"'For I am with you,' says the Lord, 'to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will not let you go altogether unpunished.' For thus says the Lord: 'Your affliction is incurable, your wound is severe. There is no one to plead your cause that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you. Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity. Those who plunder you shall become plunder and all who prey upon you I will make a prey" Jeremiah 30: 11-16.
It's a condition that plagues us all: humanity. I often grumble as I wrestle with the ugly parts of me just how awful it is to have this darkness constantly sneaking up on me, living in my inner-being, just waiting for a foothold out. It's my human condition, my great depravity. It's an excellent excuse for the terrible things we do but not enough so that it excuses us from the consequences that follow wrong actions. This may be ironic to say, but I love the harshness of the passage above. Your affliction is incurable. You have no healing medicines. You can't do it. You can't save yourself. You may try, God only knows how many times I have and likely will continue to try. Your sins are piling up. Your incurable. It's so desolate and hopeless.
Then we reach deep into some of the context of this writing. The Israelites are so much like us it's scary. They've fallen away, big time. They didn't want to listen to God, didn't want to worship Him, didn't want to do anything but exactly what they wanted to do. If they lived in modern America they would be skipping church, only praying in emergencies or when they wanted something and idling their lives away on alcohol and lewd behavior (and for those who think lewd is antiquated, try worldly). They'd look surprisingly similar to you and me.
But in this passage God isn't saying they're utterly incurable. He's saying they're incurable in the path they've set themselves on. When you dig yourself a hole well above your head and you try to save yourself, all it's going to do it scrape away the edges and make your hole bigger when you try to climb out. Bonus, it may throw some of the dust in your face in the mean time. The Israelites had dug a HUGE hole- no way of climbing out and righting themselves. They'd fallen into this severe, destitute place far off from God. In their plight they were hopeless.
Then the next part, and don't miss it because I love this: Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Why do we feel sorry for ourselves? Why do we weep about the trivial things of life? Why do we drown on and on about the things that are temporal and don't truly matter? Our sorrow is incurable and our thirst unquenchable. Unless we go to the right source.
God says something rather uncomfortable next. I have done these things to you. We don't typically like to think of God as inflicting sorrow on us much less severe wounds and incurable afflictions. We don't like to think of God as the power who swept the Israelites into captivity and desolation. But He's that God too and in this passage He mercifully gives us just a small glimpse of His reason: For I am with you... to save you... yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will not let you go altogether unpunished. He loves us so much. It's real; it's raw; it's uncomfortable. He loved them so much, despite their wandering, to devour and plunder the nations He used to scatter them. I love the word therefore, it's such a great word to sum up. Yet here, upon first glance, it sits awkwardly between to seemingly unconnected sentences. Until you think about it. The Israelites were His chosen, call by His name. And even though they broke the sacred bond, He certainly wouldn't. And though He did everything to them, He still broke apart the nations and stood once again protecting them, much like a father for his child or a shepherd for his flock. He not only stood up for His people He destroyed any doubt that He was the controller and ruler, the Almighty God.
What a powerful, fierce and incredibly loving God we serve.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Friday, July 22, 2011
Learning from Hindsight
“Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the Lord. This is that King Ahaz. For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’ But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel” 2 Chronicles 28:22-23.
I’m going through the history and Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah right now and it’s stunning how dense they can be. Could they not look back on history and directly point to good following them when they followed God and a very severe inverse if they did not? Verses 1-4 outline the basics of King Ahaz’s wickedness and thus verse 5 God responds with, “Therefore the Lord His God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria…” Unbelievably dense to imagine he could do all the wickedness described and expect God to do nothing- the God who brought down plagues to free His people from Egypt, notably after He Himself hardened Pharaoh’s heart, thus showing his power on any spectrum; The God who threw down hail stones to fight off Israel’s enemies when they were too weak; The God who rained down manna and quail to answer Israel’s hunger in the desert for 40 years; The God who did countless other acts; This God, who Ahab surely knew did all these acts, was the one Ahab also didn’t fear. So he mucked about and squandered God’s goodness.
Throughout King Ahaz’s life he was unfaithful although he knew intimately the amazing acts of his nation’s God. Yet starting in verse 22 above, when he became in distress he turned further from God. He turned to the gods of the nations’ who had defeated him and worshipped them. It makes sense, sort of, but didn’t it occur to him that maybe God was angry and thus allowed those nations to win?
But isn’t that exactly like us? Don’t we have the Bible right in front of us? Haven’t we read it, even if only a few of the amazing stories? Don’t we know about Paul’s miracles, Jesus raising Lazareth and the feeding of the 5,000 men not to mention all the happenings Ahaz knew about as well? Isn’t our arsenal of God’s amazing deeds even larger than Ahaz’s?
I find the unfaithful kings of Israel and Judah insolent. How could they lead their people astray? How could they be so ignorant to God’s power and authority? But it seems the characteristics we detest the most in others are the very ones we ourselves portray. I know God; I know His ways; I know His authority and yet I often turn to other gods, or idols, and worship them. I turn to television; I turn to money; I turn to any form of strength and education for survival in this world and cling to it. I run to any version of immediate success and stability I can get my hands on.
The saying is true that hindsight is 20-20. But if I have this strong of a response to Ahaz in hindsight of his grossly incorrect lifestyle choices, why don’t I know that hindsight of my own life will yield the same results if I don’t correct my actions and turn first to the Lord, knowing He will provide? Have we learned nothing from the sins of our forefathers?
I’m going through the history and Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah right now and it’s stunning how dense they can be. Could they not look back on history and directly point to good following them when they followed God and a very severe inverse if they did not? Verses 1-4 outline the basics of King Ahaz’s wickedness and thus verse 5 God responds with, “Therefore the Lord His God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria…” Unbelievably dense to imagine he could do all the wickedness described and expect God to do nothing- the God who brought down plagues to free His people from Egypt, notably after He Himself hardened Pharaoh’s heart, thus showing his power on any spectrum; The God who threw down hail stones to fight off Israel’s enemies when they were too weak; The God who rained down manna and quail to answer Israel’s hunger in the desert for 40 years; The God who did countless other acts; This God, who Ahab surely knew did all these acts, was the one Ahab also didn’t fear. So he mucked about and squandered God’s goodness.
Throughout King Ahaz’s life he was unfaithful although he knew intimately the amazing acts of his nation’s God. Yet starting in verse 22 above, when he became in distress he turned further from God. He turned to the gods of the nations’ who had defeated him and worshipped them. It makes sense, sort of, but didn’t it occur to him that maybe God was angry and thus allowed those nations to win?
But isn’t that exactly like us? Don’t we have the Bible right in front of us? Haven’t we read it, even if only a few of the amazing stories? Don’t we know about Paul’s miracles, Jesus raising Lazareth and the feeding of the 5,000 men not to mention all the happenings Ahaz knew about as well? Isn’t our arsenal of God’s amazing deeds even larger than Ahaz’s?
I find the unfaithful kings of Israel and Judah insolent. How could they lead their people astray? How could they be so ignorant to God’s power and authority? But it seems the characteristics we detest the most in others are the very ones we ourselves portray. I know God; I know His ways; I know His authority and yet I often turn to other gods, or idols, and worship them. I turn to television; I turn to money; I turn to any form of strength and education for survival in this world and cling to it. I run to any version of immediate success and stability I can get my hands on.
The saying is true that hindsight is 20-20. But if I have this strong of a response to Ahaz in hindsight of his grossly incorrect lifestyle choices, why don’t I know that hindsight of my own life will yield the same results if I don’t correct my actions and turn first to the Lord, knowing He will provide? Have we learned nothing from the sins of our forefathers?
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Return to Me
“’I also withheld rain from you, when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city; I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet you have not returned to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I blasted you with blight and mildew. When your gardens increased, your vineyards, your fig trees, and your olive trees, the locust devoured them; yet you have not returned to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I sent among you a plague after the manner of Egypt; your young men I killed with a sword, along with your captive horses; I made the stench of your camps come up into your nostrils; yet you have not returned to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I overthrew some of you, as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand plucked from the burning; yet you have not returned to me,’ say the Lord. ‘Therefore, thus will I do to you Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! For behold, He who forms mountains, and creates the wind, who declares to man what his thought is, and makes the morning darkness, who treads the high places of the earth—the Lord God of hosts is His name’” Amos 4:7-13.
This is a rather long passage but worth printing. We have a jaded concept of God’s wrath and bad things happening in our world. And ironically, it’s not always what an outside observer might think.
Throughout history one could easily draw the connection to what we consider bad things happening on this earth and God. After all, if He’s the judge-figure who sits up on the throne of Heaven spending His leisure time condemning people, He’d spend His active time smiting them surely. Particularly in ancient Israel, when bad things happened it was typically, if not practically always, because the Israelites had gone off course, disobeyed God and needed to refocus on serving only Him. It was essentially a jolt of “Hey you, remember me? Yeah, you’re going to need to get back to the straight and narrow or else.” Do good = good earthly blessings; do bad = bad things. But over time and in cases with nations outside of God, this general rule adjusted.
In today’s culture, this occurs sometimes but often we in the church think it rarely the case. Those outside the church may see a smiting God, but those inside the church usually see the Jesus with the lamb on His shoulders. But as the Psalmist lamented over evil men prospering, so we too see this principle lived out today. But what if it still happens much, much more than we realize? He’s the same God, isn’t He?
In the above passage of Amos’ writing, God over and over gave Israel little warnings. But because of their continued disobedience He sent them into destruction and bondage time and time again. What if our world is similar? When a bad thing happens to us like job loss, marriage trouble, a car wreck or something else tragic, what if we first reconciled our hearts to God and sought Him wholeheartedly? It may not be the case, He may not be punishing or correcting you, He may be using you to further make His name known through your pain. But just in case, what if we first, without anger or feelings of betrayal and indignation, first came to God and prostrated ourselves before Him and sought His favor and guidance. Would He relent? I think if you know God and read the scriptures even a little you can answer unquestionably, yes.
This is a rather long passage but worth printing. We have a jaded concept of God’s wrath and bad things happening in our world. And ironically, it’s not always what an outside observer might think.
Throughout history one could easily draw the connection to what we consider bad things happening on this earth and God. After all, if He’s the judge-figure who sits up on the throne of Heaven spending His leisure time condemning people, He’d spend His active time smiting them surely. Particularly in ancient Israel, when bad things happened it was typically, if not practically always, because the Israelites had gone off course, disobeyed God and needed to refocus on serving only Him. It was essentially a jolt of “Hey you, remember me? Yeah, you’re going to need to get back to the straight and narrow or else.” Do good = good earthly blessings; do bad = bad things. But over time and in cases with nations outside of God, this general rule adjusted.
In today’s culture, this occurs sometimes but often we in the church think it rarely the case. Those outside the church may see a smiting God, but those inside the church usually see the Jesus with the lamb on His shoulders. But as the Psalmist lamented over evil men prospering, so we too see this principle lived out today. But what if it still happens much, much more than we realize? He’s the same God, isn’t He?
In the above passage of Amos’ writing, God over and over gave Israel little warnings. But because of their continued disobedience He sent them into destruction and bondage time and time again. What if our world is similar? When a bad thing happens to us like job loss, marriage trouble, a car wreck or something else tragic, what if we first reconciled our hearts to God and sought Him wholeheartedly? It may not be the case, He may not be punishing or correcting you, He may be using you to further make His name known through your pain. But just in case, what if we first, without anger or feelings of betrayal and indignation, first came to God and prostrated ourselves before Him and sought His favor and guidance. Would He relent? I think if you know God and read the scriptures even a little you can answer unquestionably, yes.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Ancient Adornment
“In that day the Lord will take away the finery: The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils; the headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands; the perfume boxes, the charms, and the rings; the nose jewels, the festal apparel, and the mantles; the outer garments, the purses, and the mirrors; the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes” Isaiah 3:18-23.
When France announced their ban on Islamic full veils several months ago it renewed my interest in Islamic and other cultural attire. Several reasons where sighted for the ban including bondage because of customs and ease of terrorist concealment. While both are fairly valid reasons in my opinion, I also struggle with the interference of government in religion.
Throughout history is seems the exact opposite occurred: religion controlled government. It may be somewhat of a stretch to make this statement so overtly but religion of a people played a vital role in authority and control. Whatever gods or things a particular sect of people worshipped they usually separated themselves from other bands of worship. Of course, several people groups began over history to break this system down, most noteworthy the Roman Empire. But even Rome, ancient Israel, Great Britain and others who have come close to controlling the world had limits on worship and personal dedication to things other than prescribed. I supposed one could argue religion and government share a rather mutually beneficial, exclusive and at the same time destructive relationship throughout history.
But I particularly wonder, and maybe I’ll just look it up, how Christianity lost its fervor for traditional dress. Islam, a much younger religion than Judaism and Christianity, continues to pass along its traditional garb as a custom and necessity to true pilgrims. Christianity, however, focuses more on inner faith and less on rules and regulations. Freedom. We hear that word a lot in Christianity. But it makes me wonder if we’ve used that freedom to truly be better for it.
Have we utterly lost the customs of the past like in Ancient Israel? Are any still valid and need revitalizing in our world? In Isaiah 3 they clearly abused their power and because of their greed and need for more they turned aside longing after the wrong things. They let their worldly customs dig too deep into their souls. I think we modern Christians can totally relate to this. But it also makes me wonder how we’ve let ancient, pure customs slip through our fingers in the name of freedom and independence. We no longer adorn ourselves with bangles, veils, ankle bracelets or traditional garments. We dress for work better than we dress to enter the sanctuary of the Lord.
Clearly there are customs we should have and did abandon. But are there customs we should embrace once again? Are there customs that actually reside within the freedom of Christ and strip away our concept of freedom? Freedom is certainly not free and it’s not freedom to this world. Freedom is freedom in Christ and what of the sacred is He calling out and imploring us to embrace?
When France announced their ban on Islamic full veils several months ago it renewed my interest in Islamic and other cultural attire. Several reasons where sighted for the ban including bondage because of customs and ease of terrorist concealment. While both are fairly valid reasons in my opinion, I also struggle with the interference of government in religion.
Throughout history is seems the exact opposite occurred: religion controlled government. It may be somewhat of a stretch to make this statement so overtly but religion of a people played a vital role in authority and control. Whatever gods or things a particular sect of people worshipped they usually separated themselves from other bands of worship. Of course, several people groups began over history to break this system down, most noteworthy the Roman Empire. But even Rome, ancient Israel, Great Britain and others who have come close to controlling the world had limits on worship and personal dedication to things other than prescribed. I supposed one could argue religion and government share a rather mutually beneficial, exclusive and at the same time destructive relationship throughout history.
But I particularly wonder, and maybe I’ll just look it up, how Christianity lost its fervor for traditional dress. Islam, a much younger religion than Judaism and Christianity, continues to pass along its traditional garb as a custom and necessity to true pilgrims. Christianity, however, focuses more on inner faith and less on rules and regulations. Freedom. We hear that word a lot in Christianity. But it makes me wonder if we’ve used that freedom to truly be better for it.
Have we utterly lost the customs of the past like in Ancient Israel? Are any still valid and need revitalizing in our world? In Isaiah 3 they clearly abused their power and because of their greed and need for more they turned aside longing after the wrong things. They let their worldly customs dig too deep into their souls. I think we modern Christians can totally relate to this. But it also makes me wonder how we’ve let ancient, pure customs slip through our fingers in the name of freedom and independence. We no longer adorn ourselves with bangles, veils, ankle bracelets or traditional garments. We dress for work better than we dress to enter the sanctuary of the Lord.
Clearly there are customs we should have and did abandon. But are there customs we should embrace once again? Are there customs that actually reside within the freedom of Christ and strip away our concept of freedom? Freedom is certainly not free and it’s not freedom to this world. Freedom is freedom in Christ and what of the sacred is He calling out and imploring us to embrace?
Thursday, July 07, 2011
It Makes No Difference
II Chronicles 14
“Asa [King of Judah] had an army of 300,000 men out of Judah…and 280,000 out of Benjamin…There came out against Judah Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a million [that is, too many to count] …Asa cried to the Lord his God, O Lord, there is none besides You to help, and it makes no difference to You whether the one You help is mighty or powerless. Help us, O Lord our God! For we rely on You, and we go against this multitude in Your name. O Lord, You are our God; let no man prevail against You! So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled” II Chronicles 14:8-12, selected parts.
I love the Old Testament. There’s something about the utter dependence and ignorance of the people in Old Testament Israel that I resonate with. They had a huge disadvantage from us, sure, because of several things. For one, they didn’t have the permanency of the Holy Spirit- no inner guide. They didn’t have the level of individual belief and subsequent works like we do today; it was much more communal worship and belief. Sadly, if a King went astray, odds were good the entire nation fell as well, or likely God took vengeance on the nation because the leader acted wickedly and many followed. Jews lacked individual purpose and direction for the most part and relied very heavily on prophets to point them in God’s direction and the King to point them in everyday life directions. But the more Israel and Judah went astray, the fewer prophets were around to be called upon for guidance.
But I love the fact that even in the Old Testament some people understood the fact that God desired intimate communion and communication with them. He desired praise and reliance; He desired to be a merciful and all-powerful God to His beloved people. But He demanded obedience and undivided hearts. Asa wasn’t a perfect king, but he did a lot of good for the kingdom. He had a lot of soldiers in this scene and I bet he thought he was prepared for most fights. When he heard about the number of Ethiopians however, he quickly changed his tune. Fear crept in. The Hebrew word for million here means the Ethiopians had so many soldiers you couldn’t count them all. At least double for sure, probably a lot more than that. Judah was way, way up a creek and in trouble.
Then Asa cried to the Lord his God, O Lord, there is none besides You to help, and it makes no difference to You whether the one You help is mighty or powerless. This mighty king, reigning over all in his land, humbled himself and cried before the Lord. And in his cry he acknowledged a rather odd fact to me. We often limit God’s power to the logical. We rationalize situations and talk to God once we have an agenda and game plan that makes the most sense. We bring order back to our chaos and then inform God through prayer what we wish. And while God clearly does desire for us to pray boldly He also doesn’t need permission or guidance on how to handle anything. He has ultimate power and authority over everything, absolutely everything. He doesn’t care even a tiny little sliver what the situation looks like. If He wants to bring something about, He can. That idea is striking to me- it makes no difference to God whether the person He helps is mighty or powerless; if it did, it would mean God has a limit on His power.
We can’t explain away our issues or problem solve enough to figure out a successful life. Successful lives are built on a Godly foundation where He leads and guides. He doesn’t care if you’re mighty or powerless; He can and will use you exactly how He made you. We just have to trust with every part of our beings that God will fight for us if we rely completely on Him. And the ways we fall short, as we so often will, may we pray that God would intercede and increase our faith to believe He can and He will.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Truth
My car was pinged a few times in the storm a few weeks ago that brought hail. At first I thought I wouldn't take it in- it's getting older and I've been parking it outside too much in the last few years. The doors, hood and truck have their fair share of scratches and tree sap. I had a brick from my chimney fall on it a few months ago that left a fairly large dint in the side and a small crack in the tail light. It's a well loved car.
But there is some hail damage and so I decided to take it in for the estimate. My initial thought was (and still is) a hope that maybe some of the other wear and tear will get fixed too because they're on the same parts damaged by the hail. And then I thought about the brick ding. I hoped they'd include it on the insurance claim- get it all fixed at once. After all, it happened in a storm too.
Ah yes, but it didn't happen in the same storm or at the same time- and I chose not to fix it several months ago. But, my internal justifier says, I can answer truthfully and tell them it happened in a storm (notice the "a" and not "the" but they'll never notice) and get all my mistakes fixed in this one insurance claim.
"Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me" Psalm 131:2.
We spend so much of our time justifying our actions. We mull over phrasing of words and manerisms until we've crystalized our truth. We can explain away how our mistruths frankly were for the greater good. We get away with things because "they don't hurt anyone" and so they're ok.
Several years ago I was down on the Gulf Coast repairing a few churches with some friends. We started in the main-hub church and most groups went out to other churches. My group stayed to help bring some organization to the operation. The pastor met with us shortly and went into a meeting, leaving instructions with the assistant that we needed to pull up the carpet in the sactuary because it'd been damaged by the storm.
Other than wear and tear nothing was wrong with the carpet. The church had only sustained minor exterior damage in the hurricane, no interior flooding or problems. With my suspicions about me, I spoke with several qualified people who verified my story of no interior claims. They were committing insurance fraud, trying to pull up the carpet and dispose of it before the adjuster got there so they'd get to claim it as damaged.
Fraud. That's a heavy word. No chance that pastor said to himself, "I'll commit fraud today so we can get new carpet." No, they needed new carpet and what was the harm, he probably thought. He'd justified his actions and probably had pushed it out of his mind enough that he felt fine. At the time, to say I was angry was an understatement. I wanted to storm in and tell this guy off- how dare he abuse power, particularly as the shepherd of not only this church body but of this whole reconstruction undertaking. I was disappointed.
God has this amazing way in my life of showing me exactly how other people feel in their lowest points. Not always at the time, sometimes years later, but I get there, eventually. I know how he feels now. What's the harm? Insurance is too expensive anyway, they owe me. I'll tell them it's all one claim. And I may be overly legalistic about all of this and I probably won't argue if they do end of fixing everything- but I hope I won't lie or even mislead them about it (which is the same as lying). "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." From my understanding, weaning is a hard thing. The child is used to mom being around all the time and making all the decisions. The child trusts mom and whatever she does is what happens.
But when you wean a child he's got to learn to live independently to a large extent. He can still be apart of mom's life but he's now got his own life and his own choices. Isn't that the perfect picture of the soul verses the human condition? We got to pull our souls away from our human depravity. We've got to separate these evil thoughts we have of manipulation and cheating. We've got to wean ourselves from our sinful nature. We won't ever be totally disconnected while we're in these human shells but we've got to live independently as much as we can. It won't be easy just like weaning a child is most unpleasant. But we've got to commit and do it because can you imagine a child that was never weaned? Much like a Christian that's still living in and of this world.
A child that's never weaned would never do well in this world. A Christian that's never weaned would never do well in this world or the next.
But there is some hail damage and so I decided to take it in for the estimate. My initial thought was (and still is) a hope that maybe some of the other wear and tear will get fixed too because they're on the same parts damaged by the hail. And then I thought about the brick ding. I hoped they'd include it on the insurance claim- get it all fixed at once. After all, it happened in a storm too.
Ah yes, but it didn't happen in the same storm or at the same time- and I chose not to fix it several months ago. But, my internal justifier says, I can answer truthfully and tell them it happened in a storm (notice the "a" and not "the" but they'll never notice) and get all my mistakes fixed in this one insurance claim.
"Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me" Psalm 131:2.
We spend so much of our time justifying our actions. We mull over phrasing of words and manerisms until we've crystalized our truth. We can explain away how our mistruths frankly were for the greater good. We get away with things because "they don't hurt anyone" and so they're ok.
Several years ago I was down on the Gulf Coast repairing a few churches with some friends. We started in the main-hub church and most groups went out to other churches. My group stayed to help bring some organization to the operation. The pastor met with us shortly and went into a meeting, leaving instructions with the assistant that we needed to pull up the carpet in the sactuary because it'd been damaged by the storm.
Other than wear and tear nothing was wrong with the carpet. The church had only sustained minor exterior damage in the hurricane, no interior flooding or problems. With my suspicions about me, I spoke with several qualified people who verified my story of no interior claims. They were committing insurance fraud, trying to pull up the carpet and dispose of it before the adjuster got there so they'd get to claim it as damaged.
Fraud. That's a heavy word. No chance that pastor said to himself, "I'll commit fraud today so we can get new carpet." No, they needed new carpet and what was the harm, he probably thought. He'd justified his actions and probably had pushed it out of his mind enough that he felt fine. At the time, to say I was angry was an understatement. I wanted to storm in and tell this guy off- how dare he abuse power, particularly as the shepherd of not only this church body but of this whole reconstruction undertaking. I was disappointed.
God has this amazing way in my life of showing me exactly how other people feel in their lowest points. Not always at the time, sometimes years later, but I get there, eventually. I know how he feels now. What's the harm? Insurance is too expensive anyway, they owe me. I'll tell them it's all one claim. And I may be overly legalistic about all of this and I probably won't argue if they do end of fixing everything- but I hope I won't lie or even mislead them about it (which is the same as lying). "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me." From my understanding, weaning is a hard thing. The child is used to mom being around all the time and making all the decisions. The child trusts mom and whatever she does is what happens.
But when you wean a child he's got to learn to live independently to a large extent. He can still be apart of mom's life but he's now got his own life and his own choices. Isn't that the perfect picture of the soul verses the human condition? We got to pull our souls away from our human depravity. We've got to separate these evil thoughts we have of manipulation and cheating. We've got to wean ourselves from our sinful nature. We won't ever be totally disconnected while we're in these human shells but we've got to live independently as much as we can. It won't be easy just like weaning a child is most unpleasant. But we've got to commit and do it because can you imagine a child that was never weaned? Much like a Christian that's still living in and of this world.
A child that's never weaned would never do well in this world. A Christian that's never weaned would never do well in this world or the next.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Sacrifice Costing Nothing
"Then King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy it for full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing" 1 Chronicles 21:24.
"Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing" 2 Samuel 24:24.
This idea of sacrifice which costs nothing is of high value in our society today. We tend to do as much as we can to be seen or spoken positively of by others, even at the expense of hard work and true service. We thrive, even in Christian society, on what others think of us and frankly care very little about God's opinion. If we're all being honest, we only really care when we need something from Him.
I just finished reading these two chapters of Samuel and Chronicles, paralleling one another on the very same story. There are minor discrepancies in the authors' retelling of these stories but that's of no value. Hebrew society was an oral traditions society, caring less about factual details and much, much more about contexts and application. These particular verses struck me though with this thought of sacrifices which costs me nothing. David has wrongly numbered the people and God punishes Israel. To end the plague that's killed tens of thousands already, David is to erect an alter and sacrifice to God on it. One could argue, as we do in our day-and-age, that God has already "put them through" so much and they "deserve" for the plague to end and God to bestow kindness once again on them. After all, even David calls them lambs who have done no wrong. What did they do to deserve this punishment?
Interesting our similar we are to all mankind. We're defensive and think highly of ourselves. Deep down, self-confidence issues or not, we're pretty prideful. We deserve heaven, we deserve good things in this life, we deserve wealth and good health. Right? But despite this horrible plague that God reigns down over Israel killing tens of thousands, David still has to build an alter and worship God through sacrifice. And despite even this, David realizes sacrifice has to cost something.
If someone does the work for you but you get the credit, you don't learn true sacrifice. You don't learn the high cost of doing things for others as a service to God. You miss out on glimpsing a piece of the sacrifice Jesus gave to come, live, die and reign for us. If it costs nothing, you learn only pride because only the world thinks you did a great deed. David knew this all too well and knew if this sacrifice to end the plague was to be, he'd had to purchase the alter and all necessary supplies.
That which costs little usually means little but those things which cost much tend to be our priceless treasures. Are you authentically sacrificing for the kingdom? Do you believe it's worth the eternal reward?
"Then the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing" 2 Samuel 24:24.
This idea of sacrifice which costs nothing is of high value in our society today. We tend to do as much as we can to be seen or spoken positively of by others, even at the expense of hard work and true service. We thrive, even in Christian society, on what others think of us and frankly care very little about God's opinion. If we're all being honest, we only really care when we need something from Him.
I just finished reading these two chapters of Samuel and Chronicles, paralleling one another on the very same story. There are minor discrepancies in the authors' retelling of these stories but that's of no value. Hebrew society was an oral traditions society, caring less about factual details and much, much more about contexts and application. These particular verses struck me though with this thought of sacrifices which costs me nothing. David has wrongly numbered the people and God punishes Israel. To end the plague that's killed tens of thousands already, David is to erect an alter and sacrifice to God on it. One could argue, as we do in our day-and-age, that God has already "put them through" so much and they "deserve" for the plague to end and God to bestow kindness once again on them. After all, even David calls them lambs who have done no wrong. What did they do to deserve this punishment?
Interesting our similar we are to all mankind. We're defensive and think highly of ourselves. Deep down, self-confidence issues or not, we're pretty prideful. We deserve heaven, we deserve good things in this life, we deserve wealth and good health. Right? But despite this horrible plague that God reigns down over Israel killing tens of thousands, David still has to build an alter and worship God through sacrifice. And despite even this, David realizes sacrifice has to cost something.
If someone does the work for you but you get the credit, you don't learn true sacrifice. You don't learn the high cost of doing things for others as a service to God. You miss out on glimpsing a piece of the sacrifice Jesus gave to come, live, die and reign for us. If it costs nothing, you learn only pride because only the world thinks you did a great deed. David knew this all too well and knew if this sacrifice to end the plague was to be, he'd had to purchase the alter and all necessary supplies.
That which costs little usually means little but those things which cost much tend to be our priceless treasures. Are you authentically sacrificing for the kingdom? Do you believe it's worth the eternal reward?
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