A Mockery

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” (Ga 6:7-8 AV)

When we preach these verses, we usually hone in on the phrase, “for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall his also reap”.  But did you ever stop to think when we habitually live in the flesh, we are mocking God?  Yes, this passage speaks of God’s consistent justice.  The warning is if we continue in sin, God must judge. Otherwise, He is mocked.  But did you ever stop and consider a life of flesh-pleasing is a mockery to God?  This morning, that one word really hit me.  I don’t know why it has never hit me like this before.  I wish it had.  I may not have made many of the wrong choices which were part of my life.  To habitually please the flesh, when it is not part of God’s will to do so, mocks God.  That is a sobering thought.

As someone in a position of authority, I know how this feels.  Mockery is part of the job description.  Whether a parent, teacher, pastor, or pol, mockery is something you expect.  When it happens to your face, it is a tough thing to experience.  What hurts the most is not the brief sting it inflicts on your ego.  Rather, wanting to earn the respect of those who are subject to you, you realize you never really will.  That hurts.  That is when you take the mockery personally.  When the whole class is against you, it is particularly hurtful.  However, I think the one experience I have had that hurt the most was when I was dating for the first time.  I was misled by this young lady.  She was lost and wanted to date me.  I told her the Bible forbids me to date someone who was lost.  So, she went to church and ‘got saved’.  So, we started to date.  I was young and naïve.  She led me along for a few months and when she realized she would never get what she wanted, she broke it off.  It was bad enough that my first experience in courting ended as such.  But what was even worse was how she treated me following the breakup.  We worked at the same place.  After we closed, she would sit in the parking lot, drinking with co-workers.  And, when I came out, they would shout insults and such at me.  It was pure mockery.  That hurt more than words can say.

So, when I saw this word again, it hit me that when I succumb to the flesh, I am mocking God.  I know He is not me.  I cannot attribute human reactions to God because He is holy and we are not.  However, what I can safely assume is my mockery does affect a God who loves me more than I can understand.  The thought of mocking someone who loves me as much as He does is an extremely uncomfortable thought.  Why would anyone do that?  I love my wife more than life itself.  I would never think of mocking her.  Ever.  I am sure I may have done so on a rare occasion, but never in front of others.  That would hurt her way too much.  If I would never mock my wife, why would I consider capitulating to the flesh and mocking God who loves me more than my wife ever could?  That thought is one that should haunt us.  This idea that sin is a mocker to God should never leave our minds or hearts.  Maybe then we would live more for Jesus than we ever have before.

Never Stay In Defeat

“They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.” (Ps 20:8 AV)

How encouraging is that?  Compared with those who hate God, those who love Him will be victorious.  David is comparing the behavior of the lost toward him and his response to the situation.  What I wish to consider is the second half of this verse on its own.  Not that we want to ignore context.  Heaven forbid.  But truths found in the word of God do have general principles that apply across different contexts.  This is one of them.  This precious truth is those who are called by the name of the LORD Jesus Christ will always be victorious.  We may get knocked down from time to time.  We may suffer a setback or two.  We may wish for a better tomorrow.  But, unlike those who hate God, we will not remain defeated.  We will rise!  We will stand upright!  There isn’t much that can knock us down and when it does, we do not stay down!  That is the promise!

Getting the wind knocked out of you is scary, but in reality, it is a harmless event.  When it happens, you think you are going to die.  You cannot breathe.  Panic might even ensue.  It has happened so many times, that I struggle to find any single incident I can remember apart from others.  I do remember one time getting the wind knocked out of me involved a banister somewhere.  I remember that only because I also remember the pain associated with bruised ribs.  I cannot remember who was with me at the time.  Where I was.  Or even how long ago that was.  Perhaps the only reason I remember that it happened sometime in my life is the aches that sometimes occur in the bottom of my rib cage.  I am sure that I went down.  I am sure that I writhed in panic and pain.  I am sure if there was someone with me, they told me to calm down and take deep breaths.  I am sure I survived because I am here today, writing this blog.  Getting the wind knocked out of me didn’t last long.  As most of these events don’t last long.  They are temporary.  They are scary.  It doesn’t take long before we are breathing normal again.

That is the life of the saint.  We get the wind knocked out of us.  We lose the wind in our sails.  We may even become anxious and panic a bit.  But if the LORD is with us, it doesn’t take long to catch our breath.  Whatever caused us to lose our strength may have inflicted some long-lasting scars.  But it could not steal our breath without recovery.  This is the promise above.  The saints of God may take hits.  Sometimes, those hits are frequent and hard.  Yet the child of God has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He does not stay down.  The power of the Spirit encourages and empowers.  He reminds us of promises that answer to the trial before us.  He comforts our hearts with His presence so when we are sucking air, His touch of calm brings us back from worry or panic.  This promise the lost do not have.  There is no promise of overcoming.  There is no hope of surviving.  All that awaits the enemies of God is a permanent state of torment.  Not us!  Glory!  We have a divine Father who loves us more than we could ever comprehend and for that, we have assurance that no matter how many times we get knocked down, we will arise!  And, we shall stand upright.

A Mature Prayer

“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.” (Ps 19:13 AV)

This is quite a request.  A presumptuous sin or sins are those things we do in arrogant rebellion.  They are things we know are wrong.  They are things that we have been convicted of.  They are things that the Holy Spirit is heavily trying to influence us away from doing.  Yet, we do them anyway.  These are the things we feel most guilty about.  Our sweet Psalmist, David, is asking the LORD to forcibly intervene so this does not happen.  He wants the LORD to interrupt his planned rebellion.  David seeks God’s hand of protection.  He wants God to pull him back.  He wants God to make his life uncomfortable so rebellion would hurt.  This is a very mature request.

To make this prayer answerable, the first thing one must do is be honest with oneself.  We have to realize that even with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, rebellion is still possible.  We are no different from our children.  We can give them the best upbringing and instruction, yet in the end, they do something deliberately wrong just to express their individuality and independence.  Second, we must see this reality as one to which we are hopeless and powerless to fight on our own.  The flesh is something else.  It will take us down a road we know is wrong and make us suffer as a consequence.  Trying to fight rebellion in our own strength is doomed to fail.  Third, we have to be willing to accept whatever actions God wants to take to help us avoid these rebellious choices.  This is what separated David from all the rest.  He wanted, and accepted, all that God could do to keep him from making choices he would later regret.

There are also some motives listed above.  Note how David refers to himself.  He refers to himself as a servant.  This is the polar opposite of rebellion.  Perhaps we have a hard time with rebellion because we do not see ourselves as a complete slave to the will of our Creator God.  If we are not first a servant and a willing one at that, we will never accept what God must do to keep us from the choices we are capable of making.  Second, there is a goal here.  David does not seek this simply because he knows it is wrong.  He seeks it because being under condemnation of the great transgression is something he cannot live with.  He would rather be submissive and right than free and frolicking.  David aspired to be free from the consequences of the great transgression so that he might continue to serve God without the baggage that rebellion heaps on the life and conscience of those who fall.

Sign At The End of the Road

“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” (Ex 3:12 AV)

This is very interesting.  Moses is known for doubting his ability to do as God called him to do.  We will read in the next few chapters how Moses wanted to pick God’s man because he thought he could do a better job.  Moses had a confidence issue.  He didn’t think he was necessarily a good speaker.  He did not have a command presence.  He eschewed doubt and insecurity in his ability to lead.  In our passage, the previous verse was Moses' question of what type of indication God might give that God has sent him to Pharaoh.  God’s answer was to give him a token or sign after the fact and not beforehand.  This doesn’t necessarily make sense, at least from our point of view.  We would think Moses needed a confidence booster before he returned to Egypt.  One would think if Moses had much self-doubt, the LORD would have given him a token before he left for Egypt.  No so.  The right thing to do is delay the token until after the job is down.  Otherwise, Moses would need constant affirmation along the way.  This way, he would have to complete what he started and in the process, get over his self-doubt, self-loathing, and general feeling of inadequacy.

Moses was God’s man.  Of that, there is no doubt.  Feeding a self-abasing personality with more affirmation than they need only makes it worse.  Someone who needs constant affirmation will never be convinced of their worth to their LORD.  What God did here was brilliant.  He did not feed Moses’ insecurity.  Instead, He told him affirmation will come after the job is done.  If Moses wanted to know if God was with him and if God could use him, the only way that was going to happen was to dive right in and make it happen.  This is absolutely perfect!  God is far wiser than we realize.  He knows exactly what we need and it is often different than what we think we need.  Someone who struggles with self-confidence, or better yet, faith in God for Him to use them, does not need to be coddled.  They need to be thrown in the deep and and made to swim.  This reminds me of my youth!

My father required that we learn to swim.  As soon as we were three feet tall (that was the requirement) we enrolled in Red Cross swimming lessons at the local school, YMCA, or public pool.  I know I often regale this story but bear with me.  The first thing they do is have you stand up against the wall and verify your height. Then they have you go to the edge of the shallow end and read the depth painted on the edge.  Using your small little brain, one can deduce all one had to do is stand on the bottom and your head would be above water.  However, there was a day when the deep end would be your challenge.  The deep end was anywhere from nine feet to twelve feet deep.  Even a third-grader could do that math.  The instructor had a reach pool.  The first thing he had us do was to slip into the water and reach for the pole.  He would pull us to the side where we could climb out.  A couple of times doing that, and we knew we were safe.  Then came the big challenge.  We were made to jump off the low diving board and swim to the nearest side.  What that instructor did was rather cruel!  He led us with the pole, but would never allow us to grab it.  It was always out of reach.  He was trying to show us we had abilities of which we were as yet aware.  We could do this.  We just didn’t know we could.

This was Moses’ situation.  Gideon’s as well.  If God calls us, He will also enable us.  We don’t need affirmation as much as we need faith.  This is what Moses had to exercise.  This is what Moses had to learn.  The delayed token was meant to strengthen him and not weaken him.  So, when we seek affirmation from God before we attempt anything, maybe what we should do is seek faith instead.

Dependent on the Wrong Thing

“And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.” (Ge 50:14 AV)

It has always bothered me why the eleven brothers of Joseph didn’t simply stay in Canaan when they returned to bury their father, Jacob.  Outside of the prophesies to Abraham and Joseph, nothing was compelling them to stay in Egypt.  The prophecy given to Abraham stated that Israel would be enslaved and then delivered to become a great nation.  A prophecy does not determine choices.  It includes choices.  Joseph's brethren were not forced to choose to stay in Egypt just because Abraham was told they would.  They had a choice.  The prophecy just revealed what God knew they would choose.  Then there were the two dreams of Joseph.  He was told his family would bow down to him and honor him as one in authority over them.  The thing is, the visions said nothing of duration.  The visions did not require Joseph’s brethren to stay in subjection to Joseph.  The vision simply said they would be put in a position of subjugation.  The famine had long passed.  Israel was now residing in the best lands of Egypt.  They were experiencing prosperity and security under Joseph.  There were no wants nor needs which their Prince of a brother did not supply.  Joseph was committed to Egypt.  He was second in command in Egypt.  His wife was Egyptian.  His children were born in Egypt.  Even if Joseph wanted to return to Canaan, he more than likely, could not.  What is even more puzzling is when the whole clan returned to Egypt, the sons of Jacob were concerned Joseph would exact revenge now that Jacob was dead.  If they were concerned, why return?  Why take the risk?

There are two reasons which come to mind.  First, with the death of Jacob, the family was without a leader.  Joseph was the leader they needed.  This didn’t mean Judah or Reuben couldn’t step up and fill Jacob’s place.  They simply did not.  Nothing hindered them from returning to Canaan and setting up a nation with another patriarch as the leader.  Judah was told he would eventually be that tribe from which their leader came.  Joseph could have sent his two sons along after his death.  In short, there was nothing legally or ethically that should have kept them in Egypt.  Second, and more realistically, the fact that someone else took care of them without them having to worry about any major problem kept them coming back.  Joseph devised means that changed Egypt into a purely socialistic economy.  Joseph worried about feeding the masses and in return, they sold him everything.  By the end of seven years of famine, Egypt was solely owned by the government.  The government, in turn, took care of their most pressing needs.  In short, they became dependent on an entity bigger than themselves.  For Jacob’s sons, that meant becoming more dependent on human agents than on God.  This is a dangerous place to live.

This becomes even more evident when they wander in the wilderness.  They constantly murmured against Moses when they should have prayed to the LORD.  They constantly complained to Moses to solve all their problems without taking any initiative on their own.  When the nation became so dependent on the ability of others, faith became impossible.  They had trained themselves out of faith and risk because they placed their trust in human resources more than in God.  When Joseph returned to Egypt, that upon which the other eleven came to depend, returned as well.  This is a hard trap from which to escape.  We trust our employer to supply work and pay us our wages.  We trust our healthcare provider to run tests and provide treatments.  We trust our insurance company to pay out for our needs or tragedies of life.  We trust the grocery store to carry what we need at any given moment of the day.  We trust our car to start in the morning.  We trust our government to provide garbage removal, snow removal, public transportation, fire protection, police protection, and a host of other services we feel we cannot live without.  We trust the power company to provide power so that nothing is ever disrupted.  All this dependency on human resources and made us soft.  We have a hard time trusting God when human agencies fail because we haven’t had to trust the LORD all that much.  Jacob’s family was enslaved for over 400 years. Not even Joseph’s descendants were immune.  Why?  Because they never learned to trust God first.  If we are to be free, it comes as a result of faith.  Faith in God first.  That is where liberty and joy can be found.

Honest Lips

“Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.” (Ps 17:1 AV)

It appears as though the LORD is continuing His instruction on honesty. Yesterday, we saw David reference honesty to and with one’s heart.  It is important to reflect on Self, especially the desires and feelings of the heart.  Now, David turns his attention to honesty from the lips.  What he says must be the truth.  It must be sincere.  This is kind of hard when we have a limited understanding of our circumstances.  How can we be sure we are seeing the situation as it really is?  How can we pray for a health need if we do not know what God intends to do by it?  Or, perhaps the outcome isn’t what secular medical care thinks it will be?  How do we pray for things as they appear to us if how they appear to us isn’t what truly are?  I don’t think David is speaking of accuracy here.  What he is shooting for is honesty of heart manifested by sincerity in prayer.  Even if he feels things that he shouldn’t because he cannot see everything as it is, to bottle it all up because he might be wrong about it isn’t using unfeigned lips.  It is better to be wrong and apologize later than to fake prayer that you think God wants to hear.  In short, to pray with feigned lips is to patronize the God of all Creation.

As a father, to hear things that one does not wish to hear is not fun.  Regardless of whether they are warranted or not, they are not fun.  One time, one of my children and his spouse sat in my office giving me their opinions of something or other.  It was critical of me in a way that was uncomfortable.  Although their observations and conclusions were way off base, I listened anyway.  Why didn’t I shut it all down and tell them when they were my age they could come and offer criticism?  Because they were being honest with how they felt.  They were being real.  And that was more important to me than lip service which they thought I might have wanted to hear.  I listened.  We talked it out.  It was so long ago that I cannot remember the specifics but I do remember I didn’t get defensive and I loved that they felt comfortable enough to bear their hearts even if, at the time, they were misguided. Honesty is what is precious.  Regardless of the words, the honesty of the words means transparency and vulnerability were on the table.  In that instant, I knew my child and his spouse deeply desired to know and love me deeper.  What a treasure!

God is not looking for us to be perfectly correct in all that we bring to Him.  That would be impossible.  What He does not want is children who say what He thinks He wants to hear without the heart that goes along with it.  Real and raw emotion is fine.  It has to be processed.  What we cannot do is ignore who we are and how we feel because we don’t think God would react well to our words.  Sometimes we have to eat our words.  Sometimes we have to beg His forgiveness.  But as a father, teacher, and pastor, I would rather have raw honesty than someone who is only trying to impress me with being something or feeling something that is not real.  When we go to Him, how real are we?  How real are our words of praise and thanksgiving?  How real are we with how we feel or what we desire?  These things matter to God.

Honesty of Heart

“LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.” (Ps 15:1-2 AV)

That last phrase is key to the success of the two previous goals.  If we are to walk uprightly and work righteousness, we have to be honest with our hearts.  God does not require absolute perfection here.  He simply asks that we work towards it.  No one can be perfect.  No one can live holy.  Not in their own strength, anyway.  This requires a work of grace and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Our flesh is weak.  Our flesh cannot please God.  God does the work in us if we will yield to His hand and power.  All that being said, the underlined phrase is what I wish to consider.  Honesty of heart.  Jeremiah tells us, “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9 AV).  The heart misleads, the heart misdirects, the heart warps, the heart overwhelms.  Meditation in the word of God is the key to overcoming a heart that desires what it should not have or believes what it knows is not true.  Honesty of heart means we come to terms with truth and accept that truth no matter where it might lead.

Note David does not limit interaction with the heart by what the heart does or feels.  Rather, he looks at it from the perspective of how he deals with the heart.  He tells us the one who will abide with the LORD in His tabernacle is the one who will speak the truth in his heart.  The heart becomes disciplined to trust and not subject to its environment.  The heart is not permitted to feel what it perceives to be the truth.  Rather, David is saying the heart must be disciplined to accept the truth and then reflect that truth.  This is required for us to keep audience with God.  The heart cannot rule what the mind thinks.  It must be the other way around.  The other point to be made here is sincerity.  What we do or say should be based on truth and that truth should be sincere.  The heart has a good way of making things seem right when deep down inside, they are not.

David is a man after God’s own heart.  He earns that title for a very good reason.  David was not perfect.  David made some seriously sinful choices in his life.  But when he did, he was honest with his heart.  He confessed and forsook all that God had shown him.  David was a passionate man.  He wrote many psalms that reflected that passion.  David was an emotional man.  He was moved by his heart on many occasions.  David earned the recognition of being a man after God’s own heart because he was honest with his heart.  What he said, he meant.  He did not try to be someone he was not.  You took David as he was.  Like him or not.  He was transparent with himself.  When he failed, he admitted his failure.  When he was wrong, he listened and fixed it.  Remember the ox cart that shook with the Ark riding within?  David was not happy that God took such drastic measures, but he realigned the policy so the ark came to the tabernacle biblically.  He was honest in his heart.  That is what God wants.  He knows outside of glory, the saint will struggle.  What God wants is honesty of heart that precipitates change.  That is all.  One good long look in the mirror and prayer that will advance Christlikeness in the life of the saint.