23)

The flood story is not intended as fodder for scientific debate about the way the world was at that time, but affirmation that God will judge sin. It is also affirmation of His grace. After the flood was over, Noah built an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings. This pleased the Lord and He said, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:20–22)

“While the earth remains” is an important phrase. In the final judgment, the Bible speaks of a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness prevails. At that time, complete cleansing will not be by water but by fire. 

People likely mocked Noah while he prepared the ark, but he believed God that this would save him from the judgment to come. People today laugh at Christians who believe God and live to please Him rather than ourselves. However, like Noah, we know that our safety does not depend on our efforts, but on what God has done. He gave us an ark as well. The New Testament says that baptism corresponds to the flood, not as a way to be saved from sin but as a picture of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

By grace, Jesus bore the punishment for sin that I deserved. Because He died for me and rose again, He is my ark and will bear me up safely through God’s judgment by fire.