Love Affair with the Law

“Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.” (Pr 7:2 AV)

There are different reasons we may keep the law of the word of God.  Simply because we value it may not be the highest on our motivation list.  We may keep the law as a sense of duty.  However, if we are physically unable to, we excuse it.  Like a sentry who may be standing watch because it is his duty to do it, may fall asleep at his post because it is a duty and not a love.  We may keep the law because we see the benefits associated with the keeping it.  The trouble is, with the blessing also comes a cost.  There may be persecution associated with keeping the law.  If we determine the cost is greater than the benefit, then the law is rejected.  If the law is a mere goal or target, then seeing we miss that target, we fail to be interested in meeting that goal.  Like dieting, the law is tried and failed because we are not disciplined to see it all the way through or we simply do not appreciate what the law does.  Solomon instructs his son to love the law.  Love is at the center of all attraction and value.  Not a passing relationship with it, but rather, a love affair with the law.  Solomon understood this from his father.  According to Psalm 119, David loved the law.

There is an exhibit at the Strong Museum in Chicago, IL that is my favorite.  To must, it is boring.  It is on the first floor, right inside the front entrance.  At least is used to be there over a decade ago.  It is one of the smaller exhibits.  If I remember right, it only might be no larger than one large room.  It is an exhibit to man’s invention to read God’s perfect.  That perfection is time.  This exhibit is wall to wall and floor to ceiling time pieces of different value and characteristics.  What amazed me to most is seeing mechanical times pieces invented hundreds of years ago that can keep time almost as precise as a modern-day atomic clock.  The ingenuity it took for the clock maker to fine tune a mechanical device to the level of perfection his piece attained is beyond our comprehension.  One has to love time in order to be that precise in his calculations and workmanship.  His goal is to make something as close to God’s perfection as possible.  He is not pleased with a miscalculation of even the smallest of measure.  He loves perfection.  That is what makes all great artists great.

When it comes to being like our Savior, we must love the law.  The law of perfection must be the apple of the eye.  It matters not how often we fall short so long as we get back up and dust ourselves off to try again.  The law has to be the love of our life.  Besides God, there really should be no greater love.  If we are failing in our spiritual walk with God, we have replaced the law with another object or objects.  The law has to be what the eye focuses upon.  The law has to be the apple of the eye!

Group Blame

“For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” (Isa 9:16-17 AV)

There is a duel responsibility in the dynamics of a group.  The leader is to lead unto righteousness and godliness.  The people are to follow.  But when there is a breakdown, who is to blame?  Is the leadership to blame only?  What about those whom they lead?  Do they also bear some responsibility?  We want to blame our leaders for the poor leadership provided, but do we bear some responsibility in the condition of the whole?  To what degree?  Above, we see the LORD rebuke the leaders of the people for leading the people into error.  However, note carefully the LORD considers all; both leaders and the people; as hypocrites and evildoers worthy of judgment.  In other words, just because we are led does not mean we are obligated to follow.

The animal kingdom is a great example.  The group acts as a group for the saving of the group.  The group has no concept of individualism.  They must act this way for the survival of the herd as a whole.  A few weaker individuals are sacrificed for the survival of the whole.  Therefore, the whole group will follow the leader, even if it means the death of all.  A great example is the casting out of legion into a herd of pigs.  They all ran off a cliff.  This herd mentality works to the hunter’s advantage.  In fall turkey hunting, the method is to find a flock of turkey and scatter them.  Then set up near where they were scattered and wait for them to reassemble.  We, as people, will do the same.  If there is a strong leader with a personality to match, we will follow.  No questions asked.  Don’t get me wrong.  Refusing to follow at all is also very wrong and dangerous.  We are instructed to submit and follow to those whom God has placed as leaders among us.  The idea of rejecting all authority didn’t work in the book of Judges and it won’t work today.  This mass uprising and resistance; which is nothing more than a renaissance of the sixties; is not what the LORD designed.  We are to follow our leadership.  But that does not mean we need to follow in every detail.  If something is wrong, it is wrong.  Regardless of who the leadership might be.

Don’t ever forget the biblical privilege of right of conscience.  Independent Baptists call this individual soul liberty.  It was and should still be a core value of the founding of our nation.  The right to follow our conscience no matter what the majority say or think.  This right is slowly being eroded to the pleasure of the whole.  I, for one, desire God’s hand on our nation.  But that will never happen so long as we go the opposite direction on moral (and not political) issues at hand.  So long as we tolerate the murder of the pre-born or support legalized sodomy, the LORD is not in it.  No matter what the opposition says, these positions are not biblical ones.  Our leaders have led us down that road.  But we are to blame as well.  When we allow their poor leadership to influence what we think and what we support, we are just as much to blame as those who led us that way.  God has not changed His mind.  These two moral issues (which are not political issues) have never changed.  Among others, God will judge according to His standard on these points and not what leadership or the people think.  Unless we stand true to the word of God and pray God would send revival, we are in the same boat as the leaders we like to blame.  Time to ignore poor leadership when and where it might be poor, and stick to the bible!

No Chicken Little

“Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.” (Isa 7:7 AV)

Sometimes, we limit the promises of God to those which promise He will do or provide something.  However, the promises of God also include those things which God will not allow.  In our text, the prophet is speaking of a perceived threat to Judah and Benjamin.  When he arrives on the wall of the Holy City to declare the word of God to the troubled residents thereof, he brings his son.  His son’s name means, “the remnant shall return.”  In the name God instructed the prophet to endow his son, He reminds the people of God of His covenant with Abraham and David.  It is much easier to convince someone of future blessing than it is present protection.  We do not have a problem believing in the proverbial pot at the end of a rainbow.  What we have issue with is believing the storm clouds that are rising will not pour forth their fury on us.

I have spent several evenings in the basement of a church hearing tornado sirens in the distance.  There I sat with my trust NOAA radio blaring the trajectory of the storm raging outside the four walls of my sanctuary.  Pun intended.  The first few times, I was a bit nervous.  Having been raised in a part of the country that has never seen nor experienced tornadoes, this was new and frightening to me.  Thinking that in a wink of an eye my life could be blown into oblivion was not a comforting feeling.  Then a funny think happened.  After a few seasons and trusting my NOAA radio, the anxiety level precipitously dropped.  Listening the radio, one could determine exactly where the storm was and the likelihood of it hitting.  The NOAA radio spoke very detailed information as to where the tornado was, the direction of travel, and the speed of travel.  Although once the sirens blared, I headed for the basement, it was no longer out of anxiety.  In fact, the very last time we endured such a threat, we stayed in the house.  I went to the back door and heard the famous ‘train sound’ depicted as a sure sign of a tornado.  The radio said it was three or so miles from our house, so there was no need to dive for the basement.

We have to believe that God doesn’t always have it out for us!  Yes, we are saved sinners in need of chastisement.  Yes, the LORD does allow or send adverse circumstances of our correction or spiritual growth.  But that doesn’t mean we have to be a Chicken Little.  The sky is not always falling.  In fact, it falls less that we think it does.  When we live with the expectation that nothing will work out, then nothing will work out.  If we live in a constant state of defeat, then we are paralyzed, cowering in fear of the next misfortune.  There is no going forward.  There is no usefulness for our existence.  We have to believe that most of the time, the things we fear will not come upon us!  God will not allow it to happen.

Path Pondering

“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.” (Pr 4:26-27 AV)

Most decisions do not need to be made as quickly as we make them.  Pondering the step which we are about to take will ensure we are making the best choice possible.  Impulsive decisions are often wrong decisions.  Note also our preacher instructs his son to ponder not just the step, but the path.  This would mean more than one step.  This would mean a general direction.  He goes further and tells his son not to allow anything to turn him one way or another once the direction has been chosen.  This is very sound wisdom.  A path is a general direction.  Steps may altar slightly, but the path never does.  What we want to consider this morning is the instruction to ponder.  To think it all the way through.  To know the goal and have a clear and general path to that goal is the advice here.

Sorry, but another example from my hunting days.  I grew up learning to hunt on the side of a foot hill.  At an elevation of 3,000 feet, this foot hill had many ravines.  Knowing where the ‘big ravine’ was improved your chances of navigating through the woods in the general direction one wanted to go.  Uphill was west.  Down hill was east.  Knowing these general directions would assist greatly in getting back to the cabin.  However, in between where one was and where one could be were steep ravines.  The hill side was also very steep.  Knowing where that big ravine helped in that it had to be crossed on only one of three places which were safe to cross.  If one confused the big ravine with another ravine, he may get a bit stuck and put himself in an unsafe or tenuous position.  Such was the case for me one deer season many years ago.

I had started my decent.  Thinking I had the big ravine to my left, or north, I headed downhill.  Watching for the famed “crossing” it never came.  This decent was steep.  There was snow on the ground.  There were places I had to use trees as breakers lest I slip and plummet several yards downhill.  Then I came to a steep gorge which has a stream at the bottom.  This drop off was a cliff that dropped about seventy-five feet.  Knowing I could descend no more, that I had missed the crossing, and that I mistook the ravine to the left as the big ravine, I was in a fix.  In front of me and to my left was an impassable cliff and ravine.  The only choice I had was to head back uphill to get my bearings.  The problem was, it was a snow covered and very slick hill side.  I had no choice.  The moral of the story is, I should have pondered before I assumed.  I should have headed across hill, or north, until I recognized familiar ground.  I should have back tracked to find my old foot prints in the snow rather than think I could forge a new path.  In fact, it should have dawned on me that as I descended, I found no old foot prints.  I didn’t ponder.

The morale of the story and the point of our proverb is to take the time to consider the path we should take.  This also assumes we know where we believe the LORD would have us end up.  Many head down the path of life with no clear goal in mind.  We just experience life and deal with the consequences as we go.  There is no object at the end of our race.  There is no pursuit which can be gained.  Life is one big exploration without any regard to the consequences of steps.  Solomon is showing great wisdom here.  Life is about planning.  A life that is unplanned fulfills nothing.  A life planned accomplishes purpose of life and brings greater joy than going willy-nilly through life hoping for the best and complaining when it doesn’t turn out that way.  Ponder the path.  Make a plan.  Then, do not deviate from it unless God supernaturally changes your direction.

Trip Hazards Can Be Avoided

“My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.” (Pr 3:21-23 AV)

Tripping is embarrassing.  No matter what caused it, our faces turn red when someone sees us missing a step.  Even if it seems to be purely by accident or caused by what we consider an unforeseen hazard, we are red faced at having lost our balance.  What is interesting about tripping is that it is almost always someone else or something else that caused it.  Hardly ever is tripping considered a fault of one’s own.  But think about it.  When it comes to walking, we have all the time in the world to think it all the way through.  There should be absolutely no reason to lose our footing.  Even if, as I sometimes am, at a loss for natural balance, we can use assistance.  A cane or the arm of another, perhaps.  In worse case scenarios, a wheel chair is an option.  Given the amount of time to plan ahead, falling shouldn’t be something we normally do.  If it does happen, there is usually a cause of personal negligence which plays a part.

There are many times we blame someone or something else for our mishap.  A toy is left on the floor and we blame a child for our accident.  However, if one has a child, they should reasonably assume all toys are not in their proper place.  Look before you step.  If one falls on black ice, one could blame the weather.  However, prudence says if the temperature has been below freezing, then expect slippery surfaces.  Wear proper footwear and scoot across the ground rather than take normal steps.  A few weeks ago, I almost fell down the stairs while carrying a full laundry basket.  I had a new pair of glasses of which I had not fully become accustomed.  I knew better.  Taking my time and feeling for the riser would have prevented what could have been a tragic accident.  Even if someone stuck their foot out to deliberately trip us up, slowing down and being aware of our surroundings can prevent this.  In short, we trip (for the most part) because we lack wisdom.  We fall because of a lapse of judgment.  This is the idea of the verse above.

In a world that does not want to take responsibility for their circumstances, we blame everything and everyone for our misfortune.  We worship the god of fate as though he has it out for us.  Rarely do we get embarrassed about our situation because we cannot see how our situation is one of our own making.  We fail to see that a lack of forethought contributed to our dilemma.  We see that undisciplined child as the bane of our misfortune.  He was irresponsible so it caused us to fall.  Partially true.  But looking for a trip hazard would have avoided the tragic sprained ankle.  Even with all my days in the woods, outside of a hole that was covered by leaves, or some other such thing, I cannot think of a time I tripped or fell while completely aware of my surroundings.  Even with the possibility of unseen holes, one learns to walk on exposed ground.  Whether we want to hear it or not, we are partly, or fully, to blame for our falling.  There may be extenuating circumstances and the fault may partially lie with others or things out of our control, but the truth of the matter is, we can predict and foresee hazards which lie ahead.  This truth applies to all areas of life.  Not just walking.  We fail in life, partly, because we do not use the wisdom available to us by the word of God.  When we start taking ownership of our own life and actions, then we can begin to reduce the impact of trip hazards along life’s way.  Rather than wait of OSHA to mandate and enforce that life be safe so we can walk through it blindfolded without getting hurt, let us use our own eyes and stop blaming everyone and everything else for our lack of prudence.

Always Watching

“Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.” (Joh 21:7 AV)

It’s amazing what we will do when we think God is not looking.  Peter, fishing in an appearance that was normal for fishermen, knew it as no inappropriate.  When the LORD shows up, he girts himself with his garment and jumps into the water.  He is completely embarrassed because he allowed liberty where liberty was no longer allowed.  For a bit of an understanding, the Bible doesn’t use the word naked or nakedness the same way we use it today.  When we use the term, generally speaking, we mean without any cloths at all.  However, the Bible uses the term to mean lack of appropriate clothing in any form.  For instance, showing the body above the thigh would be considered a nakedness.  Someone does not need to be completely nude to fulfill the biblical definition of nakedness.  So, more than likely, Peter was fishing with nothing more than a loin cloth about his midsection.  What we would refer to today as a bathing suit.  It is interesting that what we consider appropriate today would not be if Jesus were here.  But that is the point, isn’t it? 

As a child, we were always aware of where our parent’s eyes were cast.  We were always aware to that which our teacher’s attention was focused.  When cruising the mall, we were keenly aware of the attention a clerk might pay, where the mall cops were at any one time, and the prying eyes of watchful adults were worth our notice.  Why?  Because we might want to get away with something.  We were aware of the risk involved.  If there was no one to notice, we may take a few liberties.  These liberties may not be all that serious.  It may be they are only a breach of etiquette.  If no one was looking, what difference did it make?  Have you ever gone shopping and noticed an item on the shelf which clearly doesn’t belong there?  Maybe a pair of socks right next to the peaches.  Someone picked it up, decided against purchasing it, and rather than return it to where it belongs, places it on a shelf.  The funny thing is (and I have witnessed this more than once with a family member who will remain anonymous), they look around to see if anyone is watching before the violate ethical standards.  No, they are not breaking the law.  No, there is no store policy that requires a shopper to return merchandise he or she no longer wants.  As long as no one is watching, who is going to know?

Peter may not have been clearly violating a biblical principle.  He was out to sea where only his fishing mates could see him.  It was customary to fish in this manner.  The problem is, God is there, too.  It may be just fine to be half dressed in front of your fishing pals.  But in front of the LORD, it is not.  What alarms me is how quickly we forget that God is always watching.  What alarms me is my eyes of faith are too quick to forget that God is ever present with me and He sees all that I do, think, or feel.  When we do realize that God’s eyes are in all places, we are caught and feel ashamed.  If we would simply realize that everything matters to God and He is always there, it may help to discipline what we would otherwise let fall.  Did it matter how Peter was dressed?  Not to his buddies.  But it obviously matters to Jesus or Peter would not have gone for a fully-clothed swim.

Not Our Home

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (Joh 17:16 AV)

The child of God should never feel completely at home in this life.  If we do, there is something wrong.  We are too comfortable with the world. Or, our priorities are of this life and not the next.  There is a better home that awaits.  A better country.  A better place where the saints of God will be gathered into eternal rest and fellowship.  Until we get there, there should be a part of us that feels a bit unfulfilled.

I have lived in three of the five different major cultural group of our great nation.  They each have their wonderful aspects about them.  The northeast has a thick skin and even though decisions are not impulsive, they last a life time.  The Midwest sees life as a wide-open door.  They are not bound by restraint of tradition or cultural norms.  The southeast makes conversation an art form.  Their hospitality and neighborliness are second to none.  I have been blessed to serve the good people of God in these varied cultural backgrounds.  But, I have to say, a part of me could never call any of those places, ‘home’.  Don’t get me wrong.  They were wonderful experiences.  I miss much of what I left behind.  I miss the matter-of-fact pass of life of the northeast.  I miss the multicultural experiences of the Midwest.  And I miss the friends I made in the southeast; the wonderful times of a simple visit and pluckin with a godly group of men.  I miss the tent revivals, the bible study classes filled with ideas and debates, and the mixture of different types of people from all over the globe.  I miss it all.  Yet there is still a part of me that never felt like I was ‘home’.

The church is provided as a sort of stop-gap in our pilgrimage to our true home.  We are not of this world.  There should be an uneasy feeling as we breathe our life’s air.  There should be a part of us that simply desires a better country.  As the book of Hebrews so eloquently teaches, there is a better rest.  There is a place prepared for the saints of God where we will always feel right at home.  The closer we walk with God the more we realize this world has nothing to offer.  The sights, sounds, and experiences may have happiness and joy to offer, but they will be temporary.  Our LORD and Savior knew this when He spoke the word above.  He reminds us we are just pilgrims, passing through this life on our way to our eternal home.  The home wherein we will feel right at home.  That is the home I am looking for.