The Whole Point In Asking

“«To the chief Musician upon Neginah, [A Psalm] of David.» Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock [that] is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, [and] a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.” (Ps 61:1-4 AV)

The first three verses are easy.  It is that fourth verse that is a challenge.  But that fourth verse is the whole point.  Going to the rock that is higher the us without trusting that rock is pointless.  The whole point of David’s prayer is learning to trust.  Passage is particularly vivid when we remember he is fleeing from Saul and periodically dwelt in caves.  When he is asking for a rock that is higher than him, he is asking for something literal.  He is asking for God’s provision that is greater than the threat facing him.  David is seeking answers.  He must resolve to trust.  Otherwise, whatever answer God provides will not be proficient.  He will see some flaw in whatever answer God gives and seek something better.  There is a point where we have to learn to trust.  This is difficult.  Sometimes we want a miracle when a miracle really isn’t necessary.  Sometimes we want the entire problem solved in one fell swoop when the answer comes incrementally.  We have to learn to trust!

I used a PowerPoint slide the other day of a ram on a boulder surrounded by wolves.  The title of the message was pitfalls of captivity.  My passage was psalm 137.  There were four pitfalls: Discouragement, Loss, Unrealistic Expectations, and Unforgiveness.  The opening slide is what comes to mind when reading the passage above.  The ram could go only so far.  There was no higher boulder.  There was no mountain to ascend.  There was no tree to climb or ladder that went into eternity.  He stood upon the boulder, looking down at what surrounded him.  He was confident.  He was not terrorized by what stood before him.  Most of us are like that cat that climbs the tree when faced with eminent danger.  We can’t get high enough.  We scurry up the tree higher and higher until we realize there is no place higher to go to.  Our tails remain between our legs and we are staring at the threat as though it could climb as well as us.  We have some faith.  We don’t have all faith.

David prayed.  David knew the purpose of that prayer.  It was faith.  Asking for answers to prayer with wavering faith is a guarantee of failure.  The LORD will not answer if, when He does, we are looking for a different answer.  We have to believe that He will answer, and the answer He sends is sufficient for the moment.  David had several rocks in his life.  He had a high place to which he fled when Absalom wished him dead.  God provided the place David needed at the time he needed it.  Our challenge is not the rock.  Our challenge is trust in that rock.  If we are not resolved to trust before we seek, nothing God provides will do.  This is the point of David’s prayer.  He makes the vow to remain in the tabernacle of God and trust Him, come what may.  He has already vowed to trust.  That is his life’s purpose.  He made a habit of it.  David could kill Goliath because he learned at an early age to trust God.  Therefore, today’s message is simple.  If we are going to ask God to intervene, we must do so with a heart of trust.  Otherwise, there is no point and whatever God sends will never be enough.

Remembering Deliverance More Than The Experience of Trauma

“My soul hath [them] still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.” (La 3:20-21 AV)

The first nineteen verses of Jeremiah chapter three are the prophet’s recollection of his time in the miry pit.  It was a horrible time.  Jeremiah began to think that perhaps his dilemma was, in some way, self-inflicted.  He began to think that in some way, he had displeased God.  Jeremiah suffered in ways we would never understand.  Being lowered into a muddy pit is not exactly a holiday.  It was just what it says it was.  A hole in the ground so deep that he couldn’t climb out.  There was nothing there.  No water.  No toilet.  No sun.  Nothing.  He stood or lay in his own feces.  He stood and laid where he relieved himself.  There were no showers.  There was no provision for any kind of hygiene.  Let you think I am exaggerating; while visiting Ireland, we went to a castle with a dungeon.  It was exactly as the Bible would describe this miry pit.  It was a hole in the ground that went down at an angle.  There was a small iron gate that lay across the top.  This hole was no more than four feet across.  Not enough room to lay down.  The prisoner would have to stand the whole time.  The guards provided a small bucket for human waste.  But that was it.  A pretty bleak existence.  This was the condition to which the prophet suffered.  No wonder he must have thought there was something he did to contribute to his situation.

Then the prophet remembers God’s deliverance.  He remembers it was persecution that put him there.  He remembered God’s pity and love.  He remembers the horrible.  Yes.  But he remembers the deliverance as being much more important.  One of the coping techniques we learned to help other overcome trauma was reflection.  Part of our PTSD training involved slowly encouraging those suffering from trauma to discuss the details of their experience, allowing all the emotions involved at the time to surface.  We needed to help them overcome the mind’s natural response to trauma so it would not become a reoccurring disturbance for the rest of their lives.  They had to remember.  No matter how difficult it was, they had to recollect the details of the past so they could leave it in the past.  Once revealed and processed, the next step is to have them live in the present.  The trauma is past.  It belongs in the past.  What is important is to help those suffering from trauma to take stock in the blessings of endurance.  Even those things happened in the past and there may be residual consequences of which one might suffer, life did improve.  One simply has to look for that improvement.

It is important to think of our deliverance more than we do our suffering.  Otherwise, we will never heal.  It is natural to be traumatized by horrible events.  We all have them.  There are childhood experiences that will stick in our minds like a bad Japanese monster film.  There are young adult events that we wish never happened.  There are countless consequences of a sinful lifestyle that still cause us to recoil.  There are moments of persecution.  The ones that seem to hurt the most are the ones that came at the hands of professing believers.  There are satanic attacks, health issues, and financial disasters.  The miry pits from which we came are numerous.  Some are self-inflicted.  Some are not.  But they are many and varied.  If we are to overcome, deliverance must be the memory we cherish more than the experiences of the past haunt us.  It all depends on that which we focus.  Jeremiah remembered.  He remembered with trepidation.  But what he chose to remember was not the suffering.  Rather, the deliverance from the suffering.  Healing begins with context.  Seeing God’s hand in the suffering and deliverance is the way out.  Seeing only the suffering keeps us trapped.

For God's Sake

“Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Ps 44:22 AV)

I like the comments by Albert Barnes.  Although he limits the adversity to consequences of worship, the psalm also includes correction.  What is commendable is Mr. Barnes’ observation as to motive.  It is for the sake of the LORD they suffer adversity.  Whether it is persecution, trials, or correction, it is all for God’s sake.  We are blessed by it.  We are matured through it.  We are comforted in it.  But adversity is foremost for God’s sake and not our own.  Which begs the question: are we willing to suffer solely for God’s sake and not our own?  The words above are not a mere statement of fact.  They are words of resignation.  They are words of a willing nation who will endure hardship for God’s sake.  These are not words of defeat.  They are not words of resentment.  They are words of a broken will that have determined to go through all that God has determined that they might please God.  Today, little preaching focuses on suffering.  At least not as a welcomed pursuit.  If anything, we do all that we can to avoid it.  That is understandable.  That is natural.  Very few people are masochists by nature.  We are preservationists.  No one wants to invite hardship.  Yet, the psalmist above states they are willing to do just that if it is for the sake of God’s honor and plan.

Paul quotes this same verse in Romans, chapter eight.  He applies it in the same manner.  He applies it in the context of any adversity which we might face.  He encourages his readers that all things will work together for good.  Even though adversity must come, it comes for His sake.  It comes knowing it will not always be this way.  It comes with purpose.  It comes with grace to endure.  It comes because God is a loving God who knows what He is doing.  Adversity comes because it glorifies God.  He is not a tyrant.  He is not unjust.  He is not a God who enjoys inflicting adversity on the lives of His children for the mere pleasure of affliction.  In fact, what we think might be only negative actually may work to our good.  That is exactly what Paul teaches in Romans.  It all works together for good.

My Father had a way of putting us into difficult situations for our own good.  Whether it was delivering papers in the middle of a western N.Y. winter, learning to survive in the wilderness, or working chores most of our free time, life as a child was rarely fun.  We endured a lot.  Some might look at how we were raised and think that my father was a cruel man.  What he was doing was deliberately placing us in situations of adversity for our own good.  He also benefitted from having children who were hard workers and who stayed out of trouble.  God in not cruel.  He is wise and loving.  What is good for Him is also good for us.  If we are suffering for His sake, there is a perk in doing so.  We might not immediately see it, but it is there.  So, the question we must ask ourselves is if we are willing to suffer adversity for the sake of the LORD, or do we kick against the pricks and seek any way out that comes to mind?  The verse above is one of surrender.  The verse above is one of resolve.  The verse above is a challenge to today’s saint who want comfort and peace.  To suffer is not in our nature.  But as Paul tells us in Philippians chapter two, the mind of Christ regarding sacrifice and suffering must be the same mind we possess.  Are we willing to be slaughtered all the day long for God’s sake?

Going Back Cannot Go Forward

“Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return? Why [then] is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.” (Jer 8:4-5 AV)

There is an expectation of recovery when backsliding occurs.  God can work with those who wish to get better.  Those who do not are destined to fall further and further from God’s restorative hand.  Israel would not recognize the situation.  They would not come to terms with their sin.  They ignored the consequences.  This passage is written to Judah and Benjamin after the carrying away of northern Israel.  They had every reason to see what happens when a nation turns from God.  Recent history speaks loudly here.  They saw Israel carried away to Assyria.  They saw the complete destruction of their brethren to the north.  They were going in the same direction.  There truly was no reason to think it wouldn’t end the same way.  Yet, they turned a blind eye to the obvious.  Like an ox plowing the field, they would not recognize they were losing ground and not gaining it.  God cannot work with a soul bent on destruction.  He cannot heal what refuses to be healed.

When we continually live in a state of sin, God cannot do a thing.  He is resigned to chastening non-stop.  He brings consequences for our choices with the intent we might learn from them.  This reminds me of the time I had to push a golf cart up a slimy hill.  My buddy and I were bow hunting.  The soil in which we hunted was a slurry of and silt.  When it rained, the ground was like quicksand.  There was no traction at all.  We were in a golfcart that was made to look like a four-wheeler.  The owner told us it could go anywhere a four-wheeler could go.  He lied!  We started up a hill and there was no traction at all.  The more we tried to climb, the more we slid back down the hill.  I had to get out and push that cart up the hill with my buddy driving it.  At my age, that was no effortless task.  Loaded down with heavy clothes and gear, it felt like pushing an ox forward.  There were times that no matter how much I pushed, it still slide down the hill.  The best thing to do was to stop the momentum.  Digging in a pushing against the cart would at least bring it to a stop.  As long as that cart was bent on succumbing to gravity, there was nothing I could do.  When it came to a stop, we could at least devise a plan to get the cart back on better ground.  This we did and eventually made it up the hill.  But there were times the weight of the cart was too much to bear and I had to let gravity have its way.

This is the dilemma which we offer God.  God will not supplant our ability to make choices.  He will not take the ability of self-determination away from His creation.  If we can make choices, He allows for it no matter how much damage we might do along the way.  We are like that cart sometimes.  We are going in the wrong direction because we have chosen to do so.  Because God, by principle, allows for our choices, we slide and slide and slide.  Only when we come to a stop, can He push back and get us to where we are going.  This point is simple.  God wishes to restore His people and help them to go in the right direction.  But as long as we are bent on destructive behavior, He will not.  As Solomon states, He will not frustrate a man in his cause.  The heart of God wishes to restore and heal the broken saint.  He wants to bring us to a place of fruitfulness, purpose, and joy.  He wants a better life for us that we can imagine.  Sin is always the issue.  Sin gets in the way.  Sin is a slippery slope that only results in lost ground.  Some of us need to make the simple choice to dig our heals in and stop the slide.  One step at a time.  We need to plant our feet on solid ground and stop the wickedness.  Then, and only then, can the LORD push us back up the hill.

Put The Sugar Down

“They have healed also the hurt [of the daughter] of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace.” (Jer 6:14 AV)

Dishonesty may help, but only a little.  The false prophets of Judah encouraged the people by promising peace rather than consequences for their sin.  Jeremiah is preaching pending judgment.  The false prophets, not so much.  The preaching of the false prophets, no doubt, alleviated fears.  The problem was twofold.  Their preaching did not confront the sin, which would result in pending judgment.  There was no space for repentance offered.  Second, the false narrative encouraged continued sinful behavior.  I have noticed an alarming trend.  Our preaching today is not what it used to be decades ago.  It is kinder and gentler.  As a result, sin is becoming a serious issue in the body of Christ.  Gone are the days when the preacher would warn of the pending judgment of God.  Today, we are feeding a self-involved generation is comfort food rather than to point out the sin that is causing their problems.  This soft preaching style has got to go.  All we are doing is compounding the injury.

My childhood pediatrician was Dr. Muscatto.  He was a well-liked doctor for his bed manner more than his medical abilities.  His medical practice was just fine.  It wasn’t that he was incapable of correct diagnosis and treatment.  However, it was his blunt way of dealing with things that attracted certain parents to his practice.  He did not sugarcoat anything.  He told it like it was.  If a child was carrying on and Mom was consoling that child, the Doctor would put a stop to it.  It was just a tongue depressor.  It was just a thermometer.  It was just a shot that would be over in seconds.  The more Mom tried to console her child, the bigger fit he would throw.  So, Doc said enough is enough!  He chastened Mom for what she was doing and corrected her!  The child’s issue was not the treatment. It was Mom who was overreacting to it and teaching her child to do the same.  Withholding the truth only made things worse.  When I broke my wrist, he warned me that if I didn’t treat the wrist correctly, he would have to re-break it and re-set it.  Sure enough, that is exactly what happened!  He told it like it was and if we didn’t like it, too bad.  Just pay the bill and see you in a few months.  The narcissist was not his patient.  Only those who wanted to get better saw him.

Isn’t it a curious thing that those preachers who tell it like it is often have the smallest churches?  We have a soft body of Christ.  We don’t want anyone to tell us the hard things.  We don’t want to go to church and actually feel conviction.  We don’t want anyone to serve the truth without the sugar.  We are looking to be pampered and pitied.  It reminds me of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda.  Jesus asked him if he wanted to be made whole.  His response was that he came to the pool for the last 35 years and no one took pity on him by placing him in the water.  That didn’t answer the question.  The lame man wanted pity.  He didn’t want to be made whole.  This is the generation in which we live.  It is ripe for false prophets.  Preachers who will make you feel better about yourself rather than change the person that you are.  Our churches are filled with them.  They are preacher-politicians who are spoon feeding the body of Christ sugar and spice as a means to feed their own egos or line their own pockets.  What we need is men of backbone who will shoot straight from the hip.  We need men who will call out sin.  We need men who will feed the people what they need and not what they want.  Only then will there be a true revival.  Only then will the body of Christ come to repentance.  It starts in the pulpit.  By the way.  Body of Christ, grow up!  Stop looking for the preacher who will stroke your ego or salve your guilt.  Look for the honest man who doesn’t care how you react.  He wants to help you heal.  So, he is not afraid of saying things that may jeopardize a future relationship.  He is honest with the truth and loves you enough to tell you!  Look for that man and you will come out of the misery in which you find yourself.  His fix will be permanent!

Who Does God Look For?

“For all those [things] hath mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, saith the LORD: but to this [man] will I look, [even] to [him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (Isa 66:2 AV)

That is quite a standard.  Perfection is not the standard, while pursuit of it is.  The poor and contrite in spirit is the spirit that confesses and forsakes.  There is respect for God’s word, as expressed by the trembling at it.  The one to whom God looks is the one who respects God’s word and is humble enough to either live it or confess when one fails.  Those who see God’s word as the very voice of God are the one to whom God looks.  The context does not matter in the sense that the truth above is a universal one.  The dispensation does not matter.  The historical context does not matter.  What is written above applies from Adam and Eve until the coming of Christ and beyond.  God seeks those who will respect His word, strive to live by it, and repent when one fails.

God loves righteousness.  God is righteous.  Perfectly so.  So it would make sense the LORD would seek out those who reflect what He loves.  The issue most of us struggle with is the idea we have to be perfect for God to seek us out.  We are told that only the perfectly sinless can really and truly walk with God.  This is simply not so.  If that were the case, no one could walk with God until their glorification.  We have the old man to deal with.  We will always have to strive against sin and we will fail from time to time.  If God requires absolute sinlessness for Him to keep company with mankind, then Jesus would have never sat with sinners.

There is another application here.  I get asked all the time for evidence of salvation.  Not my own. Rather, those who question theirs.  One of the indicators is one’s attitude toward the word of God.  Do we tremble at it?  Is there respect for the word of God that was never there before?  Do we study it?  Do we read it?  Do we approach the word of God as it is: the very voice of God?  How do we react to its doctrines?  Does our lives change because we read it?  Many of those who profess Christ want nothing to do with what the word of God says.  They confess Jesus as their Savior, but when the word of God instructs contrary to their value system, the word of God is rejected.  There are others who profess Christ who never spend any time at all reading it.  They do not sit under the preaching of the word of God.  They do not subject themselves to the truths found therein, nor do they see the word of God as something one cannot live without.

God has a standard.  It id not absolute perfection.  Not in the sense that we never fail.  Rather, it is the condition of the heart.  When we do fail, are we contrite?  Do we go to the word of God and seek it as the means by which we might please the Father?  This is what He looks for.  As of late, I have been thinking of my earthly father.  He was not perfect, by any means.  However, he did spend time with us individually.  Since there were so many of us, those times were infrequent.  Which, to me, makes them even more precious.  I can remember two specific events, even though I know there were more.  What struck me is how much like the LORD my father was at that moment.  He wanted me with him, and he wanted me to be a part of what was important to him.  Even though I was thirty years younger, my faults, inexperience, or simple mind did not matter to him.  What mattered to him was my heart.  That is all God wants.  He will get the sinless perfection.  At our glorification, He will eternally transform us into perfect Christlikeness.  What He wants now is our humble heart.  The question is, are we giving it to Him?

It's Coming

“For the day of vengeance [is] in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.” (Isa 63:4 AV)

Earthlings, beware!  God is a God of vengeance and He will protect those whom He has redeemed.  This promise is the Israel.  But the same can be said of all who are the redeemed.  To Israel, this is a temporal promise.  Jesus will return and He will take vengeance on all who make war with Israel.  There is no avoiding it.  Those who war against God’s people will have God to deal with.  You can bet on that one.  The N.T. saint has some promises as well.  Our promises are not physical as much as they are spiritual.  The saints are not guaranteed a physical kingdom, protection from physical enemies, or the LORD to reign by His physical presence.  Our promises derive from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  He comforts and empowers us.  It is His presence ushers us into a spiritual kingdom that cannot be taken away.  Yet, there is one promise that is a physical one.  That is the rapture of the N.T. church.  This promise is predicated on Noah’s flood.  God removed the righteous from the wicked before He judged the wicked.  It was this principle that Abraham used to plead for Lot.  Shall not the judge of the Earth do right?  Will He judge the righteous with the wicked?  It could be said the promise above can be applied to the church when the trumpet sounds and we are carried away.

The older I get, the more I tend to think this is close at hand.  I cannot imagine the world getting any eviler than it is.  However, every generation has said the same thing.  As we get older, and heaven seems all that much closer, His eminent return seems like it might be in our lifetime.  In reality, the older we get, the less this is important to us.  We have lived the vast majority of our lives and whether by disease, tragedy, or the rapture, our departure is at hand.  What we can take away from the passage above is God’s absolute determination to bring judgment on all those who hate Him.  He will bring the worst seven years this world has ever known because of how they have treated the redeemed.  Vengeance, although not allowed for men, is a holy attribute of God.  It is right to seek and exercise justice.  That is one thing.  But justice is not vengeance.  Law governs justice.  Perfect righteousness governs vengeance.  This is why God must respond.  He is the Almighty Creator.  His creation has rebelled against Him.  They want nothing of Him.  They refuse to submit to His holy and perfect will.  What is worse, they take their rebellion out on the people of God.  It is not enough they go their own way.  They must inflict pain on those who have faith in God.

When I read the verse above, and many more like it, I don’t wish God’s judgment on anyone.  Truly.  I wish every soul would repent from their sin and put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for eternal life.  I wish every human soul would seek forgiveness from our Holy Creator.  If we would seek and pursue forgiveness from Him, we would all get along.  Forgiveness has a way of spreading.  What a tragedy it will be when the vast majority of souls suffer eternal hellfire because they would not seek God nor have anything to do with Him.  This is what gets me out twice a week speaking to people about the LORD!  It is almost too hard to bear.  On the other hand, there is God’s justice.  I desire God’s mercy on all.  But if they refuse that mercy, God has no choice.  He must exercise vengeance.  The verse above is a two-edged sword.  We are so comforted in knowing the redeemed of the LORD hold a special place in His heart.  We are comforted in knowing that no temptation will take us that is not common to man, but God will provide a way out while also being with us in the midst.  We are at peace knowing God has our back.  At the same time, we know God must judge those who hate Him and His people.  There are two emotions at play here.  The joy of knowing God will always be there for His redeemed.  The joy that God will be God and show forth His glory and holiness.  Yet there is sorrow for those who will suffer unimaginable pain and torment for all of eternity because they were too proud to turn to God.  As John said, even so, LORD, come quickly.

Like Sunshine After The Rain

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isa 60:1-3 AV)

This is a very familiar passage.  It is quoted in the New Testament as well.  This verse speaks of a time when the Gentiles will turn to the light of the Jewish Messiah.  This passage has a dual application.  It was fulfilled in the incarnation of Christ.  The vast majority of those who worship Jehovah are Gentile.  Those who have trusted Jesus Christ as LORD and Savior are overwhelmingly Gentile.  There is another application here as well.  The promise above also applies to the millennial reign of Christ.  In fact, it might be argued the promise started with Jesus’ first coming and will culminate at His second coming.  The truth that a ‘great darkness’ will cover the earth just prior to His second coming, is supported by Paul’s mention of a ‘falling away’ prior to the coming of Christ.  This ‘falling away’ is a great darkness.  “He that now letteth will let, until He be taken out of the way” speaks of the Holy Spirit, who hinders evil but will significantly reduce His ministry to mankind during the Tribulation.  The key is to remain encouraged as we see this darkness envelop the earth.

I have never lived through a tornado.  I’ve come close a few times.  Twice, while living in the Midwest, tornados got really close.  It is quite something to see the sky lower and the clouds overwhelm you.  This happened while looking out a second-story balcony window.  As I looked out that patio door, I noticed the clouds getting awfully close.  It’s different from fog.  Fog seems to settle.  Lowering storm clouds seem to encroach.  Anyway, I was watching this, and they got so close to the ground I felt I could throw a stone or ball in the air and it would disappear into the abyss.  To say this experience was surreal is an understatement.  We lived in an area not normally prone to a lot of tornados.  No sirens went off.  No warnings were issued.  But that it was!  A foreboding lowering of the clouds.  Twisting as they might and fingers falling to the earth, I knew what I was looking at.  There was a part of me enraptured by what I was seeing.  Because it went right over my house and never touched down, safety was not a concern.  I knew we were safe.  This twister touched down five miles to our south.  But the feeling one gets when a storm rapidly descends is not a comforting one.  What usually follows a tornado is a breaking in the clouds and a blue sky to follow.  When watch coverage of a tornado, I cannot help but notice the puffy clouds and blue sky behind the reporter.  What a picture of what Isaiah states above.

Anyone with any kind of spiritual sensitivity can sense the spiritual darkness coming upon mankind.  It is obvious.  Wickedness is getting worse and worse.  What we thought impossible just a generation ago has come to pass.  The absolute filth that mankind pursues is astounding.  Mankind has always rejected Jesus Christ.  The world has always been antagonistic against the grace of God.  But not since the first century AD have we seen the global hatred of God expressed to the degree we see it now.  There isn’t a nation on earth that will show and difference to the cause of Christ.  It seems the world is united against God and His people.  Perhaps the most telling of all indicators that this darkness is coming is the decline of Christian witness throughout the world.  Churches are not growing.  They are shrinking.  We are not seeing new ministries come into being.  We are not seeing additions to church building being erected.  We are not seeing a massive amount of interest in the word of God.  There is spiritual decline and darkness falling upon the earth.  But Jesus is coming back!  Praise be to God.  Just like the sunshine after rain, Jesus is coming!  The light of hope for mankind will not tarry.  He will return.  He will bring righteousness.  He will bring reconciliation and regeneration!  Don’t get discouraged by the black clouds falling.  It is merely an indication Jesus is soon to appear!

No Wisdom For Consequences

“Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:” (Pr 1:28 AV)

There is no wisdom that will overcome consequences.  This is the idea.  Wisdom pleads with man.  She offers all she has.  If man refuses to heed wisdom, then consequences come.  Wisdom can do nothing at this point.  Consequences come and there is no escape.  The point of wisdom is to heed it before consequences become the issue.  Once consequences settle in, there is nothing to be done but to endure through them and learn the lessons which they teach.  Wisdom pleads and begs man to listen.  She cries out to the simple and offers all she has.  She shares what she is so the simple to not suffer.  It is up to us to heed her pleas.  It is a gracious offer.  It is a kind and benevolent offer.  It is an offer without favoritism.  It is an offer for all.  Her offer of wisdom is to any and all who wish to live their lives free from the consequences of simplicity and/or disobedience.  If ignored, there is nothing she can do.

Last year, my wife called me with car trouble.  The car was shaking and making funny noises.  She thought she has run over crash debris and caused damage to the underside of the car.  I had to go out with my deacon and rescue her.  I had bought a small air compressor, thinking I would come upon a flat tire.  I was partly right.  For the last two years, especially during the winter months, the tires on my car would lose air.  I thought it was the radical temperature changes causing the tire pressure light to come on.  Much of the time, it was.  Even after they were initially installed, the fall and spring months would come and the light would come on.  My tires looked decent.  They still had sufficient tread.  If all I had to do was put air in them every other day, that saved me from having to buy more tires.  My mechanic, however, told me twice that I needed new tires.  He said he would not rotate them anymore.  I believed him.  But felt I still had at least a year left on them.  That was until my wife called me.  Time for new tires.  Wisdom was trying to tell me the tires I had were not safe.  If, in my arrogance, I ignored her, the next call concerning car trouble might have come from the coroner.

Some things don’t end as well as they did above.  We are all like this, to a point.  We are all hardheaded.  We learn things the hard way.  If we fail to heed wisdom, humility is the way out.  Accepting the consequences for unwise choices and submitting under the authority of the One who determines consequences is the only way we will learn and grow.  God is merciful.  His mercy endures forever.  He is not a tyrant.  He is not unjust.  He always has our best interest at heart.  The consequences He sends are for our growth.  We have gone beyond wisdom.  Wisdom has passed us by.  Or, I should say, we have passed wisdom by.  Once we cross that threshold, there is only one thing that will teach us the lessons we must learn.  Wisdom can only teach us how to prevent the possibilities of the future.  Once the future becomes the present, there is no more wisdom.  This is Solomon’s point here.  We all fail in this area.  That is what growth is all about.  We fail to listen to the wisdom of God, learn because of it, and do it all over again.  Sorrowing over the consequences is not the answer.  Accepting them, internalizing them, and going on is the right course.  Praise the LORD there is no wisdom by which we might escape present circumstances.  Otherwise, we would never learn.