Secrets

"You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Do two walk together unless they have agreed to meet? Does a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den if he has taken nothing? Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground when it has taken nothing? Is a trumpet blown in a city and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it? For the Lord does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets" Amos 3:2-7.

Reading this passage a few days ago, it struck me, but I wouldn't fully indulge myself into the context and force of its heavy words. Still today I find it difficult to admit to what it says and comply to the entirety I understand it to be. We have no secrets in life that God doesn't know. Every sin or error committed by us is our fault and we should know better. Verse two tells us that the Israelites continue to sin and God in His sovereignty and authority says that He will punish them for everything. "Do two walk together unless they have agree to meet?" Things don't happen by chance, we understand deep down what we get ourselves into and we know ourselves well enough to know what our limits are. So often we test those limits for personal pleasure or indulgence and would rather feel remorse later and ask God's forgiveness on the flip-side than to not put ourselves in the situation in the first place. We love self more than we love others and especially more than we love God.


"Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth when there is no trap for it?" We act surprised when we get into a bind. We act like we think we're immortal and yet we so often are out solely for ourselves and our pleasure. I read an article the other day saying that the average person lies 3 times every 10 minutes. I can think of a zinger or two I've told in the last few days that you find yourself thinking, "oh no, words are coming out of my mouth! why am I saying this to rectify a situation I don't know anything about to make myself seem more important? Why am I always wanting to be right and know everything?" Evil traps are set for us everywhere, particularly as believers. We want to save face after we make a mistake to cover up when maybe the trap was not the mistake but was the urge to lie or act in a certain way that misleads people. Maybe the traps around us are designed to be really enticing and attractive and so we purposely fall into them even though we know the birds end. Will the trap reveal itself and its wicked scheme until it's encompassed you if you get close to it? (5b)--not a chance. Not until you're caught or turn away so fully that the snare awaits a later date to come back and begin its trapping again when it thinks you again weak.

Does anything happen outside of God's knowledge and maybe even God's authority, dominion and actual actions themselves? We so often see God as this great mystery that chooses on a spur of the moment kind of basis what to do next. He says in verse 7, "For the Lord God does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets." If that's true and we don't have modern day prophets then everything we need to know, all the answers and all the secrets, is contained in the Holy Word of God in its entirety. God may choose to reveal His secrets to you or I in prayer or in reading His Word but how will we know unless we do?

We blaze our own paths in vain.

A Few Stories

A few stories for you...

A friend of mine and I were getting together a few days ago after work. I ran some errands in her area right around the time she was getting off so that we could meet up right after, according to the plan. Almost three hours after our scheduled meet up she calls. Obviously I'm pretty upset by this time, needless to say it's the blood that runs through my veins. However, I found myself during this time of stalling around her area, continuing to think that any minute she'd call, that I had no where else to go. It reminded me of Peter talking with God after the disciples grumbled about a rather taboo topic both then and now. "After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.'" John 6:66-69. I needed her at that moment and was willing to wait as I wish I continually realized my very same need for God.

I heard a great man, a mighty man of our age, speak last week about the rough road of being a disciple, of being a Christian in our culture, and about how often we will have to be completely different than society and its norms. He spoke boldly and unabated, quit a relief from most modern day sympathetic christians. As I walked out of the worship service a guy in the group of people I found myself with commented how utterly boring he found the speaker and a girl agreed with him and continued on about his overly zealous manner and how offensive he sounded to those weak in the faith. I got in my car, as I had thankfully met them there, and instantly needed someone to talk to that understood the great depth of insight and intuition this man had spoken and the great need our society has for more people that relish in the greatness of our God as this man does. It being late at the time therefore counting my family out of the call range I found very few people that I could scroll through my phone and find that could understand the anksed I felt from feeling truly on board with this man yet feeling completely separated and frankly offended by the christian company I resided with that night. "Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of eternal life, and I have believed, and come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

I counseled, or maybe I should rather say spoke with, a man yesterday at the Urban Ministry Center that sat down in my office and point blank told me he was going to commit suicide. He had been in and out of mental hospitals for the last few years and had attempted suicide multiple times. When I asked why he was never able to go through with it he said it was because he never had enough resolve to carry it out. He said life wasn't worth living and he was tired. I asked if he knew God. He said Yes. I asked if he read the Bible. He said yes, many time in fact. He said he left it behind when he decided to become homeless, thinking that homelessness would be the last straw and would give him the gumption to kill himself. I said so it wasn't important enough for you to take with you? He said it was like an anchor to him, holding him steady and keeping him fighting and trying to make things work. It was an answer and a way. It was proof of an after life and forced a need to persevere to obtain eternity with God. He said he left it behind so he didn't have to think about it anymore and could end his tired life. "To whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life?" I told him you can never escape and why do we want to?

Why do we want to...sounds so much easier than it really is, huh? Why do we want to escape from God? Because He is truth and He knows everything about us. If we deal with Him then we have to admit our faults, realize our errors and flee from the sins that frankly we kinda like keeping around. Sure, He's ultimate comfort and fulfillment, but it's an eternal thing and doesn't mean we will instantly ever feel comforted or fulfilled. It's a perseverance battle. It's immediate decisions to go against the popular decision, to stand alone in a crowd, to feel alone in many instances and realizations. It's tough love that many people will not immediately appreciate. It's fighting against our own natures to be what Christ wants and spurs us on to be. It's not letting the desires of the world weigh us down and convince us that we need the same things. Why do we want to run from God like many of Jesus' followers? Because if we cleave to God then we have to run from the world's ways and run from our very nature. But in the end you will find yourself saying along with Peter, "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life" because the reward is so much greater than any momentary enjoyment we can find here on earth.

Flesh is so weak

"Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you" Hosea 10:12

I read this verse last night and the subsequent verses and thought how applicable it is to my current life and probably yours. NOW is the time to seek the Lord, while He still may be found. NOW, not later, not when you're less tired or when all that paperwork gets done. Not right after your pop that movie in or go run a few errands. Not after you already get to work or after you do your morning schedule. But NOW. Ok, maybe I'm speaking a little more to myself here but I far to often wake up and think I can sleep a little later and read my Bible after I get out of the shower. I think I can run those morning errands and then I'll have time to sit down and pray, when it's "more convenient" to my schedule. I think, after I go to this meeting then I have the rest of the day off so I'll wait, and here's the good Christian kicker, so I'll have 'more time' to sit down and do it instead of right now. It's so wrong.

Jesus commands us, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" Matthew 26:41. I've realized recently that I would have to put a "so very" in front of weak from Jesus' words. My flesh is so very weak. I give in to fatigue, convincing myself that I'm treating my body like a holy temple like God also commands. Here's the truth. If we want to justify our actions to make ourselves feel more spiritual or holy we can, there's always a band aid in scripture. But, if you're wanting it to be like it was intended, in it's authenticity, then it's not a band aid to make you feel better, but it's also not a bullet to make you helpless. Hosea says, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love, break up your fallow ground."

There are things in my life I'm not proud of, things I hold onto that aren't good for me. There are sins that I commit over and over and I still don 't trust God enough to let them go. I'm choosing not to break up my fallow ground. But you know, because I'm not doing it I'm withholding the shower of righteousness that He promises to rain on me. I act like the Israelites did in Hosea and I act as though that won't be my end. "You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors" v13.

God help us to trust in Your Way, in Your path, in Your direction. Our spirit is willing, but our flesh is so very weak. Let us break up our fallow ground, sow righteousness and reap steadfast love. Let us seek You, Father, while You may be found and while You are near. Teach us how faulty our way is and the great deficiencies of our human defenses and solutions. Let us glimpse your great abundance so that we might be able to more accurately weigh our scales to find how much more valuable your gifts are than our own resources. Let your strength outweigh our fleshly weakness everyday.

Splendor

During Christmas at one time or another we are prone to sit back and reflect the greatness of the birth of our Savior. We focus in on the lack of room in the inn and how Mary bore him in a lowly manger. We reflect the wise men and their expensive gifts. We picture the shepherds seeing the angels glorifying God and telling them about the Christ child.

I, on the other hand this Christmas season, have thought about the greatness God gave up by coming down to earth.

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim...And one called to another and said: 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!'"
Isaiah 6:1-3.

"Around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures...And day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!' And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him (which is all the time by the way) who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created'"
Revelation 4:6-11.

He gave up constant praise, constant adoration. He gave up perfection and painlessness (in a bodily sense). He gave up comfort. He gave up being right and having everyone not only know it but be ok and enamored by it. Can you imagine?

He gave up gold streets and magnificient robes. He gave up His incredible throne. He gave up a place that adored Him, that worshiped Him, that walked exactly in His ways. He gave up everything. EVERYTHING.

This Christmas season and the rest of the year it's very easy to get bogged down and find how unfair life can be. It's easy to get irritated when someone doesn't pull the weight you've deemed necessary for them or when someone inevitably disappoints you. It's easy to feel entitled to certain perks, benefits or alotments. It's easy to feel sorry for yourself because you're left out by friends, not loved enough by others or somethings has gone terribly off course from your expectations. In all of this however, as big of a deal as we always make it, it's a lot different if you sit back and let the weight of what Christ gave up sink in comparitively to what you feel like you're owed.

I often find myself wanting people to know my value, know how intelligent I am, know what I'm capable of. I want people to honor me and stand in awe when I speak. Christ gave up all of that glory and came down to a world that interrupted Him, cast Him down, spit upon Him, threw things at Him, beat Him and finally nailed Him to a tree to kill Him. The amazing thing to me is that He knew all of that beforehand. He knew as He created the world, as He made the choice to come to earth and die for us even before the world began. He knew He'd have to save us from ourselves. He knew He'd have to cast aside His glory and enter our torn and broken domain. He knew what He'd have to give up and He still came.

Am I willing to give it all up just like Christ did? Am I willing to cast aside my own glory, my own intelligence, my own talents, and love those who might not ever fully appreciate it? Am I willing to do someone else's job and pay someone else's penalty even if I don't have to? He didn't have to, but He did. His life here on earth was very significant but maybe even more significant is the magnitude of the life He gave up so that we instead might have it.

Hope

I talked a long time yesterday with a woman whose son recently tried to commit suicide. She talked about watching him sleep that night because she was too afraid that he might try again. She spoke soberly about the great tragedy that he feels no hope.

No Hope- that's what people without Jesus have. It made me hurt for her and her family that they live lives without Jesus and waste away both inwardly and outwardly because of poverty. It also made me think of what we choose to put our hope in during our stay in this world. I've done quite a bit of work down on the gulf coast serving the victims of hurricane Katrina. We say victims because of the great devistation and tragedy that they underwent and continue to feel the wake of because of the demolition of their earthly posessions. And yet, I find myself each time I am down there more and more realizing that I envy the uprooting, the purification, the realization that our great Heavenly Father has given them that they truly need nothing apart from Christ.

We shouldn't have any hope apart from Christ. Even so in our world, we've done a fairly excellent job of imagining things that bring us seasons or moments of hope. We try and mount those things atop one another to keep the feeling a moment longer. I confess I sat listening to this poor woman tell me her story wondering where else I place my hope. Her son was at the end of his ability to displace hope and sadly I think those are the times that we're most primed, most able to find true hope and freedom in our risen Savior. I wonder what else we put our hope in to try and make our lives better. I know I often put my hope in clothes, in my put-together apartment, in my car or in my other possessions. I put my hope in having lots of friends or having a great family. I put my hope in things that of themselves are not bad but as things that block my full need and realization of that need of a Savior. I put hope and survival in those things and many others in order to not feel the vulnerability that comes with living solely by faith.

great mercy

I'm so forgetful. I get frustrated with myself all the time when I forget something really important or don't allow enough time to get somewhere or complete a task. I like being perfect and having people be impressed with my ability to do everything I say and to help out frequently. I like being that girl that people can count on. But you know what? It's exhausting trying to be a certain person and hold a certain image. I find myself too often at work thinking, 'God, I can't hold that person up. It's too heavy.' I was never meant to hold her up. Jesus was meant to hold us both up. "O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations...For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not, for your own sake, O my God.." Daniel 9:18-19.

When I pray, I often pray because of my righteousness. I bargain with God as though He needs to be reminded of the nice things and the "God points" I earned that day. I act as though I deserve certain things or I beg as though He's a mean old man who rarely gives me anything I ask. I dare not ask for too much though because then my answered prayer quota will be used up and I won't be able to get something better I want later that day. I transcend too many human and earthly father qualities on my Heavenly Father. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy. He doesn't make fun of us when we ask for silly things. He may chasten us but that is always a loving rebuke that brings us back to a God-center that we so desperately need.

I wonder if I have even a small incling of his great mercy? If I realize He takes special time and extra care for me at all times. I wonder how long it will take some of us to begin to understand the concept that Jesus understands the hard fight we fight every day- to get out of bed, to read scripture, to pray, to love those around us and beyond, to be a light in a very dark place. I wonder when we'll also understand that we're not meant to do it alone, we're not meant to do it by ourselves with our own righteousness. We're meant to fall at the feet of a risen Savior, a man who already defeated everything we encounter and believe after a while that He truly can do it all and that His greatness so far outweighs what we can do that we should stop doing for the glory and give it all to him. I wonder when my life and yours will be about His great mercy and His righteousness and not our own. I have light in me but His light so far outshines mine that why do I strain to keep mine burning when all I have to do is reach over and burn straight from the source?

An excellent spirit

"Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other presidents and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the presidents and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault, because he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him" Daniel 6:3-4.

I could find plenty of error or fault in my own life and probably the lives of those around me if I really wanted to dig. Daniel strikes me as a very different fellow than most of the Christian world because of his deep love and aquaintance with the unbelieving world. Daniel was one of the top authorities in the entire world at the time. The Bible says that King Darius had him as one of three presidents that fell just below the king himself and had plans to make him even higher as the authority over the other two presidents. So how could Daniel achieve all of this and still have an excellent spirit that continues to be faithful and not corrupt because of his time spent?

We often say that we should live in the world but not of the world. I think Daniel had a great handle on what that means. When Daniel interprets dreams or the handwriting in chapter 5 he refuses gifts saying, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another". Daniel didn't want the glory as I so often do. Daniel knew a great God that gave him that authority and he realized that it was not he himself who had accomplished anything. When I do something kind or make some great decision I want people to know about it. It seems like there are always strings attached with me and I often think about the good things I've done to someone and how they owe me when I need them for something. Daniel knew that even with great wealth and prosperity, with great riches and glory, with great acclaim and honor, that he would be "Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting" if he trusted in the same things his King Balshazzar trusted in. I wonder if we truly know that if we trust in things of this world we will be found wanting?

An excellent spirit is found in those who steadfastly remain affixed on God and realize that from His overflow comes complete satisfaction and joy in this life. I wonder why we search for it in all the wrong places. Considering Daniels lofty position in the world at the time, we don't have half the pressure that he did to go astray and seek after worldly gain. Yet he knew that it was all inconsequencial when it came to knowing his Creator- so much so that he publicly worshiped knowing he would get thrown in the lion's den, almost asking for it.

I wonder if I ever encapsulate that excellent spirit. I'm willing to worship when I have time or its convenient but under such harsh circumstances I wonder if I would go immediately to my house and get on my knees by an open window and pray where people could hear like Daniel in chapter 6. I wonder if I could maintain that excellent spirit as well as Daniel.