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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What Shall I Do?

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Pete

It was an encounter of the divine kind. A lawyer of Israel stood before the Judge of all mankind and sought to put Him to the test. The topic? How to inherit eternal life. The question? What shall I do? The answer? You tell me.

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

(Luke 10:25-29 ESV)

Jesus engages with the man, though the lawyer’s motives were less than sincere. He wanted to know what to do. Jesus told him he already knew what to do, so do it.

At first, it might sound like Jesus is preaching a salvation by works. But had that been the case, there would have been no need for the lawyer’s second question. No need for him to try to justify himself. He understood that if meriting heaven required obeying the law then it would be impossible without some qualifiers.

I imagine the sweat forming on his brow as Jesus turns the tables on his smug answer. I’m thinking the lawyer rattled the two greatest commands off pretty quickly. Jesus’ question was from home-schooling 101. He had memorized them as a child. Been quizzed on them repeatedly in synagogue. He knew the answer. But there was something in how Jesus told him to “just do it” that cut deep. Something that pricked his conscience.

A light went on revealing that what had been pretty easy to recite his whole life was, in fact, pretty impossible to actually do. Perhaps for the first time he paused to consider the implications of trying to practically obey the command. In the presence of the Truth, as he had never before, he was honest about how well he had been keeping the Law. And so he tries to maintain some sense of self-righteousness by seeking to reduce the field of “neighbors” he has to love as himself. (Funny that he didn’t try and probe what it really meant to love God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your strength and with ALL your mind.)

And I’m noodling on this not to judge the lawyer. But to marvel afresh that the answer doesn’t lie in, “What shall I do?” but in what God has already done. The law, whether the one given to Moses on Sinai or the one written on my heart and conscience, can only serve to condemn. It can only set a standard which, in and of myself, I am unable to meet. It’s design is to do what it did to the lawyer, to reveal my great need for a salvation which isn’t dependent on my performance.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, . . . the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 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.

(Romans 3:21-25 ESV)

A righteousness apart from law. Transgression and rebellion dealt with by grace. Declared not guilty before God as a gift. All because of Christ’s blood shed to pay the price for my sin. The price paid in full. Redemption secured.

What shall I do? Receive it by faith. That’s what Jesus knew the lawyer needed, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

O, what a Savior!

To Him be all glory!

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So God, What Are You Thinking?

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Pete

Hovering over Psalm 139 this morning. Perhaps one of the most introspective songs of David, yet one of the most outwardly focused.

There’s a sense of hush and awe as David considers the all-knowing, ever-present nature of Jehovah. A sense of wonder that such a big God is aware of such small people. Not just aware as in a faint knowledge or passing interest. But intimately aware. Aware, as in every day that David lived had been scripted by the hand of God before they came to be (v.16). Aware, as in created by God. His entire being intricately designed and knit together. His physical, emotional, and spiritual essence all formed by the hand of God (vv. 13-15). Aware, as in aware in the moment. God present at all times, in all places, through all circumstances (vv. 1-12).

And most often when I read Psalm 139, I find myself camping on the end of the song. Chewing on David’s desire to be known. Asking God to search him, know his heart, and to be acquainted with his thoughts.

But this morning it’s another set of thoughts that has grabbed my attention.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
   I awake, and I am still with You. (Psalm 139:17-18 ESV)

So God, what are You thinking?

I read this Psalm and it’s clear that God has thought about me. A lot! But how often do I quiet myself and consider deeply that the Almighty, even now, is thinking about me. As vast as the sum of all the Divine consideration that has gone into me living this life at this time in this place, what of the continuing flowing sand that constitutes God’s considerations of me as “I awake, and I am still with You”?

So God, what are You thinking?

Are You frustrated as last night’s confession of failure (once again!) echoes in Your ear? Are You sitting back with Your arms crossed, Your chin dipped, and Your brow furled waiting to see how I navigate this day and deal with the trouble that is “sufficient” for it (Matt. 6:34b)? Or, are You simply too busy to pay much attention to me at all as You deal with other matters concerning this seemingly out-of-control world, not to mention doing what needs to be done to hold the universe together?

Or Father, are You, by Your Spirit, settling in for another day where You will draw alongside, fulfilling Your promise never to leave me nor forsake me?  Thinking again that if You are for me, who can be against me (Rom. 8:31)?

Are You again looking upon me and considering Your Son? Loving me with the same love You had for Him since “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24)? Taking delight still that I have been clothed in the righteousness of Your Anointed and that, because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, far from being on some sort of “wait and see” probation, I am seen afresh as a child of God and a joint heir with Christ.  And as such, as I awake and know again Your presence, You too are filled with thoughts concerning me. Plans for wholeness and not for evil. Thoughts intended to bring peace and hope, not worry and despair (Jer. 29:11).

So God, what are You thinking?

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

(Psalm 139:6 ESV)

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God!

All because of grace. All for Your glory.

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Paul’s Win

Posted on July 12, 2016 by Pete

He couldn’t take it anymore! Twice Paul says that he “could bear it no longer.” What was it that caused such anxiety for the beloved apostle? What was so taxing that this man who had been beaten with rods, stoned at the hands of his enemies, and had suffered shipwreck multiple times, was almost at a breaking point.? What was it that was beyond enduring for this one who lived in constant danger on multiple fronts and was accustomed to sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, and cold and exposure? It was not knowing how his children in the faith were fairing.

For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

(1Thessalonians 3:5 ESV)

Paul had only been permitted three Sabbaths to proclaim the gospel in Thessalonica before he was run out of town (Acts. 17:1-10). While he had spent months, even years, in other places, in this place he was able to only to plant the seed, and to see only the early evidence of life before he was forced to leave the tending of this fertile ground to others and to the Spirit of God.

What I find so interesting is that Paul’s view of what it meant to win appears to have nothing to do with numbers or markers. There was obviously something beyond “professions made” or “souls saved” that drove Paul’s view of “winning.” Setting a record for the church most quickly established in the shortest amount of time amidst the most hostile of climates wasn’t the sort of statistic that Paul used to measure “success.”

Instead, what Paul needed to know–what he could not bear not knowing–was whether or not their confession of Christ bore the fruit of consecration to Christ. Having received Jesus as Savior seemed to mean little to the apostle if it were not also evident that they had given themselves to Jesus as Lord. He knew, given the hostility toward the gospel in Thessalonica, that if the believers there were not feeling the heat of opposition they probably were not living out the light of the kingdom.

He feared that the tempter would get the best of them, convince them that the cost they would need to pay was not worth the prize promised them. And so, unable to deal with not knowing any longer, he sent Timothy to learn about their faith and to “establish and exhort” them in their faith (3:2).

What grabs me this morning is that Paul seems to view a salvation which does not bear the fruit of salvation as no salvation at all. Had he not heard that their faith had resulted in them turning “to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1:9), he would have considered his time there in vain. Had the report not come back indicating that now these brothers and sisters directed their lives in anticipation of the Son’s imminent return (1:10), Paul would have considered his work there useless. Given the hatred and opposition toward the gospel in that place, if Paul had heard that his children in Christ were not feeling the heat of opposition and suffering for the sake of the kingdom (3:3-4), he would wonder if they had, in fact, really entered God’s kingdom.

Paul’s end game was not about the number who came forward for the altar call. The win wasn’t in simply planting a church. Rather, it was about disciples who lived out the faith. Followers who followed. New creations in Christ who lived as if Christ lived in them.

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. . . . And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

(1Thessalonians 1:4-7 ESV)

Imitators of Christ.  Examples to other believers. That was Paul’s hope and joy. That was Paul’s “crown of boasting” (2:19). That was Paul’s win.

The fruit of grace. For the glory of God

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