June 19 Day 26 - Postlogue

I wanted to add on to my post but thought it worthy of another posting rather than an addition to the previous one for today

You see, I have a dear friend who is in a bit of a crisis lately. This friend and I had a chance to talk today and I've walked away from that conversation burdened. You see, life has not been easy for this friend. There have been some things happening in life that could not be controlled by this friend. Yet how this friend has chosen to act on these circumstances can be controlled and unfortunately this friend made some poor choices. Recently after making some repeated wrong choices my friend went to speak with a church representative. Yet this pastor in an attempt to help ended up hurting. The pastor told my friend to view these choices as normal struggles and recognize that the struggle is common to most people. Yet what this pastor didn't do, was call sin by its rightful name. It doesn't matter how normal sin is. It never excuses it because others are doing it as well. What does matter is that sin keeps us from understanding and feeling the complete love of God our creator and our Abba Father. By encouraging my friend to see these poor choices as normal, this man of God missed the chance to help someone repent and seek forgiveness. While I don't know this pastor personally I certainly don't want to rush to judgement. This pastor may very well have a vibrant relationship with the Lord and may be producing great fruit for the kingdom. Yet, I know in this one instance, this pastor missed an opportunity. I might speculate that his decision was driven out of popularity and not out of compassion. Calling sin, sin is not popular. To tell someone they are living in sin is not going to gain you a lot of friends and it certainly might chase a few people away from your church in today's post-modern culture. But yet, that is exactly what our friends need to hear today. Too few of our "leaders" are willing to believe in absolute truth let alone calling sin by its rightful name. If our leaders won't do it, and our churches aren't preaching it, where are we to hear it. . . other than in God's Word. But you see, those of us that are caught up in our sin don't want to read God's Word and if we do, we can't hear Him correctly unless we repent. Don't you see the irony in all of this???

So today on the phone with my friend, whom I love closer than a family member, I had to speak the truth in love. There were many times when I was speaking out of my mouth but praying in my soul that my words would be His words. There were awkward silences when I needed to seek God in micro-seconds that seemed like macro hours. And I know - by my friends long pauses and pained silences - that what I was saying was about as palatable as a sandwich of glass shards. Yet, because I love my friend so much I had to help this friend understand how passionate God is about a relationship with them. I had to help show that sin is sin... it is ugly and it is common... but it is never right. But there is no sin that Jesus didn't die for and that He can't defeat. The presence of sin in our life - whatever the reason or cause - is always a result of a poor choice. You and I can chose how we react to life and the sin around us... please don't let that reaction be by sinning yourself.

So what does this have to do with today's reading... I recognized that some of the "bad kings" were bad because they ignored God. But some of them were bad, because they believed God and didn't do anything to purify the land around them. Some of them refused to remove the idols or places of idol worship around them. And the result of these actions may not have been devastation but they were certainly never God's richest blessings being poured out on the land around them. When the kings wouldn't do it, God sent Elijah and Elisha to point out Israel's sin. It couldn't have been easy for Elijah and Elisha to do this. Elijah helped show who the true God of Israel was by challenging the prophets of Baal to show down and winning! Yet the expense of this was that people called him a troublemaker. Jezebel threatened to put Elijah to death for defaming her god and her prophets. What God had called Elijah to couldn't have been comfortable and it certainly couldn't have been popular. I know this in a new sense today, because I feel a little like Elijah today... tired of calling sin a sin... in fear of losing a friendship... but totally feeling obedient to God. The hope I have is that God was so pleased with Elijah's obedience that we read about how Elijah never died... he was taken to heaven in a whirlwind. I don't expect this, but I do know that obedience to God sometimes means you aren't real popular with the world.

Friend, if you're reading this today, know that I love you more than a brother... so much so I cannot allow you to continue to give up the richest blessings God wants to pour out on you for the sake of a few poor (temporal) choices that will leave eternal scars.

June 19, Day 26 - Part A

1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 4:7

OK, so I get really confused when reading this. Who was a "good king" and followed God and who was a "bad" king and did evil in the Lord's sight? Not only that but were they the king of Israel or of Judah. Was their peace in the land at the time or not? Who was fighting whom and were they being judged for their rebellion or blessed because of their obedience? This is not easy stuff to relate to today... but yet it doesn't take too long for me to gain some application.

So there were kingdoms... they were ruled by kings. Kings were not God's idea in the first place... but yet because the people demanded a king like all other countries God gave them what they asked for. (Lesson #1 - be careful because He may give you what you ask for even if it is against your best interest.)

Good kings = following God, Bad kings = disobeying God (or worse yet, failing to recognize He even existed.) Following God yielded blessing and peace. Disobeying God resulted in being removed from power personally (perhaps even death) and also curses upon the people. (Lesson #2 - we best be careful who we elect as our "king" because their decisions have lasting implications on us)

In the middle of all of this we read in 1 Kings 17 about Elijah the Tishbite. We were reading about good kings and bad kings and here all the sudden we read about this guy whom "the Word of the Lord came upon" and birds fed. What is that all about? From here on we read more and more about Elijah (and later Elisha) and less and less about good kings and bad kings though they are still in the background. As I was reading this, I recognized this for myself all over again... God is sovereign and will use average people to spread His message and to help call others out of their sin. Surely God was using the Kings too to accomplish his purpose, but he was always using these prophets to remind people of who he was and what He desired for their life.

Today, I gain great comfort in that. We may be following the polls and electing the president of our country based on popular opinion. And God expects us to participate in this process. Yet, it is going to be the average people around us who likely won't get the TV time or the press time that is calling the world out of our sin and pointing the Lord's sovereignty out to us. Won't you thank your pastor, your neighbor, your accountability partner or any other of God's representatives around you today for helping you understand who God is?

June 18, Day 25

1 Kings 7:13 - 1 Kings 15:34

So I need to set a bit of context for this posting as it relates to current events. I have a habit in the morning of having my quiet time and Bible reading and then glancing at the headlines in the paper. However on this day, I decided I would go get the paper from the box first (and of course glance at the headlines) before I opened my Bible. So the current events focused my reading and though there was a lot in this reading, there was one glaring thing that popped out at me.

Currently in our country there is a huge "social experiment" going on. I've chosen to call it that despite what it really is -blatant defiance of God and His order. California has just "legalized" same sex marriage. and it just went into effect a few days ago. California doesn't have a residency requirement for someone to be wed there so essentially people from all over the country can come and be "married" and then go back to their home state. In essence it will be only a matter of time before they start demanding that other states recognize this marriage and provide the same benefits as traditional marriage. (Oh what a slippery slope we're on... but I can't focus on that right now.) In the paper the headline read, "Gays wed in California." I knew the day was coming as it had been talked about for several days. Yet, I also know God will not be mocked... and so I was wondering if God would intervene in any way to make Himself known or to stop this from happening. What I realized is we have a patient and long suffering God.

As I began reading today, I read how Solomon built the temple in its ornate fashion to workshop and "house" the Lord. Nothing was too opulent for the Lord's house. Then the ark of the covenant was brought into the Temple and God's presence filled the temple with a cloud of his Glory. While this was happening Solomon blessed the people with a prayer of praise and dedication. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon and acknowledged the prayer and plea Solomon had made (1 Kings 9:3)... in verse 6 is really what caught my attention....

"But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this Temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will become a byword and an object of ridicule among all people." (1 Kings 9:6-7)

This is a strong warning to the Israelites. They'd just sacrificed on God's behalf to build the temple. They - at the present time - were not completely rebelling against Him, yet He felt it necessary to warn them what would happen.

Are we not the same as Israel today here in the United States? Did God not bless us abundantly in the past because of our faithfulness as a people and our founding father's foresight to follow Him in establishing our republic? Should we not be as the Israelites, sacrificing on His behalf realizing our best still pales in comparison from His due worship? Yet, as we grow further and further into our post-modern age and we become less and less reliant on Him, we are worshiping other gods... gods of self, gods of material possessions, gods of work, etc... We are proclaiming ourselves to be above reproach or without need for God and His laws. California is thumbing their nose at God right now with this one action... but are we not all guilty?

The headlines in the paper were also reading about the record floods going on in the Midwest, the tornadoes that recently hit parts of the country and other events. There was even a quote from someone in Iowa who admittedly was an agnostic - but said "I think God is just telling us that He is in control and we are not." (loosely paraphrased from the original quote.) Is this not what is happening? God is trying to tell us we are not in control. He will allow us to make our own decisions - no matter how bad they are - but we must also suffer for the consequences.

To our detriment however, we see ourselves as Californians and Iowans... not as Americans. We don't recognize that the decisions that one of us makes affects the larger part of us all. And until we all cry out in repentance on behalf of some of the collective sins of our country, God will be long suffering in exacting total judgement - but He will always make Himself known... sometimes by using weather patterns and other times by being silent and letting us put the noose around our own neck....

Won't you join me in crying out on behalf of our country... "God shed your grace on thee!"