Words of Warning from Mom

“Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.” (Pr 31:3 AV)

Written from a mom to a son who is king.  Some suggest these words are Bathsheba’s words to Solomon.  They suggest the name Lemuel is simply another name by which Solomon went.  Others suggest this is a king and mom known to Solomon, who gave advice when looking upon the errors of Solomon.  It matters not who the author is nor who the king might be as it pertains to practical application to the reader.  Note the plural.  Mom does not tell her son to not give strength to a woman.  The plural ‘women’ is used.  The world ‘ways’ is used instead of way.  Mom is, in short, warning his son that, as king, he cannot give in to his passions.  Mom is warning her son that the heart and the flesh can be easily enticed and that he would be wise to control those impulses if he is to serve his God and his nation well.

Have you ever gone to an amusement park for relaxation and found that by the end of the day, just the opposite occurred?  The day starts out with excitement.  After you pay a fortune to get in, you are looking forward to a day of activity that recharges your batteries.  You have worked hard all year.  You and your family are there for a time of memories and fun.  It starts out ok.  But then the long lines, fast food, and the sun all take their tolls.  And that doesn’t even count the rides along the way.  They are designed to take you from one extreme emotion to the next.  They are designed to change excitement into fear.  From fear back into excitement.  Then comes fear again.  Finally, relief is the feeling that washes over you.  You are so relieved you can plant your feet on solid ground.  You got through all that only to stand in line and do it all again.  By the time you get home, you are sunburn, nauseous, and suffer more pulled muscles than a bodybuilder.  The next morning, the alarm goes off.  It is work or church.  One or the other.  Your friends or colleagues ask you how the day went and you respond with a thumbs up.  Unfortunately, not a lot is accomplished the next day.  Worn out from all the pleasures of the previous twenty-four hours, it will be a very slow work or worship day.

This is of what Mom is warning her son.  It is proper and right to be married to one woman.  It is ok to enjoy the pleasures of life.  But not to the extreme, where losing strength to serve is lost.  This is why Mom uses the plural.  One wife would be enough.  More than one only steals strength rightly belonging to his God and country.  A simple day of leisure is ok.  But make a habit of it and industry is lost.  Give into the flesh and heart too much, and discipline ceases to exist.  I am also concerned with the little word ‘give’ rather than loose.  This suggests a deliberate choice as opposed to a passing temptation.  The king chooses to give his strength away.  He is not enticed.  He chooses to fall to pleasures rather than exercise discipline.  The warning is a good one.  One that many men fail to heed.  May we listen to the words of Mom and guard our hearts and flesh from temporary pleasures so that we might give our strength to eternal things of value.

Thank God For His Word

“Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.” (Ps 60:4 AV)

During summer camp, each troop had their flag.  Wherever the troop went as a group, the flag went with them.  There were two times in the day the different troops assembles together.  Before breakfast for the raising of the American Flag, and at after the evening meal for the lowering of the flag.  Each troop had their separate area wherein the assembled.  You could find that area by the troop’s flag that was displayed.  Roll call was done at each assembly.  If there were any scouts missing, a search party would immediately be dispatched and the entire camp would remain assembled until a report came back that the missing scout or scouts were found.  There was a large bell that was centrally located.  If at any time we heard that bell, no matter where we were, we would assemble at the parade grounds.  That flag was our identity.  That flag was individually designed for our troops.  Each patrol might also have their own flag.  Again, individually designed by the patrol that created it.  The flag existed because the troop existed.  The patrol flag was flown because the patrol was real and present.  If there were no troop or patrol, there would be no need for a flag.  The existence determined the flag, not the other way around.

In our passage, truth exists and is the cause for the banner.  The banner does not determine the truth.  The banner exists because truth came first.  Without truth, there would be no ideas of what the banner should look like.  What ensigns should appear?  What design should grace its face?  What of the colors, the size, the material?  All have meaning and point to the cause for the banner.  The truth existed.  The banner was given to display that truth.  The banner God gave to Israel was two-fold.  Each tribe had their banner.  Each one assembled at their designated places while camping in the wilderness.  But David is speaking of something greater than a tribal flag.  The tribal flag may exhibit the truth of tribes, inheritance, and tasks assigned, but truth did not end there.  The national identity and tribal heritage were a very small part of who and what they were.  The truth to which our writer refers is eternal truth.  The banner is the banner of the scriptures.

We seldom stop as think of how amazing the word of God truly is.  For the LORD to use seventy different men over four thousand years to write 66 books of the Bible without contradiction and with unfathomable unity is a miracle in and of itself.  But to preserve it for six thousand years, translate it perfectly from Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic into many other languages is beyond comprehension.  Truth existed before Moses penned the first words of the Pentateuch.  In eternity past, the words of Revelation already existed.  This banner of the word of God does not determine truth.  The word of God declares it.  The word of God is the single manifestation of God’s special revelation that no other source can claim.  The truth was known and settled in the infinite mind of God long before the material universe came into existence.  The banner states the truth.  The banner proclaims the truth.  The banner explains the truth.  The banner is the perfect reflection and declaration of the truth.  But the truth was always there.  Praise the LORD for His wonderful word sent to man that we might fear and know Him!  Praise God for His miraculous word!

A Question Harder Than You Think

“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (Joh 11:26 AV)

The three word question of our LORD is not limited to eternal life.  In fact, it starts there.  There are other truths one must believe in order to be saved.  One must believe God exists.  One believe oneself to be a sinner and deserving of eternal punishment.  One must believe that Jesus Christ satisfied our sin debt on the cross of Calvary.  One must believe that God is LORD and must be obeyed.  Once these things are accepted, it is a matter of making these truths personally efficacious.  By accepting Christ as both LORD and Savior depending only on Him, we have eternal life.  This was the question above.  However, this question can be, and should be, oft repeated.  Whenever we are confronted with truth, the question should follow.  The question posed was not one of compromise.  In other words, the LORD is not asking, nor does He ask us, to agree with Him; thus making it true.  The truth is the truth.  By asking if we believe it, the LORD is challenging us to accept and submit to it.  Believing something to be true or untrue does not make it so.  Truth is transcendent and eternal.  The question is not a request for ascent.  It is a challenge to obey.

There is a show on the Weather Channel called Ice Road Truckers.  These warriors of the open road must travel through very difficult circumstances.  They often border on dangerous.  Where the show gets its name is the reality these truckers must cross frozen lakes.  The cargo they carry is only carried during the frozen winter months.  Once the spring thaw comes, supplies are no longer able to make it to these remote areas.  These very brave drivers go hundreds of miles between settlements without seeing so much as a candle.  There is no inhabitant for hundreds of miles.  If they break down or worse, break through the ice, they are stranded for a very long time.  Ice doesn’t seem particularly safe.  However, if the ice is four inches thick or more, it can pretty much handle any weight.  Recently, a driver made the news because he thought he could cross a small lake with his SUV.  He didn’t make it.  Near the shore, he broke through the ice and lost his SUV.  These truckers do this every day.  They travel the open lake while it is frozen.  The Alaskan state troopers and highway service place signs as to the safety of the ice.  However, unless the truckers trust that ice, they are not crossing.  Trusting or not, the thickness of the ice is what it is.  Believing it to be thick enough doesn’t cause it to freeze nor does believing not thick enough to cause it to thaw.  Either than ice is four inches or more, or it isn’t.  Asking if they believe it doesn’t determine the thickness of the ice.  It only determines what the trucker will do.

This is the cause for the importance of that question.  Jesus is asking that question and making it very personal.  Personal for the one being asked.  But personal for Himself.  He is asking if this person will trust Him.  Is He trustworthy?  His character does not change based on the response.  The same is true of all that God has revealed.  It is trustworthy.  No matter the doctrine, principle, or standard, it is true regardless of our belief or unbelief.  So, the question remains.  Do we believe it and what will we do with it?  These three little words cannot be passed off as inconsequential or non-binding.  Not in the least.  There is a duty to glorify our maker.  When He asks us this question, the response should be the same for all.  Individual soul liberty is not license to determine truth.  It is the ability to discover it on one’s own.  This three word question is the key to our relationship with the LORD.  There is only one response that works.

Promised Praise Produces Peace

“Thy vows [are] upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.” (Ps 56:12 AV)

Not the vows God made to David, but rather, the vows to praise God made by David to the LORD.  Of the understanding of ‘vow’ here, Albert Barnes writes, “The word ‘vow’ means something promised; some obligation under which we have voluntarily brought ourselves. It differs from duty, or obligation in general, since that is the result of the divine command, while this is an obligation arising from the fact that we have “voluntarily” taken it upon ourselves.”  In other words, David is not speaking of praise offered to the LORD required of him from the law.  Rather, these vows are promises made by David to praise the LORD above and beyond what the law might require.  The title to the psalm suggests David wrote this when he allied with the Philistines at Gath when he fled from Saul.  The title further suggests David may have gone to Gath voluntarily, but when he arrived, the greeting was not as amiable as it could be.  The word ‘took’ is used, and this word means seized.  Seeing as how a few years back, David killed their champion in Goliath and killed thousands of the Philistine army, this would make sense.

David was at the lowest point in his life.  He had run from his father-in-law for many years.  Several close calls and his supporters losing their families saw David alone and encouraging himself in the LORD.  He was among his Gentile enemies.  Forced to act the part of a madman, he was giving a remote place to live.  He was under the dominion of his enemies, acting crazy, yet he was free from Saul.  Sort of like a catch twenty-two.  For the moment, he chose the lesser of two evils.  In this situation, he must remember his vow to praise the LORD.  The whole psalm is about deliverance.  The deliverance he experienced, but also the deliverance yet to come.  We don’t know exactly which vow to which the above passage refers.  It really doesn’t matter.  The promise of David to praise the LORD in good times and hard times is the vow of concern here.  Note also the plural.  This wasn’t a onetime vow.  A onetime vow would be easy to forget.  These vows were multiple vows.  What motivated David to make those vows at the time he made them matters not as well.  What we want to see is that David made vows to praise the LORD.  These vows were kept in the toughest of times.

There is a value in counting your blessings.  Yesterday was Christmas.  This year, my wife and I decided to do a Dollar Tree Christmas.  No expensive gifts.  The rule was to make the gifts sentimental.  As we know, Lisa has stage IV, grade I, Neuroendocrine Cancer.  It has its challenges.  The pattern for ribbons is the Zebra pattern.  This pattern is for rare cancers.  I got her a Zebra blanket, a Zebra notebook, and some tea for relaxing.  One of the gifts I found for her was a picture to hang on the wall that says, “Celebrate every little blessing.”  The funny thing is, we are trying to do that more and more.  Little things become big things.  My hearing aids were going bad.  I do not have thousands of dollars to replace them.  The audiologist fixed them for free.  The check engine light came on.  It went off.  I invited my next-door neighbor to our Christmas eve service.  He came.  We often use the term “the stars a aligned” to describe when little things all work together.  A better phrase would be, “It’s a God-thing.”  This is the heart of David.  His situation was not perfect.  It never is.  But he had the heart to look for things which were praise worthy!  He never would have found them unless the vows to praise God did not come first.  Perhaps the key to a more joy-filled life is to vow to praise God no matter what.  David did.  He wrote the book of Psalms as a result.

Divine Work Ethic

“But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” (Joh 5:17 AV)

Not too complicated.  When God works, we should, too.  There is an ethical responsibility to work when the LORD is working.  Because God works all the time, we must, too.  The Son knows God is always working.  Therefore, He must also work.  There is no time for sinful pleasures.  There is no time for an idle waste of time.  Jesus is responding to the disciples.  They are worried Jesus is so busy that He forgot to take bread.  They were worried that Jesus was not caring for Himself as He should.  The response He proffered was that God’s work is the most important concern He has.  What is important to the Savior should be our heartbeat as well.

What drives a business owner?  They are a different breed.  There is something about them that is unique.  Believe it or not, I have worked directly for small business owners and pastored others and noticed one trait they all have.  Their work is their heart.  Sometimes to a fault.  They eat, breathe, and sleep their business.  It is what defines them.  It is what determines their choices.  One of my best friends was the son of a hardware supply store.  His grandfather started the business and his father took it over.  They had three stores.  I’ve pastored a farm equipment dealership owner, a general contractor, an electrician, a store owner, and a mechanic shop owner.  They are remarkable people.  They are the first ones at the business and the last to leave.  They never take breaks.  They are always moving.  Always making decisions.  Always busy to make money that they might provide for their family, their worker’s families, and the community.  True business owners are not islands unto themselves.  They are part of the city or town in which they do business.  They have to be.  Their clients are neighbors, friends, and family.  When the door says they are open, they are there.  I have known several farmers.  They are the hardest working bunch of all.  They never leave their calling.  There is always something to do.  Something to fix.  Something to tend to.  There is a sense of work that few others truly understand.

This should be the attitude of the saint.  Paul tells us to walk worthy of the vocation unto which we are called.  Once we have accepted the free gift of salvation, our lives should be redefined primarily by that relationship.  What the Father is doing, we should be in on.  As the father works, so too should we.  The dealership I mentioned earlier was owned by a father who had one son.  The son literally grew up in that business.  He learned it better than his dad.  If the dad was there, the son was there.  As long as dad was working, the son was as well.  We are sons of the living God.  If God is working, we should be clocked in, doing the will of the Father.  That is our Savior’s example.  As the Father works, we too should work.

Inconsequential Facts Are Very Relevant

“And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.” (Joh 3:23 AV)

The word of God is amazing.  In many ways!  Prophecy is a wonder to behold.  Equal to prophecy are those passages of scripture written for future protection against textual criticism or misuse of the word of God.  Twice in three chapters, what seems like incidental facts turns out to be very important many centuries later.  Jesus defines Peter’s name as meaning ‘stone’ and not ‘rock’, as some would like it to mean.  This was written centuries before the passage in Matthew was first misused to support a pope.  Above is another example.  One criticism as to the accuracy of the Old Testament is the width of the Jordan river.  When Israel passes over the River Jordan, it is said the priests could not be seen while they stood in the midst of her because the heat of the desert hid them.  Along with other facts, it would seem as though the Jordan was around a mile wide.  Today, the River Jordan is not nearly that wide.  Where John baptized, the river is a mere 50 feet wide.  So, the critics would claim the Old Testament is inaccurate and not to be trusted.  However, the LORD, in His infinite wisdom, let us know the size of Jordan had shrunk dramatically from Israel’s crossing to John’s baptism.  We learn above that John went to a place of perpetual springs to baptize because there was insufficient water at Jordan.

Sometimes, you can predict a possible threat and play defense.  I know mice and rats are possible.  I live in a city.  I know squirrels are all over the place.  They can be destructive.  I know there is a criminal threat in my neighborhood.  Knowing all these things as a possibility, there are certain steps I can take.  I can block all means of access.  I can plug all the holes that might be used by rodents to gain entrance to my house.  I can secure all points of entry into my home to keep the criminal element out.  My catalytic converter was stolen twice in one month.  So, I had my mechanic weld rebar on the entire length of my exhaust system.  Haven’t had it stolen in three years.  We can freeze meat to keep it from going bad.  We can brush our teeth to keep cavities from forming.  We can eat right to stave off disease.  There is much we can do to protect ourselves against a predictable threat.  But all these things we do in a general sense.  In other words, I do not fill in all the access points to my house to keep out a particular mouse or rat.  I don’t keep the dumpster empty to ward off one particular squirrel.  I didn’t weld rebar on my exhaust system because I knew exactly who it would be that would try to steal it.  These things I did to ward off general and predictable threats.  This differs from the verse above.

The verse above was written for the express purpose of answering the critic’s objection two thousand years later.  I was watching a video from a biblical archeologist and he made the statement that the number of the Old Testament was incorrect.  He mentioned the oft used excuse that scribes made the error.  After all, haven’t you played the child’s game of gossip?  You sit around in a circle and someone whispers something in the ear of the person next to them.  It goes all the way around and the group laughs at the end product when compared to the original statement.  Obviously, preservation is impossible, right?  Wrong!  The word of God is perfectly translated and preserved.  There are no errors.  And if you try to invent one, the LORD already has a checkmate in place.  The River Jordan was a fraction of what it once was when John baptized there.  It would also stand to reason the Jordan briefly shrank to a trickle.  Otherwise, John would not have moved.  So, let God be true and every man a liar!  Amen!

Shocked Back To Faith

“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” (Mr 16:14 AV)

It struck me as interesting those who were with Jesus the most had the hardest time believing that He rose from the dead.  This was after two years of Jesus telling them He would and at least two eyewitness reports that indeed, Jesus had risen.  The Bible tells us that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.  The women at the tomb and the two on the road to Emaus make four.  These two groups of two did not collaborate.  They couldn’t have.  Therefore, if two groups of two verified the resurrected Christ, then it should have been believed.  Especially by those who had the word of God concerning the resurrection for two years.  However, lest we be too hard on them, we would fare no better.  Having lost our beloved master, grief would make it hard to believe.  They were processing His death.  They were getting used to His departing.  They were adjusting to His death.  To accept His resurrection means to stop the healing process from deep loss with the possibility He did not rise.  I can understand their reluctance to trust the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Their unbelief was caused by shock from loss; not from rebellion, weakness, or belligerence.

Regardless of their unbelief, the LORD upbraided them.  According the Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the word upbraid means, “To charge with something wrong or disgraceful; to reproach; to cast in the teeth; followed by with or for, before the thing imputed; as, to upbraid a man for his folly or his intemperance; To reprove with severity.”  This reminds me of God’s dealings with Job.  One would think after all he lost, the LORD would be a bit more compassionate.  Rather, both here and in Job, the LORD uses shock.  He shocks them out of their shock.  These eleven lost the most important person to them and the shock of that loss left them unable to feel hope.  What Jesus did was bring them back to reality.  The LORD shocked them out of shock.  He uses language and emotion that shuck them to the core.  Like a bucket of ice water on the head, or a slap in the face of one hysterical, the words of Jesus were meant to bring these eleven out of the deep despair they were feeling into a much better place of hope and rejoicing.

When we see no way out, be prepared.  The LORD may send extreme circumstances to snap you out of it.  When we feel we are in a dark cloud and there is no sunshine to be had, watch for some extreme responses from God to shake us out of it.  It the instant these things happen, they are not pleasant.  But very soon afterward, we are better off for it.  We may not like the slap in the face, but it is what we need to snap out of our mental or emotional prison.  God is very wise.  He knows exactly what we need.  He knows exactly how to accomplish that which is best for us.  He loves us enough to do what might seem on the face of it as unkind, but the true motive is infinite love.  Praise the LORD for a God who provides what we need rather than what we think we need.  The eleven needed to snap out of their mourning.  They needed to stop living in defeat.  They needed a TENS to the heart and mind.  They needed a dose of reality.  They needed the kind rebuke of God, who loved them too much to let them stay in their present state.  This is what God does for those whom He loves.

A Promise By the Forgiven

“O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.” (Ps 51:15 AV)

Saturday is my soul-winning day.  Although I try to sneak it in during the week as I interact with people, Saturdays are the days I go out into the neighborhoods and speak with people.  It is always a blessing even though I get tongue-tied more than I’d like to admit.  David is speaking in regards to silence that came upon him because of his sin with Bathsheba.  Sin will do that to you.  The saint may be on fire for God, then sin comes and extinguishes that flame.  We feel as though we have no credibility to share the gospel when forgiveness is our greatest asset.  Lack of faith can also silence the witness.  We simply are intimidated by the challenges of the lost.  We don’t know how to give an answer.  There is ignorance as well.  We don’t know enough of the Bible.  We are challenged and we go silent because we do not know the correct response.  For David, when he realized the LORD had forgiven him for such a horrible sin as adultery and manipulation, he promised afresh to be a witness of that forgiveness.  The problem was lips that were closed.  Only the LORD, through forgiveness, or enablement, or both, can open the lips.

There is this condition that happens to me once is a while that is a bit concerning.  I become partially awake.  I feel trapped.  I am aware that I am awake, but I cannot say or do anything.  It’s called sleep paralysis.  I remember the first and last time this happened to me.  The first time I fell asleep while sitting in a chair.  I remember it so well because it seemed as though it took forever before I could move or speak.  I was terrifying.  I was aware of where I was.  I was in my living room, in my apartment; there was no one around to call out to, and I could not move or speak.  Ability to move came slowly.  At first, my arms moved.  Then my head.  Then I could cry out.  The last time was just a few nights ago.  Laying in bed, I began to awake.  But I could not move or speak.  Then, as I gained function, I cried out.  Scared my wife half to death.  The experts say there is nothing dangerous about this condition, but I beg to differ.  It doesn’t matter how many times this happens to me; it is scary nonetheless.  The inability to interact with one’s world is not a pleasant place to be.  There is nothing a person can do to overcome it.  It simply has to abate on its own.

This is how we are.  We are tongue-tied and paralyzed when it comes to sharing the good news of forgiveness in Christ.  David knew his fault lies with his sin.  Forgiveness and boldness both from the LORD; was the only answer.  But note that David promised that if the LORD opened his lips, he would praise the LORD publicly for His wonderful grace.  If the LORD would open his lips, he would show forth the praises of a merciful God who had forgiven him.  Maybe we have lost the wonder of forgiveness.  Maybe we don’t realize just how wicked our sin is.  Maybe we need revival and are not willing to admit it.  The world is lost.  They are on their way to eternal damnation.  We cannot remain silent.  We have the keys to the kingdom.  Souls depend on the faithfulness of the saints.  May God open our lips and may we make the same vow.  If God can forgive us of anything and everything, then we owe it to share that good news with others.

Beyond Our Imagination

“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.” (Ps 50:2 AV)

Three words intrigue me this morning.  Perfection of beauty.  One wonder how much exposition can be offered for those three words.  Other than word definitions, probably not a whole lot.  How does one explain absolute perfection when there is nothing of comparison for our eyes to see?  The perfection of beauty is that which has no flaw.  Because of the fall of mankind, all of creation is flawed.  There is nothing perfectly beautiful to which we can compare the LORD.  When the psalmist says that God, or heavenly Zion, is the perfection of beauty, we cannot compare it or Him to anything in our material universe.

I watched a video the other day.  It was fifteen gems, more expensive than diamonds.  I cannot recall the names of these gems, but I can remember some of their features.  One gem would change color depending on the type of light that shone through it.  Natural sunlight would cause it to be one color.  Fluorescent light still another.  Incandescent light would produce a third color combination.  This allowed the owner to wear this jewel and match it with certain attire worn at different times of day and in different lighting situations.  There were several gems that were harder than diamonds.  A few of them could not be manufactured.  The only way to possess one was if it came naturally.  I watched in amazement at each one was described in detail.  Yet, they all had one thing in common.  Rarity.  They were all extremely rare.  One gem had only two large enough to cut.  That would be two; world-wide.  These two gems were no more than a carrot apiece.  All other specimens were very tiny.  It wasn’t particularly stunning.  I believe it was purple or blue.  But it was very rare.  The price of such a gem was beyond just a handful of perspective buyers.  They were priceless.  Diamonds fascinate me.  Clarity and colour is what strikes me as particularly attractive.  The more pure they are, the more I am attracted to them.  The purer they are, the more stunning to my eye they are.  There is something about perfection that is hugely attractive to me.

When we see new Zion and the LORD Jesus Christ sitting on His throne, all the gems in the world will seem like common pebbles.  That is the understanding of perfection of beauty.  Everything God created has been touched by man’s sin.  But not New Jerusalem.  This heavenly city is free from sin and that which defiles.  God refuses to allow anything that defiles to entire its confines.  We cannot even imagine what this might look like other than to imagine the most perfect of all things purified to perfection.  Like that priceless diamond that has clarity beyond any natural observation, perfection of beauty finds what little imperfection that might be and removes it.  To say that God is the perfection of beauty is such an incomparable statement it must be accepted.  It cannot be fully understood nor appreciated until that day when we shall see Him in all His glory!  What a day that will be!

 

A Special Kind of Hard Heart

“For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.” (Mr 6:20 AV)

Apparently not enough to keep him from chopping his head off!  Herod married his brother Philip’s wife.  They had a daughter together.  Her name was Herodias.  John the Baptist confronted Herod and his wife about it.  This is why Herod’s wife wanted him dead.  Herod, however, didn’t.  According to the above passage, it seemed as though Herod enjoyed John’s preaching, even if directed at him.  To a normal person, none of this makes any sense.  If Herod was living in unconfessed sin, and he was on the business end of John’s preaching, it would be normal for Herod to avoid John.  Rather, Herod kept him locked up like a caged animal, retrieving him whenever he wanted to hear preaching.  Talk about disassociation.  This man was so removed from his conscience that he could enjoy convicting preaching without so much as a smattering of guilt.  This reminds me of some I have known.  It takes an extreme kind of seared conscience to be such a person.

Many years ago, I taught High School Bible.  In that class, I had two young men who didn’t care about a thing.  They were a constant disruption to my class.  They refused to do the work.  They would not engage in class discussion.  They never studied or did the homework.  Time and again, they were corrected.  Time and again they were rebuked.  Their parents never came to parent-teacher night so support from home was non-existent.  Many trips to the principle’s office didn’t help, either.  Engaging with the rest of the class didn’t seem to help.  They simply didn’t care.  All they cared about was trying to catch me in my words.  All they wanted to do was debate.  I eventually came up with a plan that directly addressed the behavior of these two.  Bad behavior demoted their final grade.  Good behavior improved it.  I went so far as to incentivize by way of making the mid-terms and finals harder or easier depending on schoolwork and behavior.  This matter not to these two.  They eventually flunked my class.  It never phased them.  Not one bit.  No matter what happened, they were not interested in life-changing truth.  All they wanted was to be entertained by the word of God.

I’d like to think that God’s people would never be like this.  However, I have sat under preaching and been the preach for far too long to know we can be a bit like this.  There may be several reasons why.  Mostly our doing.  We are simply not prepared to repent.  We like our sin a bit too much.  We are not ready to give it up.  So, we sit under preaching and teaching that convicts the heart.  Rather than respond, we quench the Spirit.  We frustrate His work.  We enjoy the good preaching, yet put aside that portion directly applicable to our situation.  There could be other reasons.  Back in the day, we would sit in sermon after sermon of nothing but condemnation.  After a while, the saint can be a bit calloused.  We can tune out the preaching we don’t like.  We accept what we do like.  This causes selective repentance.  Other reasons are sure to come to mind, but the bigger picture is sensitivity to the truth of God’s word.  Whatever our reasons might be, it is wrong.  The word of God is not a source of entertainment.  It is not a curiosity.  The word of God is not a puzzle book designed to keep our mind engaged.  It is a living book.  It is the book that will bring repentance from sin.  It is the only book that can transform lives.  Searing the conscience to only accept that which pleases the ear means we eventually kill the prophet. 

World-Changers

“And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.” (Mr 1:18 AV)

What kind of person does it take to immediately drop what has defined their entire lives and follow Jesus Christ?  Simon and Andrew were in the family business.  They were working that day.  They were tending their nets when Jesus came by.  This was not merely a job.  Or even a career.  This was their lives.  They were following in the father’s footsteps.  Maybe their family business went even further back.  They lived in a fishing village.  Their entire lives were defined by the trade of angling.  To immediately drop everything and follow Jesus Christ into ministry means they had to see something others did not see.

Before the age of electronic verification, it was not all that uncommon for someone to lie about their age so they might enlist in the military.  George Brouse was an American who lied about his age and joined the Army at 15 years old in 1943, fighting in Tunisia against Nazi Germany. He was part of an estimated 25,000 veterans who did the same during World War II (Microsoft Copilot).  In many cases, these young warriors had no other options.  Often from abusive homes or inadequate orphanages, they would join up because they lacked direction and purpose.  However, one of the youngest, a twelve year old, joined the military for a completely different reason.  He did so, twice.  He joined and was found out several months later.  Sent home, he was determined to do so again.  It took some doing, but he was able to sign up and head to the front during WWI.  Found out again, he was sent home permanently.  What would possess this young boy to take up arms against an enemy?  Why would he not be content to stay at home, tend the farm, and grow up like any other young man?  It is said that he was compelled to fight that his country might not be overrun by those who would take it by force.  This young man saw much hard battles.  He would not settle for anything other than a rifle in his hand pointed at enemy soldiers.  Why?  What did he see?  What compelled him?  What was it about him that made him different from all the other twelve-year-olds?  The same thing that made the twelve disciples different from all others.  They saw something that others did not.

Simon and Andrew did not ask for a brief reprieve before committing to Jesus.  They did so immediately.  They did not ask to go tend to their father first.  They did not ask to return to their mother to say goodbye.  They dropped what they were doing and immediately followed.  Why?  Because they could define life as bigger than Self.  There was something far more important to do than anything and everything else.  It was more important than continuing in the family business.  It was more important than tending to their father or mother.  It was more important that cashing in their catch.  It was more important than life itself.  The body of Christ wants to change the world, but we do not want to pay the cost of doing so.  We are idle and dying because we cannot define life as something bigger than Self.  Yes, we have needs.  Yes, we have problems.  It is not that we ignore them.  Rather, it is that discipleship and the great commission are far more important.  Our needs and problems need to take a back seat to the lost soul who is heading towards damnation.  Our marital problems, financial problems, health problems, dreams, aspirations, and traditions may be a part of our lives, but they cannot be the focus.  World-changers can see things others cannot.  It is not that we cannot.  It is that we do not want to.  When Jesus said to look onto the fields that are ripe already unto harvest, He was not talking to those who had the gift to do so.  He was talking to us all!  If we want to change the world, we must see life bigger than Self.

No You Won't

“He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.” (Mt 27:42 AV)

Highly unlikely.  Jesus rose from the dead and Israel still refused to believe.  These are how ultimatums tend to work.  When we try to make a deal with God, generally, we do not keep it.  Gideon did the same thing.  He asked that God form dew on the fleece and not on the ground.  Then he doubled down and asked that it be reversed.  At least Gideon had the sense that no matter what impossibility he could come up with, God would overcome it.  Gideon eventually trusted.  But he threw out the fleece, so to speak, as a pattern of life.  If we will not believe God enough to follow him without a miracle beforehand, chances are we won’t afterward, either.  It is not a matter of faith.  It is a matter of submission.

How many times have we made confession when the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry was overwhelming, only to go back on it once the pressure abated?  How many times did God chasten us and we made confession?  We expected the chastisement to conclude and promised to forsake that which brought about the chastisement.  Once God was through, and we got back into our pattern, sin returned.  We can fault the people above for being lost and insincere.  Insincerity does not reside strictly with the lost.  God’s people can be insincere as well.  When we are, it is worse.  We know better.  We use the LORD to gain a more navigable life.  We want blessings and ease of pilgrimage.  When the LORD answers, we forget the pledges we make.  We go to an altar and pour out our sins with tears abounding.  Yet, when peace comes to our hearts, sin does, too.  This is what we are.  This is who we are.

The people involved above were mocking.  They had no intention of believing in the LORD as their Messiah.  It wouldn’t matter if He came off the cross and sat there, completely whole.  They wanted a God who would do what they wanted Him to do.  They wanted a conquering Messiah who would end Rome’s rule and set up the kingdom promised to Abraham and David.  They wanted Him to do so with no risk or sacrifice on their part.  They wanted a God who acted like Egypt and not the God of the Bible.  Their statement was a mocking one because they required of God something He would refuse to do.  He will not jump through a hoop for them.  He will not debase His majesty to tickle their ears.  He is not going to humble the majesty of His glory by jumping when they said jump.  God is not going to do it.  Besides, if He came down from the cross, what would He have to do next?  And then again.  And then again.  Mankind needs to stop trying to make deals with God and start submitting to His will.

Triple Check

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death.” (Pr 16:25 AV)

Two words popped out at me.  Smeeth right.  This is not evil intentions that a person knows is wrong.  These intentions or desires do not seem right.  Rather, Solomon is teaching his children there are ways they may have thought through, ways they have compared against scripture, or ways they have sought counsel for that are not of the LORD.  They may seem very wise.  Pragmatism may support the ways.  Yet, if they ways are not of the LORD, they are the ways of death.  There is no evil or wicked intent suggested here.  The ways are not nefarious ways.  The ways are not sinful plans that lead to death.  These ways are misinformed ways.  These ways are obscured ways.  These ways are ways that lack complete understanding.

I have the greatest dog in the world.  He is the perfect breed.  If you want a totally human-acclimated breed, get a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  They are awesome.  However, they lack basic canine sense.  When meeting people with dogs, he will ignore the dog and greet the person.  He has no sense of canine threats.  None.  The other day, an enormous dog charged at him.  Praise the LORD; I saw the whole thing unfold and scooped up Toby before the larger dog got close.  Another time, a hawk was hunting a dove and the dove dive-bombed right at us.  He nearly missed up be a few feet.  Poor Toby was oblivious.  When taking him for a walk, I have to be extra aware of any threat in our vicinity.  We live on a corner lot with the opposite side blocked by a building.  I cannot see what is coming around the corner until it has.  We have a neighbor with an aggressive breed who attacks small white dogs.  That would be Toby.  So, every time I do out with him, I watch that corner, anticipating that aggressive dog and his owner might be coming around the corner.  It may seem right to take my dog for a walk in that direction.  Actually, since the neighbor lives next door in the other direction, either way, I risk a doggie confrontation.  Going to my right seems like the right way.  What I don’t know is around the corner.  If there is a confrontation and my dog gets hurt, the way that seemed right was not the right way.

Solomon’s advice here is sound.  Don’t pick a way unless you know it is the right way.  Just because it may seem right doesn’t make it right.  Just because we have done all the math, and the opportunity outweighs the risks, doesn’t mean the choice is free from danger.  Solomon is very clear here.  When you think something seems right, be sure that it is.  All the logic and information in the world may not make it a wise choice.  Solomon is stating the obvious: that we need the LORD, no matter how much we think we have it handled.  We seldom pray about things we think we are sure of.  A choice comes along.  We come up with Biblical principles that support what seems right to us.  All the while, we do not pray about it.  We do not seek more scripture.  It is clear by the tenor of Solomon’s advice that ignoring God’s direction when we think we have it figured out is more common than we would like to admit.  What harm would it be to double and triple check it?  Why not sit with someone else and get their perspective?  Why not go to the word of God a few more times?  If the way is the right way, you are still right.  But if the way that seems right is not, there is great harm coming.