Ready to Forgive

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Pete

Back online . . . and hopefully, for awhile at least, back in routine.

I’ve enjoyed the break. Enjoyed spending focused time with the family of God. Enjoyed a quick road trip south to central Oregon to connect with my daughter and husband. But, not gonna lie to ya’, I’ve missed my morning routine. Something about being still and knowing that He is God each morning. Something about opening His word and asking Him to “open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law” (Ps. 119:18). Something about a secret place where God can search me and know me. Something about a secret place where I can again hear His still small voice through His living and active Word. Something about then taking a few minutes, noodling on His revelation and chewing on His word, and then putting a few thoughts into the computer. Ah, blessed routine!

And this morning it is a phrase in a verse in Nehemiah that I think God has highlighted for me to savor.

“But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey Your commandments. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that You performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.”

(Nehemiah 9:16-17 ESV)

Nehemiah 8 and 9 have got to be some of the most stirring chapters in all of Scripture. After great opposition and many different attempts at derailing the work, Nehemiah and his crew of former exiles have finished rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. And to celebrate they gather in the security of their rebuilt city to lay again the foundation of God’s word. A platform is built, the people gather, Ezra takes the stage, everyone stands, and the word of God is read . . . and read . . . and read some more. And the people listen, and the Levites explain the meaning of what is read, and hearts are moved, and the things of God are again pursued.

Three weeks later they gather again. For three hours they stand again to hear the Book of the Law read. And then for three hours they confess their sin and worship their God. And in the midst of such confession and worship they recount God’s dealing with them as a nation.

“You are the LORD, You alone,” they acknowledge afresh (9:5). The Maker of heaven and earth, the God who chose Abram, the God who entered into covenant. The God of their deliverance from Egypt, the Provider of bread from heaven, the One who lead them by day and night, by pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, to the land promised them.

But, they confess, “our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments.” Though they were set up for success, their faithlessness led to failure. Though God was on their side, they chose instead to give Him their backs. But where man’s sin does abound, the grace of God does more abound.

But You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love . . .

Familiar ring to the verse but with a twist. It is the goodness of God proclaimed to Moses as he stood by the LORD on the rock. The glory of God revealed to Moses as he was sheltered in the cleft of the rock (Ex. 33:17-34:8). And while the glory revealed to Moses is repeated throughout the Old Testament, only here is found the added attribute, “ready to forgive.”

Not only able to forgive, having become, through the finished work of the cross, the “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:23-26). Not just willing to forgive, extending patience and longsuffering toward all, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2Pet. 3:9). But ready to forgive. Allowing circumstance here on earth that directs eyes toward heaven. Calling the sinner to Himself. Waiting for faith to ascend that He might forgive.

True for the sinner, true for the saint.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1John 1:8-9 ESV)

Ready to forgive. The sacrifice of Christ sufficient to pay the price for all our sin–past, present, and future. The blood of Christ able to cleanse away the stain of all our transgressions–not only the stain of the distant past, but also the stain of the not so distant past.

You are the LORD, God alone. And You are ready to forgive. Thank you, Father.

For Your grace . . . for Your glory.

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The Ponderer

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Pete

It’s truth given as a warning, but being received this morning as a comfort. It is a reminder of the nature of the God of heaven which has profound implications for life on earth. That God possesses a divine knowledge. That all the ways of men and women are known. That He is the Ponderer!

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,
   and He ponders all his paths.

(Proverbs 5:21 ESV)

The Context (5:1,7): The teacher continues to exhort his son to be attentive, to incline his ear, to listen and not depart from the words of his mouth.

The Subject (5:3, 22): The forbidden woman. The seductress. Temptation which entices with lips dripping with honey and speech smoother than oil. Iniquity which ensnares. Sin that binds with cords.

The Solution (5:15, 18-19): Drink water from your own cistern. Be filled with the abundance offered from your own well. Desire nothing but your first love. Be intoxicated with that which is pure.

The Stimulus: The Ponderer. That there is One intimately familiar with every path taken. Not only passively familiar, but actively engaged. Laying out the ways of our heavenly homeland though not eliminating the voice of the alluring foreigner. Allowing us to choose, but also weighing our decisions.

And so, in context, the way of wisdom says flee from the hidden ways of sin because, in fact, they are not hidden at all. A man’s ways, a woman’s ways, are before the eyes of the LORD. And He who sees all will judge all.

Warning noted afresh. But beyond the warning, this morning as I chew on this great truth there is also a warming.

He ponders all my paths. Not just those that offend Him, but those also that seek Him. Far from some morbid picture of a God who only takes an interest in our failures as we succumb to heeding to the siren’s voice and following the allure of the world, with greater desire He is a God who longs to draw near to those who faithfully, though not perfectly, stumble along the roadway as sojourners on their way home. All the ways of the child of God are before His eyes. For He is the Ponderer.

Not some distant observer, but actively making level our paths and enabling us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling (Eph 4:1). Not unfamiliar with our trials but actively engaged in supplying mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). Drawing alongside to help bear the burden, as He knows from first hand experience the weight that is sometimes ours as we seek to keep on keepin’ on.

For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.

(Hebrews 2:16-18 ESV)

He knows our struggles. He is familiar with our worries for the day. For our ways are before the eyes of our God. And He ponders all our paths.

And His grace is sufficient.

And His glory will be known.

For He is the Ponderer.

—————————————
Note: Sue and I will be gone next week hanging out with our church family at our annual camping retreat. Will be offline. Lord willing, will be sharing my morning musings again on the 8th.

 

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Get It!

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Pete

Urgency. If there’s one word that captures the tone of these opening chapters of Proverbs it’s urgency. Nothing optional in Solomon’s exhortation. Nothing secondary in it’s nature. To heed Solomon’s repetitious pleading, if you were developing your life’s “to do” list, would be to place “get wisdom” at the top.

Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.

(Proverbs 4:6-7 ESV)

Get it. That’s an imperative. A command, not a suggestion. Get it. Acquire it, obtain it, buy it, possess it. As I’ve noted before action required!

And “it” is wisdom, and her companion is insight. If wisdom is skill for living, then insight is discernment for living.

Wisdom is the “what.” It is the instruction that when obeyed provides protection against danger and brings honor among men. It is what leads to straight paths and avoids the injuries of destructive snares. It is founded in the fear of the LORD and it is appropriated through the word of God. Get wisdom.

But too, “whatever you get, get insight.” The acquisition of wisdom results in the protective filter of insight. For all those situations, and for all those decisions, that are not covered specifically by a command or an exhortation, insight kicks in to discern whether a course of action is profitable or not. Understanding helps us deal with the grey areas. Beyond simply following wisdom’s specific rules, insight allows us to apply wisdom’s intent so that we are not left to our own devices to avoid paths of evil. As, in obedience, we exercise the ways of wisdom, we develop the insight to discern good from evil (Heb. 5:14).

So get wisdom. And get insight. Don’t leave home without them! The beginning of wisdom is knowing how desperately you need wisdom. The beginning of acquiring skill for living is recognizing that living requires skill.

Wisdom and insight are game changers. They impact life in a profound way. They are the difference between being protected and being exposed. They are the difference between paths of righteousness and ways of evil. The difference between being able to run freely and stumbling constantly. The pivot point between building upon the foundation of the gospel with the stuff that lasts, gold, silver and precious stones, or the stuff that burns, wood, hay, and straw (1Cor.3:12-15).

Wisdom, get it! Insight, get it too!

They are the dynamic duo of skillful living. If wisdom could be considered as a personification of Christ, the Word made flesh, then perhaps insight could be identified as the Spirit, the mind of Christ in us. If you have the One, you have the Other. If you seek heaven’s Wisdom manifest before men, then you’ll also be permeated by heaven’s power to internalize Wisdom given to dwell inside men.

And when, by His grace, we get wisdom, and she provides for us insight, then God gets the glory.

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What We Do With Wisdom Matters

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Pete

The cause-and-effect promises of Proverbs continues in my reading in chapter three this morning. Just as in yesterday’s consideration, Solomon again encourages his son, “Receive this and you can expect that.” And at the center of “this” is wisdom. According to God’s word, there is a correlation between responding to divine wisdom and being rewarded with a blessed life.

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

(Proverbs 3:1-4 ESV)

What we do with wisdom matters. It impacts length of days, years of life, and peace within. It turns the face of God towards us in grace and favor. It even influences how others will perceive and receive us as we simply do life. The Author of Life is the Giver of Wisdom (Prov.2:6), knowing that the quality of one is directly dependent on the appropriation of the other.

And so, ours is to learn the lessons and not forget the teaching.

And it’s not just some holy “to do” list we are to memorize. It’s not about mindlessly going through the motions of righteousness. Instead, the depths from which we respond matters. It’s our hearts which are to keep the commandments, the essence of who we are that seeks to respond in willful submission to His ways. Far from simply making a checklist for today’s random acts of godliness, we are exhorted to tie them around our necks and etch them into our souls. The obedience that makes a difference is inside-out obedience. Principle based more than performance based. Less about what to do and more about who to do it for. Not concerned with “just enough” but compelled to be all in. Such is the way of receiving wisdom and responding with wisdom.

To receive wisdom is to receive God Himself. To respond to wisdom is to respond to God Himself.

Verse three says that I am not to allow “steadfast love and faithfulness” to forsake me. These same terms are used when God reveals His glory to Moses.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 

(Exodus 34:6-7 ESV)

To put on wisdom is to put on the nature of God. To respond to wisdom’s call is to respond to the Voice from heaven itself. To fear the LORD, to desire the knowledge of the divine, to seek the understanding that is from above, is to clothe ourselves with the glorious nature of our holy God.

And that’s what happens when we “put on Christ.” He is Wisdom. He is the glory of God that we can bind around our necks and carve into our hearts. He is the fulfillment of the law, so that desiring above all to follow Him is to walk in the law without being worried about the letter of the law. He is our length of days, our years of life, and our peace that passes understanding. To know His favor is enough. And His success, true success, is found in seeking His kingdom.

What we do with Wisdom matters.

O that He would permeate our lives and lead us in the way everlasting.

Because of grace. For His glory.

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Action Required

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Pete

It’s a lie. It’s made to sound like reasonable thinking, but it isn’t. Some people just don’t learn by reading, they say. Some people just aren’t academics, they say. Getting into the Bible just isn’t everybody’s thing–and that’s ok, they say. Na-uh! Nope. Ain’t true. Not ok!

I feel a bit of a rant coming on as I’m reading the opening chapters of Proverbs this morning. If wisdom cries aloud in the street (1:20), then she is wired to a megaphone in the church. But there too are the simple ones who love being simple (1:22). Those who hear the call every Sunday from the pulpit but refuse to listen. Those who have the Word handed to them on a platter on the Lord’s Day but can’t be bothered to reach out and grab some food any other day. The Book sits closed day after day. Though wisdom calls out, people refuse to listen. Though she stretches out her hand, so many say, “Pass,” to the invitation (1:24). But the stakes are too high to be ignored.

Proverbs 2 seems to me to be one great conditional promise. Wisdom says, you do this and I’ll do that. Here’s the “if” part . . .

My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, . . .

(Proverbs 2:1-4 ESV)

Action required. You need to sow before you reap.

Not only action, but desire. When we look at our Bibles we should see a hidden treasure map. If we believe it’s the inspired word of God then we should seek it as one seeks precious metals. The Book isn’t about one’s inclination toward reading. It’s not dependent upon one’s cognitive or academic capabilities. I know people who couldn’t graduate from high school but who wouldn’t go a day with consuming Holy Writ. Not because it’s easy for them, but because they believe it’s so valuable to them.

And they’re right! As I read through Proverbs 2, the payback is huge!

. . . then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. . . . Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path . . . discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil . . . So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words . . . So you will walk in the way of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous.

(Proverbs 2:5, 9, 11-12a, 16, 20 ESV)

Tell me there isn’t a direct correlation between godliness and God’s word. Receive His words, understand the fear of the LORD, and then you’ll know God. Make your ear attentive, incline your heart, and then you’ll understand righteousness and recognize every good path. Call out for insight, raise your voice for understanding, and then your inner warning systems will be so attuned that you will stay away from the downward path of sin and keep to the paths of righteousness.

It’s an if / then promise. Effort needed in order to realize the benefit.

So then convince me that to not gut it out and discipline ourselves to know God and His ways and His thoughts as revealed in His word is to not set ourselves up for defeat in laying hold of the abundant life graced to us. Make the argument that reading and studying God’s word is somehow optional and depends on our natural inclinations and abilities. Nonsense! (Did I mention I felt a rant coming on?)

God’s word is not just some book. It is supernatural revelation. And we have not been left to our own academic propensities or cognitive capabilities as the determining factor as to whether or not it will impact our lives. Rather we have been given the Spirit of God who illuminates the Word of God to reveal the mind of God and transform the child of God by the power of God.

Wisdom cries aloud . . . may God’s people hear her voice. She offers, through the Word, a living and active dynamic that renews the mind, transforms the life, and conforms the student, more and more, into the likeness of the Teacher.

Oh that the church would hunger after the Word of God. Revive us again!

By God’s grace. For our benefit. And for God’s glory.

Amen?

(Rant complete.)

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Divine Forbearance

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Pete

According to 2Kings, his reign was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sure, there would be one more government mandated revival in Judah after him, but Manasseh’s determination to do “evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel” (2Chron 33:2), kind of put it over the top. Judah’s days of freedom were numbered.

His father’s 30 year reign had cleansed the temple, restored temple worship, and revitalized Jerusalem as the epicenter of God’s glory. But Manasseh undid it all–and with a vengeance. He rebuilt the high places. He erected altars to pagan gods. And he worshiped the creation above the Creator. He pursued the occult. He sacrificed his sons. And he desecrated the most holy place by moving in carved images displacing the LORD God. Thus, “Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2Chron. 33:9).

But God in His infinite patience wasn’t done pursuing the wayward king and His off-the-rails people. First, He sent prophets, but they paid no attention. So he sent an army to defeat them and carry them off in chains. And that got the king’s attention.

Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

(2Chronicles 33:11-12 ESV)

Unbelievable! If anybody deserved what he got, it was this schmuck king. Instead, when he prayed and humbled himself before the LORD (and this wasn’t some self-imposed “humble yourself in the sight of the Lord” humility–this was a you-are-backed-into-a-corner-and-have-only-one-thing-left-to-do humility), “God was moved by his entreaty.”

And I am moved this morning as I chew on God being moved. I marvel again at grace. I wonder at heaven’s response to repentance. I’m in awe as I consider this reminder that no matter how far one strays there is always a way back.

And on what basis is God able to forgive such over the top transgression? How can a just God justly deal with the great debt owed by one who has purposed through his life to snub God and pursue the ways of the nations around him? How can a holy God cleanse the defilement dumped at His feet?

God could forgive because a mediator would come who would plead for sinners, “Father, forgive them for know not what they do?” A just God could show mercy because He already ordained a time when the price would be paid in full. A holy God could deal with the junk because He had already purposed to provide a heaven made covering of righteousness for all who would honestly humble themselves in contrition and confession.

. . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show Gods righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

(Romans 3:23-25 ESV)

God was moved by Manasseh’s entreaty because of divine forbearance.

Despite a lifetime of rebellion, God still listened for the cry of a humbled heart because He had made perfect provision for a perfect redemption since the foundation of the world.

O what a Savior!

O what amazing grace!

To Him be glory now and forevermore!

Amen?

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Under the Influence

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Pete

There’s a foreboding about the summary of the reign of the kid king in 2Chronicles 24. You read the words and though they sound very familiar they don’t sound quite right. Common for the writers of Kings and Chronicles to summarize the reign of a king as one who either “did evil in the sight of the LORD” or one who “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.” But when it comes to Joash, there’s an interesting qualifier that grabs my attention.

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Zibiah of Beersheba. And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.

(2Chronicles 24:1-2 ESV)

It’s been a downward slope since the reign of King Jehoshaphat back in chapters 17 through 20. And though Jehoshaphat walked in the ways of David (17:3) he made a marriage alliance with Ahab (18:1) that would prove to be a leaven that would severely spoil the reigns of his successors to the throne. He married his son, Jehoram, to Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. Jehoram’s reign is marked by doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD as “he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife” (21:6).

What’s more, the evil influence of Athaliah continued after the death of her husband and infected her son’s rule as well.. Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, “also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly” (22:3). And when, after only a year on the throne Azariah is killed, his mother takes the throne for herself executing all other heirs except for her baby grandson, Joash, who is taken away and hidden by Jehoiada the priest and his wife.

And when, after 6 years in hiding, Joash is placed on the throne as the kid king and Athaliah is executed, Joash, it says, did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. But again, what grabs me is that he did what was right not “all his days” but “all the days of Jehoiada the priest.”

While Jehoiada lived and provided counsel to his young disciple, the house of the LORD was restored from years of neglect due to Baal worship. Money was collected per the instruction of Moses, and craftsmen were employed to restore the place where God’s glory should dwell. And “they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD regularly all the days of Jehoiada” (24:14) — there it is again, “all the days of Jehoiada.”

But then the priest dies. And the princes of Judah, those who had a greater concern for politics than piety, start sucking up to Joash. And, so says the record, “the king listened to them. And they abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherim and the idols” (24:17-18).

And as I chew on this king who ruled well as long as he had the right voices in his ear, a couple of thoughts come to mind.

First, that it is impossible for righteousness to take hold solely by adherence to the law. Rather, righteousness comes only from an act of God upon the heart. Joash went through the motions for years, all the days of Jehoiada, but there appears to have been no meaning. He performed but seems to have had no pursuit for the things of God. While Jehoiada may have had the king’s ear, what the king needed was for God to give him a new heart. What Joash needed was the gospel, the power of salvation for those who believe, “for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (Rom 1:16-17).

Second, and more directly, I notice the power of the voices in our lives. Take Jehoiada’s counsel, mix it with a regenerated life, and you have revival. But take an Athaliah, or the princes of Judah, and you have inevitable reversal.

How I need to be careful, even as a new creation in Christ with a heart attuned to things above, of the voices that speak into my life. That, by God’s grace, His word would be regularly opened before me–regularly as in daily by me and not just weekly by a preacher. That, by God’s Spirit, I might know an abiding communion where I discern that still small voice seeking to lead me in the walk that is worthy of my calling. That I might surround myself with godly men and women who love to talk about the things of the kingdom and encourage me to keep on keepin’ on.

How I need to be under the influence. Under the influence of that which fuels the new life rather than that which seeks to mute it.

A warning received. A warning heeded.

By God’s grace. For God’s glory.

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Tithing from the Inside Out

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Pete

He couldn’t believe that Jesus had accepted his invitation. And when Jesus did arrive, His Pharisee host “was astonished.” He marveled. He was seized with wonder. But not because he finally was up close and personal with the Man who had performed so many mighty works. Not because he was one-on-one with Him who taught not as others, but as one with authority. No, instead “the Pharisee was astonished to see that He did not first wash before dinner” (Luke 11:38).

Is it any wonder that Jesus got so choked with the religious elite? Theirs was a perverse piety. A false faith. A reprobate religion. Lots of good works but not much in the way of an authentic walk. And so Jesus calls the Pharisee on his misdirected amazement.

And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.”

(Luke 11:37-41 ESV)

There was protocol to be followed, didn’t Jesus know that? Did He not understand the difference between clean and unclean? Had He not grasped the importance of doing what needed to be done in order to satisfy the Levitical and Rabbinical law? What was wrong with Him?!?

But Jesus knew that this man was driven more by mechanics than meaning. That his self-cleansing was more a mindless routine than it was a catalyst for reflection. All he was concerned with was “the outside of the cup.” No regard for the filth on the inside. And so Jesus tells him, tithe from the inside out.

Giving alms was another act of piety which the religious elite took pride in. They made sure that anything they dropped in the plate was noticed by others. That any gesture of kindness shown toward “the less fortunate” was recorded for posterity. But Jesus didn’t seem to care very much what came out of their purse, if it wasn’t first matched by what came out of their person.

Give as alms those things that are within . . .

To be honest, I naturally find myself judging and distancing myself from the “religious right” of Jesus day. They are “them” and they is not me. But, to be honest, after identifying with the sinner-saved-by-grace in the Scriptures, the religious are the next group I should be most aware of. Though they are not what I once was, they can be those who I’ve now become. And so I need to take note when Jesus speaks to those who consider themselves righteous because of the right they are doing. I need to slow down and consider what Jesus says to those who have disciplined themselves to develop holy habits but have neglected the greater matter of cultivating a consecrated heart.

And so Jesus says, tithe from the inside out. Give first of your heart. Offer first of your soul. Render first fully of yourself before you tender a portion of your cash.

How easy it is to become smug with what we’ve determined to do for the LORD and ignore what He’s asked for from us. He seeks our heart before He’s impressed with our hard work. He desires the top place in our priorities list before He’s delighted with the good we claim to do in His name. He wants heaven-directed motives much more than are hard-earned money.

If my offering is limited to what I routinely put in the plate on Sunday morning, then I’ve missed His ask for my whole heart during the week. If I’m feeling good about myself because of what I do and not because of Who I desire, then my faith has faltered. If by my calculated actions alone I seek to honor the One who died for me, then I have forgotten what heaven pleasing worship really looks like.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

(Romans 12:1 ESV)

Oh to tithe from the inside out. To again offer first myself before offering next my money. To freely obey not because my works will maintain my righteousness, but because my heart seeks nothing more than to respond to Him for His righteousness credited to my account.

Tithing from the inside out . . .  only by His grace . . . only for His glory!

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A Funny Thing (a 2013 rerun)

Posted on July 18, 2016 by Pete

Reading in 2Chronicles again this morning.  Hovering over the account of King Asa’s reign and thinking again of how easy it seems to be for those who start well to not finish so well.  That seeking the LORD now doesn’t guarantee, in and of itself, that one will always seek the LORD.  Another reading this morning seems to capture the warning pretty well:

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 

(1Thessalonians 5:6  ESV)

Rerunning some thoughts from 2013 that captured for me the warning communicated by the reign of King Asa.

Pride is a funny thing . . . funny weird . . . not funny ha-ha. And, if there was ever a people who should have the pride thing in hand, it’s us believers. We who have already acknowledged our bankruptcy, who have recognized that in us, and of ourselves, no good thing exists, who have seen that our best is as filthy rags before a holy God. But there are enough warnings in Scripture that indicate the reality that those who once humbled themselves in the sight of the LORD can somehow rationalize lifting themselves back up again. Point in case this morning? King Asa of Judah (2Chronicles 14-16).

Here’s the essence of King Asa’s story . . .

Asa is identified as one of the kings who “did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” (14:2).  He encouraged Judah (the southern kingdom of the divided Israel) to seek the LORD. And, he put his money where his mouth was by tearing down the high places of idol worship. For a decade, there was peace and prosperity in Judah during which time he also built up an army of 580,000 fighting men (14:8). Then, 10 years into his reign, Zerah the Ethiopian comes out against Judah with a military force of one million men (sub-lesson: there’s always someone bigger and better than you). Out numbered almost two-to-one, Asa cries out to the LORD, believing that God is bigger yet than the Ethiopian army (again, note sub-lesson),

“O LORD, there is none like You to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you . . .”

(2Chronicles 14:11 ESV)

And the LORD strikes the Ethiopians and Judah is victorious. King Asa then, was a man who pursued God, a man who trusted in God, and a man who knew practically the reality of the power and faithfulness of God.

And it gets better (before it gets worse).

The Spirit of God comes upon a guy named Azariah who prophesies to Asa and his people,

“The LORD is with you while you are with Him.  If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”

(2Chronicles 15:2 ESV)

And it sparks national revival in Judah. The people enter “into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul” (15:12) and “all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around” (15:15). So King Asa was a godly man who led others in a passionate pursuit of devotion to the LORD.

So far, so good. Even though King Asa was a powerful man, he had been a humbled man. As such, he had learned to cast himself upon His God. And in that state, though he was “top of the food chain” in Judah, he acknowledged Him who is above the kings of all the earth and sought Him with all his being.

But fast forward 25 years and, like I said, pride is a funny thing. King Asa is again attacked by a powerful army, the army of Israel. But this time he relies on his own wisdom and devices. He looks to his own means. So he purchases military power from Syria.

What he doesn’t do is seek the LORD. And God calls him on it through another prophet (16:7-8). And, rather than humble himself at the rebuke of God, Asa throws the prophet into prison. Weird. And this hard-hearted self-sufficiency continues even when Asa, three years later, becomes severely sick, “Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians” (16:12). Weird, again.

I wonder if, during those years of peace and rest, Asa, in his own mind, doesn’t rewrite history a bit. I wonder if he starts remembering how he defeated the Ethiopians. If he gets into the habit of patting himself on the back on how well he has brought peace and prosperity to the land. It seems that over the years seeking after God has waned . . . that self-sufficiency has increased . . . and that pride, that funny weird not funny ha-ha thing, has turned His heart away from God.

It’s another one of those warnings to those of us who have been running the race for a few years now. To not to presume that we’ll finish well . . . to not coast on what we think are our accomplishments. It’s a flashing yellow light cautioning me to not think more highly of myself than I ought, but to continually acknowledge God’s grace and God’s power in all the victories I’ve known. It’s a reminder that pride will cloud the thinking and create a sense of self-sufficiency that will turn my heart away from the God I so desire to give my heart to.

Father, by Your grace, and for Your glory, keep me from funny weird . .

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Unholy Alliances

Posted on July 15, 2016 by Pete

He might have loved her, but he couldn’t live with her. He married her, but he wouldn’t move in with her. He gave her his heart, but she couldn’t share his home. Because, though she was his honey, she wasn’t holy. Though she was his sweetheart, she wasn’t set apart. Such is the cloud over the portion of 2Chronicles I read this morning.

Solomon brought Pharaohs daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”

(2Chroncles 8:11 ESV)

In my bible 2Chronicles 8 is subtitled, Solomon’s Accomplishments. Between this chapter and the next there is an amazing summary of Solomon’s over-the-top wisdom, words, and wealth. A really impressive bio. The fame and reputation that preceded him paling in comparison to actually meeting him. With glory given to the God “who has delighted in you and set you on His throne as king for the LORD your God” (9:8).

And tucked away in this report detailing his greatness is the identification of his Achilles heel. It’s the hole in his dam. The chink in his armor. His wife couldn’t live where he lived, couldn’t reside where he resided, because it was too near the holy place–and she wasn’t. And so he builds her another place to live and she moves off the holy hill, eventually taking Solomon’s heart with her.

That Solomon took her as his wife was more strategic than romantic. 1Kings tells us that “Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt” (1Ki 3:1). He took a bride from the land of his people’s deliverance in order to leverage the best of what that world had to offer.

Little did he know, I’m thinking, that it would mark the start of a slippery slope as he would love “many foreign women . . . from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods'” (1Ki. 11:1-2). And though he tried to keep separate the sacred from the secular, not letting them reside on the holy hill where God’s glory would reside, “when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1Ki. 11:4).

The record would indicate that Solomon did not submit his love life to the lordship of Jehovah. And I’m thinking that alarms should have gone off in his head and yellow flags raised in his conscience when he recognized that his first wife was incompatible with his first love. Though he sought the Lord and sacrificed to the Lord, he had to do it alone. He should have known something wasn’t right when he came to the conclusion that if the glory was to abide then his gal would need to reside somewhere else.

A warning, it seems to me. A warning about somehow thinking we can separate our worlds. That somehow we can organize the sacred apart from the secular and enjoy the fruits of each. That somehow we can work a “win-win” alliance with the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light without the kingdom of darkness eventually taking over. That somehow, if we just set up the right boundaries, we can share our heart between the Way and the world without the world consuming us.

How I need to beware of unholy alliances. How I need to be cautious of anything I cling to which I wouldn’t carry in with me to the holy of holies.

Instead, might everything be sacred. Everything sanctified as it is brought under submission to the will and word of God. That the loves of my life might be consecrated by the Lover of My Soul.

All by His sanctifying grace. All for His shining glory.

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