Gratitude Is A Matter Of Perspective

“A gift [is as] a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.” (Pr 17:8 AV)

Our perceptions and bias dictate the nature of our experiences.  For instance, if we have it in our minds that a new recipe will not taste good, it will influence how we experience our first taste.  If we go on a vacation with the mindset, it will be nothing but and inconvenience, that is probably what it will be.  If we see our jobs as nothing more than the means by which we pay bills and it is often more trouble than it is worth, then that is probably how we will experience it.  There are many gifts in life.  God is gracious and grants to His creation gifts without measure.  Life is the first and most important gift.  Whether we see it as such, the fact remains, God gave it.  Salvation is the next greatest gift God ever gave to man.  The forgiveness of all sin and a home in a perfect heaven are beyond total comprehension.  A spouse is a gift.  That is what Proverbs and the Apostle Peter teach us.  Our children and extended family are gifts.  That is what Paul and Solomon testify to.  Perception has a great deal to do with gratitude and pleasure.  This is Solomon’s point.  If we see God’s grace in all that we have and are, then we will find the perspective that shows us how wonderful the thing is.

Solomon is showing us that examining a thing, person, or aspect of life from different angles will reveal just how precious it is.  A while back, I watched a video one the ten most precious gems in the world.  Not individual gems, but the specimens.  I would have thought diamonds were the most precious.  But they are not.  In fact, in a list of the ten most precious types of gems, diamonds are at the lower end.  There were gems where only a handful of known specimens exist.  Those types of specimens were toward the higher end of value.  There was one type where the known specimens were incredibly small, and rare, that the value was priceless.  There was one gemstone, however, that piqued my interest.  The most expensive color changing gemstone is called Alexandrite.  In natural daylight, the gemstone is green.  But in artificial light, it is red.  There was another gemstone that escapes my mind, but when you look at it, it appears black.  However, the more you turn it in the light, it appears purple and red.  Turning it under the light shows beauty that would normally remain hidden.  It was the same when I looked at diamonds.  When shopping for my wife’s engagement ring, I spent some time with the owner of a store and he taught me his craft.  He had me look at a diamond under the influence of a monocle.  When looking far deeper than the natural eye could attain, there were brilliant colors that appeared.  Clarity was seen as perfection.  Color was seen a beauty.  I became addicted to the beauty of diamonds.  The more one turned it, the more precious it became.

Perhaps the reason we are not as grateful as we should be is we have a perception problem.  We see our situations from only one or two directions.  We get tunnel vision.  We don’t stop to examine the provision of God as it truly is.  The provisions from God are a gift whether we are willing to accept that or not.  If we see life from only one angle, we are apt to complain that it is not more than it is.  We become discontent.  We cannot see God’s grace as multifaceted.  We cannot see the goodness of God with eyes that bore deep enough to see the preciousness of it.  We complain because we are blind.  We murmur because we will not stop and see.  All we see is the superficial.  We don’t see the deep riches of God’s grace.  It is sad, really.  I think people who are perpetually grateful no matter the situation have learned that things are not as they seem.  In their humility, they realize they deserve nothing but the pits of hell, and therefore, anything better than that is precious.  They live life slow enough to examine their situation in life as a gift from God, give Him the benefit of the doubt, and trust Him in all things.  They have learned that life is a gift more precious than all else and that salvation in Christ means more than words can say.  So, you have a gemstone.  If you cannot see it for the beautiful stone that it is, turn it.  Use different light.  Wear a monocle.  Do whatever is necessary to see how precious the gifts of God truly are.

Admiration for Turning a Wrong into a Right

“Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law.” (Ezr 10:3 AV)

Upon reflection, even though this had to be done, it must have been very difficult.  When Israel returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and city wall, they were tempted to intermarry with the people they found there.  This was a huge no-no and harkens back to Israel’s first major sin when they were delivered from Egypt.  Way back in the book of Numbers, we are told Israel intermarried with the Moabites.  The intent of the Moabites was to conquer God’s people slowly, over time, by compromising away their calling.  God judged them for this, but the damage had already been done.  Even though the guilty parties were killed by the hand of God, the precedent of compromise with pagan nations was laid.  This was Ezra’s argument for the putting away of pagan wives and children.  We can witness what they did and praise the LORD for this standard of obedience.  We can think things like, “Good for them.  That is what they should have done.  What were they thinking in the first place?”  Yet I think there might be another principle we can glean from all of this.

Having to put away your wife and children had to be a very difficult thing.  These men did not disown them.  That is not the understanding of it.  What they were asked to do is to separate from their pagan wives and children and live alone.  This is not to suggest that if the pagan wives and children wished to become proselytes of the Hebrew faith, they would be disallowed.  The law made provision for this.  Putting away wives and family suggests the pagan wives and children did not immediately wish to be proselytized.  Having said that, I cannot imagine what it would have been like to separate for those whom you love because the law of God demanded it.  These men could easily be judged as guilty.  They were.  They could have been thought of as condemned under the law.  They were.  However, one has to admire the willingness of these men to walk in obedience once they were called out for their sin.  We can and should admire the saints who consistently walk with God.  They should be recognized.  There are those, however, who should be admired for paying a hefty price for obedience once found guilty of sin.

When I read this passage this morning, I couldn’t help but think of what it might have been to be alone.  All of a sudden, their wives and families were removed to a more remote place.  They could not go to temple together.  They did not share meals together.  Holidays were no longer shared as a family.  Dad ceased to be the influence in his home that he could have been had this never happened.  I was reminded recently of the reality of what being alone might feel like.  It is not pleasant.  So, when I internalized what these men might have gone through, rather than condemnation, empathy was my emotion.  There was no other choice.  They had to do it.  No matter how painful it was, Israel must remain a pure blood line until Messiah comes.  They sacrificed the fruits of disobedience for the sake of obedience.  It was just.  It was right.  But it was still painful.  A bit of understanding and support is due those who choose to walk right after they have walked wrong.  We should not feel sorry for their circumstances nor make them out to be victims or heroes.  They certainly are not.  But admiration for a willingness to pay a stiff price for obedience is not a bad thing.

Gratitude is not Silent

“I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.” (Ps 69:30 AV)

As I read this morning, the LORD was preparing me for a specific thought.  This didn’t come in my reading as I had thought, so the LORD led me to look up a particular word.  That word is ‘thank’.  I looked up that word, and every other deviation of it.  The reason the Spirit led me in such a manner is that recently, we have experienced answered prayer.  Not simple or minor answered prayer.  Which is, in and of itself, miraculous.  Rather, we received fantastic news.  Together with a blessing given by the LORD of a private nature, I felt very grateful.  This blessing from God made me a bit humbler than I was prior to His grace.  That is how it is supposed to work.  So, this poor sinner expected to meditate on how merciful and kind God is with the idea that God’s goodness humbles the contrite ones.  Rather, the Spirit had a different truth waiting for me.  As I looked up this word, and other derivatives of it, there was a pattern that emerged.  The emotion of gratitude was not one that remained silent.  Almost a universal principle, if the writer felt grateful for whatever it was that God did, he could not remain silent.  I was left with the impression that to the degree we share the news of God’s blessing or nature is the degree that measures how grateful we are.  If we are silent, then we are not truly grateful.

Recently, while soul-winning, I spoke to a woman who had no interest in what the Bible had to say regarding Jesus Christ and her need for salvation.  She was thrilled that her denomination had elected a new leader.  She was bounding with joy and gratitude with something that is contrary to the word of God and harmful to her eternal life.  A month doesn’t go by wherein we see a crowd go nuts after their team wins a championship.  A new baby comes into the world and we cannot stop talking about him or her.  Just the other day, my father-in-law and I were talking.  He mentioned something he did that brought him enjoyment, and I countered with a similar recollection that seemed to one-up his.  We have a good report from the doctor, a good deal on groceries or a purchase, or learn something new while watching a video and the world knows all about it.  It is in our nature to share good fortune.  We what to share the emotion of the moment.

When it comes to God’s goodness, we are all of a sudden, silent.  All the blessings we receive are from the LORD.  Almost all of those things mentioned above are directly from the hand of God.  If so, He should get the glory.  Because of what the LORD did for us the past 48 hours, the Spirit has changed my prayer life.  We were about as low as we could get.  Being a caregiver for a sick spouse is not for the faint of heart.  It changes things.  It changes the very dynamic of your relationship.  It is what you signed up for at the altar many years ago.  It is the ministry that lasts a lifetime.  It doesn’t get any easier.  But the LORD knows how to ease the burden.  What is required may not change.  But the ability to perform that which is cast upon us is significantly lighter when the LORD is there.  As I stated before, God is good and all the time.  But He was particularly good the last few days.  The burden of which we were under has been lifted in several ways.  So, I hope you don’t mind the last few paragraphs as my way of praising God for His wonderful grace toward the least of all His saints!

Grab Your Shovel

“Much food [is in] the tillage of the poor: but there is [that is] destroyed for want of judgment.” (Pr 13:23 AV)

I have to admit, when I first read this, I assumed something different.  It piqued my curiosity.  The word ‘…tillage…’ means an untilled or unplowed field.  The meaning is simple.  There lies in the field an untilled acreage a potential for great yields.  It is already there.  Barring any natural disaster, if a field is tilled and cared for, there will be food at the time appointed.  This is why Solomon uses the present tense rather than the future tense.  There is no risk involved in tilling and planting a field.  Time and effort are almost guaranteed.  The assumption made here is the poor are generally poor because they lack the wisdom or judgment to see the results of their efforts.  They sit idly by and allow a field to remain fallow, yet still beg bread.  Opportunity is destroyed because the poor cannot see the consequences of his idleness.

Note also that Solomon uses the word ‘…much…’.  He suggests if the poor apply themselves to a sure thing, then there will be more than enough.  They will have a superabundance.  If the poor would get behind a plow with some ox and seed, in a few short months, he wouldn’t be poor anymore.  The superabundance can be sold at the marketplace.   His superabundance could help those who cannot till a field.  Now, consider there are poor who have no other option.  The disabled cannot till a field.  The blind cannot till a field.  The aged cannot till a field.  The simple-minded cannot till a field.  There are those who are begging bread because that is the only option they have available.  Those of whom Solomon speaks are those who have the physical ability to till a field, yet fail to project the results of their efforts.

My mind goes to Ruth and Naomi.  Ruth could have sat at the gate of Boaz, declare who she was to him, and simply received at his hands food enough for her and Naomi.  In fact, Boaz does so at the threshing floor.  Yet, Ruth had character enough to show up at the field at the time of gleaning, and gather handfuls of purpose.  Handfuls of purpose were portions of crop that were purposefully left or dropped for the poor to pick up.  Ruth exerted effort to provide for her and her mother-in-law because that was the ethical thing to do.  But let us consider another similar application.  Solomon and Ruth teach us the temporal principle of using opportunity, but what of the spiritual?  We have the word of God, prayer, and the communion of the saints as an untilled field.  We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to give us the strength, guidance, and encouragement to use them.  Yet, for the most part, the field of spiritual fruitfulness remains untilled.  Our bibles grow dust, our knees are supple, and the people of God are abandoned.  We wonder why we are poor in spirit?  Perhaps our spiritual field of fruit remains untilled.

So, What's The Good Word?

“Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.” (Pr 12:25 AV)

Many years ago, in my early childhood and into my teens, it was not uncommon to hear the question, “So, what’s the good word?” as a greeting between two people who knew each other well.  Perhaps it was more common with the laid-back folks who had a bit of time for a conversation.  Often, one would say it or hear it while arriving at work.  “So, what’s the good word?”  It was usually followed by a good report from the one to whom the question was posed.  “My son graduated with honors.”  “My daughter was engaged this weekend.”  “My toddler learned his first word.”  “I bagged a good buck over the weekend.”  “I’m feeling much better.”   Statements like that.  The question was never followed by a negative response.  You would never hear something such as, “It rained so hard last night my basement flooded.”  Or, “I got a bad prognosis.”  Or, “My car is in the shop, again.”  When the question is asked, it is for the benefit of both parties, the one asking needs encouragement.  The one answering needs to focus on blessings rather than challenges.

We underestimate the power of good words.  Good news from a far country, the bible says, is compared to cold water to a thirsty soul.  We hear enough bad news.  Day in and day out.  The headlines scream of tragedy.  The financial experts warn us we will lose everything.  There is a new bug that will kill millions.  There are wars and rumors of wars.  The doctor rarely gives us a totally clean bill of health.  There is always something that is wrong.  The car mechanic tells us we need new brakes and transmission.  The dentist tells us we had better floss or we will suffer cavities.  The politician reminds us of how bad we have it and that he is the only one who can fix it.  There are reports of crime.  There are friends or family that moves away.  There are bits of news of failed marriages, addiction, and ruin all around us.  The world does what it can to discourage us.  It seems we cannot go one day with the sun shining from dawn until dusk.  The sweet sound of birds singing, frogs croaking, or crickets chirping are drowned out by the louder sounds of rioting and misery.  We need a good word.  There are too many bad ones.

Solomon knew of what he spoke.  Many years ago, I played the computer game SimCity.  If you’ve never played it, the point is to see how large and successful you could build a city.  The game started out with one large green grid.  As you had resources, you added things.  You altered the terrain.  You added roads, trains, and utilities.  You added commercial and residential properties.  Then you went back and widened roads.  You added factories.  Emergency services were added.  Recreational accommodation would come next.  Parks, stadiums, etc.  The bad thing about it was just about the time when everything was running like clockwork, the program would add problems.  The citizens were complaining.  A water main broke.  A building was on fire.  A business when belly-up and unemployment rose.  After a while, I felt it was too much like pastoring a church.  Problems abounded.  No perfect situation.  One thing after another.  Who would want to play a game that no one wins?  Where is the good word?  Solomon was a king.  He heard bad news all day long.  He heard of invasions, social unrest, and lawlessness.  Every day!  He needed a good word.  And so do you.  And so do I.  So, rather than get fixated on the negative, let’s start asking one another, “So, what’s the good news?”

The Incredible Grace of God

“For if ye turn again unto the LORD, your brethren and your children [shall find] compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the LORD your God [is] gracious and merciful, and will not turn away [his] face from you, if ye return unto him.” (2Ch 30:9 AV)

Considering who this was addressed to, this statement is incredible.  Hezekiah, king of Judah, repaired the temple.  When completed, he called for the observance of Passover.  This had not been done in many years.  Observance of the feasts and sacrifices had fallen silent over several reigns.  For the first time in a long time, there would be revival in Jerusalem.  When Hezekiah had brought revival to Judah, the ten northern tribes had already been carried away into Assyria.  There remained a remnant to care for the land.  The feasts and law were required of them regardless of the separation between them that existed for several hundred years.  God did not relieve the ten northern tribes of worship simply because Jerusalem was in the territory of Judah.  Hezekiah, we a heart of compassion, opened the temple and the Passover to the remnant of the ten northern tribes.  His promise was that if they returned to the LORD, then the LORD would return to them.  Including bringing back their tribes from Assyria.  To me, that is remarkable.  The territory of the ten tribes lay in desolation.  Their cities were destroyed.  They had no government or law.  They were simple farmers living simply to keep the land from going back to the wild.  They had every reason to repent.  If they repented and returned, then the LORD would bless them all.  Not just the remnant.  What a statement of God’s wondrous grace.

That last phrase is incredible.  After all they had done and suffered because of what they had done, God is still willing to show them mercy and grace.  This is a hard concept for most to grasp.  We live in relationships that are quid pro quo.  They are not totally one-sided.  It shouldn’t be that way.  But it is.  Even a newborn is expected to show some kind of reciprocation if he or she wants attention.  If the baby is a non-stop screamer, Mom, or Dad might want to leave them in their crib for a bit as they go outside and collect their sanity.  If a toddler will not listen, he gets a time out.  There are limits.  I have helped many families with a child or sibling who is an addict.  I don’t say ‘suffering an addiction’ because that makes him or her a victim rather than a willing participant.  They chose to take the drug.  They chose to continue to take the drug.  Families have a hard time dealing with a non-responsive addict.  Lying, stealing, and even criminal behavior almost always accompany a non-functioning addict.  To encourage families to forgive their addicted relative is almost impossible.  They have been hurt too many times.  They can never trust that individual again.  I don’t blame them.  I would probably react the same way.  We have limits to our grace.  We have a line when mercy becomes impossible.  Sometimes that is needed.  If the offender things mercy and grace are without limit, there is no incentive to make a change.  The opposite is true, as well.  If the individual thinks mercy and grace are impossible, there might not be any incentive to change, either.

God does have limits.  His grace and mercy are without limit.  But that does not mean they have no conditions.  Justice must be exercised.  The reason the sinner can receive grace and mercy is because God’s wrath for his sin was placed upon Jesus.  When considering God’s grace and mercy, we must remember someone paid the penalty for our wickedness.  God does not indiscriminately grant mercy and grace separate and apart from His justice and holiness.  Wrath must be satisfied.  But the passage above is still incredible.  To think that after all that has transpired, and the length of it, God is still willing to forgive and restore blows the mind.  It cannot be understated.  Israel went so far as to offer human sacrifices.  They went so far as to celebrate homosexuality.  They went so far as to replace the Jewish houses of worship with places of pagan origin.  They didn’t simply backslide.  They did a 180!  It wasn’t recent.  It was from the time of Jeroboam until their carrying away.  For hundreds of years, they thumbed their nose at God.  This offer is beyond grace and mercy.  This offer is off the charts.  What was their reaction?  They mocked the messengers of Hezekiah.  They get one last chance to restore what they had lost and they couldn’t even care enough to be obedient for the sake of their families who were enslaved in Assyria.  That is a special kind of depravity.  I, for one, will stand amazed at the grace of God.  He is merciful to all those who return to Him.

One Great Life, Yet One Last Mistake

“And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, [being] a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son [was] over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.” (2Ch 26:21 AV)

This is a bit sad.  After a sordid string of kings, Uzziah, as his father before him, did right in the sight of God.  Uzziah reigned for 52 years.  Uzziah was the second longest reign of any Judean king, including David and Solomon.  Uzziah was a king who involved himself more in the prosperity of Judah than he did fighting unnecessary battles.  His father had died in battle when he didn’t have to.  Uzziah loved husbandry.  He built cities and cultivated the land.  Then something unfortunate happened.  He went into the temple and attempted to offer incense on the altar.  He was not a priest.  Like Saul, he offered a sacrifice that was not his job to do.  This one mistake made him a leper from that point on.  He was separated from the people, so his son had to reign in his stead.  Uzziah’s mistake was in not listening to the Levites when they attempted to remove him from the sanctuary.  Rather than admit his fault and leave, he got angry and offered the offering, anyway.  Had he repented and left, he may have spared himself a painful death.  What is amazing to me is that this one act sullied an otherwise perfect life of service to the LORD.  Had this king refused this one temptation in pride, he would have passed as one of the greatest of all kings.  What we do at the end is just as important as what we do at the beginning and middle.

The older we get, the more we want our lives to matter.  If we are not careful, the goal of relevance and legacy may harm an otherwise faithful life.  This is not as uncommon as one might think.  Many men have compromised in areas of ministry because they don’t want to pass into the next life with the assumption others will see them as a failure.  They want to pass on into the next life while overseeing a building program.  They wish to be seen as one who is always gaining ground and never losing it.  Uzziah was a bit different.  He crossed a line because he saw himself as beyond the detailed rules of worship.  God blessed him for faithful and godly service, and he meant well.  Surely the LORD wouldn’t care about a silly little rule like restricted access.  After all, like Cain, he was offering his best.  Why would God make a big deal about it?  In his older years, the king allowed the details to slip.  They were not as important to him.  I have seen this more times than I care to remember.  Men in their older years lost their once held deep convictions.  Doctrine remains the same.  But separation fails.  They invite music, pop culture, and modern forms of ministry into their churches because they fail to see the importance of purity in service.  At one time, they stood against those things.  Now, it doesn’t matter anymore.  They have earned the right to compromise.

This is not so with God.  God’s holiness is something He does not surrender.  The king has no business inside the sanctuary.  That room was for priests only.  Not only priests, but those who had gone through ritual cleansing and preparation.  The king was at fault in both cases.  He was not a priest, and he never went through the cleansing process.  In today’s world, who would care?  After all, the sacredness of our houses of worship has all but disappeared.  They are houses of entertainment.  They are not houses where the broken hearts of God’s people come to get right with a God who deserves their contrite hearts.  The common and uncalled can stand behind a pulpit.  Stories and humor are more important that Spirit led preaching.  Affirmation is the only theme of today’s sermons.  Long gone are the days of preaching on sin, repentance, and humility.  Now, God must justify Himself.  My, my, my!  We have come a long way.  We are doing what Uzziah, Saul, and Cain did.  We have allowed the demands and standards of God to become irrelevant, substituting God’s holiness with our heart and judgment.  Watch out. Leprosy is soon to follow.