Rejecting The Best for the Status Quo

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” (Da 9:26 AV)

The scriptures are very plain here.  The Jewish Messiah will die for others.  To be cut off is to be cut off from the promises made to Israel.  This means the Messiah must be cut off from the promises to Israel by a judicial act of the Father.  The Messiah must be cut off from the promises made to Israel for the sake of Israel.  What follows is a prophecy regarding the Messianic kingdom that follows a seven-year period.  Putting this all together, the word of Got foretold the death, burial, resurrection, and restoration of the Jewish Messiah for the sake of Israel.  Yet when Jesus Christ came, they either didn’t see it, wouldn’t see it, or did see it and rejected it.  We can pass judgment on Israel for rejecting the obvious, but one has to wonder how many times the New Testament saints are doing the same thing.  Whether it is ignorance, unbelief, or rebellion we can dismiss clear teaching of the word of God for a choice of our own.

There are times we reject something that is perfect for us.  Sometimes we think we have a better option, or that the option we now possess is the best we can have.  Israel was content under the rule of Rome.  In fact, several times the leaders of Israel stirred the people to conclude the same end.  For them at the time, the Pax Romano was more to their liking than the Messianic kingdom.  This sounds a bit silly.  Especially in hindsight.  Rejecting their Messiah also meant rejecting eternal life.  Hell was their end.  The rejected God’s best for them because the best of the world would suffice.  But do the saints of today to the same thing?  All the time!

Our churches are filled with worldliness and corruption.  Sin is at every corner.  The escape from it is our daily walk with God.  This must incorporate Bible reading and prayer.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Otherwise, prayer and bible study become merely a religious exercise.  Both must be done in the context of a relationship.  They are not exercised as an academic curiosity.  God is not a subject to study.  Rather, there is growth that comes by both.  Part of growing as a Christian is enduring through trials and/or correction.  We are told not to faint while under either.  The word of God promises peaceable fruits of righteousness, holiness, and a deeper love for God if we allow the hand of God to have its perfect work.  Yet, we see the risk or stress involved and avoid it at all costs.  Maintaining the status quo is good enough for us.

Our churches are filled with three types of people.  Those who are newly saved and start growing.  There are those who will always continue to grow.  Then there are those who are satisfied with where they have come and have drawn a line in the sand.  They have ceased to grow and will grow no more.  That is what happened with Israel.  They have suffered centuries of warfare and persecution.  For the first time in their history, they lived in Palestine with relative peace.  Their liberties were limited.  But at least there was no trouble on the horizon.  They were overtaxed.  They were victims of imperfect justice.  They lived under the hand of Caesar.  But at least the sun was coming up tomorrow.  At least life was predictable and livable.  Why would they want change?  Even if the promised change was better than they had, staying put was their choice.  This is sad.  But too many people live that way today. The bulk of God’s people are right where Israel was.  There is no desire to grow.  No desire to risk.  No desire to conform.  No desire for Christlikeness.  We are happy with mediocrity, and if Jesus ever did a great work in our lives, we would resent it.  They missed it because they wanted to miss it.  The same is true of many saints.

Help for the Helpless

“For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and [him] that hath no helper.” (Ps 72:12 AV)

That last part of the verse is special!  When you boil it all down, how much help do we really have?  David wrote this near the end of his life.  The next Psalm is Asaph’s biography and eulogy of his good friend, David.  It was known of this great king that was the apple of God’s eye.  He and the LORD had a very special relationship.  Despite the failures of his life, he loved God, and God loved him.  No doubt in the course of his life he felt as though he had no one.  Several instances come to mind.  Goliath was one of his first lone challenges.  Just before Saul died and when David took the throne, all his men left him.  Now, he lies on his deathbed and human help will be of no worth.  When compared to God’s help, there is little people can do for you in comparison to what you might be facing.  Don’t get me wrong.  The help of dear saints is absolutely needed and welcomed.  God uses them to meet our needs.  We cannot survive without one another.  But there are times when man’s help, although somewhat sufficient, lacks all that we need.  This is where David was.  Lying on a bed with a nurse at his side and his wife and encouragement, it was not going to change his outcome.  God was the only one who could truly help David.

On one of my darkest days, this truth was made real to me.  Through the changes of life and other issues I was facing, all I could see were dark skies.  There was no sunshine.  There was no sunshine predicted.  As far as the mind was concerned, all hope was lost.  This poor saint found himself at the end of his rope.  There was no more left, and the knot was slipping through my grasp.  If God did not do something soon, my end was near.  In the wisdom of my wife, she called a close friend.  I had escaped to my room and sat there sobbing and rocking back and forth.  Too much loss had happened in a very brief time.  Spiritual issues were coming to a head.  Fear gripped me on every side.  There was no way to turn.  My good friend came to try to console me.  He tried the best he could.  The verses he used were familiar to me, and before he said anything, I knew what he was going to say.  It wasn’t helping.  I finally rebuked him a bit, and that is when he realized that God alone was my helper.  He sat there.  Simply sat there.  He said nothing.  He promised that he would not go anywhere until I was okay.  Other than that last bit of comfort, he simply sat there.  I imagine as he sat in silence, what he was really doing was praying.  I am certain of it.  He went to the throne of my only Helper and interceded on my behalf.  It worked!  His intervention drew me out of a pit of hopelessness deeper than I have ever been before, or since.  That day I learned the reality of the verse above.

The child of God is never without hope.  Never.  Don’t let the adversary tell you otherwise.  There is no failure nor sin that can separate you from your Father.  Repentance and forsaking are asked for, but the Father will never leave.  Ever!  Nor will He ever allow us to go through a trial without Him.  He promises to be with us in the midst of the deepest water we will ever tread.  He will be there.  And He will deliver.  Living in the hope of that deliverance is difficult.  Go far enough down a pit and the sun is blocked out.  All we see are the dark, constraining walls of our situation.  Whether we can see the light or not, it exists.  God is there. He promises to deliver those who have no helper.  Praise be to God!

Quickening Over and Again

“[Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” (Ps 71:20 KJB)

The last few psalms of David’s book of Psalms are precious.  They are psalms reflecting his experiences in aging.  The above verse is an excellent verse supporting faith in the resurrection.  Although David is referring to his aging physical condition compared to the desire to do all he can for God until his last breath, he does allude to the resurrection as well.  The quickening referred to here appears in the preceding verses closest to this one.  The quickening referred to earlier is a physical strengthening David desires in the present tense.  “Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth….I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD: I will make mention of thy righteousness, [even] of thine only.” (Ps 71:9,16 KJB)  David knows that God strengthened him in the past.  In fact, David is sure to mention that from the womb until the very day that he writes the above passage, that the strength of the LORD is what enabled him.  This same strength will follow him into eternity.  The depths of the earth cannot hold back the strength of the LORD.  Herein is the hope of the LORD.

It is funny how we think an empty tank will never be full again.  However, sometimes the tank needs to be emptied completely and remain empty for a while before it can be filled again.  This often makes the tank healthier.  I discovered something by accident several years ago.  I am a fan of rechargeable electric toothbrushes.  I use a Philipps Sonic toothbrush.  I have used them for over a decade.  Over the course of using them, they appeared to last only a few years.  When brand new, they brush can hold a charge for almost two weeks.  After a few years of using one, the charge lasts only a few days.  I assumed that the life of the battery had seen its limit.  Then I went on vacation.  I deliberately let my toothbrush die and then let it sit for ten days completely dead.  Before I left, the charger lasted only three days.  Upon returning, the toothbrush was charged for 24 hours, and it was back to the condition it was when brand new.  Now, every time the brush beeps at me for low battery, I let it die all the way before I charge it.  If I am away for any length of time, I will run it empty and leave it that way until I return.  The tank had to run dry before it could be filled back up.  It made the tank empty.

David is nearing the end of his life.  His tank ran dry more often than in his youth.  That is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it can be a good thing.  This causes us to rest in the LORD far more frequently than we did many years before.  Our bodies may not be getting stronger, but our spirits and souls sure are.  It is okay to be all used up.  We need to be.  David knew that as God was faithful to quicken him in the past, He will do so in the present and in the future.  Just like the earth and the grave cannot hold us back, life cannot either.  We may have to do the same, but in a more organized or efficient way.  We may not be able to simply muscle through life.  Rather, we will have to pray more.  We will have to read more.  We will have to seek the presence of our Savior more.  If a six-foot hole cannot hold me back, then the devil, the world, and the flesh cannot either.  God will quicken.  That is His nature.  Life is His heartbeat.  To serve Him must be our passion.

Scheduling God?

“But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.” (Ps 69:13 AV)

An acceptable time has me deep in meditation.  Remember that Paul told us to pray without ceasing.  The ‘time’ here is not a scheduled time as though God turns His ear away from us at certain times of day, weeks, months, or years.  God always hears.  Rather, the acceptable time is event driven.  Prayer is the natural response to an event.  Or at least, it should be.  For David, it was the oppression by his enemies that drove him to prayer.  The time was acceptable because the need was genuine.  As the Spirit leads, another thought appeared.  Perhaps David is referring to sincere prayer.  In other words, prayer is not something we merely schedule because we are told to.  We do not have a prayer time apart from all other conversations of the day.  We do not pray to God for a bit and then forget Him the remainder of our time.  This is insulting.  It is patronizing.  Rather, we are to pray as circumstances dictate how we pray.  Not pray at certain times and then neglect our personal walk with God.  The acceptable time is the time that prayer needs to be made for whatever needs to be petitioned.  The keyword is ‘in’ rather than ‘at’.

Our conversations take this trajectory throughout the day.  We don’t even notice it.  If we are at work, our conversations are guided by whatever is the topic or need at that time.  It could be business related.  Or, it could be a social exercise.  No matter the motive, talking is part of human relationships.  Marriages are the same.  Or should be.  There should be constant conversation.  It need not be restricted to conflict resolution or mutual goals.  There are times when my wife and I simply enjoy the company of the other.  Conversation is guided by what we are trying to accomplish, or what we need, or what we prefer to provide for the other.  The acceptable time is more about what it is that needs to be discussed rather than a set time to discuss all things.  When there is a conversation that needs full attention, we might ask the other, “Is now a good time?”.  The conversation is event driven.  It is sincere.  It is purposeful.  It is planned and should be thought out well.  Spontaneous conversations are best kept light.  Intense discussions should be prepared and planned.  The topic at hand will dictate the acceptable time for the conversation.  In short, there are times when certain things are not said by replaced by other things that could be said.  Silence is not the point here.

The same is true with prayer.  David is not setting apart an hour of prayer times and then ignoring God for the rest of his day.  Rather, he is being sincere and purposeful in his prayer.  He prays without ceasing over things in their time and place.  This way, his prayer is sincere and respectful.  Prayer is not merely to fill time.  Prayer is not reserved solely to fill up the silence.  Prayer should be a conversation we have with the LORD over things that are appropriate at the time.  Otherwise, we are treating God as a therapist who is only there to process how we feel, and then we go on our way.  By using the phrase, ‘in an acceptable time’, David is saying that at that moment, he needs deliverance from his enemies and that specific time was the time to bring it up.  Praise comes at the appropriate time.  Worship comes in the time that is right.  Gratitude or petitioning for the needs of others has its time and place.  For right now, deliverance is the item on the table.  Rambling prayer is not what God wants.  He deserves better.  He deserves our sincere and genuine heart and mind each time we approach His throne!

Especially For The Rebel

“Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].” (Ps 68:18 AV)

For the rebellious, also!  That would be me!  What a great truth.  Jesus Christ brought the gift of His blood to the mercy seat so that we might have the gift of salvation.  He did so for the express reason that the rebellious against God might dwell with God.  WOW!  Just last night, I was contemplating this very truth.  The thought entered my mind of the futility of the existence of man compared to our Almighty God desiring our existence.  It was a tremendous exercise in the motive of our God.  Why would He tolerate such beings?  Why would He allow us to make choices contrary to His pleasure?  Why would He set all this in motion knowing that the very beings He creates will rebel against Him?  Why?  God is a merciful God, full of pity.  He desired to create beings to whom He might show forth that mercy and pity.  The object of that mercy and pity was and is, me.

Let’s face it.  Rebellion is not exactly an endearing quality.  The rebel doesn’t have many friends.  This was true in my class.  This was true in our family.  This is true in the church.  Good people tend to avoid the rebel.  Our class rebel was Mike.  Mike did anything he could to anger our teachers.  It was because of Mike that our class lost many opportunities of kindness from our teachers.  If there was a wrong way to do something, Mike would find it.  He would disrupt our classtime.  He would do disgusting things in the presence of everyone.  He was routinely at the chastening end of instruction.  Bound to his rebellious ways, Mike flunked out of our class.  Then flunked out of the next class.  By the time he was old enough to legally drop out of school, he was two grades behind.  Looking at Mike, most of us only saw the behavior.  We didn’t stop and consider why Mike was the way he was.  We knew nothing of his home life.  We knew nothing of the baggage he brought with him every day to school.  It wasn’t until myself and my father took an interest in him and got him involved in Boy Scouts that we learned of his situation.  His rebellious turned off most.  But it was my father’s concern for this young man that stopped a cycle of bad behavior that could have ended much worse.

Why God puts up with us I will never fully understand.  What we do know is that God created us so that He could be kind to us.  He created us so that He could know us and we could know Him.  Jesus gave the ultimate gift of His life so that our sin account could be totally erased.  He brought gifts to and for men.  He brought the gift of His atoning blood to the Father who sat on His throne as judge.  The Judge saw the blood sacrifice of His Son and accepted the terms of life for sin.  All the rebel needs to do is repent of his or her sin and trust in what Jesus Christ did for them.  It is that simple.  But never let it escape the heart that even while we were rebels, God desired to live among us.

Eco-Promise (sort of)

Ezekiel 39:7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

The middle of the verse tells us why God will use modern-day Israel once again.  The fact that God will not allow Israel to pollute his name anymore is clear indication that Israel will pollute the name of Jehovah.  They did so in the past, and it led to the great diaspora.  The great dispersion.  1948 saw the return of national Israel to the land God had given them.  However, by continuing to reject Jesus as their Messiah, they continued to pollute the name of Jehovah.  This is clearly evidenced by the severe lack of moral purity required from God’s people.  Israel is no better than any other depraved nation on this earth.  They have the same issues with immorality, abuse, and worship of ungodly things.  What cannot be lost, however, is that no matter how far from God they get, they are still God’s people.  There is application here for the New Testament Saint.

Every child of God who loves his or her Savior sincerely desires to overcome sin.  If repentance is part of our salvation experience (and it must be or we are not saved) then our attitude towards sin changed.  We abhor it.  Not that we are all that successful in avoiding it.  Temptation comes, and we fall.  What changes is an elevated reaction of guilt and a deep desire to make it right with God.  We didn’t have that prior to our regeneration.  Now, the Holy Spirit convicts to an even greater degree because our person had been born again.  That process has made us much more sensitive to the work of the Spirit.  Looking at the verse above and the promise made to Israel; we have the same promise.  In the sense that we will be made perfectly sinless without any capacity to sin is called glorification.  There will come a day when it will be impossible to pollute the name of the LORD anymore.  Gone will be the sinful part of us that yields do easily to sin.  God will be the old man.  There will come a day when polluting the name of the LORD will be just as impossible for east to become west or up to become down.

This is the hope of all who walk with God.  We hate our failures and sin.  We hate failing to be all that we can be for the pleasure of our Almighty Father.  We hate having to go to His throne time and again to confess and forsake.  We hate it.  More than life itself, we hate sin and want it forever eradicated!  We have that promise.  So, if we have that promise, what would happen if we lived in that promise?  When I started PT following my shoulder surgery, the therapists promised that if I applied myself, then I would regain one-hundred percent use of my left shoulder and arm.  There was nothing but a lack of determination that could stop it.  That drove me past the pain.  That motivated me to higher degree of commitment.  In the same vein, if we are promised eternal perfection, why are we not striving after it now?  It is our hope!  It is our future.

Don't Forget To Rejoice

“He turned the sea into dry [land]: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.” (Ps 66:6 AV)

Can you imagine trying to rejoice when there are walls of water on both sides of you?  Can you imagine trying to rejoice when the entire Egyptian army is behind you and if the pillar of fire were to fade, you would be trapped?  Can you imagine rejoicing when you are trying to get your family and all your belongings across a sea that is abating?  Rejoicing?  Are you nuts?  I think I would run as fast as I could, and when the sea closed upon the Egyptians, then I would rejoice.  Yet our psalmist tells us they rejoiced in the middle of the sea.  To have that state of mind while escaping certain death takes a lot of patience and faith.  Faith, which they would later forget that they had.

When God does a great thing, it is often overwhelming.  Rejoicing, although completely appropriate, is not our natural reaction.  After the shock of what God did has worn off, then rejoicing usually follows.  One of the hardest days of my life was the day of my wife’s cancer surgery.  Up to this point, I had learned to trust my intuition.  When I knew in my heart that something was about to happen, it usually did.  It is a sixth sense by knowing how God works and what He is trying to accomplish before He acts.  It has served me very well over the years.  This sense of God’s leading has put me in places of opportunity.  One such case was going to a hospital for a visit and knowing beforehand that I would bump into a specific someone whom I hadn’t seen in 15 years.  Sure enough, they walked into the hospital the moment I was at the desk inquiring of the patient whom I came to see.  The day of my wife’s surgery, I was prepared to hear the news that she didn’t make it out of the OR.  I was sitting with my son and had the overwhelming feeling that she had passed at noon on the dot.  I remember looking up into the sky and saying goodbye.  We sat there.  In silence.  Thirty minutes later we were called to the consult room where the surgeon was to meet us.  I was prepared to hear the worst.  After all, if all went well, they usually came right to the lobby area.  I was sitting in a private room.  As the surgeon described the surgery and what she accomplished, I was stunned.  My wife was alive.  She did well.  All my fears were abated.  Rejoicing was not my first response.  Shock was.

As to how to apply this, I am searching beyond the obvious.  The obvious application would be to rejoice as a discipline to the miraculous hand of God.  One can always meditate on it a bit later.  One has to imagine what this might have looked like.  Israel was rejoicing and celebrating while crossing the Red Sea.  Egypt had to have heard this and erroneously thought it was presumptuous to do so.  As the Jewish people sang songs of praise and glorified God with a shout, Egypt necessarily had to become more enraged.  Perhaps the joy expressed is what motivated the enemies of God to self-destruction.  Maybe the Devil has more influence over us because we have not motivated him to self-destruction.  Maybe the temporal enemies of the gospel have not collapsed because we as God’s people simple are too stoic in our response to what our great God has and will do!  Maybe rejoicing in the middle of God’s deliverance is the key to getting on the other side.  Maybe a heart of rejoicing is what gets us to higher ground, and not always the result of it!