Amazing Faith

Scripture: “A god has come into the camp,” the Philistines said.  “We’re in trouble!  Nothing like this has happened before.  Woe to us!  Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?”  1 Samuel 4:7

When I arrived in Tokyo I was suddenly made aware that everything was in Japanese.  I am used to everything being in Spanish, but now Japanese.  O.K. bad humor.  Yes, there were signs that were in English, but my senses were so overwhelmed with all the colors and Japanese signs that it was very difficult for me to see the English signs.  The simplest things, like, getting to baggage claim, purchasing a ticket, or using an ATM caused me to question my own intelligence.  When I learned that my government travel card had been denied I questioned God and asked, “Why do you always make things so difficult for me?”  Let’s just say for about 45 minutes I was stuck with the poor little me disease and wondering if God was even real.  I know that sounds a bit dramatic and it is, but it really is amazing how quickly our minds can take us down unless we take control of it very quickly.  As I finally figured out how to get outside to catch my bus for an hour and half ride to my hotel, I began to think God loves me, God cares about me and God has given me the power to choose how I will respond or react to this situation.  Funny side note – I missed the first bus because I couldn’t figure out how to get outside of the airport.  When I went back in to change my ticket I learned that the ticket counter was literally right next to the door I needed to go out the first time.  Your thinking really does produce the results you are currently experiencing.  And for 45 minutes if a non-believer had been observing me he or she may have wondered does he really believe God will take care of him in this situation because he sure looks stressed.

Has a non-believer ever amazed you by there faith?  A church one time was being sued by a bar owner.  You see the church had been praying that God would close the bar down.  The bar caught fire and burned to the ground and the owner was suing the church because of its prayers.  The church denied having anything to do with the fire, but the owner, a non-believer, was positive that this was an act of God.  The judge ruled in the church’s favor, but commented about their lack of faith in their prayers and in their God. 

The Philistines were enemies of Israel and yet they had more respect and reverence for God than the Israelites did.  If you want to see how this plays out completely read the whole story in I Samuel 4-6.  I wonder if we suffer from the same lack of faith that the Israelites suffered from.

Have you ever faced a situation that led you to say, “I could never do that!”  That’s fruit of a small faith.  What if you said, “I could never do that” but then you went to God and said, “God there is no way I can do that, if I am going to do this you are going to have to give me the courage and the strength.  The only way I could possibly do that is you working in and through me.”  Have you been holding back from offering forgiveness to someone thinking “I could never do that?”  Have you been denying words of affirmation and comfort to your spouse because he or she wounded your pride? 

God did lead the Israelites to triumph over the Philistines, but only after they admitted they couldn’t do it on their own.  But before they could become all that God designed them to be they had to endure some very painful deaths to self, a lack of respect and reverence for God.  What deaths does God need to do in your life?

By the way I did arrive safely in Misawa.  I got my government card activated and I have had opportunities already to positively impact non-believers, why because I remembered that if I would just live with faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed, God would use me and prove to me that He really has my back.  I hope you will discover that truth again today.

Out of the Country

I am sorry that I have not made a post since Thanksgiving.  Right after Thanksgiving I went to Portland for a conference.  I then went to a James Malinchak speaker’s bootcamp.  I left that conference early in order to catch my flight to Misawa, Japan where I will be serving as a Navy Chaplain until the 20th of January.  I have been here about a week now so I am just about ready to start reflecting and writing again.

Misawa is an Air Force base with a Navy detachment.  It is in the northern part of mainland Japan.  It is a beautiful country.  I am in a pretty rural, agriculture area with a mountain range about 70 miles from the base.  It is very cold, especially when the winds begin to blow.  The average snowfall is around 100 to 200 inches a year.  The snow hasn’t fallen yet, but it is expected anytime.

Well I trust and pray that you will all have a very safe and Merry Christmas.  I hope to begin posting new blogs this week.

Don’t Forget Thanks-Giving

Scripture: “When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, ‘Enough!  Withdraw your hand.’”  (2 Samuel 24:16)

Sometimes we forget what a powerful God we serve.  Sometimes we become more comfortable with the loving and forgiving image of God and forget that when God gets ticked off there is usually a severe punishment to follow.  David has once again stepped into it.  He ordered a census.  Counting people, specifically men who were capable of fighting, was not a sin.  What got David in trouble is what he did with the information that he now had.  David was able to size up his armies and with that information he was able to determine things like:  How many campaigns could he fight?  Which enemies would he need to avoid because his army was smaller?  What kind of taxes would he need to impose in order to supply for his armies?  If we thought of this the way a business person would we would probably wonder so what is the problem.  Shouldn’t a person know how much capital they have before they start on a business venture?  Doesn’t the Bible even say, “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?” (Luke 14:28). 

Here is where the problem came, “David was overwhelmed with guilt because he had counted the people replacing trust with statistics.” (2 Samuel 24:10).  Apparently God is pretty sensitive when it comes to people putting trust in themselves or others and not in Him.  Apparently God does not like when we decide to trust our own might, intelligence and creativity, rather than trust Him.  I wonder are there things happening in your life right now that require you to completely trust God, but it has been your pattern to “count” what you have and to put more trust in those results?  Perhaps after you read what happens next you might reconsider this pattern.

One thing I have noticed with David, whenever he gets in trouble a lot of people have to pay the price.  The prophet Gad comes to David and tells him that because of his unwillingness to trust God he gets three choices for a punishment.  Now you have to admit that is pretty cool of God to give David some options, but which one would you choose?  Option 1 – An additional 3 years of famine; Option 2 – 3 months of running and hiding from your enemies or Option 3 – 3 days of an epidemic on the country?  Notice that with each decreasing time frame (3 years, 3months, 3 days) the severity increases.  David chose option 3 because he was hoping that God would hear the cry of His people and would react mercifully. 

Now here is what is amazing to me and it causes me to really look at what it means to “fear the Lord.”  God immediately dispatches one of His angels to the territory between Dan and Beersheba (which incidentally is the location where David counted the fighting men) and 70,000 men are killed.  Just like that God is able to take out 70,000 people with one angel.  So let me do the math David counted his men and determined that he had approximately 1.3 million able-bodied fighting men and in less than a day one angel was able to destroy 70,000.  At that rate of killing one angel would be able to destroy David’s entire army in approximately 15 days.  If I were a betting man, I would bet on the angel.

Perhaps David counted the wrong resource? 

Perhaps David should have counted the number of angels God had at His disposal.  Revelation 9:15 says, “And the four angels (did you get that – 4) who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind (a 3^rd! 436,211,123 people in China alone).”  How many times do you feel overwhelmed because you lack resources?  How many times do you feel like what you are doing is impossible because you don’t have enough education, experience, wisdom?  Are you counting the wrong things?  With God you never lack.  With God all things are possible.   No wonder God is so sensitive to His children trusting others more than they trust Him. 

 

Are You An Indispensable Leader?

Scripture:  “But the soldiers said, “No, don’t go into battle with us! It won’t matter to our enemies if they make us all run away, or even if they kill half of us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better for you to stay in town and send help if we need it.” 2 Samuel 18:3

As a military guy I found it a bit disturbing when I read this verse.  I couldn’t imagine going into battle and my battalion commander staying in the rear with the gear.  I am reminded of a scene in the movie “Band of Brothers” when the men were ecstatic that one of their officers was going to be sent back to the U.S. to push the selling of war bonds, apparently he was a horrible leader in battle.  David wasn’t a horrible military leader.  David was gifted in strategy and tactics.  Actually he wanted to lead his men into battle.  It was his men that insisted that he stay behind.  They told him that he was in essence more important than all of them put together.

I wonder if they knew of his orders for Uriah (Bathsheba’s husband) ?  What amazing loyalty these men had to David.  I was equally surprised that David gave into their requests.  Having trained with the Marines I learned through them that no Marine was indispensable.  If the General went down there would be others who would continue to engage the enemy.  This line of thinking was meant to filter down to the very last private.  Every Marine was a Marine.  So I struggled with this idea that David would be seen as indispensable.  So what if David died in battle, perhaps that would rally his men even more and they would fight even stronger.  Here I am picturing the scene in “Braveheart” where Robert the Bruce uses the death of William Wallace to encourage the men to fight with him.  As a pastor I am constantly trying to persuade people that I am not indispensable.  If I didn’t show up at the church some Sunday, the message would still be delivered.  If I weren’t able to be at the hospital to say a prayer for healing, God would still be able to provide the healing and comfort that people need.  I am not very impressed with people who think they are a self-made man/woman, millionaire, success, etc. 

A visitor to a mental hospital was astonished to note that there were only three guards watching over a hundred dangerous inmates.  The visitor asked the warden, “Aren’t you afraid that these people will overpower the guards and escape?”  The warden responded, “No, lunatics never unite.” 

There is no doubt in my mind that God has placed within each of us a spirit of interdependence – the idea that people cannot be successful at anything in life unless there are a lot of other people working alongside of them.  The Bible says that we were created in God’s own image and in that description we are given the image of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit working alongside of each other as they created you and me.  As image bearers of God we are creators of interdependent environments.

 As I reflected some more about David being seen as indispensable I realized that perhaps there are areas in our lives that we are really indispensable.  I began to ask myself the question what is it that I do that no one else can do.  I mean someone could possibly replace me, but actually do what God created me to do.  I concluded that no one could be a father to Matthew the way I am intended to be a father to him.  I also concluded that no one could be a husband to Jackie the way I am intended to be a husband to her.  As I think about this I find myself wondering – “How am I doing at telling myself that I am worth ten thousand soldiers to Matthew, Melody, and Jackie?”  In my zeal to go to battle for my church, for other families, for strangers, what happens to Matthew, Melody, and to Jackie if I am taken out?  When I come home exhausted from the battle and I have nothing left to give to them I have been taken out.  If when I join the rest of society and say “Thank God it is Friday” but all I have for Matthew, Melody, and Jackie is leftovers then I have failed to understand my indispensable role. 

Are you surrounding yourself with people who will tell you – “Don’t fight this battle because if we lose you – we lose everything?”  Have you ever heard your children say, “Why don’t you play with me?  Why don’t you read this book to me?”  They are really asking you to stop fighting other battles and instead fight the battle that matters, the battle for their hearts and their minds.  Does your marriage seem stale or stagnant?  Perhaps it is because you have been zealous for the Lord in the marketplace, but have ignored the indispensable role that He has given to you. 

I believe there are battles that we will still need to be engaged in outside of our homes, I just think part of our evaluation and planning for that battle must also include our families.  We need to ask the question if I am taken out what will this cost my family?

God’s Chosen One

Scripture: “And the Lord said, ‘He has hidden himself among the baggage.’” I Samuel 10:22

Saul had been anointed by Samuel and told, “You will be prince over God’s inheritance.”  Samuel had even told Saul that there would be three confirmations that he would receive to prove to him that God really believed he had what it took to govern His people. 

Confirmation #1 – Two men will tell you the lost sheep have been found. 

Confirmation #2 – When you arrive at Oak Tabor three men will offer you two loaves of bread to eat.

Confirmation #3 – When you arrive in Gibeah you will be joined by prophets and you will begin to prophesy with them. 

Saul received three very specific confirmations and all three came true.  You would think that Saul would feel very confident and assured that he was God’s man for the task.  So why was Saul hiding amongst the luggage when the people wanted to crown their new king?

Have you ever started on a job or a career that you knew you were qualified for, but still were unsure of yourself?  Do you remember how you felt right before the wedding – you knew this was the person you were meant to love and to cherish for the rest of your life, but inside you wondered do I really have what it takes to love and cherish another person?  Do you remember the first time you held your baby in your hand, when you looked into his or her eyes and you wondered – do I really have what it takes to love and provide for this innocent and helpless child?  I think in some ways that was what was happening to Saul.  In spite of the 3 confirmations he received he still wondered about his own ability to lead.

Obviously when we doubt that we have what it takes even after God has told us that we do we are revealing a defect in our faith.  When God tells us we have what it takes, but we say “No I don’t” what we are really saying to God is, “You don’t know what you are talking about.  You don’t know me like I know me.”  We have placed ourselves above God which of course creates a lot of problems down the road.  Ever since the Fall men and women have nervously wondered if that actually had what it took to survive.  It is because of this insecurity that God sent His Son to prove to us that when we walk and talk with Him then we do indeed have what it takes.  In other words, Saul’s faithful response may have sounded something like this, “Father I know that you have anointed me.  I know that you have provided 3 confirmations for me.  But the truth is I am scared.  I still don’t believe in my heart that I have what it takes.  Father there is no way I can do this.  If I am going to lead these people the way you intend for me to lead these people then you are going to have to give me the strength, the courage and the wisdom to do this.  It is impossible for me to do this without you.” 

 Has God confirmed an “anointing” in your life but you are still struggling to embrace it?  Then take a moment and remember these words from God, “I chose you…  I love you so much…  With me all things are possible… You will do even greater things…”

Recognized and Respected Authority

Scripture: “If I am a man of God, Elijah replied, ‘may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!’ Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.’”   (2 Kings 1:10).

 A Navy Chaplain is taught from day one that if they are going to succeed as Chaplains they better learn how to   operate from both sides of their collar.  On one side of the collar was a device that represented your “recognized authority.”  This device was your rank.  On the other collar was a device that represented “respected authority”.  This device was a symbol that represented your faith community.  If you were Jewish you wore tablets, Muslims wore a crescent moon and all others including Christians wore the cross.  The military mainly operates from a position of “recognized authority.”  I will do what you tell me to do because you have the authority based upon your rank, your position, to tell me what to do.  When a person is moved to do something that they normally would not do, such as charging an enemy in an open field, but they do it willingly and courageously it is because the leader is a respected authority.  Elijah apparently was not a recognized authority, nor a respected authority.  But God was about to change that.

King Ahaziah, the king of Samaria, had fallen through a roof and wanted to know if he would recover.  The king refused to consult the prophet Elijah and instead sent people to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron.  Elijah, after being prompted by God, intercepted the people before they reached Ekron and told them “turn around and go tell your king he will die in bed.’’  The messengers returned with the news and the king immediately sent out a captain with a company of fifty men to capture Elijah.  When the first captain arrived at the mountain where Elijah is found he orders him to come down.  Elijah responds with the statement “If I am a man of God…”  Lightening bolts come out of the sky and immediately consumes the captain and the fifty men.  The king sends a second captain and the captain says, “Come down at once by order of the king.”  Elijah responds, “If I am a man of God…” Lightening bolts come out of the sky and consumes this company as well. 

God is establishing Elijah as a recognized authority and eventually he will be established as a respected authority.  God is also establishing resilient Christians as recognized and respected authorities.  Unfortunately, many Christians are to much like Ahaziah and his captains, believing they have authority just because they carry the name of Christ around on a bumper sticker or because they listen to Christian music on their radio station.

Elijah demonstrates that he has recognized and respected authority not because of what he does, but because of what God does.  The lightening bolts did not come from Elijah they came from God.  Elijah was completely submissive to God’s will.  If God wanted to prove that Elijah was a man of God, then He would do so however He wanted to, in this case, He would send down lightening bolts.  When Elijah confronted the false prophets of Baal, God chose to prove that Elijah was a man of God by sending down fire from heaven to consume a water-drenched offering. 

There are times that I wish God would establish me as a man of God with lightening bolts and fire from heaven.  One of the “perks” I enjoyed as a Battalion Chaplain with Marines was when the Commander wanted to chew me out it would not be as severe as some other officers because deep within the Commander, there was a superstition that it might not be a good gamble to mess with one of “God’s men.”  I am sure I could create lightening and fire with my Commander and with Jackie if I said, “you better pay attention to me, you better do what I say, because I am God’s man,” but they would not be the lightening and fire that would establish anything except that I am an idiot.   Being a resilient Christian is not something you earn.  It is not a title that is bestowed upon you.  It is not a rank that you wear.  Being a follower of God is a lifestyle that you receive when you become submissive to God’s will and purpose for your life.

The third captain learned from the mistakes of others.  Life is certainly a lot easier when we willingly learn from the mistakes of others.  When he approached Elijah he came with a spirit of submission.  He knelt before Elijah and begged for mercy for himself and his men.  The third captain understood that healing follows repentance.  Resilient Christians, Authentic Christians,  cannot expect God to recognize their needs if they have a rebellious spirit within them.  True repentance requires a different thinking pattern.  To continue doing the same thing, but expecting different results is the sign of an idiot or at least a person who is going insane.  This third captain wanted to survive and he knew that what others had done before him didn’t work.  He made a conscious decision to change the way he thought about Elijah and about God.  He repented and thus he and his men were saved. 

God had established Elijah as the recognized and respected authority.  Elijah was able to lead this man and his soldiers to a real understanding of who God was because he was already in a submissive posture before God.  The third captain and his soldiers were spared because they learned to be submissive to those who were placed in authority by God.  “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God” (Romans 13:1).  Jesus even submitted Himself to those who were in authority, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar” (Matthew 22:21).  He allowed the Sanhedrin to arrest Him, rather than call upon twelve legion of angels (Matthew 26:53).  Recognized and respected authority should be the goal of every Christian who seeks to be a disciple after God’s own heart.  This kind of authority is only given to those who are willing to be submissive to the will of God.  Those who snatch authority without a spirit of submission and repentance ultimately end up the way of Azahiah and his captains – DEAD!  

How is your relationship with your loved one?  Your children?  Your neighbors?  Your co-workers?  Your in-laws?  Are those relationships thriving or are they dying?  Your attitude towards repentance and submission may have a lot to do with the direction of those relationships.  As Christians you are members of God’s royal priesthood, you are ambassadors of God’s Good News of forgiveness and new life.  If people don’t recognize and respect your authority the problem could be theirs, but it is most certainly is yours.   The answer is found through submission.

 

 

God The Refiner

Scripture:  “Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to His church?  People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, they have embraced, worshiped, and served other gods, that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”  (I Kings 9:6-9)

Well it has happened.  Matthew the artist has blossomed.  Unfortunately, his blooming has happened on the carpet and his wood furniture.  This morning following my devotion time I heard these words or something similar, “Matthew, what have you done!?  I have no idea how I am going to clean this.”  Jackie is a very calm and collected person, but when you enter into the last trimester of pregnancy all bets are off.  I decided to go and rescue Matthew and then I saw what had happened and for a split moment I decided – “Hey you made the mess, so now you will have to lay in it and that means facing your mom.”  Matthew had for some reason taken a highlighter and wrote the number “4” all over the floor and then with a red marker decided to write letters on his furniture.  I asked him later why he did that, his answer was funny, “I’m four what do you expect.”  Let me just say I was once again reminded I am not God and I still don’t know how to hold judgment and mercy in balance.

Only God is able to hold in perfect balance the scales of judgment and mercy.  Only God is able to perfectly demonstrate love through discipline.  Job 5:17 reads, “Blessed is the man whom God disciplines, so do not despise the correction of the Almighty.”  Or Paul’s reminder to the Hebrews, “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by his father?” (Hebrews 12:7).  We who are called to finish well, to share the Good News of God, are often times guilty of emphasizing the incredible patience of God while avoiding the equally important truth that God will not tolerate a people who refuse to trust and obey Him.  We emphasize the wonderful truth of “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), while avoiding the other truth – “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23).  God should not be viewed as some god who sits on Mount Olympus who in a fit of anger or sheer boredom decides to “crush” a man just to prove that he can.  God has no desire to crush or destroy humanity.  Just as Jackie and I had no desire to crush Matthew.

When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden God clothed them.  God provided for them.  After Cain was confronted by God for killing Abel, God drove Cain away from the land of his birth. He forced him into a land of hostile people, but “He put a mark on Cain so that no one who found Cain would kill him” (Genesis 4:15).  When God saw the wickedness of humanity and even wished in His own heart that He had never created humanity and set out to destroy His creation, He chose to establish a new covenant with Noah.  It is not in God’s nature to destroy His creation in its entirety. God would go against Himself if He were to completely abandon humanity.

Jackie and I love Matthew with all of our heart and yes even our mind (although there are days).  Matthew is an absolute blessing to us there is no way we would ever consider abandoning him, no matter what he did.  God feels the same way about you, actually His love for us is far greater than we can ever imagine.  It is because He loves His creation, it is because He loves you and me that He corrects, disciplines and judges us.  That is why we corrected Matthew.  That is why we took some of his toys away and had him clean his carpet and furniture – because we love him.  Like God, we want Matthew to know that we will always love him, but he must also hear this warning, “If you do this then there will be consequences.”

We don’t have to do those things that disappoint God.  We can choose to live in a manner that invites us to live without sin (1 John 2:1).  While this must be the goal of every Christian I quickly add, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our hearts” (1 John 1:10).  So I encourage you to follow the pattern outlined in 1 John – “Confess your sins, trust in the faithfulness and justice of God and He will purify you from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

So what is that purification process?  It is kind of like the process we had Matthew undergo today when we asked him to “clean” his “artwork.” Malachi 3:3 describes God as a refiner and purifier of silver.  That is a good description of how God takes us through the process of removing all mistakes/accidents from us.  I appreciated this scientific description of purifying silver –

 

“WARNING! This procedure involves nitric and hydrochloric acids, which are extremely corrosive to skin and other organic materials.  Silver nitrate itself is also caustic to skin and eyes.  The experiment also involves generation of toxic nitrogen oxides, which can easily kill you.  If you choose to attempt the following procedure, you do so entirely at your own risk.”

 

In other words, the refining and purifying of our hearts is a painful process.  In fact the purifying we are describing can only be accomplished by God.  The purifier watches closely the heat being applied to the metal, when the purifier is able to see his own reflection in the metal he removes the metal from the fire. As I talked with Matthew about what went wrong with his choice this morning his heart of goodness began to shine through.  I could see my reflection of love, forgiveness, of hope for another chance, coming through his big blue eyes as he fought back tears because he knew he had disappointed mom and dad.  It was obvious that he got it when he put his arms around me and said, “I am sorry daddy.”  And then he would point to all the things he was not allowed to write on.

Being purified and refined for God’s purposes is not for the faint hearted, it is truly for those Christians who want to become men and women after God’s own heart.  Proverbs 17:3 reads, “Silver and gold are purified by fire, but God purifies hearts.”

Does your heart feel on fire for God these days?  Are you inviting God to place your heart under the refiner’s fire so that when He looks into your heart He sees only His image?  God does this kind of work in order to “test your faith, to show you that your faith is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:7).

“God’s correction is always right and for our best good, that we may share His holiness.  Being punished isn’t enjoyable while it is happening–it hurts! (Just ask Matthew) But afterwards we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character” (Hebrews 12:10).  I guess the saying is true if you can’t stand the heat then get out of the kitchen, but if you want to avoid God’s correction and discipline then you will need to subject yourself to God’s refining fire.  Besides, God promises, “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; He’ll always be there to help you come through it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

 

 

Abandoned By God

Scripture: “You walked off and left us and never looked back.  God how could you do that?  We’re your very own sheep; how can you stomp off in anger?” (Psalm 74:1, The Message)

Ouch!  For a guy who lives with the promise that God will never leave or forsake us that is a difficult verse to read.  That’s what is amazing about our Bible, it is truth.  Humans were inspired by God to be real with God.  Sometimes people’s transparency with God is not always easy to read.  This is one of those situations.  I would encourage you to read this Psalm in its entirety.  Hopefully these thoughts will enrich that reading.  . 

Have you ever received a punishment that you knew you deserved, but wish you didn’t have to experience?  That’s what the Psalmist is saying in that opening verse.  The Israelites were being forced out of Jerusalem.  Their city and their temple lay in ruins.  They were being forced to march to Babylon (modern day Iraq).  God had used the Babylonians to punish the people for their idolatry.  God was punishing the people for their reckless abandonment of the covenant between God and humanity.  The people felt like they had been abandoned by God, but that sense of abandonment was the consequences, the results, the fruit, of choices they had made.   

If the people had chosen to remain in a covenant relationship with God, if they had chosen to worship and serve only God they would never have felt like they had been abandoned.  If Adam and Eve had not submitted to Satan’s deceptive lie, the lie that says, “you need to protect your own interests because God cannot be trusted,” then they would never have felt shame and they would never have had to hide.  The consequences of that decision was to enter into exile.  They once had lived in the very Garden where God apparently walked with them on a daily basis.  But now they and the people of Israel would be forced to live in unchartered, hostile, territory.  They were forced to live in a world where Satan and not God had dominion. 

This was what the Psalmist was painfully aware of.  He knew what had just been lost because of choices that had been made.  The Psalmist knows the penalty is just and right, but is hoping that God would not make the penalty so severe.  The cost is severe, but the cost is not eternal.  The people still have an opportunity to return to God.  What if God had let them off the hook?  What if God had given them yet another chance would the people return to praising and honoring God?    History has proven that even when God maintains the severity we don’t reach the conclusion that God is worthy of our praise and our worship so I would conclude that people would not reach the conviction that God desires for us to reach.

It is interesting that the Psalmist appeals to God’s heart by asking God to remember all that He has done in the past for His people.  He asks God to remember how He lead His people out of Egypt.  “Remember how you rescued them from enemies in the past”.  He invites God to this time of “remembering when” in hopes that God would “turn His steps” back towards Jerusalem and the temple.  Wouldn’t it have been better for the Psalmist to preach to his congregation? – “Friends, remember what God has done for us in the past.  Remember how He protected and provided for us.  And this is how we repay Him?  This is how we serve Him?  We should count our lucky stars that God did not annihilate us?  We should consider ourselves blessed that God is giving us another chance even though we have lost everything.  We are so deserving of death, but look God has continued to give us life, even if we have lost everything else.  We are entitled to these consequences because of our choices, we have no right, we have no privilege to ask God to restore us to the way things were before.  The only privilege we have is to death, for we have broken the promise, we have committed adultery by chasing after other gods.  God has always been faithful and true.  God is being faithful and true even now as we experience these painful consequences.”

Another insight I would like for us to notice is the privilege we have in learning from our ancestors.  We are the fools if we do not learn from their mistakes.  This Psalm gives us an image of what defeat before the enemy would look like.  When we fail to be resilient Christians, when we fail to love our spouses unconditionally, when we fail to offer powerful forgiveness to our children and to each other, when we fail to act unreasonable in our compassion towards others and when we fail to live with outrageous confidence in God, then our enemy is victorious. 

The Psalmist invites us to peer into the locker room of the victors and see how they celebrate.     Have you ever gone to spend time in prayer, but it felt like there was a hostile and negative committee meeting going on in your head?  That is an image of what is going on in the victor’s locker room.  Their howls of delight are so deafening that it becomes nearly impossible to hear anything from God.  The party is so huge that it is nearly impossible to see the miraculous, to experience the signs and wonders of God.  Does it feel like your home, your church, your workplace is a battle zone?  Does it feel like those things that you have considered to be sacred – marriage, children, worship, have been cut apart by a chain saw?  That’s what the victors are doing, they are entering into those places where you felt the most intimate with God and they are destroying them.  They are taking sledge hammers and saws to all of those things that have meaning and purpose to you.  They are coming into your home and taking dumps in your beds, they are trashing your furniture and they are slashing your walls.  They are destroying everything.  They figured you didn’t respect it enough to fight for it, so why should they care about it.  The spoils of this war is the victors are able to lie, to steal, to kill and to destroy.  Our ancestors experienced this the hard way – we would be fools not to learn from their mistakes. 

We may be living in times like that right now, but here is what I know the day is coming when the current victors are going to be kicked out of that locker room.  I know that every day a Christian  makes the choice to love unconditionally, to act unreasonable with compassion, to offer powerful forgiveness and to trust God outrageously, then God’s Kingdom is advanced.  Every advancement of God’s Kingdom is dependent upon you and me doing our part.  God is the hero.  God will be victorious, the question remains will we be cheering with Him.  Remember God doesn’t abandon us, we make the choice to leave Him.

“Living With A Betrayer”

Scripture: “Send this man back to where he came from.  Let him stick to his normal duties.  He’s not going into battle with us.  He’d switch sides in the middle of the fight!  What better chance to get back in favor with his master than by stabbing us in the back.”  (1 Samuel 29:5)

What a strange twist that is going on here.  David, the mighty warrior for Israel, the conqueror of Goliath, the mighty giant for the Philistines, is now David the warrior for the Philistines against the army of Israel.  David and his men have been going to battle for the Philistines for over a year now.  On one side of the valley is David and the Philistines and on the other side is Saul, Jonathan (David’s best friend) and the army of Israel.  They are preparing to battle each other in the morning. 

I can only imagine the look on Jonathan’s face if he and David were to come face to face in the heat of battle.  David dressed in Philistine armor and Jonathan wrapped in the armor of Israel.  It reminds me of the scene in “Braveheart” when William Wallace discovers that he has been betrayed by Robert the Bruce.  I imagine that David’s face would have been much like Peter’s after hearing the roster crow, if he had come face to face with Jonathan.  How fortunate David was that the Philistine warlords prevented him from entering that battle, especially since we know that both Saul and Jonathan die in battle the next day.  You can hear the results that happen when someone betrays another in the words of the Philistine warlords –“if he can betray his own country, who is to say he won’t betray us now.”  This account of David challenges me to ask so what do I do with David the betrayer?  It also invites me to consider what do I do with those who betray me?

Loyalty is a big issue, especially in battle.  You want to know that the men who are on your right and your left have your back.  So what happens when you discover that the person(s) you have entrusted your life to cheats on you?  What happens when a trusted friend says something judgmental about you while you are away and then later someone comes and tells you what your trusted friend said?  What if in a time of great need you needed a listening ear and instead what you received was a cold shoulder?  Several times when I was with the Marines I would have to provide counsel and comfort to Marines who had discovered that their “best” friend had slept with their wife while they were away on deployment.  What do we do when loyalty is betrayed?

Proverbs 17:7 tells us that a “friend is always loyal and a brother is always born to help in time of need.”  I take this to mean that if a person betrays their loyalty then that person is no longer to be called friend.  When one friend betrays another friend then a new friend will emerge, will step up provide help in that time of need.  Truthfully I have a difficult time looking to David as a man after God’s own heart.  I feel like his loyalty was only to himself.  He could have continued to hide from Saul, but to take up arms against his own countrymen would be like me taking up arms with Osama bin Laden.  David demonstrates another lapse of loyalty as he orders the death of one of his most loyal subject Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba.  I have a difficult time relating to people whose “yes” means “no” and their “no” means “yes”.  As I stated I need to know who really has my back.  My rigidness about this loyalty issue is a blind-spot in my life.  It sets me up to be very suspicious of people.  It also makes it difficult for me to have a forgiving heart.  Therefore, if I desire, which I do, to become like Christ, to finish well, then I must learn to look at my betrayers from God’s perspective and not from my own.  If we are going to be resilient people, people who seek the heart of God, we must learn to see ourselves not as the victim of other betrayers, but we must see ourselves as actual betrayers.

For example, God once looked upon His creation and saw such a wickedness that it broke His heart.  “And the Lord was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth and it grieved Him to His heart” (Genesis 6:6).  What was the wickedness that God witnessed – uncontrolled violence and warfare.  Would you say that we still exist in such a time?  How well are we doing at promoting peace and unconditional love in a world that thrives on revenge and eye for an eye?  God looked into the eyes of His creation and He no longer saw a people who were capable of loving and caring as He did and does.  What He saw was a people who only had the desire to do that which was evil.  This grieved God’s heart.  This caused God to wish that He had never created humanity.  He desired to wipe the earth clean, but instead, He decided to remain loyal to His creation and so He rescued Noah and His family. 

Likewise, Jesus had been brutally beaten and wrongfully accused.  His disciples had run away so fast that one of them literally ran out of his clothes (Mark 14:51).  As Jesus is being stripped and beaten his water walking disciple Peter is denying him for the third time.  Jesus felt the betrayal so deeply that He cries out to God, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”  In other words, Jesus wanted to know why must I do this all alone.  And yet following His resurrection who does Jesus wish to see first – His disciples.  Who does He restore/reinstate to a sense of purpose and mission – Peter. 

As I have already confessed I have a very difficult time dealing with disloyal people.  I don’t know what I would have done if I had been one of the Israelites and discovered that now I was fighting against David.  I don’t know what I would have done if I was Uriah and I had found out that my king had gotten my wife pregnant while I was out fighting for him.  I don’t know what I would have done if I had been William Wallace when I discovered that I had been betrayed by one of my countrymen.  But what I do know is that Christians who desire to be resilient, who desire to be people after God’s own heart know that if they look at how most people have responded to betrayal then they don’t look high enough.  If we want to be resilient people, resilient Christians then we need to look to God as our example.  I do know that for me to remain loyal to a person who has betrayed me, for me to reinstate someone who has betrayed my trust I cannot do that by own strength or power.  For that to really occur I must seek courage and wisdom from God.  I must say Father if this is going to happen you are going to have to work in and through me, because my flesh will not allow this to happen.  If this is really going to happen, you Father and not me, are going to need to be the hero of this situation.

 

Funeral Eulogies

Scripture:  “Saul and Jonathan, beloved, beautiful!  Together in life, together in death.  Swifter than plummeting eagles, stronger than proud lions.” (2 Samuel 1:23)

Saul and Jonathan have been killed in battle, not a bad place for warriors to have to die, if they must die.  It is always tragic to me to hear stories of how warriors have survived beach landings, parachute drops and pursuing enemies, but then are taken out in a manner that is totally unexpected and unexplainable.  Again I think that is what adds to the tremendous frustration around the Ft. Hood incident this past week. 

 When it comes time for me to die I hope I am in the process of doing what it is I am meant to be doing.  I hope I am where I am supposed to be.  I wonder how many people are “living” on the outside, but are already “dead” on the inside because they are not in the process of doing what they were meant to be doing?  Or they are not where they are meant to be?

 As I think about David’s comments for Saul (an enemy) and Jonathan (a beloved friend) I wonder about words that might be spoken at my own funeral.  What would I want said by my enemies?  That of course raises another question for me – Do I really have any enemies?  In today’s climate folks might say that if I had opposing religious or political views I might be considered an enemy. So I guess this is what I would want my enemy to say about me – “That guy was a royal pain in the butt.  He was tenacious.  He would not give an inch.  I hated to battle against him because I knew that it was going to be an incredibly hard and long battle and we usually lost. Yet when I was engaged with Tim in ‘battle’ I always felt like I was engaging a person who sincerely wanted to understand my ideas, my positions.  I felt like I was engaging someone who was able to articulate his ideas with passion and conviction without judgment or condemnation.”   

What would I want my wife Jackie to say?  “Tim loved and honored me.  He brought out the best in me.  He gave me courage to take risks.  He was my lover and my best friend.” 

What would I want Matthew to say? “My dad taught me how to be a man of honor, of courage, of commitment.  His integrity has strengthened my resolve to follow in his footsteps as a warrior who helps other people finish well.’’

What would I want the people I have served to say?  “I am a more mature Christian because of the way Tim supported, encouraged and challenged me to not just talk the walk, but to really walk the talk.  Tim believed that Christians were meant to be salt and light by being real.  He empowered me to really be real with myself, with God and with others.” 

What would I want my Heavenly Father to say, “Well done!  You have done exactly what I designed you to do.  You have become a man after my own heart.  You managed everything I gave you so incredibly well.  I am proud of you.  Come let me show you what I have designed for you now.”

As Amish says to William Wallace in the movie BraveHeart – “Nice words, now what?”  I guess that is really the question isn’t it.  If I can first picture what it is that I would like to be said at my funeral then I am one step closer to making that possibility a reality.  The next step is deciding are those statements something worth really pursuing.  Do they inspire me or do they just motivate me?  Inspiration leads to perspiration, motivation leads to constipation because you never get off your assets to go and do something meaningful. 

If those kinds of “eulogies” inspire me then I will be willing to make necessary corrections in my current walk.  I will establish priorities in my life that will help me sustain that walk for a long period of time.  Just because I said loving and kind words to Jackie today does not make me a loving and kind husband for a lifetime.  The final step I would need to take if I really wanted people to make those kinds of comments about me is I would need to regularly evaluate myself according to those kinds of standards.  I would need to come to Matthew at various stages in his life and say, “Do you get the feeling that I am teaching you how to be a man of honor, courage and commitment?  If he said, “No, but you are really teaching me how to burp and watch football and I really enjoy those things with you,”  then I will need to decide if I am going to make a course correction or am I going to be happy knowing that I taught Matthew how to burp and watch football games. 

So what would you want your enemies, your spouse, your children and your God to say about you at your funeral?  How would you want to die?  What steps would you need to change today to make those statements more of a reality?